TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 280, 18 July 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

It was thought, a couple of years ago, that we had done something great when we had caught an Agent-General —when a great medicine man, noted for his dealings and tact with the Maories, had been persuaded to take ' the office. Now, however, opinion has veered, and no man probably last session was so blackguarded —in a Parliamentary way, of course —as the Agent- ■ General, Dr. Featherston Now, too it seems that Mr. Vogel's patience -is nearly exhausted, and we find him .Bending the following pretty sharp memorandum on the subject of the /Asia's immigrants, and the Otago Pro- ■/ yincial Agent—or commissioned agent •~-Mrs. Howard:— "-;., It is difficult to believe that you could Banclion such emigration; and, on the other hand, as difficult td believe you could be un- '■' aWare' of the published proceedings of your agent, the woman Howar.l, whom you seem to have employed, after informing me you would nob do so. At another Board meeting legal proceedings were actually threatened in your name, to enforce the completion of the iniserable bargain entered into by Mrs. Howard. I endeavor to think you knew nothing about the matter; but if so, how singular must be the organisation of your de- , . partmeiit, that, with proceedings so canvassed in the place, with the ship calling off the town, and, it is to be presumed, some of your officers in attendance to see emigrants off, you should have to be informed from New '•"■ Zealand of what occurred under the immedi-

ate notico of your officers. I find it impossible to adequately characterise the indignation such a shipment produces, or the alarm felt at the intention which is apparent of sending further similar shipments.

There seems to bo good need for such a reminder. The ship Caroline, just arrived, freighted with 40 single females taken from the workhouse is an additional incentive for some check being put on the Home Emigration Office, 'ihe 'Guardian' shipping reporter writes of the Caroline consignment t But withal there has not been the satisfaction in connection with these females which was to be desired. Captain Clyma states that he has had, during the voyage, a considerable amount of trouble with them. Their corfduct was not at all agreeable to him. He further reports that there are forty of them from the workhouse, though the conduct of thpse was better than that of some others. In appearance, however, they are a strong and healthy-looking lot.

The following instructive circular has in due course reached the Naseby Town Clerk, from the great Circumlo- - cutfon Office at Dunedin —or Cromwell ?

Provincial Secretary's Office, Dunedin, June 30, 1874. Sir, —I am directed to acquaint you, for . tie information of the Town Council, that the Government has had under consideration the advisability of taking some more effectual steps than heretofore towards the' suppression of illicit traffic in spirituous liquors; and with that view it proposes to appoint a . revenue officer for the Province, with sufficient assistance to enable him to procure the conviction of persons guilty of selling without being duly licensed. It is also proposed that he shall be specially instructed relative to the inspection of weights and measures, and to enforce the provisions of the Dangerous Goods Act, 1869, the Adulteration of Food Act, 18G6, and the Bakers and Millers ,Act, 1871. Hitherto the Corporation of Dunedin has contributed towards the cost of the Kevenue Department, and the Government, believing the country Corporations are equally interested in preserving good order and morUity within the Municipal boundaries, before proceeding to make the proposed appointment, wishes to be informed what proportion of the probable cost—say £7OO per annum—your Corporation is prepared to contribute. Such contribution being distributed over so many Municipalities, the Government think would press very lightly upon the re venue of each. I have, &c, Assgi Tvntw, Under-Secretary. '■ "{What proportion of the probable cost!" Is not this a little like, Dillydilly, come and be killed ? If such an appointment is necessary, why should he not be a Provincial officer, and paid out of Provincial revenues? Are illicit houses generally found in country Municipalities ? It is notorious that it is not so. Municipal ratepayers would, in reality, be paying for another revenue officer such as Mr. Lumb, to sneak about in out of the way country back roads where the traffic is not sufficient to enable anyone to hold a license, but yet is sufficient to tempt some unfortunate isolate to keep " a drop of the cratur." If to his profit or not, certainly often to the profit of another equally unfortunate, condemned to travel and suddeuly caught in a snowstorm, that—without the shelter of the hovel the sly-grog seller has put up, and his bottle—might have pe.ished miserably under some rock. Keally, in some cases—as on the Rock and Pillar Koad—it has occurred to us , that some one might very well, and not unwisely, be jaid to live to keep a few bottles of good spirits. In the Municipalities, the licensed ones and the police can prevent illicit traffic. If the Government see fit to supplement their revenues by such a bogie hunt as the circular indicates, let them pay for it. "We do not see what it has to do with the ratepayers. True, jumbled with it is a suggestion as to adulteration, which is an evil. We do not much believe that any very great abuse exists generally as to selling under weight. There is a real evil in adulterated goods, but that evil is not created—always excepting publichouse sherries; Sorts, and other decoctions—in our lunicipalities. That is done at the

manufactories in England or America in the first place. No one believes that

the retail tradesman can afford to put any more sand in his sugars than is already there when he buys them. This inspector then, if a revenue officer, could do no more than weigh the loaves, look for the magic leter H smell the pickles, sneeze at the pepper, &c. For this the ratepayers are asked to contribute.

Is it not, the case that we are too hard on one another on account of the novelists ? Of course we all talk each

other over, and it would not be difficult to prove conclusively that such habit has good points—at any rate, as saving any self-crucifixion—for the human must deal with humanity. However, that is not the point just now. "What we are driving at is this: Do We not judge one another, not by average human nature, but from ideal heroes and heroines stowed away in some crevice of our heads—the ideal being modelled on the characters in novels and novellettes we have indiscriminately swallowed? As a proof of how we are influenced by the artistic ideal-creation we might refer. to the well-known fact, that we are affected and get soft about the eyes over the conclusion of such works as the " Heir of Bedcliffe," "Roinola,"or "George,, G-eith," which are pure fiction; and yet, beyond a mild sort of sorrow, do not evince the least feeling for distress in real life, at our doors, and among our very friends. This sympathy for the ideal, we fancy, raises a standard, then, by which we judge each other, of course to the disparagement and abuse of the one criticised. There is a danger in this of our setting up sentimental idols and ultimately creating in reality—for criticism has the tendency of shaping, whatever those who abuse newspapers may think—a compromise between such idol and a common-sense useful mortal. Of course, admitting our theory, we should be lost altogether if it w.ere not for the villains. :,tfo long as we also set up a good idol villain, the evil we hint at may be in a manner checked.