INTERVIEWING AT GENEVA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 5, 6 January 1873, Page 4

INTERVIEWING AT GENEVA.

The Geneva correspondent of the New York World sends home a humorous sketch of the difficulties he had to encounter in trying to extract news from the arbitrators, who, he said, kept their secret very well. He sent a sixty-word message, which cost him nearly as many minutes of anxious interrogation. For each word he had to put an arbitrator on the rack, and for each sentence he had to give him another severe turn of the screw. One would say nothing even under this infliction. He opened Hbis lips from time to time, but it was merely to echo the words that fell from him, as thus : — " , ' Correspondent — A fine day Mr • Arbitrator — A very fine day sir/ sir.' C — l think we are going to have rain, " siiv v <■ w i A— lt certainly does look cloudy. C — And so ypu had your meeting 1 today. . ' A — Yes, sir, we had our meeting. C—And the English complied with the terms of the treaty, by their case ? " . A—Did they ? . ; C- — 1 thought I understood you to say so, sir. • V .'A — In that case then, sir, I must bave failed to catch my own observation. • C— (aside) : -- -— , (^ibud.)' Good; .morning^ sir., •'■ '.:■• j'v p:^ ■ •*•'• V 1 /-4^ ;:: ■ Afr-Good mofning-Tgbbd morning. 1 - still vcan't help^ thinking- we ; Vhail -have • roiu/" '■', tti^i^ix v&l >./•?■■;• "' ■-.- ■■-:-.- 1

, The Power op the Pkess. — Trie-New York Evening Post has the following just remarks :— We firmly believe that the first thing for colleges and schools to do is to teach boys how to write rather than how to speak ; the press must, be reformed before anything else can be, because the press is an enormous power with a capital behind it, and every year gets a more complete control over the opiaion of the country. The man who can sit in his office -and repeat to an audieucaof fifty thousand men the came arguments day after day .and week after week, until these facts and arguments bocotno part of the mental furniture of the mind -of the audience,. has a power far superior to thafc of the roan who, afier the work has been going ou for six months or bo, mounts the rostrum and delivers himself — after all, of the same fact? and arguments once more. Nmv Ye Art's Eye in Auckland.—The Herald of January 1 says : — The chimes are ringing the old year out and the new year in. These are not the only indications of the death of one year and the birth of another. There. is Jife, and stir and buatle., and the confusion, as from many sounds, iv the city. The ships in harbor and at the wharf, and the smaller craft at, anchor in the Wahenaata, are all giving forth such sounds as those in charge have means at their command. There is a hurrying toaucl fro in the thoroughfares. There are sounds of revelry everywhere. There is much hand-phaking, and the cxi pression of many a kindly wish between mau and man, each to each other. There is the rattling of sticks and walking-canes upon shop shutters; but there is no alarm, for all know that it is the old year out and the new year in. The hotels are closing up. There are parting glasses, and landlords are saying there shell be no-more "just another," because those words have been repeated at irregular intervals for a good long hour before. Men linked arm in arm, three and four abreast, are monopolising the pavement. They are singing snatches of popular soDge. Not putting too fine a point on it, these are very drucik. They declare iv song that they will not "go home till morning," and it is quite certain that they will keep their word. The streets are gradually being deserted. Only a straggler here and there is to be aeeD. All now is quiet, and no one save a solitary guardian of the night paces the pavement. The old year has departed, and the new one, scarce two hours bom, is hushed in silence. The excitement £ias passed away, and soon, after another day or 'two of carouse, men will take to the collar, knowing that, after all, the world must for the greater portion of it be a work-a-day one.