THE LOAFER IN THE STREET.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1785, 10 November 1879, Page 3

THE LOAFER IN THE STREET.

I have always had my doubts as to whether Mr Burns was correct in saying that it is healthy to see ourselves as others see us. In case, however, any of your leaders should be of a different opinion, I want to give you some of the views of a writer in the “ Marlborough Express ”on Canterbury. This is how Canterbury men strike him : “ The Canterbury men always have been an exceptional lot. They have always known Row to take care of themselves. They have loved their provincial district to be regarded as " patrician.” They have held, and still hold, themselves aloof from other men in the Asecmbly, as being better than their peers. They regard class distinctions as a divine order of Providence ; and in the churches of their “ city of the plains,” where the streets are called after English Episcopal sees, thank their God, “ the Golden Calf,” that they are not as other men. They flatter the rich, they would oppress the poor, and they pray to their God to help them. Of all the towns in New Zealand, Christchurch is the most immoral; there hypocrisy makes broad her phylacteries, and there above all other places justice is meted out according to the social status of the offender.” As Mr O. Melnotte observes to Miss P. Desohappelles, “Dost thoulike the picture?” I think, perhaps, there is a little—just a little —truth in some of the gentleman’s remarks, but I never knew wo were immoral before, nor did I know that we flattered the rich, for the simple reason we have none at present to flatter. Some day I must hope to go to Marlborough, and then I’ll give you my opinion of those fellows. On second consideration, however, perhaps there may be ft grain or two more truth in the statements of my Marlborough confrere than appears at first sight. I judge so from the fact that there is a ladies seminary, not above eight hundred miles from Christchurch, where the commissariat is_ conducted in a really original style. The institution is one patronised, I believe, by the daughters of the great and affluent, but though they all pay the same, the principal deems it advisable to keep the kids from the lambs, the upper ten from, let us say, the middle class. Two tables are kept, and while the high-toned damsels in the one room have Curio Congou at 4s, and fine whites in sugars, the other girls in another room have to put up with very mild Congou at Is 10s, and yellow crystals. Thus does the fair preceptress lead up the young ladies under her charge to a right perception of their future positions.

This colony in many respects is a most productive one, but from the beneath which appears in the columns of an American contemporary, I should say we sometimes get more credit than we actually deserve: — « The present appearance of sugar cane, says the New Zealand “Witness,” is magnificent, and if frost does not injure it before cutting time the outcome will exceed any previous year.” I hope those frosts will keep off a bit. A good story comes to me from the North, and I take the opportunity of thanking the sender for many similar ones. A lad was sent to collect the amount of a bill from a house which was known to be shakey. After along delay the head of the house gave him a cheque for £75, the account of the account due. Darting off to the Bank the lad presented the cheque which was returned to him with the mystio letters N. S. P. written on it. “How much is it short’,’ said the lad. “ Pour pounds fifteen shillings,” answered the teller after a pause. It only wanted two minutes to three, as the boy knew well enough, so pulling out a fiver he paid it into the credit of the firm who had given him the cheque, and drawing out the full amount returned to his employers with the dollars. The other firm failed on the following day, and were much surprised to find they had seventy odd pounds less in the Bank than they had anticipated. That boj will do well in this rising young colony. I have, like many others, often been amused by people writing to the local journals stating that they are not the Brown or Jones who were fined for being drunk and disorderly. It seems to me such a public waste of time and truth. Who of the outside public caie one Mantaiini’s favorite expression whether they were drunk or not. But they will do it. There are people who advertise the marriages of their sons and daughters, and beg European, and Australian journals to copy the intelligence. The best thing I have seen in this style is a letter from a gentleman who writes to the “Pacific Advertiser” saying that he wishes to contradict a statement that had appeared in print to the effect that he had bean “ buried alive.” How little can that man know of journalism 1 How unimaginative must be the soul who could take objection to such a paragraph, and who could grudge a reporter a little item of I;he kind? You can fancy the delight of his friends on reading the report of the sensation in the one issue, their revulsion of feeling when perusing the contradiction in the next. It is indeed hard to satisfy some people. This fellow talks about libel. I observed your sporting correspondent has recently been wailing over >the laches of telegraphic correspondents in sporting matters. They send some very interesting news sometimes, however. This is a quotation of the sort of thing I mean, cut from a Wellington paper of last year, and wired from Oamaru—- “ The Grand Handicap resulted in a splendid race between Maritana and Oamballo, the former winning, after a heavy struggle, by t short length. Por the Tradesman’s Handicap only Lady Ellen and_ Foal put in an appearance, the event being won by the former.” Is Lady Ellen's “ Foal ” in work still, I wonder. I am, however, informed that the Foal was Foul Elsrp. Poor Sir George has been hating rather a rough time lately, bat will probably be gratified on reading the report of the recent meeting of the Reform Association. Constant to the last. Dr. Turnbull thought that ■Sir George would not bo likely to forget Christchurch because he no longer represented it. No, Doctor, I don't think he will forget us, and a nice Ixffc he will give us if ever he gets -the chance. Mr Treadwell improved the occasion by suggesting that the meeting should pledge itself to assist any measures that may be taken against Messrs Stevens and Richardson, iu order to - secure Mr Treadwell Ids just seat In Parliament. If there bo any

truth in the apopthegm that Providence ht'ps those that assist themselves, Mr Treadwell I should say need not despair of being Premier yet. What would not I giro for his assurance ?

What ia thie about the conversion of the , journalists ? I have read the article inyour contemporary the " Saturday Advertiser,” which certainly stated most distinctly that “ the Christchurch journalists were to be ! brought to a sense of the duties they owe to their fellow citizens in a moral and religious 1 sense.” I have also read Mr Keast’s answer to Mr Hart’s letter on the question, from which I learn that there is no idea on the part t of the Ministers’ Association of any special mission in our direction. Either the writer in the “ Saturday Advertiser” was what Mr Ward would have called “ Sarkastikul,” or ho has not really grasped tho'knowledge of a good journalist. It is well known, and I have no doubt that Mr Keast would have said so had he only thought of it, that a journalist, it worth his salt, can review an army, handle a fleet, ride a race, act Hamlet, judge anything from an opera to a prize pig, from a sermon to a canary show, and if we came to be examined I expect wo should know as much about religion as a good many people, though the writer in the “ Advertiser” does say we are sceptics. A minister in one of the largest of our New Zealand places of public worship was examining the collection bag after service a few Sundays since and found a bank note of considerable value inside one of the bags. Tbit king the sum was too large not to have been given by mistake, he announced the bonanza on the following Sunday from the pulpit, and requested the person who had made the contribution to call on him during the week, and if any mistake had been made he would rectify it. On the next Sunday the minister announced the astounding fact that five people had called on him during the week, all of whom fancied thev had put in the bag a fiver each by mistake; “ but,” as the minister said, “as the whole offertory only amounted to a trifle over seventeen pounds, including the note in question, which,” softly added his reverence, “ was a ten-pound one, I’m afraid some of this congregation are not always so liberal as perhaps they imagine.” At a Northern township the other day a leading stock agent received instructions from a squatting client to ship some fat lambs to Christchurch with a flock of bigger sheep. The latter caught the train, but by some mistake the lambs missed it. As it was Saturday night it was rather a puzzle to know what to do with the failings. It struck the stock agent that the good old-fashioned raffle was the beat line, and accordingly, an assemblage being called together, “ Yankee grab” was introduced. The lambs went off rapidly at rattling prices, and then the winners got backing their prizes for weight one against the other, so that the landlord had a good time. Ever since then the prevalent feed in that township has been lamb and mint sauce, and the boniface, the stock agent, and the squatter are hoping that the next shipment of lambs may be also left behind. The agent says it was the best sale he ever had.