TOPICS OF THE WEEK

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XII, 21 March 1896, Page 317

TOPICS OF THE WEEK

lORD GLASGOW has been making the waste places -J of the Urewera Country glad with his presence. Wherever the vice-regal party has gone it has been re ceived with the hakas, war dances, speeches, and presentations with which the Maoris delight to honour a distinguished guest. His Excellency has made himself a great favourite among the natives, and has established the most cordial relations with them. They one and all vote te kawena a * right good sort,’ aud it I mistake not, Lord Glasgow has found among those chiefs some of nature’s noblemen with whom, notwithstanding the slight difficulties which an alien tongue and customs present, he can find pleasure as well as novelty in coming in contact. The Governor’s predilection for the country districts, and especially the native districts, has been commented on rather adversely by some fashionable townsfolk, who cannot conceive what pleasure His Excellency can derive from mingling among ‘ savages ’ in out of the way corners of the country, when he might live in a nice house in the town and enjoy the society of civilized people. It is strange, no doubt, that anyone should prefer a bivouac in the bush or on the hills to a tea-party in Parnell or Remuera—but then there is no accounting for tastes.

THE presence of the Squadron in Auckland this week is a circumstance to stir the patriotic and commercial chords of the citizens’ hearts. Probably the latter are most keenly affected, but where there has been sufficient enthusiam to establish a branch of the Navy League, patriotism can certainly not be dead. These are the occasions on which the League can bring itself into prominence, and I trust that the members will make good use of the opportunities presented to acquaint themselves with naval matters. It is incumbent on all of them to learn something of the condition of the navy, and of the character of the ships of war, else how can they expect to advocate with authority the cause they have embraced. The Squadron in port should be used as an object lesson, and every man or boy who has paid his subscription to the League should spend his leisure time on board one or other of the boats examining everything, or if need be testing everything. lam sure that the officers would only be too delighted to have the members manifesting a lively interest in their ships, manipulating the search light, inspecting the marines, and firing off the big guns. In return for their courtesy the League might entertain the officers at little banquets and the like, where patriotic speeches would be the order of the day. The funds of the organisation promise, I understand, to be considerable. and surely no better method of expending them in accordance with the naval taste could be devised than that I have mentioned.

WITH tedious regularity the gambling evil comes up for condemnation before the courts of the Church — Synod, Assembly and Conference. But hitherto the trial has been very much of a farce, for the judges who on the bench denounced gambling with the weightiest emphasis, dispersed only to smile encouragement on it in practice. Their art unions, church lotteries, and so forth were only totalisators in another guise, and ministered just as much as the latter do to the speculative spirit. Perhaps they may have done more real harm at bottom by giving the sanction of religion to what shrewd men could discern to be little else than gambling, and thus laid the church open to a general charge of hypocracy. I see that the United Methodist Free Church, following in the lines of the Presbyterian Assembly, has awakened to a sense of the weakness of the church’s position in this respect, and while deploring the gambling mania, has urged on its ministers to give no encouragement whatever to art unions, rafflings or chance games of any kind.

The temptation to make a few pounds by these illicit ways is often hard to resist, especially when the congregation is backward in its subscriptions. One may be excused for not looking a gift horse in the mouth in some circumstances, or even going a step further, as the coloured pastor did in Florida. His church was sadly in need of repairs. It required new shingles for the leaky roof, new windows, and many other new things. On a certain Sunday he prayed most fervently for funds, and then intimated that a special collection would be made for the work, and special blessings asked for the contributors. In answer to his appeal one brother put in a dime. ‘ A dime from Brudder Jones,’ said the collector. * De Lord bless Brudder Jones,’ prayed the pastor. Then a quarter of a dollar was received. ' Brudder Johnson, a quatah. De Lord bless Brudder Johnson.’ The

collector reached a gambler, who had had a big winning night, and he put a twenty-dollar bill in the hat. The almost breathless collector said—‘ Wha's de name, sah ?’ ‘ Never mind the name. lam a gambler from Ohio.’ * Gamblah from Ohio, twenty dollahs,’shouted the collector. The pastor rolled his eyes up, and raising his hands, said, in a voice choking with emotion — ‘ Twenty dollahs from Ohio. May de good Lord bless and prospab de noble gamblah from Ohio.’ Then the harmonium burst forth.

rriHE prospects of the Wellington Exhibition are de--L cidedly rosy. There is evident a desire to make the thing a big success, and I sincerely hope that it will be so. But there is a danger of attempting too much. Christchurch, which inaugurated industrial exhibitions in New Zealand, scored a complete triumph, and her success has encouraged Wellington to emulate her example. Let the Empire City not be too anxious to outshine her southern sister. In modesty thereis safety, in ambition danger. Christchurch was decidedly modest; she made no attempt at great things ; and we all know with what a pleasing result. Wellington, lam afraid, is inclined to be too ambitious. She is thinking of that other exhibition scheme she had with the gondolas, aud I think there were cafes chantants in it, which very properly had cold water poured on it. The gondolas and cafes will come in time, Wellington. Your business now is a modest industrial exhibition.

And when is Auckland going to have her exhibition ? Is she wisely lying low till she sees how Wellington gets on? There are enthusiasts by the Waitemata, too, who would like to see a great exhibition in Auckland, but they have never yet been able to enlist the public sympathy and support sufficiently to hatch their projects, which in many cases are now addled. However, when the time is ripe Auckland will, no doubt, show her enterprise and administrative faculty by a successful exhibition. When the mining industry, which promises to make a second Johannesberg of the Northern City, is further developed there will be room for an exhibition if it is only of the products of our mines and mining machinery.

AMISSION to convert the police is something of a novelty, yet such a mission is at present in Australia, and I should not wonder if after it has completed its work there it should pay a visit to New Zealand. It is too early as yet to hear anything of the success of the missionaries, but from the fact that they are ladies, and that policemen have always been of a gallant disposition, I anticipate great results. There are several interesting questions which occur to me in connection with the mission. Why, in the first place, should the police have been singled out for these ladies’ ministrations ? Is the police more wicked than any other arm of the civil service ? Are policemen more unregenerate than postmen or telegraph operators or Government surveyors, or heads of departments ? Or is it that the ladies expect by converting the policemen to influence that great class over which the policeman hovers like the terrible vicegerant of justice? Then, as to the particular methods of conversion to be followed : It has been understood from time immemorial that the police were partial to certain viands and liquors, or that with these it was possible to melt their stern hearts. Cooks have been known to exercise an enormous power over members of * the force.' Will the missionaries descend to such things ? I know not.

UTAH ERE is every probability now that the friction—--L always more or less regrettably’ apparent—between employer and employee in Auckland is about to be rubbed away. The lubricating oil in this case is the tact and common sense of Mrs Hendre, secretary to the Tailoresses' Union. This lady has undertaken the gigantic work of ameliorating the state of the working girls in Auckland, those of them at least who earn their daily bread in the shops and factories of that city. There are about six hundred so employed, and their wages are, in many cases, quite insufficient to give them food, clothing, and lodging. Of course, where a girl sleeps at home her five shillings or so, added to the earnings of the rest of the family is regarded as a welcome assistance in the parents’ struggle for a respectable existence for themselves and the responsibilities with which Providence has blessed them. But there are more girls who only earn two-and-sixpence to five shillings a week. They are, perhaps, beginners, and are really not worth more to their employer, and these have no relations living in the place. Perhaps friends from a distance may add a trifle to their diminutive aud wholly life-insupportable income ; but perhaps they don’t. Yet these girls live and dress well. How ? And that darker shade of their story cannot be touched upon here. But the man or woman who builds or buys a large central borne for these young women, where, without a repelling pressure of goodness, their moral nature will be elevated, whilst their bodily wants are attended

to—without pauperism—will have solved the problem of the mitigation, at least, of an evil the existence of which may sapp the healthy foundations of our cities. Will not the next rich person who is about to die, and has no immediate kin, bear this great want in mind ?

Of course these words of mine will bring a storm about my ears. The usual cry will be raised—‘ Let the girls go into domestic service.’ Dear ladies —for it is you who will complain—let me remind you that there are some nice mistresses and there are other kinds ; that there are good sensible girls who will go into service and be a credit to themselves and all around them, and there are others who prefer a freelance sort of life. Everyone, fortunately, is not built on exactly the same principle, and though a want of principle may be noticed occasionally, yet all girls who work in shops and factories are not necessarily to be condemned because they don’t go as you would wish—into domestic service. Some of them, dear madam, you would not find suited to your establishment. There is, I know, the Y.M.C.A. Buildings. It is very good—too good for many indeed. Out of the six hundred girls working in shops and factories in Auckland over onethird are Roman Catholics, who would not go to the Y.M.C.A. Rooms. At all events, whatever the cause, there are the girls and they want help. All honour, then, to Mrs Hendre and those who are assisting her to make the lives of these young women better and brighter. And all success be to the proposed Fancy Fair which is to be held in three months for this purpose. Money to start the affair is, of course, needed, and donations will be welcomed bv Mrs Hendre.

A MOST suitable vocation for ladies desirous of earning their own living in an honest and eminently woman-like way has been discovered by some enterprising demoiselle. Alas! I know not her name nor her abode, consequently the Graphic interviewer has sedulously let her alone, and the pioneer of the ‘ Kiosk ’ and other suitably-named establishments remains an undiscovered social benefactor. There are one or two, if not more, of these luncheon and tea-rooms in most of our principal cities. Wellington has been blessed with a very taking afternoon tea-room, where the cakes and liquid refreshments are voted ‘ delicious.’ Auckland is well off now in the matter of dainty, light meals at singularly light prices, and Napier is following these good examples. Of Christchurch and Dunedin I am not in a position to speak with gusto, but I have no doubt they are similarly blessed, or, at all events, shortly will be. For there are, unfortunately, many ladies who are much in need of work, and the confectioning of dainties wherewith to tempt the heart of man or woman is especially their work.

Many otherwise thoroughly good and satisfactoryhousewives are under the impression that it is only necessary to have a prettily spread table when someone else’s lord and master comes to join in the feast. They think that their own particular menkind do not care about flowers and fripperies, which add to the ladies' labours, rooms of the various luncheon and without, as they think, any adequate return. Herein they make a great mistake. Judging from the large proportion of men who daily enjoy the tastefullyarranged meals in the charmingly-decorated feeding tea establishments presided over by the newly-arisen lady cooks and confectioners, it would seem that the appeal to the outward man is fully successful as old domestic stagers tell the novices is the appeal to the inner. ‘ How shall I retain my husband’s affection ?’ pitifully asked an inexperienced young wife. ‘ Feed the brute,’ said her twice-wed aunt. The words are rough, but there is a large amount of truth in them. Therefore, practical wives and mothers, recollect that you have terrible rivals to fear in these pleasant-mannered palate - tempting assthetic - sense - satisfying Kiosk or Savoy-keepers.

IT sometimes is a little hard upon our magistrates that they cannot express their feelings concerning some of the cases which come before them in the few, pithy,and very pointed words which rise to their lips. But they have to support a reputation of absolute fairness and unbiasness, and, consequently, have to wrap up their private feelings in the smooth silk of legal utterances. OccasionalTy their own view of the character of the person whom they are trying, or the case before them peeps out in an apparently innocent and unconscious manner. Thishappened in Auckland recently. A visitor to that city went to see the famous man in a trance, paying his silver coin for admission. He had been present but a short time when all visitors were requested to leave the hall, as the doctors were about to make an examintion. This particular stranger refused to leave, stating that he was one of • nature's physicians,' and was in-

terested in the case. He was gently, but forcibly, removed, and brought an action for assault. In dismissing the case Mr H. \V. Northcroft, S.M., said that *it was a queer show where the public, after paying their money at the door, could be turned out every five or ten minutes while the man in a trance could get up and walk about.’ Yery many people, myself included, would demur to the latter statement of the worthy magistrate, for a large number of us do believe in mesmerism, and in this particular case the man as I said last week, submitted to some hard tests of his unconsciousness. But what I wish to point out is the very neat way in which Mr Northcroft implied that he has not much belief in trances or uncanny things of that ilk.

BELOW is a reproduction of a photo of Mrs Camille Lorcher, now awaiting trial in Wellington for the attempted murder of Mr George Norbury. Mr Norbury’s picture is also given. The particulars of the occurrence are well known. Messrs George Norbury and Trevor, builders, of Wellington, had erected buildings for Mr

Lorcher in Manners-street, and were the mortgagees in the case of a certain section belonging to him. On February 26th, Messrs Harcourt and Co., auctioneers, were about to offer for sale some of Lorcher’s sections, the one over which Norbury held a mortgage, being among the number. Lorcher had for some time endea. voured to have the sale postponed, but it is said he eventually allowed matters to take their course. About

the time advertised for the sale, Mrs Lorcher entered the auction-room, and without any remark walked straight up to Mr Norbury and discharged a pistol at him. The bullet struck him on the right breast and penetrated the body. Although dangerously wounded, he is still alive at the date we write. Mrs Lorcher, who was promptly arrested, made no attempt to get away. Mr and Mrs Lorcher are Swiss, and came to New Zealand about five years ago.

rpHE man in a trance ’ novelty seems to be drawing 1 well all over the world, and seeing that it does not necessarily require any hypnotic power on the part of the operator, nor any excessive power of somnolency in the subject operated on, but merely a gullible public for its success, it is not surprising that the number of professors running this particular kind of show is large. The following is an account of an expose of a so-called hypnotic trance in the United States.

During the month of January last Santinelli, a ‘hypnotist,’ was giving exhibitions in various Michigan cities, in which he claimed to put a young man into a hypnotic sleep and keep him sleeping constantly for from four days to an entire week, during which time it was said all bodily functions were suspended. The young man in each case was Herman Leonard, an employe of Santinelli, who travelled with him from town to town for the purpose of being put to sleep. Leonard was put to sleep on a Monday night for five days at Grand Rapids. Early one morning in the week Dr. Harman, a thoroughly reputable Grand Rapids physician, slipped into the Opera House by the aid of a skeleton key. The watchman employed by Santinelli is known as ‘Jim.’ Jim was asleep but the doctor declares that Herman Leonard was wide awake. Dr. Harman says that he saw Leonard arise in his bed and throw a pillow into the box where the watchers were stationed,and asked tohave ‘Jim ’ awakened. ‘Jim’ was aroused from his slumber. At 522 Jim and the watchman went out of the auditorium of the Opera House, leaving the alleged sleeper alone. Three minutes later a stranger appeared. He brought a long-necked bottle, which he handed to the man on the bed. The ‘sleeper’ took the bottle and a few minutes later handed it back. Then the same man gave the ‘ sleeper ’ some food that looked like bologna sausage and a drink of water. Five minutes later the ‘sleeper’ asked for a cigarette. It was lighted and handed to him by his friend. The ' sleeper’ took several long whiffs from the cigarette and expressed his satisfaction in various ways. All was serene when the hired watchers returned.

fITHE most peacefully disposed persons are liable to -L catch the war fever when it is prevalent. Mr Fowlds, of Auckland, has never been one who was likely to seek the bubble reputation at the cannon s mouth, wherever else he might endeavour to find it. According to his own showing he has no foolish fancy to reap glory on the field of battle or to die of ‘a mortal stroke. What time the foeman's line is broke And a l the war is rolled in smoke.' As with the majority of us, a plain unromantic death in bed is more to his mind. But these rumours of war that are circling round the world have roused the latent soldier in him, and he is to the front with a suggestion that we should form rifle clubs in all the large centres. Mr Fowld’s clubs would not aim at any great proficiency in military evolution, nor would they adopt any of the gawds with which military men make themselves and their profession attractive. The members would be simple shootists, men who could take a straight aim and knock over an enemy at 500 yards. Mr Fowlds would have us take to the rifle range as we take to the cricket field, the golf links, or the bowling green, and become such experts in the new game that no enemy would care to have a match with us.

The idea is good, but the difficulty seems to be to excite that widespread interest in it which is necessary to success. I have no fear that if he were called on to do it every city man would not leap from his counter and till and strike home ‘ were it but with his yard wand,’ but until the rude blast of war blows in their ears they will trouble themselves very little about preparations for defence. Mr Fowlds has as his idea of what these clubs should be the Transvaal Burghers, and he believes we might attain to as great a proficiency as those Boer marksmen who whitened the cannon of the British at Majuba Hill with their bullets and picked off the gunners one by one. He forgets, however, that the circumstances under which that proficiency was attained do notexist here. Wehave not the opportunities nor the necessity for the use of the rifle which the Boer farmer has on the broad veldt. He has had a weapon in his hand since he was a lad. lam afraid that the kind of people which Mr Fowlds would like to see practising at Mount Eden have never fired a rifle in their lives, and would never take kindly to shooting as a pastime. The supposition seems to be that without the restraints and discipline of volunteering shooting would become popular. I question very much if such would be the case. If we have a difficulty in making the volunteer movement a success I don’t see that rifle clubs are likely to prove much better. If men display little interest in volunteering it is not to be expected that they will show much enthusiasm in rifle clubs, or even if, contrary to expectation, they did, I fear very much that they would cut but a sorry figure in their untrained condition.