The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES’ JOURNAL. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1890. CURRENT TOPICS. ECHOES FROM THE NORTH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 25, 21 June 1890, Page 9

The New Zealand Graphic AND LADIES’ JOURNAL. SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1890. CURRENT TOPICS. ECHOES FROM THE NORTH.

;By

Graphic Contributors.

""Ellington has lost a good citizen and the Legislative Council a most valuable member through the retirement of Mr G. M. V\ aterhouse to England. When Mr ""aterhouse .eft New Zealand a year ago his eyesight was becoming weak, and he -eemed generally to be failing : but after some months stay in Europe he was said to be recovering, and likely to return. I. nfortunately for the colony, however, he has decided to settle in England, and has bought a house in Torquay the milde—t. sunniest spot in South Devon. — • that it is hardly likely that we shall see him out here again. A- a legislator Mr " aterhouse was a man of peculiar value. He had considerable penetration, much sound common rense, and was well-read on most subjects. Further, he always took the trouble to master whatever business he had in hand, and to think it out for himself, instead of blindly accepting the ideas or fads of others. Experience. t<*>. had quickened his judgment, and though he was general y inclined to take gloom v and pessimistic views, yet his opinion always had worth, for that it proceeded from a thoughtful and upright man and a particulariv acute obrerver.

Possibly Id- trials in Australia may have bad something to say to Mr Waterhouse - rather melancholy temperament, he having been one of those who were driven down from the back-country of south Australia by a great drought. He succeeded in -aving ->>me -4 hi- sheep, but confessed that it would have paid him letter to have cut their throats. This experience of the Australian climate made a deep impression on him. and he remains to this day extrentely sceptical as to the great future that Australians are fond of predicting for themselves, arguing that from the nature of the country it i- impossible that it can carry a large white p»-pula-tion. In regard to New Zeal an-i also he was extremely impatient of those talk of boamilesss resources and amazing fertility. j»>inting out that good as some of the "and undoubtedly was. there was a huge proportion of utterly hopeless ami impracticable country. It was probably this business-like ami sober nieth-»i of considering actual facts, in-tea.: of drawing on his imagination, that caused Mr Waterhouse to make so small a mark in the political world. True, he enjoys the unique distinction of having held the Premiership- in two different colonies, and this fact alone suffices to stamp him as a man of more than average ability. Indeed it is surprising that, while the much-abused < >r»ler of St. Michael ami St. f leorge ha- been scattered so freely among extremely commonplace men. the Colonial Office should have never thought of conferring it on Mr Water-l»on-e. Personally, however. I confess that I should prefer to see so simple ami straightforward a man unadorned by rhe bed-striped blue ribbon, which is so absurdly covered even in these democratic communities. But it is not in Australasia only that this paltry decoration is prized. A very absurd, rh-sn.-h true, srorv used to be related -ome few years ag»» of a Lieutenant-Governor in one of England's least important r«ssessions. This funetionarv. wh-> enjoyed the title of Excellency, the government of an island rather smalierthanßank-Peninsula, containing 30.000 people, tnostly of black complexion, ami a salarv of some £BOO a year, received one day in the m-vnth of May a letter from a friend in England congratulating him on his appointment as C.M.G. The poor oM ntan went mad with delight, ami at once invited the whole island to a ball, hung the with drapery of Saxon blue ami scarier, and daunted in large letters over one door the motto of the Order, ■ AtrspieiitiM meHoris terif and over the other, in omtpliment to himself, ‘ Ralutrnin frr*;t.' He also despatched, at the colony's expense, a long telegram to the Colonial Office, expressing his deep sense of the honour bestowed on him. ami his unalterable loyalty to the Queen. The ball took place in due course, but was interrupted by a t e 1-zgran: from the Colonial Office, curtly informing him that he was mistaken, and that the C.M.G. had not been conferred on him at all. His friend, it afterwards appeared, had confused him with another man of the same name. But this was not al-. The Colonial Office calles!upon him to refund the eost of his effusive telegram, which, as the charge at that time stood at 15s lOd a word, amounted to somethin-■■ considerable. The reaction was terrible. H--w.--.er. the next year the Colonial • 'ffiee, for very shame, t-»k pity on the old man, and gave him the decoration which he covete*! so much. From that day forward he always showed the ribbon of the Order on every coat that he wore. It even appeared on his pyjama jacket, as I can testify from actual vision, ami was probably stitched on to his winding-sheet when he was buried. t»n Saturday evening la-t Captain Olive. late secretary of the Auckland Club, who has left for Sydney, was entertained at dinner at the Club by the members. The gathering was a large ami representative one, there l-eing over sixty gentlemen present. His Worship- the Mayor of Auek. land, Mr -I. H. Upton, wa- in the ehair, and proposed the toast ->f the evening, the health of Car-tain < ‘live. In doing so he referred to the business ability and gentletuanlvconduct of the Captain -luring hi- connection with the Club. At the same time he presented a purse of sovereigns, the gift of the members of the < Tub. The toast was drank with enthm-iasm. ar.d Captain Olive responded feelingly. The health of Mr -I. D. Conolly. American Consul, who wa-pre-ent. was also drunk, and after Mr Com-llv had res;--n-ied those present -tent the test of the evening in made and conversation. Captain Olive left on Tuesday by the Monowai for Sydney, where he will no doubt be as popular a- he was here. Dr. ‘-race, M.L.C. an-!, by the wav. our latest <’.M.<i. has covered him-elf with glory by his masterly neg-.tiation-with the Tramway Employes' Union. As proprietor of the Wellington tramways, he had. like all other employers in these days, to receive a demand for higher wages and shorter honre. He answered at once that he could not possibly agree to these demand-, as he »a- running the trams at a loss already, and invited delegates to confer with him on the question. He received them and conversed with them with a geniality that would base done credit to the most accomplished of his brethren from the Emerald Isle. ‘Come and look at the books, me boy,' he said to one delegate, who was a little sceptical as to the unprofitableness of the tram-, * 111 toss anyone for the lot.'

he added later --n to the a*t--n:-h.-d -reputati-®. X- the conference proceeded m<st cordially -n ->tL -ide-. Dr. ‘-race -aying nothing but good --f hi- employes, am- frankly --ifeing to -hare pn-hts with them iribo he made any. but showing plainly that he was m-t going t- give in. and wa» uite prepared to -hut up the trams if pu-:.ed t<-extremities. Hiextreme friendliness and --penne— rather -taggered rise deputation. who decided to think tie matter over again ; and I should not be -urpri-e-t if increa-e-i {«ti- ■ age ■ f the trar: - by the working man during the next few v.. nth- were to result in making a protit r»tn t'.-r Dr. ‘-race and his ei - pl-*ye—. So true is it that a soft answer tumeth away wrath. Employer- shoul-i note Dr Grace's method for their own guidance. In thi- transaction, as in most others of the -ame nature that have taken place lately. Mr D. P. I i-lier tigure-i largely. Mr D. P. Fi-i.er is a bro', er of t;.e celebrated Mr George Fi-her. whose retirement fn-m the Cabinet made such a stir about thirteen months ago. amt seems to have a similar knack of getting into hot water. He made a very j.»r exhibition of himself in the dispute between the Wellington Woollen Company ami it- hand-, being entirely responsible for the collapse --f the arbitration : and now he ha- managed to irritate the tailoresse- by -peaking ‘ advisedly of them.' • An Honest Tailoress ' writes most indignantly to the papers asking what he means by thuholding up the tailoresses to contempt, ami suggesting that he * should poke his nose into the way- of oti.er women ami girls and tell u-what he thinks of them. Evidently it is dangerous for a man to -peak ‘advisedly ' concerning those towards whom he aspires to act a- guide, philosopher ami friend. The role --f the labour-agitator is not -> easy to til after all. as better men than Mr D. P. Fisher have discovered. A very few months after the great dock-strike in London John Burns its moving spirit, failed to - .' -tain a fair hearing from a meeting of London working-men. • There was a time, ’ he -aid, despairingly. ‘ when 10.CCO men would come to hear Jack Burns on Tower Hill. an»i you could hear a pin drop.' But the appeal fell flat, the interruption continued, ami Bums found that his was. for the time at any rate quite gone. Mr Bradlaugh again has been openly disclaimed by the British working man a- no longer a ■ working man's candidate.' He spoke • advisedly." not -«f the working men. but of their present tactics, an-i adhere- -o what he said like the honest man that he is. Will Mr Fisher. I wonder, continue to speak ■ advisedly ' after this rebuff from the honest tailoress ‘ Buried for a hundred and four hours and called back to life again : This is not quite so marvellous an experience as the hero of ‘ Looking Backward ' went through, but in the ease of the Maori tohunga Tohutu, whose portrait is given in the present issue of The Graphic, the resurrection from the dead was a real and well-attested fact, happening in our own day and generation. Old Tohutu's whare stood a little apart from the cluster of house- in the native village of Wainxa. which was bnrie-i by the showers of volcanic mts-i during the great eruption of Tarawera in 1886. The tohunga was so steeped in tap-n that everything he t-ei- l-e-l becanse sacred, and every member of the hapu so disliked an-i feared him that there was m- need to empl--y any kind of precaution to prevent breaches of the s-.-o—---laws regulating the observances due to a priest so -feep-lv versed in the mysticism of the old Maori cult. For Tohutulife. if we may rely upon the reckoning of old men who had known him a- well advanced in year- when they were bov-. had extended through the vicis*itn-les of a whole eentnrv. He was a malevolent, ill-tempered old man. prolific in curses, wh-ch -track terror ~ heart- ■ — ag ■ •_ t:.- '• were hurled, an 1 thereafter became accountable for ail the illluck which happened to l-efal! the objects :' the rohunga - displeasure. The deaths of two or three children were attributed to this cause by the superstitious villagers. It i~ not w- nderful. therefore, that among all th-»-e w;... found a premature grave in the sullages buriei bv the eruption Tohatu was the least mourned over. His resurrection, though .:. in calculated to greatly increase bis prestige throughout the lan-i if he had fully recovered fn-m the effect- <-f hi- strange immurement, can-- ■ e--r:~: lerai :- sy tnd _ unong tbenative refugees at Kotoraa. The uneaxtiking <-f old Tohutu from his tomb wa- ac. cotnplished by a few azdent Europeans who devoted them selves to the work of exploration after trie eruption. Thev ha-1 not the -.kglkest expectation *>f tin-lin- I-im alive l-eneat i the crushed-down mud-eovered ruin- of hi- » hare, l-nt thev dug the place out as a matter of -iuty. an-i with the idea of giving his U.'.y decent burial with other- re-x-veted from the ruin-. The four day- -pent in --litude and darkness had dimmed the feeble faculties of the old man ; he experienced a sen-e of j-ain in leing moved, an-i pleaded hard to le left alone. However, despite his protests, they bore him carefully on an express cart to the hospital at Rotorua An amusing incident occurred while the filthv coverings were being remove-1 from the 01-l man's holy, "'hen the outer blanket wa- taken ->ff the surface exposed pre-ented the appearance of long dark hair, and a

'*-•?> «»t the Emerald Isle, who w*as hacking on, emitting aery «»f dismay, fled precipi lately. He explained afterwani* that lie h*-i feare-1 the -ream re »1- a -*‘rt of human gorilla, ela-i in a thb-k ro-at of natural fur. Examination. however, -bowed that a succession of nondescript garments ha*i been allowed to rot on his body, no one apparently earing to remove them. Carefully eleane*i an-i rouiionab-y locked in bed. the old fellow was fed with milk, ami recovered a good deal of cheerfulness. He protested lomilv against the fears which his relatives and other villagers eheris -ed regarding him. ami asked what ruisctiie old man coaid do to them. His rood lections of the time -pent in the grave were dim. Sen he did not seem to hare Isad any sense of pain, ami the mind wandered through t -mazes of ireamlan-i into vacancy. • course he was totally ignorant of what had happened, or how he had been baried. At fir-t hopes were entertained that he would recover his ordinary health, but after flickering feebly for a week his lamp of life went out. greatly to the relief of the natives. who had expressed their disgust pretty freely at the folly of the |<akeha- in delivering such a creature from rhe consesi'fences of a catastrophe which many of them half .-;o.ected he had brought about by his curses and mumbling in -antatioU'. \ book agent's life is not a happy one. He must be ready -o bear al! sorts of verl<d abuse, an-i yet smile as if he liked the ioke. At times he must even risk a physical attack in .er to jet the chance of a -ale. Every newspaper funny ■man has a cut at him once at least, and he meets with sym i«thv from very few. His hand is against every man. and every man's hand is against him. His life is worse than that .•• an insurance agent- •ff course lie has his revenge at times when he psalms off some wretched Yankee publication on the head of a family : as a rule selling it in monthly parts so a s t.. prolong the agonv. > fire can therefore understand why a farmer named Hackett, the other day held over an agent a ■ i-to! and a club, while a friend flourished a hoe around his hea>i. describing circles that smaller grew and smaller. Nobody was killed, and then the agent summoned Hackett for assault. But the magistrate dismissed the information because he considered complainant liad no right to remain on accused s p-retnises after having been ordered off. The magistrate also refused to let the agent carry a revolver, which was very hard lines. However. I should not advise everyone pestered by a book agent ... Mr Hackett's example. The b'ahipuhi silver field near Whangarei and Kawa kawa has not turned out a very startling sensation. In the eaziv dav- of the discovery we had plenty of big headlines in t — daily raters, wonderful results of assays, reports of new reefs, and all the usual excitement attendant on the opening up« of a new mineral field. But a few months of little hut talk deadened p-üblie interest. There is now less talk. and. it is to be hoped, more work. Claims have been taken up- and their limits defined. The peopde of the dis_ trier around are the chief owners of these claims, and they appear to have firm faith in the future of the field. They are going to work quietly to develop its resources, and are not trying to boom shares on the Auckland market. All this looks well, and it would be very satisaetory to find their honest efforts meet with success. Too often the object of the first comers in a field is to create a speculative rush, sell their shares at a fabulous price, and swindle the unwary. The --aiiie has often enough been -u-reessful througfrout the colony. The Puhipuhi people have not attempted any su'-h swindle, ami if their field is a suceetss everyone will rejoice. T .e - N- .-hip • \-ui-p-any'- new ha;. the Mom-wai, marks an era in the hi-tory -■f travel in the colony. That this enterprising company sh il>i feel it necessary to introduce -neb a -p-lendi-t vessel f the convenience of the travelling public shows how rapi-lly our wants have progressed since the old day- of -low. uncomfortable -ailing boats, whose chief business was the conveyance of timber. Now we are conveyed up- ani down the coast, or to and from A z. ■.”. . -xt'.r.g pa.v- v. a., t r.ventetree-of life on land. The only thing that never gives way before the progress- ‘ When someone has invented a sure preventive for that trouble ■ ■■- life will lie a beautiful dream, and -eatraveliing will i«vtw our most popular amu-ement. Till that invention i- made, however, the thoughts of feedin-the .’ ■ - x- )A_'- : - M . pleasure tliat New Zealand i- keeping well up- with the rest «>f the world in providing facilities i--r travel. Maulstick •M hy don't you u-e better brushes - That kind is a century lehin-i the times.' Haulier : 'I know it i*. but I don’t want to take an unfair advantage --f the old masters. I want to p.ut rnv-elf on an es]Oll footing with them, so that if I beat them I mav do so honestly.’