LOAFER IN THE STREET.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 358, 5 August 1875, Page 3

LOAFER IN THE STREET.

{From the Press). When the immigration agents go around at home picking up clients for New Zealand, they make good capital out of the fact that agricultural laborers have only got to be steady and saving, and in a very few short years they will be in possession of farms of their own. I expect this is quite correct. Instances of it can be shown. I have never saved, myself. I never have had anything to save. Had I known more about tops and bottoms and feering and things, I might have been occupying a far superior position to that I at present hold. But people do save here. "We have one'man in our boardinghouse who has set his mind to it steadily. He comei from the West Coast. He drinks beer as ably as any man I ever saw. He drinks more than is good for him I should say. He aecounts for this by the fact that beer on the West Coast is sixpence a glass. Here it'is only threepence. Consequently he eaves threepence on every glass of beer he drinks. He eaves a lot of money every day of his life. When he has thus amassed £IOO, he says he means to go back and start a milk walk. I love a hard working thrifty old soul like this man. I never think it necessary to apologise for approaching the subject of education. We like it. We never get surfeited with it. Even the boys love it here. I met a college boy weeping over the lost books of Euclid the other day. There are people, though, here who don't care about going the lengths most of us do. There is one gentleman in New Zealand distinguished in politics, who in other days—not to say happier hours—kept a book-stall. A man passing one day noticed a very fine edition of Horace on

this book-stall and asked the enterprising merchant the price. The present legislator took a good stare at the book and said—" Oh, Horatii Opera. 'Veil, there| ain't much demand for music here. You can have it for the cost of the binding." It is not surprising to learn that the gentleman in question denounces a classical education as unfitting a man for colonial life. I've not heard much lately about our Funeral Reform Association, but I see by a recent telegram that the ladies of Dunedin have formed themselves into an association and have carried a resolution that they "promise for themselves, and will try and induce others to adopt a less oppressive style of mourning." lam pleased to hear this ; not that . I wrote a sheet and a-half of foolscap following on to this subject, treating the matter of mourning in a most exhaustive style, but the editor of this paper says he can't stand any more on the subject; but he allows me to say that we fancy, both of us you know, that the eventual solution of this question will be that those ladies to whom, like Lady Gay Spanker, mourning is becoming, will continue to wear it for several centuries. While those who think that black don't become them, will, as a natural consequence adopt " a less oppressive style." I like English mails. 1 must confess to a preference for reading about things foreign, superior to tea meetings and local accidents and offences. The English news this time is big. I learn that her Majesty has danced a reel, and that the Duke of Edinburgh wears a bracelet; that there are four living bishops of Colombo, which would be rough on christians there, were it not for the fact that the clergy and bishops are mainly supported by the heathen. I understand further, that the Japanese and French are likely to come to blows, and I personally should back the latter. Ijread that the natives'of the NorthWest Indian Provinces propose raising £20,000 for a testimonial to the Prince of Wales, which seems a good thing foi the Prince; and I see that Sir Julius Vogel is going to a ball at Buckingham palace, and that Russia has annexed Saghalien. But one paragraph has excited me more than I can well explain. Here it is. The King of Burmah has granted permission for the passage of English troops through his territory. This is only what I should have expected from Burmah; but the concluding portion of the telegram is what thrills me so much. "It is not known definitely, but it is believed, that the mission appeared without boots on a carpet before the king at the first audience." Now the reporter who sent that message ain't worth his salt. He might know that all Australia and New Zealand would be just panting for next mail to know whether that embassy had boots on or not, Burmah may be a rising country, but its telegraph agents wants re-organising. There is a man up our way who says he does not intend going to see Moody and Sankey when they come here. He says his neighbors are always singing Moody and Sankey Psalmody. He says the hymns are, so far as he can judge, above the average as to tunes, but he gets too much of them, and he positively states that when Messrs M. and S. come around he won't go to hear them. He still lives, does this man. He is doing a good business, his wife and kids are quite well, thank you, and he don't in the least remind me of the " young man in Liverpool who refused to attend Mr Sankey's services, and shortly afterwards fell down dead." My impious friend keeps on living in the most exasperating manner. If something don't happen to him before long I shall lose faith in some things. The official Handbook of New Zealand I have not as yet had the pleasure of reading, not being " a member of the Legislature, an editor of a paper, or one authorised to receive Parliamentary papers." I cannot therefore speak of the merits of the book from my own knowledge, but from a paper laid on the table of the House of Representatives the other night, I learn that the cost of the work has been in round numbers about £'.4000. I would here remark that should Sir Julius or any future premier decide on getting up any more handbooks, I should be pleased to contract for the job at a very much lower figure. So far as we have yet got, the cash received for the sale of the Handbook amounts to £32 8s 9d. In a pecuniary light the Handbook appears to have been a failure. Doubtless we may be casting handbooks upon the waters that we may find immigrants after many days, but it certainly seems to me that the seed has cost a power of money. The Abolition of Provinces Bill engages at present a deal of attention. Judging from the telegrams people all over the country seemed to wish to be abolished. Sir George Grey hangs on to provincial institutions like a leech. He declares that the supporters of the proposed change offer bribes to the country to accept it. This may or may not be true. If it be so, from my personal knowledge of the populace, they will take them like a shot. At the conclusion of his speech, Sir George Grey said that those who acted with him were prepared to offer to the people constitutional changes which would be a greater benefit to them than the present Ministerial ones. It would appear from this that Sir George means trying to outbid the Government in the amount of what he would himself call bribes, but he has been too long about it. He doesn't tell us what these advantages are to be, and I feel confident that the Mayor of Christchurch cannot be squared under £30,000 a year—if for that. Apropos of the abolition of provinces, should the Bill be carried, I understand that we shall, like my West Coast friend alluded to above, effect a saving. Not that I would have you think that even under provincial institutions we are extravagant in all things. For instance, in one branch of the service I understand that a new arrival has been taken on lately on the distinct understanding that he is to receive no remuneration whatever for his services, which he is to look upon as a kind of premium for the experience he thus gains. The most curious part of the affair is that the individual in question appears to be thoroughly up to the business, and it would seem a pity that heads of departments cannot get a few more men to work on the same terms. I've not been able to go to a ploughing match this season. I feel this much because ploughing is a class of amusement I can revel in at almost any time. I don't think I could stand it every day though. There is a wild excitement about ploughing matches which is calculated to throw the strongest miuds off their balance. I observe a very singular prize given at the last Kaiapoi ploughing match. It is as follows: —"Best groomed horses, 2nd prize, a pair of trousers, given by Messrs Strange and Fountains, drapers, Christchurch." What upon earth do horses, however well groomed, want with trowsers ? It is a little beyond me this,