After Dinner Gossip

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11, 18 March 1905, Page 16

After Dinner Gossip

Echoes of tfpe Week

Credit Where Credit Is Due.

Few who have visited Rotorua, and know how important a part fly-fishing end trolling for rainbow trout have played in still further popularising our most famous tourist resort, will find fault with the Auckland Acclimatisation Society for pointing out that it is rather more than time, the Government came to its assistance and pail something to the extending and carrying on of the excellent work which the Society has done, with little assistance and less encouragement for so many years. As one member, Mr. (?. E. S. Giilies, pointed out, tiie Society, or perhaps it would be even more correct to say a few enthusiastic members thereof, have done the work, and the Tourist Department has of late years at all events reaped the credit. So much has been achieved by Mr. Donne's Department, and so excellent is the care all in its employ bestow on tourists, that it is perhaps not wonderful that .those not '‘in the know” should look upon them as universal providers of attractions for visitors, fish thrown in, as it were, and after' all no one would grudge the Department this unearned trifle of extra appreciation. But it might—surpluses and all considered —• help to pay the piper. The hatchery must inevitably be shifted, and the Government should not oblige the Society ito come hat in band for a generous contribution. In common gratitude it should hand over a substantial subsidy. It was miggested, too, that if visiting sportsmen thoroughly understood that the Society and not the Government carried out the work, they might be inclined to help. •Certainly they do, as was pointed out, get fishing for a pound license which Would cost hundreds of pounds at Home, but yet there is a natural hesitancy—and a laudable one—to ask voluntary help. It seems scarcely form. The persons who should help at Rotorua arc the Rotorua residents, hotel-keepers, hoarding-house keepers, shop keepers, and coach owners. Owing to the Government doing so much for Rotorua "on its own,” these gentry are becoming increasingly rapacious, and not a Jittie selfish. Thev reap 90 per 1 cent, of the benefit of the Influx to Rotorua, and they do practically nothing themselves to increase the attractiveness of the place or encourage the return of visitors. All that they leave to the Government, at which, by the Way, they’ grumble unceasingly. If Rotorua residents would do a little more and grumble and talk a little less, they might easily still further profit by the everincreasing popularity of our famous holiday and health resort.

The Usefulness of Veterans' Homes Vindicated. On more than one occasion in certain quarters the writer has heard our Veteran/ Home in New Zealand described as a fashionable sentimental fad, for which there was and is no real necessity. It would, of course, be easy to relate hundreds of familiar instances where Crimean and Mutiny veterans have ended their days in undeserved destitution, but a note of a ease which has just reached this oftiee from London sc.ms to contain a much more telling point for those at least blessed, or is it cursed, with the imaginative power of putting yourself in his place. Nothing more pitiful has come under tho writer’s notice, and it will be duly noted that this might easily have been the ease of one of our New Zealand contingeuters. The man's name is Arthur Langton, aged only 37, late quarter-roaster-sergeant of the Sth Lancers, who has 13 years’ service and certificates to

exemplary character at his baek, and was discharged from the Army in consequence of wounds received at Ladysmith. Ho tried for employment, failed to get it, and took to the occupation of a shoeblack in the streets of London. The end of the story, so far, is that he got into trouble with the police for obstinately obstructing the pavement, hit the policeman who reproved him, and thence to the Police Court and gaol. lie had been drawing his magnificent pension of 3/ a day, but wasting it, apparently, in drink, and was therefore in a weak and giddy condition from lack of food. The wound in his head is held responsible for his foolishness; but there will be an uneasy feeling that his country also may be partly responsible for this poor fellow’s sad plight.

The Triumph of the Theatre Hat.

"Everything comes to him who waits” says a sage proverb, and it is now definitely announced from London and Paris, the two vastest amusement centres of the world, that the theatre hat problem has at last been overcome, and that the grievance has been settled in a manner agreeable alike to the lady who felt uncomfortable in a possibly draughty seat without a hat and to the sufferer sitting behind, who could not see if she wore one. The settlement arrived at is, like the conclusion of a recent cause eelebre, honourable to both parties. The hat remains, but it is such as can interfere with no one's view of the stage—and certain advantages in thia new headgear are obvious to the masculine and inexpert eye. the, hat is of small dimensions. Away with the mountain ranges of stra\v and lace and feathers'. In their place have come the almost imperceptible beguin and the polo cap. ’ The latter resembles the military cap worn on the side of the head—a feature of English regimental dress which has always fascinated the Continent. This agreeable innovation has been successfully launched in Paris, and I hasten to put the momentous news in circulation. At one of the "first-nights” recently', every lady in every box, without exception, was "coiffed” with the beguin or the “polo.” It is a great triumph, more especially •as only a few weeks ago the idea was launched with a certain timidity. Paris having led, London has followed, and it is merely a matter of months when we shall sea the polo theatre cap on sale at all our milliners. Happy year! Worthy, worthy, inventor! Often and often in our colonial theatres I have anathematised wearers of large hats, only to find that the draught was really a serious menace to the health of those who removed them. "But why not wear a plain cap?” is the natural query. Alas! plain caps arc too plain to ba acceptable to the vast majority. But. the dainty Parisian polo, or military, cap will lie a fascinating freak in headgear which ■*»•' woman will delight io wear, and tm .efore once more blessings on the inventor.

An Early Romanes of Adinix'al Rozlidostvensky. An amusing story of Admiral Rozhdestvensky in his youth, which was making all London laugh what time the last ’Frisco mail left, scagps Worth abbreviatin for"Gruphie”readers. It would appear from a correspondent of the ‘ Times,” that the Admiral fust distinguished himself in the Russo-Turkish War. Tn colhibcration with Lieutenant (now Admiral) Rozhdestvensky, Captain Baranoff addressed to the Minister of Marine in 1877 nn elaborate account of

the biilliant victory these officers claimed to have gained in a fight with a Turkish ironclad. The story was to this effect. The little Vesta, which in 1877 had just been converted from a trading vessel into a vessel of war, was under the (omr.iand of Captain Baranoff, with Rozhdestvensky as first lieutenant. With their small unprotected steamer they had attacked a large Turkish—ironclad named the Fethi Bouland, which, after a desperate struggle of more than five hours’ duration, had at last —damaged ana in flames—to seek safety in ignominious flight. The picturesque report of the fight between the Russian pygmy and the Turkish mail-clad giant declared that Lieutenant Rozhdestvensky brought the action to an end by "firing with his own hand from a mortar placed on tho upper deck of the Vesta a shell which dropped right into the ehimney of the Turkish ironclad, and, exploding down below, disabled her principal deck gun and caused such a fire that the Turkish vessel became enveloped in smoke, and, moving with evident difficulty, turned round and disappeared.”

Wonderful indeed were some of ths details given in Captain Baranoff’s official report, which was carried to St. Petersburg by Lieutenant Rozhdestvensky, specially charged to furnish the authorities with any further particulars that might be desired. “All we now could do,” says a report in one place, •''was to turn our stern to the enemy and reciprocate shot for shot;’’ and, in another, “I determined to go straight for the foe and either board her or blow her up by submarines.” Captain Baranoff was, it seems, a great believer- in the efficacy of rifle-fire, and, much annoyed at seeing on the deck of the Fethi BouJand, besides a Turk in a fez, a couple ef foreign officers in blue uniforms, he called up three of his best sharp shooters and promised them special rewards if they could strike down those particular individuals. They accomplished their task with unfailing accuracy. Captain Baranoff, on the strength of his report, was lionized and feted whenever he went into port, especially at Sevastopol and

Odessa. The Rtissinß journal, vied with one nnetlwo in sounding his praise. Sword, ef honour w«ie presented to him, and he informed a correspondent of Um "Daily News,” who visited him on board the Vesta, that the Tear had given him a pension of 5000 rouble, a year,the Cron, of St. George, and the military rank of lieu tenant-colonel. Not lung, meanwhile, or next to nothing, was done for Lieutenant Rozhdestvensky. Captain Baranoff was ultimately thought !>y hi. subordinates to liave received much more than his fair share of honours nnd emoluments, while Ins uproarious fame gave but little satisfaction to Admiral Areas, commanding the Russian fleet in the Blaek Sea. According to Hobart Pasha ("Sketches from My Life, by Hobart Pasha,” page 210), the commander of the Vesta had flattered himself that the Turks would keep silence as to the absolute falseness of his report. Up to the end of the war Baranoff’s officers kept on jesting with 1 one another about the marvellous achievements of the Vesta in the Black Sea. But Admiral Hobart’s emphatic denial of the Russian story, and the jealousy of Baranoff’s subordinates, at last produced an effect in St. Petersburg, especially when the "Novoe Vremya” published a letter signed by Rozhdestvensky himself, who had in the meantime, it would seem, quarrelled with his chief, in which the lieutenant Of the Vesta practically threw his eaptsin overboard and bluntly declared that all the Vesta had done was that, "being chased by a Turkish ironclad, she ran away.” Baranoff was temporarily disgraced, and left the navy. Lieutenant Rozhdestvensky meanwhile remained in the Russian navy and obtained good promotion, till iu due time, as we know, he reached the rank of admiral and obtained command of the Bailie Fleet. But he seems still to retain as admiral the peculiarity which he displayed at the beginning- of his career in connection with the Vesta and the Fethi Bouland—that of being able to see things not visible to the ordinary eye.