STRAIGHT TALK

Fair Play, Volume I, Issue 6, 9 December 1893, Page 1

STRAIGHT TALK

The news that comes from New South Wales respecting almost every branch of trade is disheartening in the extreme. A local resident, originally from that colony, who has been travelling through New Zealand lately, received a letter from a well-known gentleman in Sydney a few day ago, which contained the following sentence :—“ I don’t know how New Zealand is at present, but don’t come back to New South Wales unless you want to starve with the rest of us.” The rest of the letter was in a similar strain, and would pass for a firstclass Jeremiad on the state of the country. A Sydney contemporary states that a number of delegates from the New South Wales Labour Conference took the opportunity offered by a wet nasty night to stroll through the town in the vicinity of the Domain and Hyde Park, and in a comparatively short time found 900 poor creatures without shelter or even blankets to protect them from the cruelty of the weather. That there must have been a still greater number the writer can vouch for, as. there are certain vicinities under Lady Macquarie’s Chair, for instance, where not even a “ bobby,” let alone a Labour Delegate, would dare to venture after half-past ten o’clock at night.

In Victoria things are fully as bad, if not worse. In the big suburbs of Fitzroy and Collingwood, whose populations number thousands, things are in such a deplorable state, that it is a common practice for the children of respectable parents to wander about from door to door soliciting food, and on more' than one occasion the local butchers and bakers have distributed bread and meat free of cost. It is claimed that the bad times which have been primarily caused by undue speculation and the frequency of bank failures have been accentuated by the congestion of the population through many refusing to leave their families and seek work in the country.

Fortunately for New Zealand, through the efforcß of a iberal Government', she has not been brought to suclr straits.

At the present time, although by no moans a land flowing with milk and honey, ther§ is employment in one way or another for every man in the '‘colony who is willing to work, and the result of the elections is the prediction of better times to come. But let it be understood by our friends in the sister colonies that those “ better times ” have not as yet burst on us in all their glory, and any abnormal addition to our population through immigration would place us in a position in many ways similar to the present condition of Victoria and New South "Wales. We have stated that the outlook is a promising one but to that statement we must add a qualification, to wit, provided the Liberal Party is not weakened by disruption; and thiß we would earnestly urge members of Parliament to take into serious consideration. The future welfare of the colony is at Btake ;is it to be endangered by party wrangling, or by giving an undue prominence to questions that are not of paramount importance ? We sincerely trust not. At whatever sacrifice, let the solidarity of the Liberal Party be maintained, for in that way only, and we must take the past as a criterion, can the people of New Zealand expect the realisation of a future which appears to be so full of promise.

Sir Bobert Stout is supposed to have in his possession a letter from Mr. Ballance, with which, when the time comes, he intends to annihalate Bichard the Fourth. Nobody has seen a ghost, but everybody knows a friend who knows another man who has seen or thought he has seen one. This is the nearest simile we can get to that letter. It is a mystery to us why so much capital has been made by Stout’s followers of Mr. Ballance’s supposed but unauthorised predilection for that able statesman. Mr. Ballance —good man and true, as he was—had no more right to nominate a successor in this free and liberal country than “The Widow of Windsor” has a right to dissolve the two Houses and nominate John Hall, chimney sweep, to be sole and absolute ruler of the British Empire. It is absurd to say Seddon usurped the Premiership. He was simply chosen as the best' man to carry on the policy of the Government then in power, and he has done it iwelli ; '/;1

Most of our readers in "Wellington will recognise the features of Lieutenant-Commanding Edwin Davy, of the Petone Navals, in the portrait which we publish above. Mr. Davy was born at Glenann, New Plymouth, in 1851. Shortly after this date, owing to the Maori troubles, his father removed to Auckland. Mr. Davy was educated at the "Wesleyan College, Auckland, and St. John’s College, near Panmure, Auckland! He left College to join his father, who was a surveyor and civil engineer, with the intention oi following that profession, but owing to liis parent’s untimely death by drowning, he relinguished the idea, and accepted a position in the Bank of New Zealand, with which institution he remained for five years, acting both in Auckland and in the Thames district. On leaving the bank, he joined the Armed Constabulary in the Waikato, under the late Sir Donald McLean, with whom he served for two years. After leaving the Constabulary he came to Wellington, and eventually entered the Government service in 1877. He was first in the Railway Audit Department, and on that department being abolished he was transferred to the Railway Audit Department. The subject of our sketch jofned the Volunteers in 1871, as a private in the Onehunga Rifies. Shortly after the Onehunga Rifle Cadet Corps was formed, and he was .offered the captaincy, which he accepted and retained until he was transferred to the Thames in 1873, when he joined the Scottish Cadets and was elected Captain in 1874. Mr. Davy was amongst the first of those who started the Wellington Naval Artillery in 187? and was made lieutenant in charge of the cadets and a sub-lieutenant of the company. He was transferred to the Petone Navals as a first lieutenant in 1886, and finally took command of the Company in 1889, which position he has retained until the present time. During the Te Whiti scare in 1881 he was sent to Pariahaki, on the West Coast, as first lieutenant of the Wellington Navals.

Mr. Davy has also been associated for many years with athletics, and particularly with running. He first started running at the Thames in 1873, and won the Thame's Handicap.- He won races in 1875 and 1876 in the Waikato and -was also successful in Wellington in 1877. He won the J-xnile hurdles, the 100 yards, and the 120 yards hurdles at Palmerston, in 1878, the Caledonian Handicap, Wellington, in 1880, the amateur Championship, Wellington, in 1880, and the 220 yards hurdles ; standing high jump and standing long jam, at the Feilding sports in December, 1880. Mr. Davy is also a good shot and has taken several prizes in connection with shooting. He has been identified with football since 1873 and has been one of the representative players of Wellington for many years. He was in the New Zealand team which played New South Wales in 1884.

Now that the election is over, and the defeated candidates have retired into that private seclusion froih which some of them should never have emerged, we should like to know where that strong Prohibition backing, which was to have floated Mr. Fraser into Parliament, has gone to, and why it was not in evidence on election day. “ Han Breittmann’s Party,” with a few alterations, seems to meet the case.

Poor Fraser had a “backing,” Vliere ish dot “ hacking” now ? Where ish die lufly colden gloud J)ot floats on die inoundains prow? There ish die hiimuelstrahlende stern, Die sdhar of die spirits light ? All goned away rnit election beer, Away in die eungkcit. [Ewigkeit : A German word, meaning eternity, or the never-never land.]

W. P. Reeves is Minister of Education and ought to be a good man for the billet, and John McKenzie is Minister for Lands, and he also ought to be the right man in the right place, and between the two of them we hope they’ll do something soon to improve the state of affairs at the Lincoln Agricultural College. At present this is merely an expensive and well nigh Useless boarding school for the sons of the wealthy, who go there to learn scientific farming at the tax payer’s cost. A new principal, Mr. John Bayne, is being imported from ’Ome for the Lincoln College, and when he arrives we should advise "W.P. and John to take a trip in company down to Canterbury and so arrange matters that a little less loafing is done. Also, while they’re about it, they ought to draft some workable scheme by w'hich lads from the primary schools may take advantage of the College scheme.

The Hon. R. J. Seddon, leader of the Liberal party, has been returned to Parliament with an overwhelming majority at his back. Mr. Seddon has had a long experience in political life in New Zealand, not only as a member of the House of Representatives, but in a Ministerial capacity. After the death of the late Mr. John Ballance he was looked upon as the most fitting person to take over the reins of Government, and even his opponents will admit he has governed wisely and well. He has been most fortunate in including in his Ministry men of integrity and ability, and the work performed by the Liberal party, during the last few years, stands as a most creditable record in favour of himself .

and his followers. "Whether Mr. Seddon will continue as chief of the party he has conducted so well, or whether another king will arise in Israel is a problem that can only be solved by time. "Whatever the result may be, however, Mr. Seddon has the sincere congratulations of Fair Play, for what he has done in the past and its best wishes for his success in the future,

The libel laws of this colony are so weird and peculiar, that a man may at any moment, especially in the Heat of a political campaign, make a slip, the conseque ice of which may possibly mean a tedious process of litigation. In recalling this fact we are moved to hurst forth into song, and as our admiration for Chevalier and other modern song writers is at the present time in the ascendant, we have taken the liberty of adapting one or two local songs to express our feelings.

(Air : “ Never introduce your Donah to a pal.”) Never •write a nasty skit political, On a Prohibition member or his pal; If you say he acted frisky, Why he’ll swear you meant 'twas whiskey Never write a nasty skit politico/. / Take our tip, If you write—write enigmatico/.

Although the above may strike our readers as hitting the subject off properly, we beg leave to suggest that its range is not sufficiently wide, and would, in consequence, fall back on that touching ballad “ Mary Green” for inspiration. Please hand down the lyre again.

He, who was once a Mayor, In a prosperous town, Now a Parliamentarian, Of renown. If he’s terribly touchy, We don’t quite see How his instruction To kick up a ruction AViil make thingß gee.

Local songs seems to adapt themselves to political events, and now that the muse has taken up a temporary residence in our sanctum, we see no reason why we should not humour her while we have the opportunity of doing so. Slow music please, and a pathetic overture.

(Air : “ She’s a dear little innocent thing.”) He’s a dear little innocent chap, And his work is at the bar, The .idol of the ladies, With his lahdy-dahdy-dah. Not a toff in the town For miles around But would chuck in his vote for Bell; But like many odd folk He can’t stand a joke, And is head his beginning to swell.

The neatest paragraph in an English paper that we have read for a long time is one which appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette concerning the mud Anarchist, Pallas, who recently threw a bomb and blew a Spanish general well nigh to atoms. “ His death” says, the P.M.G. “ was quite a triumph in swagger and brag; he ate well and smoked steadily to the last, and only once did he show any displeasure. That was when the priests woke him in a last effort to thrust the consolations of religion down his throat and he told his eldest boy that he was going to die for his ideas ” and—here comes the next par—“ we wish that all the other Anarchists, especially those who invent the idea that they know how a good Anarchist can die, would do it. The worst of the people who talk nonsense about the frame work of society and incite their victims to upset it, is that they cannot see that their opinions ought logically to drive them to suicide.”

Huddart Parker’s new boat, the Tasmania, is being shepherded wherever she goes by the Rotomahana, and we suppose a cut-throat competition in fares is to start once more. So much the better for the public. Huddart, Parker, & Co. deserve a heap of credit for the .game way in which they are running the Vancouver service, but along-the coast of the land of the Maori and the Moa, they’ll find it a hard job to keep up even with Jimmy Mills’ boats. By-the-way, jimmy is now out of the House, aindJimmy who made things hum for the U.S.S.

Company during the strike is in the House. Jimmy (Mills) will hardly likely this, but Millar, of strike fame, is not so bad as he’s sometimes painted, and although he may attack the U.S.S. Friendly Society, he will not otherwise hurt the U.S.S. interests.

It is not altogether pleasant to read in the Sydney papers of a young girl of eighteen at West Maitland being found to bo suffering from virulent leprosy and being token to the leper station at Little Bay. The girl was not on unmoral character, and had never, so for as is known, been inside one of the cottages occupied by the local Chows. The origin of tho disease in her case, says one paper, “ is a complete mystery.” Is it really a mystery ? We do not' think so, and we can easily suggest a way in which the girl may have contracted this loathsome malady. Might there not have been in her homo, furniture made by Chinese labour ? A vast quantity of furniture, made by the Chinese in the filthy, squalid dens in Sydney, is used all over New South Woles, and it is quito possible that some of the furniture found its way to West Maitland and into the home of this unfortunate girl.

It has been said by some that leprosy is not contagious, but on tho other hand there are several eminent Indian and American doctors who have declared that under certain circumstances the disease is highly contagious. It Ims been proved beyond all manner of doubt at Honolulu that persons who have slept on matting which has been made and used by the Chinese had caught the disease the refrom, and what Has happened at Honolulu may have happponed at West Maitland, and may happen in this city. At the present moment there are, so we are informed, a number of Chinese employed in making furniture for certain dealers in this city. These men herd together in small hovels amidst the most filthy and disease-breeding surroundings. If by any chance there are among them—and their number is being constantly augmented by new arrivals from China and Sydney—men who have the taint of this awful thing, this almost unspeakably hideous disease upon them, what guarantee have we that tho contagion may not be spread in Wellington as it has been spread abroad in the Australian colonies ? Here, we think, is a case where the Government ought to interfere.

The present Government of this colony wore sent into office and power by the working classes of this colony and it is tho working classes who are mainly interested in this question of ‘ Chow-made furniture ’ —perhaps it may be leprosy tainted furniture. The working classes are those who buy cheap furniture. They do not know that this cheap furniture may have been made by Chows—if they did they would probably not buy it—and secondly, that the working classes are injured by the fact that these Chows are working on the sweating system and injuring legitimate workers. We have given two very good reasons why the Government should at once set on footenquiries and ascertain whether these rumours of a Chow-made furniture—may be leprosy tainted furniture—are true or not. A simple and efficacious . way of putting a s(op to this disease risking trade would be to put a heavy inland duty on all furniture made by the Chinese and obliging the European dealers in it to stamp every piece of furniture made by the Chows—perhaps by the lepers—with a distinctive mark. We do not think there would be much Chow-made furaiture placed on the market. We have sounded the warning. It is the duty of the powers that be to give heed to it. We don’t want any leprosy in New .'Zealand, 1 ' ■" ' ■' '‘ r; '

If there is one subject more than another that can at the present moment be adequately handled under the above heading, it is the modern domestic piano, its use and abuse, and its counterfeit presentiment. The people of this colony are avowedly musical, and a pianoforte has become almost as necessary a luxury in the average home as the household furniture. So popular has this instrument become that not only the rich and well-to-do possess one, but it is found in the homes of the working man'as well, and constitutes one of his most cherished possessions, and this brings us to the point that we wish to make. If a man possesses a piano it is to his own as well as to his neighbour’s interest that he possess at least a tolerably good on e and since the increased demand for the instrument has sprung up in this colony, the country has been fairly flooded with inferior instruments, as a result of the competition which natur' ally followed. "What has been the effect ? we can faithfully say it has been anything but cheering to the too often unfortunate buyer, but decidedly in favour of the traders who, in the majority of cases, stock their warehouses with cheap German importations and work them off on an unoffending public by the shoal, and whose saleman very often know as little about music, or the excellence of an instrument, as they do about the horizontal parallax of the moon.

Now for a man to sell pianos, or in fact musical instruments of any kind, he should know something of music, but the average piano fiend who travels throughout the colony, as a rule, could not tell the difference between B flat and a door key, his only desire being to unload his employer’s stock, and his assurance written or otherwise, that the instrument he sells is a good one and not an infernal machine, is of about as much value as a dynamiter’s assurance that the bomb he affectionately presents you with, can be used with perfect safety as a cricket ball. In speaking as we have, we do not by any means refer to the accredited agents of recognised musical houses, but to that domestic pest—the travelling canvasser —who dumps down a sewingmachine, a piano, or a mangle, on your verandah, on the timepayment system, and tells you that you needn’t trouble about hurrying yourself to settle up. You don’t know what to do with the article and have it moved into the house, with a vague idea of returning it when the canvasser comes around again, but he don’t come ; the collector turns up next, and to your disgust you find you can’t return it, and also that you have got to pay for it or fight the case out in Court.

The'average sensible man and woman knows as well as we do, that when a man starts in any business, he should have some knowledge of it, and that when that business is a musical one, the knowledge should be more thorough if anything. It is not at all an uncommon spectacle to see pianos offered for sale in furniture warehouses, auction rooms, sewing machine depots and lots of other small fry places, whose proprietors sell them, with no further knowledge of their worth or manufacture than that they have been invoiced to them as pianos, and that they can undersell the legitimate houses. The practice has gone on to such an extent that the only wonder to us is that butchers, tailors, and tinkers, don’t include the piano amongst their trade requisites for they certainly have as much right to sell them as a great many others who deal in them.

The fact is that the piano-selling game by incompetent people is becoming an intolerable nuisance besides being a glaring fraud on the public, and it is in the interest of the public that we are writing. Cargoes of useless instruments are imported into New Zealand, with the result that innocent custo-

mers are fleeced, good instruments depreciated in value, - and genuine firms, whose names are sufficient to guarantee the excellence of the article sold, suffer, and why ? because the public are too readily caught by what seems to be a good bargain. We propose to explain the stupidity of such purchases, both in the interest of the purchasers—and their neighbours. Would you go into an oyster saloon to buy a sewing machine ? Would you go into an undertaker’s shop for a pound of tea? Would you go into an upholsterer’s or a furniture shop for a pound of meat ? Then why on earth should a man or a woman buy a piano or any musical instrument, from any person or firm other than recognised and reputable dealers ? An ironmonger of reputation and standing supplies the goods that he has a practical knowledge of, and doesn't go in for retailing chickens at a cheaper price than the neighbouring poulterer does, because he has been fortunate or unfortunate enough to buy in a consignment of consumptive spavined windgalled fowls at a bankrupt sale. If this be a fact, and we know that it is, why should a trade, that if properly conducted requires from its conductors practice and.education almost sufficient to qualify them for professional men, have its manors poached upon by outsiders. who would be much more successful in the long run and certainly moire at home dispensing ice cream on the raceeourse on a hot day.

If you want to buy a good article go to a responsible house, whose name is a sufficient guarantee, for if they supply third or fourth-rate goods at first-rate prices, their trade wont last much longer than would a good sized icicle in the interior provinces of Sheol.

All legitimate tradesmen and business men wil recognise the justice of our remarks, as for the others we value their opinion too lightly to worry as to which way it may tend. We are not advocating the beauty nor the excellency of any particular piano or instrument, we only in pursuance of our policy to show up shams, desire to open the eyes of the public and prevent their buying boxes instead of musical instruments, the same as we would feel it our duty to warn them against purchasing sand instead of sugar, or methylated spirits instead of good whiskey.

It’s rather aggravating, even to a man of phlegmatic temperament, after having purchased an instrument for afairly good price, to be told, at the end of three months, when the piano has become an asthmatic discordant horror, “ that it would have been allright if he had used it a little more carefully.” This, especially when he knows that that identical piano has only been played upon about twice, and then by the music teacher he was negotiating with as a tutor for his eldest daughter. No, if you want a good article, pay a fair price, and go to a creditable house, and you will know what you are getting and not be buying a pig in a poke. Another great pestilence is the pianoforte tuner —or destroyer, as he should properly be termed. Unless representing an established, house, thg public should receive him wfth a shower bath of dirty water, for the majority of them are frauds. •

There will be no less than six local preachers in the new House. A good job some of the old members—no names please —are not back or the local preacher would have been sadly shocked at some of the language in the- lobbies. Of course, they .will never, never patronise for lemonade..;

The Knights of Labour ought to be “ proud men the day.” No less than ten of the members of the new Parliament belong to this much misunderstood but highly useful organisation.

The youngest member of the new House is Pat o’Regan, the single-tax champion, who succeeds Sir Robert Stout ns member for Inangahua. Only twenty-five summers have, passed over the head of the O’Regan.

Mr. W. C. Smith is not much to look at as a man but he is a great political power in Hawkes’ Bay. He had a great deal to do with putting Mr. Carnell in for Napier, his nominee—almost a nonentity—Mr. Charles Hall defeated the wealthy and popular Geoige Hunter, and he worked so hard for Mr. Reardon in the bush district that that gentleman gave Captain Russell a very nasty fight. W.C.S. ought to be considered the political dictator of Hawkes’ Bay.

We go from home to learn news. The London Echo has the following startling announcement: —“ Baby-farming has become such a crying evil at Auckland, New Zealand, that the Minister of Justice there is preparing a Bill to deal with the question. Lately there has been an alarming mortality amongst children.” What would the Echo say, we should like to know, if it got hold of a copy of the Wellington Post with a paragraph like this ? “ The assassination of mothers-in-law has become such a crying evil in London, that Mr. Gladstone is preparing a Bill to deal wfth the question. Lately, there has been an alarming mortality among mothers-in-law, no fewer than 700 having been found in one day.” This is not one wliit more absurd than the Echo's paragraph.

Masterton Daily Times —poor thing—publishes the.following awful piece of news : —“ We received this morning the following precious document:— ( Six months after date,'l promise to pay Messrs. J. Payton and Co., or order, the sum of three shillings and ninepence sterling, value -received.’ This is the pass to which things are coming in New Zealand.” The Daily, we suppose, would like to make out that the impecunoisity of its debtor is a result of the return to power of the “ Seddon crowd,” but what it does prove is the stupidity of the Daily in giving such a poverty-stricken individual any credit akall.

Some of the papers seem to imagine that Mr. J. A. Millar, the new member for Port Chalmers, is an ignorant, raving,ranting Anarchist. He is nothing of the sort. He was born in India in 1856, and is the. eldest son of a Major-General in the British Army. He had a splendid education in Edinburgh, and came out to the colony in 1870 to go in for sheep-farming. He, however, took to the sea and served for some time in Henderson’s ships. He served also in the Shaw, Saville line, leaving them in 1881, and went into the coastal service. He sailed out of Wellington in coastal steamers, and was appointed in 1887 General Secretary of the Federated Seamen’s Union, which position he now holds. He is a very intelligent, courteous mannered gentleman, and is sure to mate a name for himself in the House.

.Wait till the numbers are up! Scobie McKenzie’s paper» the Mount Ida Chronicle, referred in an issue, before the elections, to Scobie’s splendid success in the coastal centres. This, as translated by; the polling, signifies a minority at every booth in the coastal centres. ■ r

Sturdy, shrewd Bill Crowthor, one of tho elect of Auckland, is a Lancashire lad by birth—like Seddon—and was apprenticed to the iron trade. For years he has run a big livery stable business in Auckland, and has made money. He was Mayor for two years.

New version of the old, story, “ tho dog it was that died.’ A Tauranga small boy got kicked in the head by a horse. The horse is now “ severely injured,” while the small boy walks whistling. For a sample of thick head ho would be difficult to beat.

. Prohibitionist Isitt, speaking at Sydenham the other day, said “he walked round a cemetery" before ho startod on the Prohibitionist racket. Judging by some of his spoeclies, wo should say that Mr. Isitt had done a good deal of walking round “ a lunatic asylum.”

Some of the papers do smash up the cablegrams to bo sure. The cable about the financial panic in Rome,, for instance. Even the Post , carefully sub-edited as it is, talked about the “ Credit Tobiliare ” (sic), whilst a Palmerston paper alluded to the “ Credit to Mobiliere!” Not the “ comp’s " fault this lattor

The following pathetic reply of a debtor to a large whisky firm in New South Wales, which had been threatening to bring him up in the courts for tardiness in payment, is well worthy of being republished. It will commend itself to some of our colonial politicians, who will probably be able to draw a moral from it. We clip from the Sydney Bulletin : —“ I have received from your firm an intimation that, if I dp not pay my whiskybill, you will place the matter in the hands of your solicitor. The reason why I haven’t paid the aforesaid bill is that I can’t conscientiously encourage the nefarious traffic in drink. I regard whisky as a curse, a destroying influence, and a cause of soulwreckage, a leprosy of the spirit, and a consuming fire in the intestines. Alcohol in all its shapes is the trunk-line that leads unto perdition, and there is a trail of empty bottles along tho road to Gehenna. Therefore I seriously urge you not to sue mo for that whisky-bill, for if I paid it I would be perpetrating an outrage upon my conscience and lending a hand to tho unclean thing. ‘ Wine is a mocker.’ Further, if I sent you the cheque you ask for, it would be no good, for the bank wouldn’t pay it at present or any time this month, or even next month, in fact, I don’t think they’d pay it even next year. Drink is the parent of crime, and the prolific cause of human misery. I had a vague idea of calling on you and trying to negotiate for another case, but in the present strained state of our relations I will have to postpone that pleasure. I thought of offering you a dictionary in settlement of the account —the Imperial Dictionary, in four volumes, cost 6s. Liquor is the greatest evil with which this country is afflicted. Can I offer you two Plymouth Rock roosters in consideration of another month’s credit, or can’t the matter be amicably settled in any way ? : The onlv advantage about being sued is that it would give your solicitor the pleasure of my acquaintance, but I don’t want to become acquainted with any more solicitors—l know too many already. Alcohol is the embodiment of sin and the incarnation of sorrow. You can have the cheque any time you want it—provided you can lend me a blank form, for my own cheque-book was finished some weeks on earth would be the good of it to you ? And, in any case, do you—l ask you in confidence as a square-white man—do you happen to have the price of a drink about you?—Yours, Ac.,- —-—