CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 27, 30 October 1885, Page 13

CHRISTCHURCH.

(Prom our own correspondent.)

«r xv r, , • , m October 27, 1885. WE have the Colonial Treasurer staying with us, banqueting, addressing multitudes, visiting places of note (we have places of note here) and giving everybody good advice, from which you will conclude that our Colonial Treasurer is a very affable gentlemen. You hire, of course, heard that be is the best abused man in the Colony. Now, I have seen him during the last few days under many circumstances, eating and drinking, speaking publicly with great power and cheerfulness, driving in his little pony chaise (the gift of a firm supporter), looking contemplative and prosperous, with his attendant behind him, and the strongest member of the A. C. Force Bitting beside him, charged with the special duty of lifting him up and down as occasion (in the shape of steps and abruDt alterations of level) requires— under all these circumstances have I seen him, and I am bound to say that had you seen bim too, you would agree with me that there is no sign of the best abased man about him. Of course Ido not mean that Sir Julius hit 9no return blows. As he said himself at the banquet on Wednesday, he is not of the lowly order who, when one cheek has been smitten, presents the other. Every now and then in bis discourse there is a flash of vengefnl fire, and we have not long to wait for the yell of pain which shows how the fire bums. His opponents have been making it clear by their behaviour that they think it very wrong of Sir Julius to interfere with their monopoly of mud-throwin». " Office is your principle " these gentlemen are never tired of saying about Sir Julius, and they invoke Heaven in support, as Mr. Ormond did once in his place in the House. Sir Julius occasionally declares, as he did last Wednesday, that more ravenous office-seeker* than the Opposition the world has never known. This is really very unprincipled of Sir Julius. What ought to be very afflicting to the public of this country is that all the leaders twit one another with an appetite for the loaves and fiabes. The public is, I suspect, not afflicted because this kind; of thing has been going on from time immemorial in old countries, and in this ever since the first row occurred in the House of Representatives (seven minutes and a half let us say) after the successful launching of the principle of Ministerial responsibility.

The banquet was very successful from the point of view of attendance and speechifying. One rarely expects to get a two guinea dinner for seven and sixpence, and even more rarely does one get it. Last Wednesday was not one of those extremely rare occasions of agreeable disappointment. But the dinner was, nevertheless, good enough for anybody. If one never gets worse fare than cold saddles of prime mutton, cold roast chicken in abundance, and great variety, except the variety which is tough as to flesh and unprincipled as to muscular old age. cold beef in rounds and sirloins, salads crisp and succulent, a steaming rich mock-turtle soup to begin with, and array of pud-lings and tans and custards, and the various sweet thinjs that some men pretend they are too manly to care for, with a little good ripe fruit to finish up with ; aad if in addition one has a good bottle of beer to wash it all down with, and a glass of rare whisky just to keep down the thought of those speeches you are going either to make or listen to, then I say you are very well off. As for wines well, no man who looks for good wine, besides the above, at a seven and sixpenny banquet can have had much experience of men and cities, when he complains as some had the bad taste to do on Wednesday. He only deserves that honest people should laugh at him, just as very many had the good taste to do on the same occasion. As a political demonstration, I have heard the dinner described as a failure, on the ground that there were not more than 300 subscribers. The price they say ought to have produced a thousand. Now, two thiugs occur to me here. Three halfcrowns make a tidy sum in these times— and the caterer who could feed a thousand people, has not yet appeared, neither haa the room to feed them in. The absence of most of the Caoterburj members has been commented on rather unfavourably. Jealousy of Mr. Holmes as having been singled out to stand beside the great Panjamdrum, is assigned as the cause. The cause I have ascertained is simply the same cause as invariably prevents your humble servant from appearing at the sparkling banquets for which Buckiugbam Palace is so famous — the want of an invitation. In my opinion, this waa a blunder. I refer not so much to the Buckingham Palace as to the other episode. But the city had made up its mind to honour its members, and would not go beyond. Had the Canterbury contingent been entirely unanimous about the West Coast Railway, there would have been no difficulty. But Mr. Rolleston, Mr. Wakefield, and Captain Butter were not with our members, and Mr. Keese was not always with them, and each of these gentlemen has friends here who would not like them left out. They could not with propriety have been omitted from a Canterbury demonstration, and they could not with propriety have been present as supporters of the late West Coast Railway policy. Therefore Christchurch confined herself to her own. From which, perhaps, you may feel tempted to conclude that the railway is not a cause which makes our people exactly burn with fanatical zeal. The bai quet has undoubtedly given a fillip to the Treasurer's popularity here. This, no daubt, will be increased by his speech on Wednesday ni^ht, when possibly the Government policy will be announced with regard to Public Works and Protection. That was the scope r t policy hinted at by Sir Julius at the banquet. All else was of the usual post-prandial order, and of the ordinary political character, and though very well said, requires no addition to the telegraphic reports your readers have already received. For the rest, the proceedings were enlivened by trood speeches (for the msst part), which kept the feast dragging on till nearly one o'clock.

A fine constitution may be broken and ruined by simple Heglect. Many bodily ills result from habitual constipation. There is no medicine equal to Ayer's Pills to correct this evil, and restore the system to natural, regular, and healthy action,