THINGS FROM THE EMPIRE CITY

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 13, 1 April 1893, Page 291

THINGS FROM THE EMPIRE CITY

BY

THE AUTOCRATIC IDLER.

Tread softly and speak low for the old finanDeath of the Jf cial year lies a-dying. In anticipation of this Financial , sad event the Department I know most of, which one need scarcely say is the Lunacy Department, has been so busy that no time is left us to prepare all our things, or do more than send a short wire to the Graphic readers as to the financial year’s departure. No one seems to be really concerned about it. He came in, on the first of April like a fool, and goes out on the thirty first inst. full of wisdom, and, therefore, of unhappiness. The latter is caused also by the sad experiences of everybody who could lay hands on what he vulgarly called his ‘ sugar,’ and appropriated as much of it as he could get at, so that be leaves the world to go. Wherever he went to, one of the first persons to mark ninety-one, ninety-two, for his own, was the Premier himself. Ballance has eased the old fellow of many thousand pounds which go as a surplus to next year’s credit. This is an excellent stroke of business from a financial point of view. Anyhow, it is a stroke no other Colonial Treasurer can make ; and there is but one man in New Zealand who could make it. Indeed, one might go so far as to say that there is but one man in the country, at present, that we know of, who thoroughly understands and masters the abominably intricate mazes of figures which any colonial treasurer has to wade through. Sir George Dibbs has not done so well for New South Wales as our invalided Premier has done for these islands ; nor, for that matter, has the noisy Dibbs done much for himself during the twelve months, except to get knighted by the Queen, to curse Chicago, if that was any benefit to him, and to ask whereabouts in Sydney the insolvent court lay. It is a curious thing to see the Premier of a great colony making such an inquiry as this: however he is only following the example of Sir Henry Parkes who asked the way there once, and liked the locality so much that he could hardly keep out of it ever after. But how can anybody be surprised at the bankruptcy of Dibbs? A man with fourteen grown-up daughters—and slashing fine girls, too— must in the end go to the bankruptcy court or to Bedlam. We don’t do these kind of things in Wellington. For all that the close of the financial year finds us plenty of difficult matter. For instance, it is found the Lunacy Department owes quite a lot at the end of the year, and one sees no way of recovering the debt. Lands and survey find they have a claim on the public works. They send it in. Public works finds it has a claim against lands and survey and sends it in. In Canada they levy a duty of five cents per dozen on United States eggs. In the United States they levy a duty of five cents on Canadian eggs and so things go on in a charmingly reciprocal way, no one knowing, or, indeed, caring much which has the advantage in the egg line. Now and then, however, problems battling all solution are presented, such as an unemployed agitator in the streets saying he can’t get employment. The labour bureau came to his aid and says, ‘We can find work for you.’ ‘ I haven’t got a cent to s»o to that place,’ says the horny-handed son of toil. ‘ That’s all right,’ says the Railway Commissioners, •we will provide you with a ticket.’ ‘But I ain’t got no pick and shovel,’ says this distressful son of Adam. • Never fret about that,’ says Public Works, ‘we will lend you the tools. ’ So the man goes up there, and comes back again immediately. He didn’t like the look of the work ; he never did like the look of any work ; but whether he wanted work or didn’t, there was the railway fare of four and elevenpence 10 Pay, all the same. The Railway Commissioners claim the sum as part of the revenue of 91-92, and sent a bill into Mr 1 regear for the amount. Tregear says the man was to have four and elevenpence deducted from his first earnings : but he hasn’t earned anything. Where this four and elevenpence is, at the present moment, who really owns it, or can least claim it; or where it is to come from so as to

bring it as an asset on receipt into the year’s transactions, is a question of the utmost gravity to ever so many parties concerned. The unemployed one, however, is not one of these. He is not in the least concerned; and is, I believe, now trying to arrange an unemployed demonstration somewhere in Canterbury. Much time is not left to adjust this matter. Everyone for his own. * The night is starry and cold, my friend, The new financial year quite bold, my friend, Comes up to claim his own.' A New Art I h ave pleasure in informing the rising generation, and more especially the female portion of it, that a new art which promises to provide occupation of a remunerative and truly delightful kind for fair fingers has been discovered. The modus operands can be better explained when one has more leisure, but in the meantime it may be said that a leaf or slab of kauri timber is the new canvas, and fire supplies all the necessary and requisite lights and shades from purest white to an eternal blackness. The Venetians produced pictures by burning into the wood these outlines and shades. By the new process the procedure is reversed. Having charred the kauri to the depth required for the picture to be produced, the representation is evolved by the skill of the artist, who gets his light shades and lighter shades by cutting deeper and deeper with suitable graving tools into his kauri leaf. This present writer has no hesitation in saying that no more fashionable accomplishment has been invented by the ingenuity of man for half a century. Kauri, it may be remarked, appears to be the only wood entirely suitable for this artistic kind of carving. It is the only timber which gives all the desired shades from black to white. I have seen some of these beautiful pictures. In richness, in softness, and in mellowness, nothing can surpass them. In another few years the walls of great personages will be adorned with them, and they will supersede pictures done in oil except those done by the best painters. Mr Seddon showed me an old monk executed by this process. The old fellow looked as if he could walk out of the picture and be up to his old tricks at any moment. The Duchess of Buckingham wanted to secure this carving, but our beautiful Countess was too many for her and bought it before the former could make an offer. A picture of His Excellency as he appeared some ten years ago, before he knew how many Legislative Councillors made twelve, and many other excellent portraits found immediate sale. There is a small bit of this carving representing a black and white Newfoundland dog, gone to the Imperial Institute. The dog, I venture to say, will be looked at with much curiosity and admiration by thousands of men and women less noble and less faithful than the poor brute was. Lord Hopetoun greatly admired these new carvings and sat with Mr Seddon in the Minister’s room talking about them and other New Zealand productions, including the labour bureau, for an hour. Lord Hopetoun had some difficulty in getting access there. Richard John had left word that no one was to be allowed to come in on any account except on business most urgent. Lord Hopetoun came along looking for the Minister of Public Works. ‘ Engaged,’ said the Minister’s man. ‘ Engaged thirteen deep.’ ‘ Will he be long’’ asked His Lordship. ‘All day, probably,’ said George. • Would you mind telling him a gentleman desires to see him ?’ said the Governor of Victoria. ‘ It/s no use,’ replied George, ‘ but I’ll try anyhow. What name?’ ‘ Well,’ said His Excellency, ‘I, unfortunately, haven’t a card.’ So George delivered his message and said, that a gentleman with no card was anxious for an interview. ‘ Show him in,’ said the burly Richard, and in walked Lord Hopetoun, and there he sat as pleasant, as homely, as frank, and as manly a man as ever entered a chamber which in its time has re-echoed the voices of all sorts and conditions of men, some of whom will live in history and some of whom will live in the cemetery. The kauri timber artist, at present carving the beautiful works of art just referred to, and who is teaching it to pupils, ought to be mentioned. His address is W. H. Barrett, Palmerston North.

A I am afraid lhe Graphic people will think this is a rather long * short telegram,’ but I Industry. must say a word moie about kauri, which appears destined to play a very important part in industry as well as art. On Saturday I spent some hours with an inventor who has been experimenting, quite unknown to anybody, with kauri and other New Zealand timbers for the last eighteen months. The result is that he has patented and perfected a method by which New Zealand timbers will take the place of carpets, linoleums, and oilcloths on all kinds of floors, as well as be substituted on walls for papers and panellings. The process was shortly de scribed a day or two ago in the Auckland .Star. I found the patentee full of intelligence, full of New Zealand timbers, and full of Seddon, to whom chance gave him a polite introduction a few days before. Seddon, he said, grasped the salient features of patent and its possibilities quicker than he could have believed of any man in this country. He went on extolling the capacity of Seddon and kauri, and said he had had business relations with Lord Clarendon, Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Westminster, and Archbishop of Canterbury, and that Seddon, in business aptitude, was quite equal to any of them. I said I had known Seddon for ever so many years, but always drew the line at the Archbishop of Canterbury, as I did not think even that wily Minister could hold a candle to that Archbishop, or any other archbishop, when a good stroke of worldly business was to be done. The most beautiful patterns of floor coverings made from New Zealand timbers—none of which were prettier than the old Greek patterns and borders—were shown me. In cleanliness, elegance, and tastefulness nothing can be superior to this new invention, and the day is not distant when poor Molly will no more lay a mat on the dining ■ room carpet, nor beat the dust and perhaps disease of twelve months out of the Brussels that covers the drawing-room floor. This inventor deserves also to be mentioned. I may remark that he is an educated man, a straight man, and a gent'eman. ‘ James Freyberg Percival, street, Wellington.’ That’s his card.