HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XII, 22 March 1902, Page 536

HERE AND THERE.

There are flaws in the loyalty of Australia. At the annual dinner of the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society in Sydney recently Father Banbury lamented the decadence of the independent spirit among Irishmen, and the descendants of Irishmen in Australia. “We are ruled now,” he said, "entirely and directly from the .Mother Country, and whatever is dictated to us by the Imperial Government we must abide by. Our most prominent public men do not seem to have the spirit to stand up and say that Australia will be a nation, if we had the Irish spirit and feeling we would carry out that policy here .for which our fathers died, and for which our mothers bled in the old land. You should keep alive here Irish sentiment and Irish feeling. \\ e wish to be loyal to no Imperialism, but to free institutions and a free flag. It was only by proclaiming loyalty to their free institutions and to their religion, not to Imperialism, that Australia could be built up into a nation. We will not bow ourselves to any authority or any power outside our own shores, or submit to any foreign dictation no matter from what quarter it may come.” He concluded by "hoping that the day was not far distant when it could be said Australia really was a nation.’ Is this the gospel Father Banbury expounds to his flock?

Public opinion has always looked with a lenient eye upon orchard robbing, and the Courts, as a consequence, are disposed to treat such offences as youthful peccadilloes. But that is simply because the general public do not own orchards. Let a man become possessed of even the blightiest apple tree, or a plum whose fruit brings tears to your eyes, and his ethical standard undergoes a change. The thumbscrew or the rack does not seem too severe a punishment for the young scoun-

drel who had the impudence to poach in his domain. While no doubt some lesser form of chastisement would suffice all humane ends, it is certainly very desirable that some steps were taken to put a stop to juvenile depredations, which are not only excused but often encouraged by responsible people, who would not hesitate to give you in charge, and show little mercy, if you were caught picking their pockets. Yet where is the difference in the offence, save that all people have pockets to be picked, and only a few trees to be robbed.

The summer sales, with their bargain counters, their “sensational sacrifices,” and their other fascinations which draw our womanfolk townwards not singly but in battalions, have been much in evidence this week. The windows of the drapers’ shops are placarded all over with large lettered posters, and their counters are surrounded with perspiring and excited females, buying yards upon yards of remnants which they don’t want, but which they can’t “let go” because they are so cheap. The bargain craze never seems to seriously attack a man. It is almost exclusively a female ailment. A wise Auckland man says he always takes his summer holiday just while the sales are on. He finds it saves pots of money to have the wife and daughter out of town for those weeks.

If that smart daily paper, the “Wairarapa News,” is to be believed. and the editor is not playfully giving his readers a “chestnut,” the servant difficulty, acute everywhere, has reached “breaking point” in Masterton. A young woman—lady, one should say —applied for the position of general, and opened out as follows: Is another girl kept; Have you a washerwoman? Why did your previous servant leave? How many nights do you allow your servant out? Is a half-holiday given during the week? Is there much silver to

clean? Do you give the use of your piano? Would my bicycle be in the road? Are there objections to the young man waiting for me in the drawing room? What wages did you say ? She was not engaged.

A local in the “Thames Advertiser” conveys the thanks of the staff of that paper to the mother of a certain bride for a supply of the wedding cake provided for a fashionable local marriage. At the first sight of that "par,” let us confess it, the "Graphic” felt that some papers are indeed born with a silver spoon in their mouths, so to say. Our society columns weekly record marriages from all over the colony, but wedding cake has never yet reached the staff. Perhaps it is as well, for where there are several weddings every week the strain on the digestive organs would be strong—too strong perchance.

Uniforms have now been provided to the bath attendants at Rotorua, greatly to the admiration cf the townsfolk and the native population. Certainly, they are Exceedingly natty, being modelled on those of ship’s officers. On dit, indeed, that not a few visitors have mistaken the attendants for distinguished officers of our mercantile marine. There is also much joy in the city of boiling water, wonders, and weird sulphurous odours, over Mr Ward’s announcement that the time has arrived for a daily express to Rotorua, and that such a train will shortly be put on. This and cheap fares is the way to boom the Hot Lakes district.

At a lecture given recently by the famous anthropologist Otto Amman, some trenchant and curious statements were made about the English as a race. The lecturer remarked that it was a mistake to consider the English as of purely German origin, since the blood of the dwellers in the island prior to the advent of the Anglo-Saxon invasion was intermingled. That blood gave the English

points of resemblance with the more Southern races, such as those of the south of France, Italy, and Spain. He summed up the English as follows: —The Englishman is pious, but at the same time rude, not gentle; he is brave, but lends himself to falseness in battle; he is humane, but also cruel even unto inhumanity; in one hand he holds the Bible, in the other the sword. On the Continent it was incorrectly stated that the English were hypocrites; they were not hypocrites, for that they wire too lofty; but every Englishman had two souls, one being the Germanic, which was haughty, and the other being the southern sou], which was unmerciful. An Englishman’s actions were regulated by one soul or the other, according to circumstances.

France is evidently very unripe for the one man one vote principle, or it would not be necessary for such a Bill as M. Georges Berry is introducing into the Chamber of Deputies. The measure provides that any person abstaining from voting at elections shall have his name displayed <>n the door of the Town Hall, par a fine of from five francs to 10 francs, and be disfranchised and rendered ineligible for any public office.

At the recent distribution of prizes at the National French Society of 1 emperanee, Dr. Philibert, speaking of the ravages of alcoholism in France, mentioned that in a village of 1,224 inhabitants in Brittany, there were eleven public-houses. Each inhabitant consumed monthly sixty pints of spirits and forty-seven and a-half pints of wine, cider, or-beer. Of every hundred drinks served on a given day Sunday, October 21 last—twentyone were eau-de- vie (brandy distilled from cider), forty-four brandy, twelve rum, two absinthe, the rest beer, wine, or cider. The result is that the birth-rate is stationary, 50 per cent, of the children die before they are twenty, and barely more than twelve valid conscripts are furnished every year.

let no one say we have no here worshippers among us. A lady was heard somewhat warmly asseverating in an Auckland office the other day that she would never part with her umbrella —a fairly substantial gingham. Such attachment may be natural enough under ordinary cir-. cumstancea. We all value our umbrellas, however seedy they may be. but it is unusual to pronounce our affection so publicly as this good dame was doing. Some one tempted to inquire into the matter, discovered that her enthusiasm arose from the fact that the Premier had inadvertently sat on the umbrella, rendering it henceforth sacred in the eyes of iU; fortunate possessor.

There was a time when the rapid decay of the teeth of the community promised to make the fortunes of the dentists, and “ gum-digging ” was taken up as a career by scores and scores of young men. But it now appears that the ground is getting overstocked both here and in Australia. The other day Sir James Graham, speaking at a gathering of dentists in Sydney, remarked that the Dental Board, of which he was president, had had to register something like 900 ladies and gentlemen under the Dental Act. and the work of examining the credentials had been herculean.

The most wonderful thing to relate about China is the conversion of the Dowager Empress, or at least her expressed conversion, for she is a veryold lady and a very astute one, and while not at all likely to change her opinions now, she is quite capable of pretending that she has changed them if anything is to be gained thereby. The cables represent ner as weeping at the repentance form of Western civilisation, and throwing her jewels into the laps of its priestesses for the time being—the ladies of the foreign legations. Edicts have been issued recommending the Chinese nobility to go West and learn of the barbarian and the discourgement of footbinding is also recommended. This last is very significant. Think what a re .urn to simple primitive ways on the part of us Western peoples, it would argue, if an edict was to go forth forbidding corsets. Really, it is hard to believe that a few- months of privation should have wrought such a change in the Dowager Empress.

A Russian named Guthmau, who has just been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Paris, has earned his living as a “convert,” now becoming Protestant, now Catholic, now Jew. It was proved that he had obtained numerous sums of money from religious people of various faiths. He had been baptised no fewer than twenty times. Previous sentences of five years and four years, the latter in England, are recorded against him.

The soldiers who volunteered in the late Spanish-American war are making the usual gallant attempt to relieve the United States Government from the embarrassments resulting from a substantial surplus of income. There have actually been filed, up to date, 50,313 applications for pensions, most of which are siiid to be the direct result of the activity of claim agents and pension attorneys.

The Americans pride themselves on their English, believing that they have improved upon the language, as they have improved upon a good many other things that had their beginnings in the Old Country. Hence the announcement that a Mr Klein was to visit the States for the purpose of teaching the folks there to speak English pure and undefiled provoked a good deal of goodhumoured comment, of which the following, from the “New York World,” is n. sample:—“lt is true, says the ‘World,’ that we do not speak English in the same way ns the language is spoken on the other side of the Atlantic. We have -changvm, enlarged, and improved the language in our usual progressive wny. It is an interesting fact that the educated class in England speaks

very nearly like Americans, and it is also a fact that the dictionaries used are American.” 1

An amusing story is told of a eamping out party last. week. The campers consisted of a number of school boys of various ages and two or three of their masters. In the dead of the night the head master was rudely disturbed from his slumbers by the passage of some rough material over his face, and awoke to find one of his pupils engaged in scrubbing his revered preceptor’s face with a brush extemporised from the manuka scrub which formed the mattress. As can well be supposed astonishment at such an unwonted liberty deprived the master of speech for the momeht and he heard the boy mutter doggedly. “It isn't fair that I should have all the hard work to do.” Only then it dawned upon the muster that his would be cleanser was asleep. The excitement of the outing had evidently been too much for the youngster.

The Maoris are still anxious to go to the war, and cannot comprehend why they are denied the privilege of fighting for the old flag. The six natives who managed to get into the Eighth, bnt had at the last moment to give up their places, being told that no Maoris can on any consideration be allowed to go to South Africa, are very sore. In India, where the same ride has excluded thousands of natives, who would have given their heads to get a chance of fighting, the brave fellows fret under the restriction. But they appear to accept the position, namely, that it is. as Kipling says, a Sahib’s war, much better than the Maoris, who are not divided from us by such barriers as separate, our people in India from the native race. We New Zealanders have such a high opinion of the Maoris, too, that if we had our way they would have theirs, and a magnificent body of fighters they would make.

In accordance with a promise made a little while ago, that all His Majesty’s ships of war should be christened with colonial wine, Her Majesty Queen Alexandra broke a bottle of some Australian vintage at. the. launching of the battleship “ Queen ” the other day. As an appreciation of colonial loyalty the new arrangement is no doubt admirable, but as I have suggested before, it is worth very little as an appreciation of colonial wine. A much more valuable lift to the Australian wine trade than hogsheads of it split over the iron noses of warships would be one small bottle emptied into the Royal mouth.

M. de Witte, the Russian Min? ter of Finance, is reported to have summed up the qualifications for the coming industrial struggle by saying: “Great Britain has been hard hit in the Transvaal, but is still the richest country in the world; France is without initiative, satisfied with returns on past achievements; Germany shows the greatest energy and initiative in Europe, but. has travelled too fast; America has an unparalleled combination of natural resources and initiative, and will go on to greater achievements.” Russia has her mission, too, but M. de Witte says nothing of it.