HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue XXII, 30 November 1901, Page 1045

HERE AND THERE.

The Rev. Edward Walker’s calculations of the colony’s drink bill are plainly designed with a view of proving that the drinkers are drinking more heavily than ever. This, indeed, is the only conclusion he can get compatible with the undoubted increase in the amount of liquor consumed by the colony, and his own prejudices in favour of the success of the prohibition cause. According to his showing the expenditure on drink per head of the population in the colony is £3 8/41. But when he has deducted the children and Prohibitionists who do not. drink, and the 10.000 Maori women who arc not allowed to drink, and divides the drink bill among what is left of the people, the amount per head comes to £7 16/34, or some £4O per household. As. however, he very properly supposes that, many who arc neither children nor avowed Prohibitionists are practically total abstainers, a further weeding out of the sheep from the goats will still further increase the proportion of the drink bill which the individual drinker has to account for. The result we arrive at is certainly staggering—£6o a household or so. Considering the enormous number of nou-temperance families whose total income is not much more than twice that sura, Mr. Walker’s calculations hardly carry conviction* lam afraid his prohibition bias throws him out. In his devotion to his mission his manifest tendency is to saddle the poor socalled drinkers with more than their full share of the drink. The increase he points out. might as reasonably und more justly perhaps be accounted for by presuming a slight rise in the drink consumption of the temperance as opposed to the total abstaining section of the community. But the Prohibitionist is alas! the apostle of extremes, lie that, is drunken let him be more drunken still. rather than we should admit the increase of a moderate indulgence among the people generally! There is their attitude. ’

According to a Christchurch paper Mr Seddon and Mr Pirani recently “tried" their weight at a bazaar at Ashurst, when the Premier’s portly figure caused the hand on the dial plate of the machine to fly round to twenty stone, while his liliputian “friend” could not register eight and a half stone. Mr Seddon is the biggest man in Parliament and Mr Pirani the smallest, but no member in the house makes liis weight so felt against the Ministerial benches as Mr Pirani does his hundredweight, and no man bumps against the Premier with more effect than does that same little member.

The Attorney-General ofSouth Australia has promised the Society for the Protection of Birds that he will bring in a Bill making it a penal offence to wear the plumage of birds. There was a time when such a measure might, have fluttered Fashion’s dove cots, but at. present the small bird, in part or whole, is an unusual ornament in ladies’ huts or head dresses. The ostrich plume still holds its place, but as it is obtained at little or no sacrifice on the part of the bird the society does not make war on its wearers.

The lady' who was engaged by the Government some time ago to give health lectures or something of the sort one of the curious freaks of our paternal administration—ls reported to be organising a crusade against, the small waist.. She is appealing to the male portion of the population to discountenance the contortion of the figure of which so many ladies are supposed to be guilty, and a great many no doubt arc. She advocates the abolition of the corset altogether, an extreme in which 1 am by no means so certain that the gentlemen would support her, for the latter arc also the slaves of fashion to some extent, and their eyes have been so long used to the incurving line that a Venus-like liberality of waist might offend them. Then it could only be the married men who could, with any propriety, protest against, the slender waist, and that only in their own families, where il is well known their opinion on the subject would go for \erv little.

General Sir /Hector Macdonald looks at things with a soldier’s eye very much indeed. His remarks on hearing that in one of the Southern cities the Government’s ammunition supply was a million and a half rounds—“just about enough for one man if you were actually engaged in war,” was his-comment—gives an inkling into his point of view. Making all allowance for hyperbole, it. is clear the General would have us armed and ready in quite a different way from what we actually are. Our coasts would bristle with cannon and the inarch of civilian soldiers would be heard constantly in the land, while eveiy butt would re-echo with their rifles.

All sorts of rumours are getting about regarding Mr Seddon’s trip Home. There is a strong impression that he does not mean to come back again. To a Northern member who put the question bluntly to him the great man said he did. but the truth is that he really does not know himself. It all depends on the treatment he gets from the Home Government, and as the Home authorities have a tantalising way of dropping no hint as to their intentions in matters of this kind, Mr Seddon is quite as much in the dark as the rest of us. Mr George Fowlds, I understand, is persuaded that the Premier will be made a peer or something in that direction, but a governorship of a third-rate colony—Jamaica, Fiji, or the Bermudas—seems the more probable destiny of Mr Seddoi„ if he would accept it. And I fancy there is a pretty big if in the matter.

In one of the Auckland churches last Sunday the clergyman, in the course of his address, took occasion to condemn what he seemed to regard as the irreverent attitude of some of the worshippers who retained an upright posture during prayer instead of inclining their heads. “During the last prayer,” he continued, “I counted no less than ten of the congregation who had not even their eyes closed.” To adapt the words of Mr W. S. Gilbert it was a case of round the corner he eould see that each one wasn’t kneeling on his oilier knee.

Sports, like individuals, are judged by the company they keep. Trotting in this colony has a questionable reputation, because of its devotees. In the same way billiards, one of the best of games, has, in the eyes of a great many respectable people, acquired a disreputable character merely through its associations. The game stands much in the same position as cards did in the days when card playing was synonymous with gambling, and it can’t get out of that position so easily as cards did. The expenses of the table are too great for it to attain that domestic popularity that has quite redeemed the reputation of what were known as the Devil s books. In the popular imagination billiards will long continue to be regarded as especially the pastime of publicans and sinners, a device of Bacchus to ensnare his unfortunate victims. That it is under present conditions a minister to drinking and idling, especially idling, there can be little doubt. Even the Maoris have discovered its demoralising influence in this respect, or the Tomatea (East Coast) District Maori Council would not have put their ban so severely on the green cloth. Among the laws enacted by the council at their last meeting was a provision subjecting anyone putting up a billiard table to a tine of £25, while it is also provided that the table may be removed or destroyed. On Sunday last the Wniroa geyser at Whakarewarewa was soaped for the benefit of the public,' and, as is usual on such occasions, a crowd collected to see the sight. "Wairoa” this time refused to respond to the first application of soap (not, soft soap), and a second lot had to be thrown in before the geyser would play. In a very few minutes up it went, and played magnificently, better ♦ han when it. performed for Sir Hector Macdonald’s pleasure. Rotorua

inhabitants are extremely thankful that, while such dreadful earthquakes have been wrecking pans of the Southern Island, not so much us a tremor has been felt in Rotorua. No difference bus been noticed in the geysers, and all hope that this is a good augury, and that no severe earthquake shocks are in store for the district.