The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES' JOURNAL. With which is incorporated “The New Zealand Family Friend.’ SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1890. CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 22, 31 May 1890, Page 9

The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES' JOURNAL. With which is incorporated “The New Zealand Family Friend.’ SATURDAY, MAY 31, 1890. CURRENT TOPICS.

ECHOES FROM THE SOUTH. [By Graphic Contribvtobs.] I have lieen assisting at the obsequies of our unsubstantial pageant faded ’—of the notorious Exhibition, derelict and deserted. The only music now is the voice of the auctioneer, and the tapping of his hammer, with the rumbling of a departing packing ease as it takes its exit for the door. Blank are the walls, bare are the corridors, ami the Boor, over which 630.000 feet have pattered, returns no echo biit one’s own. Wfiere are all the gay throng which came from every quarter for a while — lieauties from all parts of New Zealand, who were going to play havoc with the sensibilities of the men. ami carry back to their homes the triumphant news of an engagement ? W here are the glories of the Ceylon kiosk, with its yellow hangings and its Cingalese gentlemen of distinguished mien, who served out the cups at afternoon tea with such an unctuous demeanour? And the matrons and the children who thronged about the Foreign Court, among the French. Turkish, and Japanese -tails, with their nick-nacks ami curios ? Where is the musician who used to * pile it on at the soap exhibit, giving more than he got of that commodity ? And the bank elerk who used to explain the mysteries of mining to the prettyhaired girl from the North, in the Mineral Octagon ? In the Wellington Court the intricacies of terre-tial gyration are no longer illustrated in her tops by the twinkling-eyed maiden from Ballarat.

The Fernery lookscold through its glass face in which has blazed all the evening glory of the central hall, and where the echoes have risen of popping corks and ringing laughs from the neighbouring buffets. Down by the Public Work Octagon the trellis-hung bars of New South M ales and South Australia have vanished with their attendant nymphs and clustering swains. M here is the cooking kitchen with its ladies' class and the gigantic beer vat, the pyramids of Manila cordage, and the multitude of cream separators with their comely ministrants '. The Art Gallery is in confusion, littered with hay, packing-cases and promiscuous pictures. The dining-rooms anil smoking-bar opposite are closed—those rooms where the celebrities dined and qieechitied and

the country |«eople thronged by hundreds at holiday season—that bar where the coteries of musicians met to discusthe performances of the Concert-hall. The Concert-hall stands silent and melancholy. It has seen every great function of the Exhibition. There have }>ealed the over--whelming chotuses of the great oratorios, there re]ieatedly resounded some hundred of orchestral compositions, there Santley has enraptured his three thousands, and singers from all part- of New Zealand ami Australia given pleasure to great audiences ami won piodiga] applause. Its bareness and silence is the most striking of all. The magnificence of the Otagon < 'uurt ha- evaporated in place of sheeny corrugated iron and deal planking : the pink and pastoral decorations of Canterbury swept into invisibility. The Auckland Court is dismantled ami empty —the cosey bay where Nathan’s tea was dispensed, the curio stalls of Spencer and Dannet’ord. the great bay of MacArthur, and Ireland, and the other various exhibits vanished. transit gloria mundi. Time was—only a very short time—when the Exhibition did not exist, and though all felt curiosity to see it arise, it was more wonder than enthusia-m. It had then no sentiments or associationgrouped around it. But as it disappears it carries away with it a whole crowd of pleasant images, the growth of which we did not- note, but whose disappearance we cannot help regretting. Distance may lead enchantment to the view, but it does not necessarily give safety. New Zealand is almost the Ultima Thule of the earth, and yet the European (or is it Silierian ?■ ’ grip'gets at us in despite of ocean and quarantine. But if the quidnun'rs of Christchurch —those of the Anglican caste —are to lie credited, society here is not only getting t he physical grip, but a sort of moral laxness in the matter of church-going, akin to Continental indifference. Why. say they, plaintively or vehemently as the case may l>e. our cathedrals and churches show nothing but bonnets and straw hats on Sundays? Where arethebell-toppersand hard-hitters, significant of the sterner sex? Why are these seen perambulating along the winding and willow-hung bank- of the Avon on a bright Sunday morning? What is the rustling of the leaves to the efforts of our choir, or the murmur of the waters to the mumblings of our Dean ? Is Christianity becoming a sort of topsy-turvy Mohammedanism,with a heaven for nought but the fair sex. and where the men have no souls to lie damned ?

It is possible that the appeals of the clergy are not novel to men who were well brought up in their youth. In the matter of sermons they are blase : they have to take ofl their hats in ehurch, and the officiating clergy and choristers are men. Possibly if these latter were of the other sex, and men permitted some rivalry in the matter of head gear, the aspect of things might be ostensibly improved. Or if the privileges of the Churchman’s Club over the way were extended, just the distance of the Cathedral spire, service might become more inviting. Fancy smoking, billiards, and cards in a Churchman’s Club, say the scandalized section of Episcopalian community. The Bishop and Dean in the reading-room deeply discussing the Pauline character of the Hebrews, with the fragranee of Nicotiana, and sounds of ’ I pass. ’ Kight bower, ami ’ Black plays on red.’ floating through the door. A certain ‘ Bartholomew Buggius ’ onee retailed some such legend in the local Press, with the additional interesting feature of a comic vocalist singing in an adjoining room, ’ In 1990 we ll all take our wives on trial for a week.’or some similarly advanced naturalizing sentiment. In towns were ‘imps.‘owls,’ ’savages,’ and other heatheni-h ami outlandish associations make the Lord’s evening hideous, the cathedral city will no doubt lie deemed squeamish, and its solicitude for Sunday jaunting, morbid and misplaced : but even that decorous citv has to concede something to modern idea of itrigid spirit of Sabbatarianism, and allow billiards ami cards under the noses of its dignitaries.

Auckland erstwhile had experience of aJ.P. whose tenqier was of the ‘boil-over’ kind, and whose sentences were occasionally of the ‘boil-over’ nature (in the sporting sense) that they electrified both public and culprit. These moods of the judicial soul do not dejiend on climate and locality. They crop up even in climes where there is neither prickly heat nor mosquitos. Even in these colder regions of Otago we have our Shallows who anon break out in a manner inexplicable, scenting depths of criminality imperceptible to ordinary mortals. M hat do you say to a man getting four months with hard labonr for presuming Upon the hospitality of a common hay loft ? Does this not

break the judicial record for extravagance? The impe. cunions sojourner who sought the shelter of such an unfashionable hostelry might have played a safer caul by taking a room at ’The Grand.' 'So ho!’ say- Shallow. ’ there is a Imttomless pit of criminal intent here. Who would roost in a hay-loft when with plenty of brass he can jockey an hotel-kee|>er? There must lie a lurking criminal intent here -a profundity of wickedness. arson, burglary, possible homicide—so take four month- with hard lalsmr in the jx'nsion provided by Her Majesty. M hereupon all Dunedin screamed as they did at the firework-, and the commercially depressed.rising in their excess of leisure, have written to the }<ai>ers vociferating and asking if such things shall l>e. Whether it was Mrs Shallow's curtain lecture or Shallow -breakfast prepared by the new eook an ex-pupi] teacher), or a collapse of the ‘ Golden Causeway, or -ome other wild-cat mine with a heavenly name that upset the judicial Italanee that morning, is a matter of conjecture, but it is not a far cry to the Empire City ami it i- to lie hojied that the Minister of Justice will hear.

The dispute lietween the Railway Commissioner- ami the workmen employed on our railways is the most serious development of the labour troubles that we have had in New Zealand. Many jieople. including Mr S. \ aile. of Auckland, would lie very glad to see the Commissioners go out on -trike, but that is not very likely. A strike of railway employes would lie a very serious thing for trade, and it ito lie hoped the difficulty will la? settled without recourse to such an extreme measure. So far as an outsider can judge th* demands of the workmen seem fairly reasonable, and have lieen laid before the Commissioner- in as courteous a way as was necessary. It is natural that working men should view with alarm any example set by a Government Department tending to lower the status of the woikman. and should do their liest to maintain a high standard of wages and hours in the public service. Their unwillingness to meet the Commissioners in conference one can understand, for they fear that their delegates would lie marked men. in spite of all the protestations of the < ommi—inner-. Their fear is probably groundless, but they have had ex|ierienee of the many petty ways there are of injuring obnoxious men. and they cannot lie expected to have perfect trust all at once. At present railway employes are even afraid to speak to outsideis of any injuries done them in their work.