HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue XXI, 25 May 1901, Page 989

HERE AND THERE.

There is much heart-burning over the invitations issued for the Government House reception on the occasion of the Duke’s visit to Auckland, and it must be confessed that it is very difficult to discern any principle on which certain folks have been chosen and others have been ignored.

In regard to the invitations for the Government platform the authorities have been more careful to define the limits within which they work. But still there is room for not a little envy and jealousy in the arrangements. The number of members (and their wives) on the reception committee has Iteen limited to 25! Will that, include them all? Then who are "The representative clergy,’’ and who are the "wives of the principal military officers," and who are the “distinguished visitors?" The limitation of numbers in the case of the reception committee will be particularly unwelcome to some of the gentlemen composing it, all the more so because it is an open secret that the desire to get on the committee was due not so much to a wish to serve the city as to a belief that committee men were bound to have the entree everywhere.

The opening of the Rugby football season in Auckland last Saturday promises well from a doctor’s point of view. Each of the senior matches had an accident to its credit, slight certainly, but sufficient to show the unprejudiced that the game has lost none of its vitality, and still preserves to the full its indubitable charm of risk. In the junior matches the players showed a commendable energy to emulate their elders, but only succeeded in getting one collarbone crushed.

Some folks are a trifle confused in their ideas as to the class of special railway carriage being prepared at Newmarket for the Ducal trip to Rotorua. One lady, who had doubtless read of the extraordinary precautions taken for the safety’ of the Royal party in Australia, and had also learned that the Royal arms were emblazoned on the side of the carriage, mixed these two facts up, and told a friend in my hearing that the Royal carriage was "armoured on one side.”

Spite of the strong opposition displayed in certain official quarters against the proposed Maori canoe demonstration in Auckland Harbour, this most unique part of the reception programme is pretty’ certain to be carried out. Aucklanders have shown themselves so determined in favour of this native feature that it would be in exceedingly bad taste for the Government to further oppose it.

The reductio ad absurdum of a cheese paring policy in civic administration was never better illustrated than in the case of the Auckland city steam roller. At the last meeting of the City Council it was stated partly by way of explanation of the bad condition of the roads that the roller had for some time been in requisition at the Avondale Asylum for pumping the auxiliary water supply for the city. The story reminds one of the famous Harbour Board of Ardbroath. who, after much discussion, decided to erect a red warning- light at a dangerous point in the port. The step had been long debated, the cost of the red glass being the stumbling block, and this was only got. over when some economic genius suggested that the white glass might be painted red. But. alas! when this brilliant idea was carried into effect, it was discovered that no light eould make its waythrough the painted glass.

Major Harris, who, like many others, has given a son to the War. had a pleasant surprise the other day. He v.ent down to the Auckland Railway Station to meet the returning troopers, in the hope of learning some fresh news about his boy-, and as he made his way among the khaki figures, whom should be encounter, browned almost beyond recognition, but Harris juhior, himself? The meeting, we may fancy, was all the pleasanter because of its unexpectedness. The

incident shows the difficulty of obtain'iiig reliable information about one’s friends at the war. Major Harris, hearing that, there was a Harris among the returned troopers, had made enquiries at the best source whether the trooper was his son. and had been most authoritatively informed that he was not not

The terniinolgy of stieet decoration is still strange to some folks. I heard one lady explaining to another how it was proposed to adorn the route of the Royal procession. "There’s going to be." said she, with the promt air of a cicerone, "Silesian poles all down the streets, and pontoons bung between them." Probably the Auckland poles have as much of the Silesian as the Venetian in their composition, and it remains to be seen what like the festoons are.