ECHOES OF THE WEEK.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 707, 24 September 1903, Page 15

ECHOES OF THE WEEK.

Regarding the Sunday tram question. I was riding in a car the other day and I overheard a conversation between two conductors. Said A : “ I think it’s about up to us to go to church now, Bill, seeing how these Endeavourers are looking after our interests so strong.” “ Yes, said B. “ They’re a fine lot, ain’t they '! For six years 1 was driving a bus to Onehunga every day, Sunday included, and you know what that is ’. Flogging the whole way. Where was them Endeavourers then? Why didn’t they cry out about the Sunday labour in them days- ? Now when we don’t want their help, they are cantin' and snivellin', and poking -their bally noses where they ain’t welcome.” And then both men indulged in a loud and very emphatic sneer that .it would have done the self-righteous bounders who have organised the anti-tram movement good to listen to.

A correspondent wrote as follows to “Civis,” the purveyor of Attic Salt at the sign of the “Witness,” Dunedin :— “The present Parliament is not Puritan, you say it has rejected a Bill for abolishing the totalisator. Perhaps you regret this ; perhaps you don’t ; it is often difficult to tell whether “Civis” is serious or not. In case you are sorry we haven’t got a Puritan Parliament;, I send you an estimate of the totalisator by Dean Hole, a clergyman very generally respected, I believe, for his piety. “It would be a gain if the totalisator were made, in England as in Russia, the only lawful mode of betting. It is common in Australia, and, if there must be gambling,, it would at all events abolish the vile herd of legs and welshers, and protect from robbery. You put down your sovereign at the authorised office, and get a ticket for the horse you desire to back. All the money so paid in, except, of course, a small percentage, is divided up and paid out to all who produce tickets of the winning horse. The winner is sure to receive what he wins, and in depositing his money has no need to exercise the cautious discretion displayed by a certain young man on a racecourse, when, being invited by some sharpers to make a wager, and being assured that ‘ Mr Jackson had kindly consented to hold the stakes,’ he inquired with laudable curiosity, ‘ But who will hold Mr Jackson ?’ ” The totalisator is the answer, and the only answer, to the question. Who will hold Mr Jackson ? It makes Mr Jackson unnecessary.” *

To which “Civis” appends the following “ Thus a correspondent : with whom agrees, I observe, Mr G. G. Stead. Interviewed in Sydney, this popular racing owner declared that ‘ the influence of the machine was incalculable in making for the good of the turf generally.’ That may be : but it is not clear that the good of the turf generally are one and the same thing. I say this albeit no Puritan, nor sympathetic in the least little bit with Torrey-Alexander narrowness. On questions of morals no good is done by pernicketty tithings of mint and anise and cummin. Temperance is not promoted by interdicting the harmless

necessary glass of beer, nor is gambling to be restrained by invectives againstbazaar raffles. It is inconceivable, however. that- a man might wish to abolish both totalisator and bookmaker, yet be no Puritan-. Dean Hole's position ! don t quite make out. What is he doing in that galley, anyhow? When > a dean of noted piety commends the totalisator he reminds me of the church-going bookmaker who directed his wife to assure the clergyman that though obliged to absent himself from service next 'Sunday. having a little racing business to attend to. yet ‘ he would be with you in spirit.’ ” * * * * The “Special Commissioner” of the London “Sporting Review” has contributed a very interesting article to that journal reminiscent of poor Phil Mav. " Of the artist’s work the public has long formed an adequate opinion, but the following bit of biography, tradictiong as it does some popularly accepted ideas, will be interesting : “We are told in most of the obituary notices that he went out to Australia in 1886 on account of failing health. This is quite incorrect, though he was never strong. The reason was that he was makine: from £8 to £lO a week on' “St. Stephen’s,” and the proprietors of the “Sydney Bulletin” offered him a threeyear engagement at so guineas a week to go on that paper. It is remarkalble that the Colonials should have grasped the value of Phil May’s work so much I earlier than did people in Englan’d. SLB Stephen’s Review” could not afford retain him at such a salary and couldß onlv wish him God-speed. By way or aB send-off we arranged a show of thM originals of all the best illustrations by him whicii had appeared in the paper, and invited all ihe Lon’don Press. There was a big attendance, but I do not think that any accepted authority, except the late Mr Whistler, really recognised the immense talen’t of the artist. My own fear was that he would be practicallv wasted in the Colonies, but this proved quite groundless, for from the very first he was appreciated there, perhaps because at the outset he exasperated his public by a drawing of a convict in chains on! a pedestal as a design for a centenary memorial ! * * ■* * The following is a copy of a card suspended in the bar of a country inn in Mid-Kent. It strikes me as the sort of thing that would be more welcome to j the prohibitionists than to the moder, drinkers in this Colony “ ’The Bowl Inn. Time for drinks : a.m., eye.opener ; 10 a.m., refresher ; i® a.m., stimulator ; 12 noon, appetiser ; p.m., cooler ; 3 p.m., invigorator ; 4 p.m., social chat ; 6 p.m., jokes ; 9 p.m., reposer ; 10 p.m., nightcap. “ ‘Drink moderately. Meet friendly. Part quietly. “ ‘Pay on delivery. Act socially. And call again., s ... i “ ‘lf any- gentleman, not getting ' drinks “Red Hot” or “Ice Cold” as desired, should inform the proprietor, things will be put right. But those whose characters will not bear the light of dav will not be welcomed. i “ ‘Call early, call late, call strong, M At the Bowl where the landlord c;M be seen all day long.’ ”