NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1546, 30 April 1887, Page 3

NOTES.

If there were only a few more Wakanuis m the Colony we should not wonder at the large number of sucking lawyers it produces; nay we should anticipate a very much larger accession to the Black Brigade than every y( ar now witnesses. Just fancy a district which annually produces a law-suit requiring the summoning of half the country-side as witnesses. What splendid bills of costs are possible under such circumstances. It is positively enough to make a hungry barrister's mouth water. Why, even the Minister for Public Works would be able to take heart of grace if only every country district followed Wakanui's example, for the passenger traffic on the railways would be swelled enormously. Why, they almost wanted a special train to Timaru the other day to convey the sixty odd people snmmoned to throw light upon the mysteries of Gibson v. Wilson, with a special van for newspaper files thrown m. Some people are fond of the luxury of law no doubt, but it's an uncommonly expensive taste to gratify. Anyhow, we would rather be one of the lawyers m such cases than either plaintiff or defendant, for whoever gels the shells, there is not the smallest doubt who consumes the oyster. What opportunities we miss m New Zealand. We go on growling at poor prices and bad times, and continue to run m the self-same grooves, growing the same class of produce, and shutting our eyes to new and profitable channels of industry. For example, why should we import wine and raisins, when we could grow our own grapes and make both wine and raisins fes* ourselves. One or two people m the North Island have gone m for vigniculture, and have made a good thirfg of it, for Mr G. E. Alderton (late Government Commissioner of fruit culture), writes to the " New Zealand Herald " stating that two persons m the Kaipara district have this year made as much as and £s°° respectively from sections of land planted with grapes. Probably we cannot grow grapes with the like success m this Island, or m this part of it at anyrate, but what about apples. We can raise any quantity of these and grow them to as great perfection as m America or England. But the lastmentioned country cannot grow anything like the quantity she requires, and imports millions of barrels of apples from the other side of the Atlantic, both green and dried. There is no difficulty m shipping the fruit m either condition, and there is room for a large export trade m both fresh and dried apples. New Zealand growers are missing a good opportunity m ne glecting the fruit industry.

That was an exceedingly amusing extract from Ruskin's " Eagle's Nest " which was locally published the other day under the heading " Art and Taste." No doubt good taste is offended by pictures of the human form divine when grossly pourtrayed m beauty unadorned, but ?x the same time we can scarcely subscribe to Ruskin's limitation that "so much of the nude body as m the daily life of the nation may be shown with modesty, and seen with reverence and delieht, so much, and no more, ought to be shown by the national arts, either of painting or sculpture." We refer especially to sculpture, and would like to know whether it is meant that only I the face, arms, neck, and the feet to the ankles may be displayed m marble — these are the limits aa regards the living figure, at least as regards the fairer half of humanity. If so, all our statues of Venus, the Graces, etc., must be draped accordingly. And when this is done, what of the fashions ? Are we to have a Diana m ciinoline, or a Greek Slave m a dress improver, according to the evanescent taste of the day ? If so won't ever our statuary grow old fashioned, and, worse still, ridiculous? No, no; whatever limits are imposed upon the painter, the sculptor cannot be bound by ihe fads of the modiste out of a mistaken notion of the modest. The cold pure marble is never sensuous, and as regards sculpture two quotations are apposite. The one from the wisdom of Heaven is "to the pure all things are pure," and the other from the wisdom of the world " Honi soit'qui mal y pense."

We are not altogether m love with the totalisator but we prefer it to the metallician who bawls his " I'll lay. I'll lay." "Two to one, bar one," etc., m the ears of all and sundry upon our racecourses, or rather used to do so before the days of the legalisation of the machine. Probably so long as people will insist on " having an interest " m racing events the totalisator is the least objectionable way of permitting them to indulge their sporting proclivities, and certain it is that the percentage derived from its use is ' almost indispensable to the Jockey Clubs. Withdraw this and the amount of cup-money must be largely reduced, unless (which is unlikely) the public can be induced to double their subscriptions. The result of the case heard before Mr Carew, at Dunedin, the other day has. therefore, been the cause of great consternation among sporting circles, and though the worthy Magistrate's law is no doubt unimpeachable, the position of totalisator proprietors must be eminently unsatisfactory. For it now seems not only that the winner can recover his dividend which consists of his full share of the total stakes of the losers, less the 10 per cent, commission payable to the machine, but that the losers can demand back their stakes, leaving the .runners of the machine to pay the winners out of their own pockets. This is a case of " heads I win, tails you lose," and no mistake,