ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 22, 1 December 1900, Page 3

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

CAPTAIN J. C. Cooper— everybody who knows anybody knows the ancient mariner — has come back from the Old Land with a smile which illumines the Quay. It is all on account of his Chatham Islands sponge beds. The captain has been over the Grecian sponge fields, he went down into the ocean depths with expert divers, and saw how the sponge grows, he followed thtem into the factories, and saw them get their final preparation for the world's market. He was shown great courtesy by Kennaway (of the Agent-General's oflice), and by the British Consuls along the Mediterranean "When he got back to London, he found that the biggest of the English sponge merchants, who practically controlled the fields of the Mediterranean, had heard of the Wellingtonian s investigations. The firm sent for him, and asked him what he was up to. He told them of the Wellington syndicate which thought it had a good thing at the Chathams. "Have you a specimen?" they asked. "Only a bit 1 picked up on the beach, and have used ever since for my bath," he replied. * * * Here is the literal transcription of a note recently received by the teacher of a certain country school : —"Dear sur,— If Johnny fales to deliver this here note beltim like blazes, and if he s not at skool to dey cain 'im, for hes plain the wag. — Youres afechunet, The man from New Zealand was asked to produce his specimen. He did so, with many apologies that he hadn t anything with him that would do justice to the field, but as the syndicate wanted to keep their find quiet he had not brought specimens Home. The firm next called in their expert, who carefully examined it, and said it was strange sponge to him. He could not locate the place of its growth but it was a good serviceable sponge.' Thereupon the firm wanted to get into the Wellington syndicate on the ground floor. But the captain wasn't playing for London keeps. Then the firm wanted to get a grip upon the probable good thing, so an offer was made to test the field by supplying expert dive'-s, etc., and take a trial shipment for testing. This was too good an offor f or Captain Cooper to refuse, and that & why he has come back smilingly to await the expedition to the Chathams in March next. * * * '"Banjo" Patterson, who is expected in Wellington in a few days, is very daring — he makes and reiterates the remarkable statement that in this war the Boers have distinguished themselves by the humanity of their treatment of the British wounded. Outside Seidelburg, he says, a British soldier fell, severely wounded, rapidly bleeding to death from a tear in his arm. The British force retreated, and the soldier was left to bleed. But a Boer saw hijn, and walked down to him , and the British force, deciding that his only object could be to rob the wounded man, straightway opened a hot hre on the Boer. But the Boer waited long enough to bind up the man's hurt, and save his life. Then lie stood erect, and walked back from the hot fire, scatJiless.

Dr. McArthur, who has been offered the position ot Relieving Stipendiary Magistrate, is a man of most excellent parts, and will make a first-class Magistrate. He iB at present a lawyer, practising in Auckland, and besides holding the position of city coroner, is a member of the Board of Education ot that district. Recently he has been leading a crusade to get the salaries ot teachers placed on a better footing, in which he has been successful. His interest in educational matters is a practical one, for he was formerly a schoolmaster himself, and for many years was principal of the Teachers' Training School in Auckland, which, by the way, has long since been discontinued. * * * Dr. McArthur is a man. of the world, is affable and easy in his -manners, and will make friends wherever he goes. It goes without saying that he will make an excellent Magistrate, for besides haya good -knowledge of the law, he is broad-minded and a capital judge of character. If the doctor accepts the position, he will sit for the first time on the Wellington Bench, relieving Mr. Haselden, S.M. Mr. Beetham expressed an opinion straight out from the Bench in Christchurch the other 'day that in the present state of the law the only safe plan is to credit nobody. Thus the Seddonian legislation to defend the fraudulent debtor is getting back on the poorer classes, who presently will not be able to get credit under any circumstances. The case that provoked this expression of opinion was one in which a debtor getting 10s 6d per day at the Aldington workshops, and attending i dancing class amongst other luxuries, would not pay a poor widow £3 11s owing for rent, and the Magistrate could not compel him to do so. * * * The ex-priest Slattery is making a troubled tour through Queensland, and if he gets to the end of it with his head still on his shoulders, he will be very lucky indeed. When he was through New Zealand, he thought he was badly treated when the audience hissed him occasionally, but over Queensland way they think nothing of breaking the windows and wrecking the halls. Fifty police constables were required on one recent occasion to restore order, and now the owners of halls are very reluctant indeed to let them. And small wonder, too. *• * * Who says a man never wants to marry his deceased wife's sister? A tradesman in a Mid Glamorgan town has married three sisters in succession. They are all dead, and now it is reported that he contemplates a fourth marriage with a member of the same family. He evidently appreciates that family. Colonel Roosevelt, who won great popularity through raising the famous corps of rough riders for the Cuban campaign, and afterwards became Governor of New York State, is now Vice'resident of the United States. Ac went in on the McKinley ticket. It is a remarkable phase of American politics that the man who has been VicePresident disappears from national politics, and it has passed into a saying that the man fit to be anybody else ever wanted to be Vice-President. Of Rooseveldt's two dozen predecessors three only (Adams, Jefferson, and V->n Buren) became President, Van Buren getting there in 1837. Four (Tyler, Fillmore, Johnson, and Arthur) succeeded to lodgings in White House through the death of Presidents Harrison and Taylor and the assassination of Lincoln and Gar field, but on seeking re-election —under the plea that one good "term deserves another— every one of the four was rejected, and were never heard of in public life again. Six V.P.'s died in office, and only two (Morton and !* io-vt-nson) survive.

Many good stories are told concerning lawyers and their charges, but the following one, told by a certain member of the devil's own against himself, takes the cake. 'He had served one of his clients with a bill for trifling services extending over several years, the items covering several pages of foolscap, and when the client called round to settle, he refused to enter the office, but stood iiH the doorway, holding one end of the voluminous document in the direction of his legal adviser, with the request that he would take the money and receipt it. "Come iki," said the lawyer most cordialy. "Not quite," replied the client; "I know a thing or two now. You'd charge me rent if I did." * # # The Rev. Hugh Kelly — by the way, is he not a relative of the "Times" J. L., of that ilk — used his pulpit to denounce the £40 "steal." And he denounced it in very strong language, too. This is how he deals with the Hall-Jones justification of the "steal" : — "Another defence was that the total amount of the bonus costs us only some s^d per head of the population. It is a lie ! It costs us honour. It costs us a lowered ideal, a blot on the escutcheon. It costs us the added probability that worse is hereby rendered possible. One might betray Christ, and plead that it cost the nation only the fraction of a farthing per head. It is costing some of the men who took it very considerable anxiety to know how to reconcile it with the dictum of conscience. Some are ready to throw a sop to Cerebus by undertaking to distribute the money amongst charities and political societies. How easy to be generous with other people's money! Let them remember that robbery for burnt offering can never do aught else than stink in the nostrils of honest men." * * * Mr. John Cotter, a well-known settler of the Wairarapa and Manawatu districts, who has been "doing the Old Country," bumped up against a very substantial slab of good luck on his way across the Atlantic. Travelling across the herring-pond in the Lucania, he took part wih the other passengers in the sweeps which are got up on the steamer's daily run. And to his lot fell the big part of the voyage, amounting to £134 12s 6d. In another sweep he won £15, so that he netted the very respectable dividend of £149 12s 6d for the trip. This ought to telescope his travelling bill with very small figures. Mr. Cotter is at present travelling through the c tates, and expects to reach Auckland on the 10th instant. "To Rangi Pai" (Mrs. Howie), who has been f arewelled throughout the colony, had a narrow escape of being personally conducted on tour in Great Britain by the much-travelled Smythe. He thought a groat deal of the Maoriland contralto, but the lady didn't think so much of him, so the venture was put off. Mrs. Howie prefers to go Home with her husband, who has got six-months' leave from his place in the Customs Department. It is said that Mr. Howie has the refusal of a permanent position in England, and may take it if Te Rangi Pai catches on. Mrs. Howie, who is a direct descendant of a big chieftainess of an East Coast hapu, goes Home for a year's training under the best voice-finishers, and does not anticipate a permanent absence. She has worked hard on the concert platform to gather the wherewithal, and she deserves the muhical success her friends anticipate for her in the Old Country. She was printed in "The Sphere" of a recent date as a Maori Princess. With New Zealand in such high favour just now Te Rangi Pai should be readily taken roito the open arms of English favour upon her arrival.

"Banjo" Paterson, the Australian war correspondent, expresses surprise and contempt at the charges against Major Robin, which have been passing from, mouth to mouth in this colony. In conversation with a "Dunedin Star" reporter the other day he said in the case of nearly every New South Wales officer "some discontented grumblers have always taken the opportunity of accusing their leading officer of in competency or cowardice or both." *■ * * Then, coming to the point. "The charges against Major Robin are absolutely ridiculous. No man has worked harder for his men, and no man has more ability to do it than Major Robin. He is a very able man," * * * And, finally, "Banjo" looks upon Major Robin as a certainty for the decoration of the Distinguished Service Order. This is eminently satisfactory. And certainly the word of a man "who has been there" ought to outweigh a considerable quantity of the irresponsible chatter that one hears from the man in the street. * * * It is suggested that Premier Seddon has shown undue partiality in adding twenty Southland pipers to his retinue for the Commonwealth inauguration. And probably he has. Why should the mark of Royal favour be confined to Southland pipers? Why shouldn't Dick take twenty Wellington "Drummers" with him, for example, or twecty Auckland ''fluters." And as for brasoes, which are essential to a good band, In could get "brass" enough on the West Coast in all conscience. * * * Superintendent Smith, of the Christchurch Jb'ue Bi igade, passed through vveiJijgton the other day for home, after having had a good time during, a 30,0uU-niite journey. It was this bmith who was credited in the English and American press with having told the tallest of many big yarns at the Paris Conference or Fire Brigades. The man who realiy told the yarn was Chief Haie, oi: the Kansas Brigade (the brigade which won the world's championship at the Exposition). The first the Christchurch man heard of the story which he was made to father was when he returned to London. Sitting yarning with the chief of the London fire force, the latter said — "Say, Smith, what's the height of the biggest building in Christchurch?" "Oh, about four or five storeys." "Is that so? Then what did you mean by telling that 13storey yarn?" "Me t and the thirteen storey! What do you mean?" "You'd better read it for yourself," observed the Londoner, as he passed over a marked paper. Smith is carrying that same paper in his pocket to this da yThe yarn tells how, after the New Zealander had sat quietly listening to the other delegates telling some tall experiences, he related a little incident, which unfortunately was true, that had happened in his term as a fireman. He went on to say that the Christchurch Brigade was called out to a fire which had occurred in a 13-storey building. The flames were leaping high when a man made his appearance at one of the windows on the 12th floor. "Jump!" cried some. "Dont! cried others. The man waved his hand encouragingly, disappeared, and shortly afterwards stepped upon the window-sill, wrapped in inflated rubber goods, such as tyres, bladders, water bottles, etc. Then he jumped. But he didn't allow for the rebound, and every time he came down he bounced up higher again. The people couldnt rope him, nor stop him anyhow, and after this sort of thing had gone on for hours, they had to get a gun and. puncture the tyres and other things to bring the man to earth— and save him from starvation!

Mr. and Mrs. Grattan Grey fig"™ largely in a recent "Irish World, a New "York weekly marked by _ rancorous, hostility to Great Britain., It eives them five columns of descnptvve matter accompanied by their portraits and the following large-type head-lines indicate the style in which the narrative is written up .—"British Tyranny £ Nt Zealand. Mr. J. Grattan Grey driven out of the country for expressine sympathy with the Boers. A grolefque display of Anglo-Saxon intolerance. An Irish-Australian journalist, for twenty-five years chief of the r^nia meutaiT reporting staff, the victo^ British persecution for J> «»'»™ *" privilege of free speech." V™^^ of "the Country" and "the Victim of British Persecution are particularly steep specimens in the way of se nsa tionalwri^ i£ g . But there are plenty of others in the same connection, and many items ffid was "threatened with personal violence ior daring to exercise liberty ol 6P FuUY a column and a half of solid Saving how Mr. and Mrs. Grattan GrevWnsitive feelings were hurt by +he frequent singing oi "God Save tne Oueen^on board the 'Frisco mail steamer According to the biography in toe '•Irish World" there has been a ratner vast kind of conspiracy afoot to annoy, harass, and persecute Mr Grattan Grey. Threatened with personal violence n than a gang of "British bullies" . made his life ijJrable by perpetual singing of "God Save the Queen," and even when he got to Yankee-Land more injustice to Ireland" attended him for "the Pro-British San Francisco papers sympathised with Mr. Grey's persecutors/ and then follow in due sequence such interesting headlmes as More English Jingo Blackguardism, and "Grotesque Misrepresentation ot tn* Affair by San Francisco Papers. And this lovely little paragraph winds up and appropriately rounds off the entire screed: "It may be stated that Mrs. Grey declines to take part in singing the praises of the Queen, as she condemns her for her unwomanly callousness and indifference to the heartrending appeals made by the women of the Netherlands and the Transvaal for the sufferings of the gallant little republics fighting for home and liberty against such enormous odds in a struggle which for bravery and endurance on the part of the Boers has no parallel m the world's history, ancient or modern. Ihe style of composition is strongly suggestive of Grattan Grey, and leaSs one to the conclusion that the "Irish World afforded him this opportunity of blowing his own trumpet. + * * Mr C. Spencer Booth and Mrs Booth, of Wellington, have recently returned from a trip through the Southern and West Coast dredging fields. Although exceptionally bad weather prevailed during their visit on the Coast no time was lost, as each day was spent in driving out and inspecting dredging properties. Mr Booth, having had large experience on the Otago goldfields, and being thoroughly conversant with the use of the digger's dish, washed out many prospects during their trip, and brought the samples of gold to Wellington, which are now on view at his office in Panama-street. A good sample of gold was obtained from the Kapai claim. Two rich prospects were washed out of the Mahinapua golden gravels area, which has been bored with good results. From the Ross Shellback, Mr Booth washed two very rich prospects of heavy water-worn gold. Mrs Booth, with assistance, washed out a capital prospect of the bright yellow metal. Last Monday a local chemist carefully tested the three prospects from this claim.

Mr. Gilruth v, as not allowed to depart from Wellington w ithout a special sendoff. The officials of the Agricultural Department turned up at the proper hour on the Queen's Wharf by the steamer's side, and indulged in the usual exercise of hand-shaking. They realised however, that the occasion demanded some oratoiy, and none oi them felt quite equal to the contract. Just then Mr. John Holmes was signalled, and he was promptly commandeered, and filled the bill to perfection. In fine, round, sonorous sentences coruscating with Irish wit and classical htimour, Mr. Holmes threw the oration off his chest, and worked in at the right places all the usual sentiments about New Zealand's loss being Europe s gam, Mr. Gilruth's brilliant reputation, solid worth, great social popularity, and excellent personal qualities. Mr. Holmes is just the sort of man for these festive little impromptus, and it was very good of him to help the Agncutural Department over the stile, seeing that not so long ago he thought the Agricultural Department had treated him rather shabbily over his own trip Home.