ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 122, 1 November 1902, Page 3

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

MR,. C H Izaid, who tore himself ' temporarily away from the carkmg cares of office to bask in the Australian sunshine for a spell, is back agam, with his nose to the grindstone, and a head full of new ideas. ''Charlie £b been through the ch-ought-smitten gum-land of the Australian "Never Never " has interviewed the owner ot a hundred thousand bleached skeletons, and has whizzed over the sandy waste with an appreciation of the broad gauge railway in his heart. federa^ Son o A failure. Does Queensland do rightly in wanting to secede from the nJrtnershn> s Go to a border railway JStiS where one State ra,lway-lxne-sft (nn guage, and where the next is4tt 2in Hear the curses. See Sydney wheie once one could live on a few shil lings a week. To-da,v living is 2o er cent higher and is still P^oing up Victoria is satisfied. Why? She •has the distinction of seating the Abo he bites to go out to Otaki and Soat over his one hundred odd fat cows after seeing nothing but bare bones in ISX Oh, yes. Austraha is^ fine country for those who want to o^atTa thirst and .o m for the bone and bottle trade, but, as "Charlie says, "New Zealand is good enough^ for me. Mr. John Haetie, who was formerly kiuwn to tame as secretary of the National Ass. has returned to Auckland from the Old Country, m order to take was one of the most shrewd and tactful men we have seen at the business, but alas for his prosoects of success, the Si of Toryfsm had sounded before he waT called upon to direct the destinies of the National Ass. The one-man-one-vote had changed the old order of thinas Mr. Hastie has been residing with his family in Scotland for several years but it is understood that, atter having been in New Zealand, the climate did not suit them. * * * Mr James Burns, ex-overseer of the Government Printing Office, and a wellknown bowler, has just returned trom a tnp round the world, looking all the hotter for his outmg- Before coming to New Zealand— away back in the sixties—Mr. Burns worked at "case as a compositor in New York, as well as m London. The revisiting of these two centres, after so long an absence, had, therefore, very great interest for the observant colonial Scot. The greatest change he found, was in the appearance of the American city, which apparently had been wholly re-built, and he got many a crick in the neck looking up at "sky-scraping" buildings, which frequently run up to seventeen storeys. In Chica<ro the Wellingtonian sat at a matinee in a theatre on the sixteenth storey and afterwards went up another store V.and. and found a roof garden, with a wonderful outlook '

Mr. Burns was particularly jateiested in the latest of the wonderful highlybuilt edifices of New York-"the Flat- „ M1 "— which is built on one of the corners of Broadway with not moie than three feet frontage to the coi nei Mr Burns was interested in this building because he found a younger brothei (Maior Burns) in charge of it me Flatiron"— it should have been called "The Wed^e," says Mr. Bunu— has J> many rooms and offices that the Maior>s tame is fully occupied in keeping the books connected with the occupation of the building. Major Burns left the Old Country in his nineteenth year and has been in America ever since. He has served his adopted country in three w ars— the civil the Cuban and the Philhppin.es>, a,nd lias alw a\ s been an enthusiastic soldier #■ * * Burns of Wellington did not find London so much changed as he had been led to expect. Certainly, the transformation scene effected in New York in forty years was greater than in London. Among the achievements of his tour of which Mr. Burns is proudest was his asoent of Ben Nevis, the summit of which he gained m very quick time — two and a-half hours. On getting back to level country again, having made the descent in an hour and a-half, he exclaimed on recovering his breath "Great Scot! that's no so bad for me I" Considering that he was in New York forty years ago and was a full-grown man when he first landed in Auckland, Mr Burns s conquering of Ben Nevis was a climbing feat he might well be proud of. 1 The old Byko Corner, which is fast berne improved off the face of Willis--street, so far as the buildings are concerned, has had a very varied career. Thirty odd years ago the corner was the home of old Ben. Cohen, who carried on a tobacconist's business there. "Ben" also had a jeweller's shop a few doors higher up, in the same block. The next shop, just vacated b^ Mr. J. Downes, hairdresser, was the publishing office of the"Evening Post," the minting office being that part of the building that was lately used by Mr. Beadnell, picture framer. Those were the days when Messrs. John and Louis Blundell (now proprietors of the "Post") worked at "case," and, about the same time, "Riccarton" Russell and his brother, "Jim " were also type-snathcinjr and "Jock" Anderson was editing. Robert Miller carried on a successful bakery business in one of the shops. The premises just vacated by Mr. Goldstein were then occupied by a hairdresser named Rowley. In those days, hairdressers were "professors"— a title now-a-da,ys monopolised by university lecturers and other learned classes' There is quite an old-time liveliness about the resuscitation of Wellington's Conciliation Board. After a prolonged period of rest, the Board held a halfday's sitting last week to consider the bakers' dispute. Now, the demands which the union served upon the master bakers bore the signature of "Andrew Collins, secretary." This is the same Andrew who with "Dave" Fisher, represents Labour on the Board. The smitesome Andrew sat upon the Board with his "co-leap-ue" and Messrs Crewes, Flockton, and Field when the dispute was called on The battalion of the master bakers was led by Messrs Kellow McCarthy, and Hogg, who told uiie Board that they had no intention of fighting the case before the Board but wanted it referred to the Court cnreot. Procedure prevented this. • • • Then, Mr. Kellow — after informing the Board that he held the presidency not only of the union of local master bakers. "but also that of the New Zealand Federated Master Bakers' Association — strongly rxrotested against the presence of Mr. Collins on the bench.

He was a member of the union which had brought down the demands, and, therefore, had no right to sit. in mdgment upon the case. But, the protest of Mr. Kellow was mild compared with the bone in which Mr. Hogg backed un the protest. He said Mr. Collins should "come down out of that," a.ad "take no art or part in the case at, Board man." The chairman (Mr. Crewes) mildly suggested that Mr. Collins — according to the Act — could nlease himself, and sit up or sit down. Andrew smiled loosely, and sat tight, much to Mr. Hoggs disgust, for he continued to "say things" until the usually meek-and-mild chairman sternly threatened to have him removed. * * * Then, Mr. Hogg subsided, with an "All right, sir." The prominence of Mr. Hogg at this meeting was remarkable, for it is only a few years affo that he was even more conspicuous than Andrew Collins in Labour circles. "Tommy" Hogg, for a number of years, was a prominent figure in Seddonian political circles, and was one of the ablest leaders the Bakers' Union has ever had, and for a number of ""-ears held its presidency. But. things have changed, for to-day the ex-Labour leadL er is an employer, and, as a master baker, he finds that things are somewhat different from what they seemed when he drew his wages at the end of the work-a-dav week. If many labourites had the worries of providing the wages— instead of drawing them— they would not cry out, and shout as they do. * * * Mr Edward Tregear the respected chief of the Labour Department had his abounding faith in human, nature rudely shaken on Sunday morning. He was proceeding; up Molesworth-street, chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy, and also admiring the graceful figures of two young ladies who were languorously preceding him up the footpath. Suddenly, his roving eve lighted upon a bright disc of metal lying on the footnath, and glittering in the sunshine. The young ladies had passed it by apparently unnoticed. It looked for all the world like a bright new sixpence. • » ♦ As he stooped to pick it up, however he perceived it was merely a brand-new trousers button. At the same time his action had been noticed with the tail of her eye by one of the young ladies in front and she came back on the instant and said, "Excuse me sir, but I have •just dropped that sixpence." "On, I beg your pardon. I am sure," reioined Mr. Tregear, with hisi sweetest smile and a gallant bow, as he offered her the trousers button, "but really, you know, you ought to sew it on more firmly. He scored the trick. • • ♦ * Mr. Harry Parker, of tennis fame, has just returned to Wellington from a two- years' visit to the Old Country. He was chasing after lives for an insurance company up in Auckland when the craze seized him to look up bis rich relatives in London, and see whether tennis was really the game it was cracked up to be at Home. He was so well received by his relatives that an aunt found him a home, and an uncle found him a iob. The uncle happened to be a lucky inventor, and Harry was set to look after the patent. But, the invention did not happen, to have anything to do with tennis, so he gave up work and took to play. As ex-ohampion of New Zealand, the New ZeaJander was well received on every green, no court being too aristocratic for him. • * • At tournaments, he held his racquet against all but the very best of Britain's plawers. He met England's chanroion (A. W. Gore) at the great Wimbledon tournament last veaor — and was Gored. Mr. Parker, who returned to Wellinerton the other day, thinks London is t.ie

hub of the universe if one has only the time and money to enjoy all it has to offer. His tenms friendships stood him in such good stead that he has come back to New Zealand with three nositions which make him freer than ever to play his favourite pastime. He has secured the sole agency for Australasia for Slazenger's sporting goods, and a. similar position for Novello's music. * * * Also, he is now the salaried secretary for New Zealand for the Associated Board of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. Thus, in his latter caoacity, Mr. Harry Parker will be energetically fighting the interests of Trinity Colleore of Music. the representative of which is his own father— Mr. Robert Parker! H. P. has already started training for the Nelson tennis tournament, at which ho will show New Zealanders some of the latests twists and twirls and cunnine: services which American players have introduced into tennis play. » * * A good story is being told about one of the members of our Bisley shooting team, who recently returned to Wellington,. It was his first visit Home and he was told b" his New Zealand folks to be sure and call upon Aunt Jane, who moved in "high circles" at Home. Well, Colonel Sommerville kept our boys so busy at practice at Bisley that this particular marksman had not time to look up his aristocratic relative. When she wrote to him' to come and see her, he replied that if she wanted to see him she would have to make tracks for Bisley, as it was impossible for the mountain to go to Mahomet. She oame. * • • During conversation, the lady evinced great interest in colonial life, and inquered whether there was really any "Society" in New Zealand — any grades, or castes, or classes, you know? "Well, aunt." replied the man from the Antipodes, "the biggest man in New Zealand is our Premier, the Right Honourable Richard John Seddon, Priw Councillor, LL.D etc. But no New Zealander ever thinks of calling, him anything but 'Dick' Seddon — and that's the state of our Society!" The English lady was visibly shocked at such a state of things. ♦ ♦ • Canon Pollock is not a follower of Bishop Julius. Recently, he caused a sensation by absolutely refusing to recognise the legality of picking a look. You remember the Bishoo picked a look with a hairpin in Adelaide recently? Well, there is a Cathedral Completion Fund standing in Christohurch, and the committee-^-the Canon being absent — wanted to Dick the lock of the collection boxes just to see how the fund stood, or something like that. Mrs. Pollock refused to allow anything of the kind, and the Canon resigned from the committee when he heard of it. The committee said it was urgent, and all that kind of thing, but the Canon could not see it. About as urgent as the Queen's Statue Fund or the dock, or the electric tramways, we expect. Anyhow. Canon Pollock ig not a convert to the hairpin. • • ♦ Quong Tart, the Sydney mandarin of the fifth button who was murderously attacked in Sydney some time a^p, curiously said nothing about it until six weeks after. It is not generally known that the wealthy Chinaman married one of Sydney's "naicest" women, and that she still moves in select circles. Quonsr, who runs big restaurant businesses and owns property worth Byko Corners a foot, figures tKrominetntly on every subscription list that traveb round. He speaks in public, and acts as unlike a Chinaman as his oblique eyes and coiled pigtail will t»ermit. As Chinamen must absolutely be buried in their native soil, Quong went home a few years back, when the Emperor made him a mandarin of iihe fifth button, and

Quong brought back a gorgeous coffin . TJnhke the average Mongol, Mr Tart arrived 121 the colonies with more than Is 6d in the sole of his felt boot. * * * Mr. John Duthie was listened to \\ ith exemplary patience by a full house, at the Exchange Hall, on Monday. When you see Mr. Duthie sink his right shoulder eighteen inches lower than his left, take off his gold-nmmed pince-nez, and screw his eyes up very tightly, you soent several hours of figures. Hard facts are Mr. Duthie's line, and flowery oratory never could, or never will, flow from his lips. Of course, he Seddowised to a large extent, and talked of "coquetting for office in the Ministry," "the old man of the sea " "the undue inflation of land values for political purposes " the abject and pitiful state into which politicians were sunk, and all the good old Opposition arguments in toto. Mr Seddon was a greater autocrat than the Czar. He was building up a nation of serfs, who tried to make a living on practically valueless land, that would carry two-and-a-half sheep to an acre, but not a wife and family to a thousand, and so on. » • * Occasionally Mr. Duthie forgot that the year was 1902, and called the Minister of Railways "Mr. Ward," aoid spoke of Mr. Seddon as "Native Minister," to emphasize some wrongful phase of native administration. He deprecate ed the large increase of the defence vote and, as an unconscious subscriber to Oom Paul's creed, said that we could easily drive an enemy into the sea without wasting much money on it. John said that you bumped up against a microbe or a doctor at every corner. The public- health was so great a concern of the Government that the fact was thrust upon us that the country was seething with disease. Evidently, Mr. Duthie thought that the elaborate precautions taken to prevent disease were irritating, and unnecessary, and that the money would be better spent otherwise. • ♦ • In Russia, it took five officers to sell a postasre stamp, and he suggested that this blooming and fertile spot required tihat number of officers to solve the old, old conundrum as to how many beans make five. Mr. Duthie says the country is overruni with inspectors, but we certainly fail to see what he has to cavil at, as this, at least, reduces the number of unemployed, and surplus money finds a use in paying salaries. Of course, the usual political tyro wanted to know why somebody who worked on a railway somewhere or other got 6s a day several years ago, instead of 10s for five and ahalf days, or something equally clear. Mr. Duthie proved conclusively that during his thirty-nine years' residence in the colony no period had been so prosperous as the last three, and tihat, therefore, the country was on the brink of something or other, because the Seddon Government was in oower. In fact, the said Government, try as hard as it could had not succeeded in ruining the country. Of course, the Government will soon have its walking ticket. It has been predestined. Mr. Duthie suggested a® much. • • • Mr. Menteath, the legal gentleman, who acted as chairman at Mr. John Duthie's openinsr electioneering meeting on Monday night, although he looks sufficiently military, is really not a very fierce man. At the close of Mr Duthie's long peroration some person at the back put a complicated question. "I — -ah — ■ wish electors would —awrite these complicated questions out and hand them up. I haye — ah — a

headache trying to follow them," said he. "But," exclaimed a bold 'free and enlightened" one, "you're nobody," amid pleased chuckles. And, really Mr. Menteath who smiled ruddily Under his Ions; tawn" moustache, sat down suddenly, and dare not deny it in the presence of the chief attraction. * • * The fact that Lady Ranfurly and Lady Constance Knox are visiting Mildura, the Victorian irrigation settlement, where our Governor has an orchard, brings back to memory that sun and sanld kissed (or cursed) place. Seven or eight years a^o, Lord Ranfurly's workmne were orobably the only men who were paid for their work in that rainless corner of Victoria. Although, at the time, His Lordship rather thought he could import Irish labourers for 2s 6d a-day, and said so, he cheerful!^ aid the nominated rate. Mildura was the nearest approach to a cooperative settlement the Pacific Isles know. Some of the settlers paid rates to the Irrigation Company which ran the place. If there were £100 in hand on Saturday, and a thousand men on the pay-sheet, a dividend was struck, and joy reigned supreme. * * • The chief qualities a storekeeper required to console him with life in Mildura was philanthropy and cash, for he was expected to exist on "orders on the company," as no direct communication existed at that time with anywhere at all. Unless one worked for Lord Ranfurly, the finest way out of the heat, and dust, and worry, and hunger, and all work and no pay, was to die. It is to be hoped things have improved for her Ladyship's visit. * * * It is the custom for newspaper men in the British Isles to capture New Zealanders at all costs, and request them to point out the correct method of running the Empire. Mr. John Holmes, of Wellington, who was, accordine to the Newcastle "Daily Chronicle," of September Bth, in the coaly English city, was duly asked by the übiquitous pencil pusher to intimate how England could be saved from extinction, or words to that effect. « * • In reality ,_ the pressman asked our own John to intimate in what way British trade could be developed. It does not strike yon as quaint, does it? Well, John was equal to the question, and remarked thatl it was an important one. Mr. Holmes practically covered the advice, already made history by the various speeches at various times, and in various places, by the Ri^ht Hon. the Premier. Mr. Holmes, "with a thrill of pride," said that the colonial preferred goods of British manufacture, and usually bought them.

He said nothing about the vast majority of people who wore American boot®, and the large number who would not look at an English tool or farm implement. Mr. Holmes says that we shall give preferential tariff in favour of the Old Country. The Old Country ought to celebrate the granting of oae concession by an annual holiday, fixed by statute. Mr. Holmes remarked to that interview that we had sent men to the war, and that we exported thirteen million pounds worth of things a year. Also, the interviewer got in some fine work in his list of staple products of this misspelt land. Among other things, we send a tremendous quantity of "Kaurgum" Home, and we have not the least doubt that several bales of "Ake ake" and a lot of Kia Ora" find their way into the English market subsequently. * * * "'" ' Mr. Godber, the cheery, spectacled caterer, of Cuba-street, has been t>ersuaded to oive his consent to become a candidate for a city seat in the House of Representatives. Well, he knows something of Wellington anyhow, and something of its needs, for he has lived here for forty years. He does not look much the worse for having started work in a Sheffield knife factory at tfhe age of nine, does he? but one who knows him assures us he entered into the cutlery trade at that early age. He imagined he could do> better in New Zealand than in Sheffield, and so he emigrated, and got a job with Confectioner Dixon (who had a bun and" bread emporium next door to the place where the genial Godber still holds sway. * « ♦ But. the genial one had not always a big shop-front and forty hands at work building wedding cakes and catering for crowds. One time, before we were born, he carted bread round in a barrow, and climbed the hills of Wellington with a basket, and, if you tackled him on the subject, he would own right up to it without a blush. He laughed when somebody said a few years ago that he should "o into the City Council. He imagined he had not a ghost of a chance, but he went in, nevertheless, and he had no thought beyond buns and bread eight days previously. Didn't he institute reforms in the Council, or something of the kind? We think so, * • • Then, of course, he enlarged his experience by gome on a nine-months' trip to the Old World. France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany were included, and he picked up a few T>oints in America and England. He found that the name "New Zealander" was on "open sesame" wherever he went. Maybe, however, the usual golden key helped somei. On the Rhine, the dwellers bv

that celebrated river, that pretends it is blue, but never is, made such inquiries on how to run. a country that they blocked the scenery out. * ♦ ♦ Also, a great many Germans came alone: to try their English on the man formi Cuba-street. Of course, you know that Mr. Godber got back to Sydney in time for the plague scare, and indicted that town with being a dirty place? He is a happy man, but far from being "happy-go-lucky." Mr. Godber has not built his business up lone handed, and he has been known to admmt that a man without a wife is as a thing of naught. The young Godbens. male and female, too, have added stones to the pyramid of success. It is impossible for an outsider to see in what way the candidate is going to benefit himself even if he pets into the House, so that it seems obvious that hie motives are at least unselfish, and that he thinks he has a "call" to gird on the political armour.