EHTRE NOUS

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 156, 27 June 1903, Page 14

EHTRE NOUS

MORK than passing inteiest attaches to tho demolition of the building so long occupied by the Bank of New South Wales, on Lamb ton Qua^ , opposite to Mai tin's Fountani. The old wooden structuic, with its imposing-looking poitico, is to be lemoved, to make way tor a handBorne and up-to-date stiuetuie for the Bank. The ougmal building was oloseh identified in the early days of the city with the dispensing of justice. In that building, the mam 100 m, across which the bank counter is now constructed, was the Supreme Couit room, and fiom the bench there Judge Johnston the Seveie passed many a long sentence upon men who had followed crooked paths in life. « • • In front of the portico, upon the plot of ground now occupied by those two beautiful trees, the hustings used to be erected in the days prior to our present system of nomination of political candidates Under the old system the nominations were made viva voce from the hustings, the proposer, the seconder, and the candidate making speeches from the platform. In those days candidates did not go round addressing the electors in different parts of the city, but did their speech-making on nomination day, which was a day to be remembered. * * * Down the oassage-way, on the left of the building, adjoining Lyon and Blairs pnntery (now Whitcombe and Tomb&'s offices), was located the registrars office, and in the time we are writing of — some twenty years ago — Mr. Wilmott was in charge. The southern, or lefthand portion of the building was given over to the Resident Magistrate's Court. The R.M. in those days was Mr. J. C. Crawford, father of the present Crawfords, of Miramar. Mr. Crawford who bought Miramar in the early days drained what was then a huge swamp, and made a habitable place of it, was a retired naval officer and an excellent magistrate • * * The father of Councillor Charles Izard was Crown Prosecutor during the time when justice was dispensed in these buildings, and the aggressive lawyer of those days was Mr. Gordon Allan, a gentleman remarkable for a JeJhcoehke method of dealing with witnesses, and much fnven to the wearing of a monocle Behind the courthouse was the police station, then in charge of Inspector Atchison. He retired from the Force with a pension quite a number of years ago but to-day is still a resident of Wellington, and is to be seen frequently enjoying a walk along Lambton Quay. Behind the Police station again was the firebell. When the present Supreme Court buildings

weio completed, the Bank of Now South Wales took up the occupancy of the buildings om Lambton Qua> about which is associated so much of the caily criminal and also political lmtory ot Wellington * * • Cuiious to find that a w onderfuih unanimous prei&s is of opinion that the tup to the Islands w as not maiked bv wonderful unanimity of brotherhness on the pa.it of legislatons. 'Cyclops,' in the "Mataui-a Ensign" w ittih uiges tnat the Parliamentaiy Peispnation and Pyjama Picnic Pait\, which plucked moip cccoanuts than concoid ovo-lved more trail than eladness and saw more strife than skittles on the Islands excursion, was not al-top-ethei a hannv family. Each member of the expedition has given his own paiticular veision of the snorting tiain of events leading un the rocky gradient of torrid tiffs to the darksome depot of disastrous disagreement, dismal discoid, das-spsedic dottine. c s. # * » ' Recognisin- how ever, that the vanous deponents aie habitual politicians, it is difficult to decide among thear assorted colloquial thimbles under w Inch the parched and puny pea of truth is tucked away. Delving into the wretched Dast as represented by the few feverish weeks of aquatic acrimony, the major domo of the tropical troupe 'the Hon. C. H. Mills) falls back upon the ancient door-eared, sun-dried expedient of blaming the Opposition for all the stumbling blocks placed in the way of the attainment of peace, perfect peace and seraphic harmony on the voyage. Members of the Opposition in their turn true to tradition, shovel the blame by the cubic yard upon the Minister And there we aie As a matter of fact, they all seem to feel ashamed that they went at* all The whole thine apDears to have been a gigantic pie-sheaiinr expedition — a gieat deal more cry than wool." • * •» A blushful bnde and her bush husband struck this location on Wednesday morning, to gather honey from the city flow ers before they hied them back to their hive in the dark recesses >f Rimutown. You couldn't help knowing that they hadn't been one flesh more than a couple of houis, foi she clung to his strong right arm w ith all the tenacity of her loving nature. They stopned before Kirkcaldie and Stains' windows, and a whispered conversation ended in the blushful bride going into the shop, leaving her brawny husband outside. He paraded the pavement, waiting for his bush blossom. • • • As she emerged, there was a well-up-holstered .youth, who is "something .n the Buildiners " gazing into the window at a four-inch collar he thought he ought to have, and the girl finding him. on the spot at which she had left her Jack, seized his arm, and said "Isn't it lovel' Jack," referring to q gorgeous hat. "Oh, do buy it for me!" "Certainly, " said he of the Buildings. The voice brought the girl to the knowledge, of her mistake just as her bucolic bridegroom was seen advancing at a run from the "Dresden." Some words, a pearly tear and all that kind of thing. and the legitimate twain trekked with a slight haze over the azure sky of their perfect love

Now we have am. idea where all the. gorgeousness and glitter of a firstnight in Wellington halls of mirth and minstrelsy come from. The London agents of a certain wholesale firm m Wellington recently sent out as an amusing curio the trade circular of a lady who deals in the "old clo'" line at Home. She intimated that she'd buy anything from a silk stocking to an artificial fringe. "I have a large order for second-hand clothes (especially uniforms) from Wellington, New Zealand," she adds. It suggests all sorts of things. Who knows that some of Wellino^toii's sons of Marb maiv not be masquerading in the mess uniforms of "broke" subalterns, who have "done m" their clothes pending the arrival of their allowance from "pa," or that the gorgeous robes seen in the dress circles have not onei time adorned even countesses. If their wearers would only indicate by ticket on their "claw hammers" or mess jackets the source from whence they came, and the rank of their original owner, what interest might be added to the presence of local society in public places of amusement? * * * His Excellency the Governor has alw ays been the friend of the veterans, and during his vice-regal rule he has worried the War Office into aw arding medals that may have been earned fifty yeatrs ago. The other day in Auckland, His Excellency had before him a few of the Empire's old war dogs. One facetious old fellow, whose eierhtv-four years had not dimmed his sense of humour, asked his comrade on the right if he had brought his fee. The sexagenarian said he had not, and was told his medal would cost half-a-crown. When the Governor got round to the old fellow, he handed him Jus medal, and the ancient warrior, diving his hand deep into his pocket, asked, "How much sir?" The chuckles of that bad old man ' gave the show away,'" and His Excellency, with a smile, said, "Oh I'll let you have it for nothing this time." * ♦ ♦ Eveiywhere the Licensing Benches of the colony aie "shaking 'em up" about ' shakedowns" and other licensing questions Recently, an hotel servant, whose accommodation was in auestion, remarked that he had consented to give up his room and make shift with a shakedown " to keep on "the soft °ide of the boss." Why did he wish to clo tlus p Well, he might be out of woik someday, and he might be able to co back to the hotel, and live board free until fortune smiled on him once moic * * ♦ Journalists are usually timid souls phvsicalrv At a Gisborne meeting the other day, a member of a Board, who is lenowned for his muscle and his temper, looked rather grimly at the representative of the press, and asked the chairman if he might take his coat off. He proceeded to bare his brawny aims, and the reporter talons; up his "copy " prepared to "get." The shirtsleeved giant remarking upon the heat then sat down, and the scared scnbbler stole back to his pencil.

The advent of the autocar is a signal to the glided ones of Modern Babylon to go to asinine lengths in order to show the world the guinea's stamp. The latest of fashionable fads is the dressing of the motorist's dog in a costume faintly recalling a cross between the dresses of Mother Hubbard and Little Red Riding Hood. The petted pug pup, that would a-motoring go, must;, in order to be in the fashion, be clothed in a Paisley coat trimmed with ermine, and tied under the chin with a black satin ribbon. The aristocratic canine must also wear dark goggles, and a hood daintily edged witlh bebe ribbon and lace insertion. Any person of anstocratio tendencies, who dared to appeatr in an automobile in the "Row J) accompanied by a dog wearing only a skin, would be scouted as a Philistine by the smartest of the smart. Illustrating the tender love lavished on tihe ugliest of pugs, it is interesting to note that an English countess recently summoned a celebrated European physician to come from Nice to London to see her Fido, which had probably overeaten its repulsive little self. * * * Education in New Zealand is free, secular, and compulsory. This is why a great many schools in the colony have to 'get up concerts to buy firewood so that tihe scholars shall not freeze while assimilating their free, secular, and compulsory education. Only a month ago, a country Board found that when the charwoman called round for her wages 1 there w ere no funds to draw on. The inevitable "elocAal" took place, although the committee did not say it was m honour of the charwoman. The Kaiapoi School Committee recently had to borrow from the prize fund in order to pay the caretaker! When one is reminded every ten minutes tihat New Zealand surpluses are getting more plethoric every year, and considering that education is of the first importance, one naturally asks why some of this fabulous wealth cannot be used in buying firewood, payin^ charwomen, and caretakers. * * * An Auckland youth, who, feeling the fire of genius burning in his bosom, indited many wild screeds to the Education Department, was not in the service of the Department. He was working for his living with a city firm. His unfeeling master, evidently not enamoured of his inky brilliance, invested him with the ancient order of the sack. He will probably drift and drift until he sinks' to the level of a mere "Pro Bono Publico," or a "Constant Reader." * * * There 1s 1 a lady in Thorndon who tells a Sultan of Johore story. She was on the Manly boat, at Sydney, and, as Sydney folks are sociable, she found herself one of a chatty little crowd. A dark gentleman was one also. She asked him if it didn't hurt him to sing so loudly, and if he didn't intend going home to the United States soon. She had mistaken His Serenity of Johore for Pope, of Pope and Sayles, the vaudeville double !

The late King of Seivia, for whose muider the deihg'htful Skupschina tlianked the officers who committed it was heavily insured up to within a month or two of his removal from the path of Peter. It is rather a coincidence that notice of its lapse through non-navment of premiums was served on the. doomed monarch a week befoire the 1 evolution that ended fatally foi several people * * * There is no person on. earth more despicable than a member of the social gimlet brigade who dallies momentarily with the. sins he piofesses to hate in 01der to scathe them ultimately A violent person of the gimlet class, imagining that Tasniaman barmaids were very bad persons indeed, spied out the camp by assuming to be a bold, bad, sinful man, won the confidence of a few ladies of the bar, and then, at a, Temperance Conference let out the vials of his virtuous wrath, upon the devoted heads of the barmaids. Mark you that at this Conference all the people were social gimlets, of lesser boring capacity, but one lady took up the cudgels for the barmaids by telling the unspeakable spy — "I have never seen anything in a decent hotel that I could make a remark upon, and I say tins although I have been a Good Templar for many years. I have been pretty well round the world, and I hold whenever you go to Tasmania you see respectability, and you can w alk the streets without being robbed I felt I was bound to say this, and you will forgive me for intruding, but I must defend my own people The applause that followed the lady s remarks showed that the gimlet's* "potato was cooked." . • • Interesting to learn that Lieutenant Levison-G-ow er (call it Looson Gore, please), the young subaltern of the Guards, who was "ragged" a while back, has been picked for special service in Somahlaiid. Other gorgeous Guards, stay at Home to fiddle with their monocles, look bored, and do Bank of England and Palace picquets. overburdened with bumptiousness and bearskin. The beautiful and exhilarating practice of "ragging" is coarsened when it gets to "Tommy," who. as will be noticed, beats his "syce," his "bobbajee," or "nappy" oftentimes until he Snrelv, Kipling must have slightly over-estimated the beauty of the British Tommy's character. The alleged blind faith of Tommy in his officers probably rises to the point of admiration and imitation,, and thus we find that "ragging" is copied to the point ot murder in India. Lord Kitchener evidently doer,n't behevei that every man should "wallop his own nigger "for a general order is to be read at three parades of every regiment, in the Indian Army prohibiting the murder ot Hindoos. Some da.v it will be allowed that other people besides Britishers have a slight share of the virtues. • * • A Wellington girl, who has recently returned from a trip to Eneland, remarked that the weather at Home was execrable, but that the skies were blue dunner the whole of the return voyao-e. "I wasn't surprised, of course, because I found that the captain swept the; «kv-lme every morning with his glass," «he explained to an admiring audience of one young man.

The current number of "The Spike" is to hand, and contains abundant evidence that t-he spirit of duLness doesn't brood over Victoria College By the way, the editor regrets to have to chronicle "a painful scene which occurred during a recent hockey match." With tears in his eves he says 'It was indeed deplorable to see a member of the City Licensing Committee — one elected on the Reform Ticket at that — in the clutches of Beere " • • * Day's Bay amd Muritai residents, and those interested m making the transmarine suburb a thing of beauty and a joy for eve are bestirring themselves m order to cope with several things that might hinder it from becoming v, ha.t it is otherw lse designed to be — the most charming seaside retreat aibout Wellington. In the first r> ] ace, they are taking steps to prevent the owneirs of dilapidated rookeries that have been condemned elsewhere from dumping them on the hospitable sands of Muritai as "desirable summer residences." • * * This purpose will most likely be achieved by an amendment of the Health Act. Funds have also been subscribed for enhancing the beauties of the suburb by planting the sides of the main road with trees. Power is likewise to be sought under the Sand Drift Bill, which the Government intend to introduce to Parliament, to enable the residents or the local authority to raise funds, and take action to prevent the drift of saaid. Mr. Harry A. Wright, who is an enthusiast. has been most useful in stirring up Day's Bay feeling on these points, and the prospects aire good that Day's Bay will soon be without spot or blemish.

Mother's Girl. She is not a bud of fashion, nor a butterfly of style, And there aie no bogus trimmings in the make-up of her smile ; She needs no fancy feathers to enhance her girlish charms, And a god would go in rapture- o'er the plumpness of her arms As she washes up the dishes and the Minutes speed along, Dancing gaily as they pass her to the music of her song. In her eyes a soft expression of a mire maternal love That must surely be the envy of those angels up above. She'si the joy of every home Underneath yon arching dome, Till she gives her heart's aifection to another • Luokv he who wins the true, Loving loyal maiden who Tries to lift, the daily burden from her mother.