Our Wellington Watchman

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 125, 28 April 1887, Page 2

Our Wellington Watchman

Wellington, April 26. The great ■social event of the past week has been the ginger ale soiree with which Mr Fraser, the successful candidate for the T'eAro seat, celebratocChis victory.^ The repast was pf^ , course on strictest teetotal lines, and the toasts were drunk- in cold tea ; nevertheless, so tremendous was the noiße-«th«t-*non-abßtaii>ro^ -neighbors had serious thoughts of sending f or \ the police,, imagining that murder would ensue among ihe muffins. The attendant .reporters, .unused to, such hurricane festivities, appear to have been both astounded and awed at the fierce hilarity of the proceedings. Mr Fraser said, "The gratification of success was ? largely tempered by a growing sense of responsibilities he had undertaken," and consequently^ he has had his hair cut, bis sabbath go -to - meetings renovated ; has mounted a larger piece of blue rib- , bon, and may be daily seen stalking, the streets of -Wellington— a able looking Hamlet—reciting with: moody aspect his maiden speech which . by all accounts is calculated to knock the stuffing out of the Opposition. I am really glad Mr Fraser was successful for he is by no means a bad subject, only I fear he will.be no more able to keep the " Great Temperance Caws" out of his speeches than was the amiable Mr Dick to suppress mention of the unfortunate' Xi ng. Charles. Just now we do not, want any more legislators with fads, teetotal or otherwise, but men who wilT tadkle the work of "the country. Messrs Trayers and Nancarrow, the defeated candidates, are quiet— very quiet. . -.:-.•'; Before this reaches you, the House will have assembled, and the "Speech from the Throne" will have .been read and forgotten. At the moment of writing, however; Wellington presents its normal appearance. " Nothing in Nature's aspect" intimates that the men, tig with the fate of New Zealand, are assembling to- make, our laws. The streets are as yet free from wild looking, senators hunting for lodgings, or " wrastling" at street corners with eccentric cyclones and their hats. , There are but few intoxicated persons in the streets, and in short no outward and visible signs of the^cdinmenbemeni of the season. Yet, speaking, seriously, I sliall be much surprised if we have not one of the most important sessions before us. The arrears of legislation are enormous, and should the European war rumors grow more ugly and circumstantiul than at present — and there ia every prospect of them doing so — I fancy a period of anxiety awaits us all. Whenever war breaks out, we may be sure it will be like the lightning^ flash. Thess© are not the days of long diplomatic dairyings ; the blow now-a-days comes before the word.' However, I suppose you feel pretty safe up Feilding May. We have in Wellington _ a number of good ladies who hare kindly banded themselves ti> gmird' our morals^ iJhese ladies have regular meetings, minutes, balance sheets, secretaries, and the remainder of cold and cruel engiri'es of oupreteibu so dear tq the masculine, hut so foreign to the feminine mind. They have also an institution known as a "Girls' Qiub"-^not a Young" Ladies Cjub, not even . a. Young Wo-? man's Association, but ddfirPs Club. In its sacred precinats young female persons of the lower orders may me&t and contract by imitation some of the tone, sweetness, and light. of the lady patronesses. Rumor hath it that the Club is hardly a screaming success, whether owing to the patronising element being too conspicuous,. . or to; the fact that the Wellington girls are all young ladies, deponent sayeth (notWell, a petition now jieth at this Club praying Parliament that the employment of barmaids, other than those now under engagement, may be prohibited. It (the petition) has been signed by about forty ladies, and by some. male person whom the newspapers, with withering satire, denominate "a conscientious newspaper reporter." Whether the husbands of these forty dames, or some -of them, are in the nightly, habit of acting as bar-props ? and whether these lost men find the sparkling orbs of Lottie^ and Carrie, and Hebe more attractive than those of " the old 'Woman" at-home. I am not; in a position to say, but there is a good deal of human nature in people— even 'in the lady patronesses of a Girl's Club, and it may just be that some of the fair forty are. moved more by personal than purely philanthropic motives. Semi-open bar doors and reflecting mirrors spraetimes^reveal awkward secrets to passengers in the street,. and when a man who has solemnly sworn to his wife that he is going to sit up all night with ja.4§iok friend ip seen in an hotel, with f£ large cigar, a ; large ..flower .in. his button hole, and a larger long beer Tn front df him,* gazing passionately into the eyes of Daphne at. IQAS, p.m., it" is small wonder "the old woman" should desire to suppress Daphne and all her race. But one would like to knW that rard «m,_ the conscientious reV porter ; would : like to - rdiscover i-'tiy'j what feminiue wiles, blandishments*,' and threats he was^ cberce'd into sign*, ing that petition. ' Should 'his name leak out he will experience, I fear, several unpleasant quarters of an hour when next he looks upon the rum when it is red. : ' I am truly -glad to see that there is to be, though late in the day, an enquiry into the circumstances attendant upou the miserable death in the Napier gaol of the unfortunae youn^ man Parsonage, and to which I re* f erred in pointed terms in these columns. My satisfaction is, however, somewhat damped by the fact thaf the enquiry is to be a departmental : one. - I • have not <any overweening confidence in" departmental investigations. I tnlo^ isojnething of how they're^ :done, or, rather, hew; foot

done. I know something of the exquisite skill, attained by long years of practice, by which such investigations may be made to appear to the uninitiated as most crucial and searching, while, to the initiated, they are ouly rattlings of very dry bon*« in deedThere is a factious uifici:;l way of apparently i«piiiuim<iing and punishing while really approving and promoting ono whose offences look filaok to the public but not to thu official eye. Of course I do not mean to insinuate that rigid justice will not be meted in this particular case. I only say that frequently iv departmental investigations justice is uot done; that were it done larger and inconvenient questions would be raised, and the official mind detests nothing quite so much as large and inconvenient questions which perISsps might in this case involve the whole subject of prison decipline. I would that the enquiry had been placed in the hands of non-official and perfectly independent persons. It seems to me— perhaps I unconsciously exaggerate — that almost every week a moon-faced Mongolian opens a new fruit shop here. At any rate the largest portion of our retail fruit trade is in Celestial hands, aud I deplore the fact. Why? Well, the heathen Chinee and myself are old acquaintances. I have travelled his country pretty thoroughly ; have eaten his horrid dinners, smoked his rile opium, hob-nobbed with his maadarins, pirates, soldiers, merchants, and rebel kings, and have formedthe deliberate opinion that John Chinaman is the filthiest biped on this earth. I say nothing about his morals, but his personal habits are inconceivably vile and dirty —I care not whether he be a high class mandarin, or the low class coolie, of which our New Zealand Chinamen are composed. A clean Northern Chinaman never washes, he dabs his face and hands with a greasy dishcloth, once a week, whether he feels dirty or not. Ec starts in winter with his complete stock of shirts (perhaps six) on his back, and sheds a shut at a time as the whether ripens. When Autumn arrives he assumes one of the unwashed garments, and so on until he dies of elephantiasis, leprosy, or opium, Ten Chinaman can comfortably occupy the sleeping space which the same number of moderate sized snakeß require. He is the greatest economist the world ever produced or will produce; he wastes nothing — absolutely nothing. And these are the beasts whose fever dens are crowded by respectible European women who buy John's " beautiful olanges" and " turntoes," and " cabagoe," never heedinp that these highly polished exhibits have probably been carefully burnished on one of John's under garments, or have been kept in a room, large enough for one person, where some twenty depraved Orientals live in a fashion that would disgust any respectable pig. No wonder typhoid, and a mysterious low fever are prevalent here just now. I never yot joined in any blind anti-Gfaine c, or anfci-any-thing else cry, but I declare the introduction of Chinese into this country is a huge mistake, and tho sooner we are rid of them the better.