RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 450, 23 March 1912, Page 6

RANDOM REMARKS.

By Onlooker.

The evidence given in court cases at times is of the description bordering on the weird, and the duty of sifting and weighing it is calculated to exercise the most agile brain to its limit. Private prosecutions, in which personal feeling is usually the dominating sentiment, yield the most prolific harvest to the hungry news gatherer. Fortunately such cases are rare in the King Country, the atmosphere and general conditions apparently exercising a soothing influence on the inhabitants, and impelling them to peace and goodwill with their neighbours. Proverbially it takes more than one to make a quarrel, though instances have been known of a man falling out with himself. However those cases did not occur in the King Country.

Some people have a genius for quarrelling, and according to a story unfolded at the local court last week, one of the parties to a case which was heard, must have had a special call in that direction. In listening to the evidence one gathered that a day without a quarrel was, to the person referred to, a flat, sta'e and unprofitable period, to be compensated for on the morrow by a real soul-stirring outbreak as an appetiser for breakfast, with probably a "tiff" or two to sweeten the labours of the afternoon. In listening to the complainant's evidence one could not restrain a thrill of sympathy for the down-trodden man who bore up nobly against the infliction of defendant's company. When complainant unfolded his own character, which breathed of peace and loving kindness to all mankind, some of the audience were visibly affected. 'Tis sad to have illusions shattered or the glamour of a goud story dimmed by the cold light of reason, but there are always more sides than one to a story. When the other side was heard one was irrestibiy reminded of the description of the rover who was "the mildest mannered man that ever scuttled ship, or cut a throat." I did not wait to hear the finish of the case, but heard that one party was sentenced to something for life. The quarrelsome party, from his own evidence, turned out to be a very decent fellow, and got off with something less.

We are all familiar with the Lodge. I refer not to the verb "to lodge," which produces the lodger, against whom innumerable warnings have been uttered. The Lodge is a timehonoured and highly useful institution which has to be attended at stated and unstated intervals, default in attendance incurring diver 3 mysterious pains and penalties too dreadful to contemplate. I have never belonged to a lodge, but in my childhood days have vivid recollections of regarding the institution with mingled wonder and awe as a place in which were held secret conclaves involving affairs of deep and awful portent. Familiarity with lodge members, however, has somewhat modified the feeling and I am forced to the conclusion that lodges have their uses. An enthusiastic lodge member told me in confidence that when a man got married he should join a lodge in self-defence. Exactly what he meant I dare not imagine. Perhaps other lodge members may know. Fate threw me into a meeting of lodge members the other evening, and I am bound to admit I do not regret the occasion. True, they were not in solemn conclave; rather the reverse, and one could not fail to be impressed with the friendly nature of their aims. From their own admissions they are a fine body, and their actions supported their words. If ever I join a lodge it will not be in self defence. It will be because I like them and appreciate their sentiments.