PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

In appealing to Sir Robert Stout to investigate the theory of partial impact, Professor Bickeiton not only maiks his man with a sagacity rare in scientists, but reaches him on his most vulneiable pomt — at least, the most vulnerable for the time being. J?or Sir Robert has in his time p'iyed many parts. His love of theory has led him to revel by turns in theological theories, educational thcoiies, theoiies of political and social reform, and of late in astronomical theories. Nor this alone — perhaps because of this — the Chief Justice has strong inclinations towards playing the part of Macaenas, the patron of men of letters, or of science, with unfailing enthusiasm and charming versatility. With captivating ingenuonsnees Sir Robert, as he takes up one hobby after another, permits the public — whom he can always interest — to rejoice with him. He enters each domain of science far enough to know a great deal more about it than the average citizen, and a great defl less than its expert students. It may be that years of his own profession as a legal advocate have been to him the final education in "so far shalt thou go and no further." It is essential to the success of the " devil's brigade " that a practitioner .must master each client's case sufficiently to penetrate its very atmosphere ; but that is to-day — to-morrow he is> immersed in the mazes" of a new rascality, and the former villainy is forgotten until the cost book renders up its microscopic details. Thus I would warn Professor Bickerton not to take the pleasant patronage of the Chief Justice too seriously, though I admit that he has set out his case with a picturesque charm which reminds me of that master of astronomical romance, M. Flammarion. Many a subtle snare to entrap the amateur astronomer for the time being (even though he be Lord Chief Justice and a' that) is laid down in that alluring letter of the professor's. Even the imagination of the outer Philistine is stirred by the statement that " the scaried ! suns will often be wedded into double stars. Hence young double stars will be variable, and associated with nebula." We live and learn, and it is eminently satisfactory to leain that neither Brown, Jones, nor Robinson need for the future hesitate to mention having noticed a slight confusion in the heavenly bcdie6 when returning from a late j^&ht at — half-yeaily balance.

With the diplomatic triumphs of our velvet-gloved Piime Minister in the little matter of the Denniston miners we are faced with a new peril, before which the yellow variety fades to sickly white. When the cat" is out of the bag, and the news is noised abroad — and the Great Powers, as we know, always keep at least one ear open for news from the Experimental Legislative Farm — there will, of course, be a rush to secure the soi vices of this subtle diplomat. Will he be grabbed (and we, like Lord Ullin, "left lamentng") as pacificator between the robustious Roosevelt and American finance? Will the King send for him as confidential adviser in the next figuies of the Dance of Peace that the Seventh Edward performs with so much discretion among the rfetten eggs of International Complications? Or will Sir Joseph be asked to gather y under his comfortable wings the sorely-perplex-ed English Labour party, left oiphaned by Keir Hardie, and halting, perplexed and confused, between the devil of Red Socialism on one hand and the deep sea of inheiited inaction on the other 7 Whichever of these high destinies awaits the filly-fledged diplomatist of the hour, we can scarcely hope to keep him for our own. There is more than a, suggestion 'of iiony in the fact that just as the success of the Arbitration Court in ■New Zealand is being quoted far and wide in the journalism of the world, we should be praising our lucky stars that we have a Prime Minister and a Labour Minister

who are not above running from (tie side of their little kingdom to the other to sluiko up the Arbitration Court dummy and set it on its legs again. For that is wh.it the drawing room observer, full of " the host mi'oimation/' describes the recent confeience in camera between Ministers and miners to have had for its objective — the upholding of the law and the support of the Aibitration Court. The man in the street, whose ample leisure and complete detachment from the labour market renders him a disinterested obeoiver, sums up the situation as the " B.mk-to-bank with a minute and-a-half-to-spare Crisis." Two obviously unemployed individuals. lcddening their discussion with a copious vocabulary, took this view : " Yer don't deny 'c scored, did Ward. 'Ad 'em on toast, I reckon." "Toast? Soft soap, yon mean, and thrown away cheap, too. Wait till that lot's woiked in, and the workers want a bit more — all they's got to do is ask, and give 'em dinko if they don't receive. That's plain enough, an' the blooming Arbitration Court!"

I had alieady leached this stage in my reflections on the affair of the Ministers and the miners^when the following letteis, etill further widening the horizon of Public Opinion, reached me. They speak, " e.ith in his own tongue," and require no inteipretation :—: — LABOUR. Dear Civis, — It has not yet transpired how the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour met the " bank-tc-bank" d:fiiculty at Demiiston The miners appear to ha\e put their own interpretation upon the law, and Muvslers would seem to have hnmblj acquiesced The writer remembers whe.i the 10-hours' day was the m.c. and how the worker at the close of the day was in no particular hurry to drop his 1oo!s when the clork struck 6 a'though he frequently had to travel &cmc distance to and from his work (rhe " bank-to-bank" rule not having bee.i then invented). The advent of the gnt-hourss' day (with which I am not quarrelling) changed all that, and we chv<?llei& in the country were entertained v. ith many stories of the exactness with which the new hams weie observed in the adjacent city. One yarn was to the following effect If the hammer wps i-fi;sed in the air As the clock struck the hour of five. It was promptly left ,»".* there — As sine &b \ou aie alive!

Dear Civ:s — In view of the success vouchsafed to the noble 'etEorts of the Prime 'Minister in the cause of industrial peace, I think some special mention of the matter should be made from the various, town and countiy pu'pits. lam given to understand (by thoseNvho really know) thdfc the real issue of time in dispute narrowed down to a niimvte and a-halt per diem — surely a woncleriul instance of delicate statesmanship. Covstki Pakson. Btai Civis. — Talk about a Democracy! "What soit of game is tlr's when Ministers ii^urp the functions of their own propel ly-constituted courts' Where does the "dignity and authori y of the Aibitration Court come in 9 Kb wonder Ministers ccnipltiin. of being overworked when they run loxmd like a lot of old women, meddling in things they have set up special machinery to deal with. Indignant.

Begarding the ©'Sullivan bequest, the attitude of the Chancellor of the University very much resembles that of an ostler taking a tip. But. while the ostler's impassive face never betrays the itching of his palm, the Chancellor not only looks his gift horse in the mouth, but, like an ultra-respectable citi/en. desires to run his racer under another name. If Mr O'Sullivan could obtain "the loan of" an astral body, pquipped with" the national instincts. I fancy he would swing his blackthorn over the head of a Chancellor who devoted one line to the expression of chilly "satisfaction" at his generosity, and a cloven to- devising yea-and-nay schemes for taking the gift. It h urged that by accepting the bequest the University invites Protestants to make sectarian gifts. And why not 9 If it's just the invitation that's wanted the sooner it's given the better. He was a wise speaker who said: "Let them all come." Surely Piotes.tant/ gifts are better than no gifts' at all! We have heard more than once or twice that, in effect, our Ne.v Zealand universities have long been in a position to make " the smallest donation thankfully received." 1 have always contended that giving, like many ethical pleasures, and more Aundane ones, is contagious, and I think the fact of the O'Sullivan bequest, following so closely on the Beverly benefaction, bears out my contention. 'But the University Senate'will have to learn the art of gracefully accepting — an art of which it has not" yet ma>tered the ABC apparently — before any embarrassing overplus of gifts is likely to set in. Truth to tell, the University Senate has been somewhat " hustled " this session, and. accustomed to the dignity of year-long deliberations, it does not shine in impromptu decisions. There is that Degiee of Literature to consider, and the establishment of a New Zealand Conservatorium of Music, mothered by Alma Mater, to deliberate upon. Now, in this last opening I opine that the possibilities of an enormous increase of usefulness and popularity of a sound and sterling kind are offered to the University Senate. Let us hope that that august, but indifferentlymannered, body may sec its way to seizing the golden opportunity of coming into more gracious touch with the public.

I jra mi a mood to appreciate any intelligent scheme for the betterment of the standard of musical ta^te, and for good and substantial reasons, which will presently appear. Lowell, in one of his happiest inspirations, calls music " one of His great charities/' — a very jewel of speech. But the most beneficent charity which ever was conceited may be sgGsfc

in the ghing, and this heavenly charity, as Lowell discerns it, passes through some pretty poor interpreters. The great American was not thinking of the street gramophone or the Salvation Army band-, I take it; and in this last public nuisance lies the cause of- an irritation entirely foreign to my nature. Fresh from the undeserved tortures of an evening serenade by the Salvation Army band last night, I took up my morning paper only to find that further, fresher, and more strenuous miseries are in store, for a longsuffering public. Instead of assisting the Army to purchase a few instruments wherewith to render night and day hideous, let us by all means subscribe to provide their musicians (heaven save the mark !) with musical tuition. Personally, I have the greatest respect and admiration for the Army and its work — but I bar the baqd. It' has often occurred to me — and I claim no originality in the matter — to wonder whether much longdistance shoutinc at the Lord has not dulled the hearing of thesa militantChristians. Otherwise they could hardly endure the nerve-shattering discords which they contrive to draw from their tortured instruments, or the soul-searching effect produced by vocal musical methods which can only be described 1 as " Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost." Let us subscribe by all means to a fund for the musical tuition of the Army bandsmen, or let us pay for the suppression of the Army band, or — • for I don't want to be hard on a really splendid institution — let us subscribe towards a fund for subsidising an outside band to play the rattling devotional exercises which are supposed to be dear to the ear of the public. Let us do anything sooner than usher in the Ist of April 1 with a new set of Army instruments for the old Army players. Strangely enough, more discords are evoked from music as a topic than in any other theme. While the mere plain music-lover hails the proposal of a • State Conservatorium as a national means to an harmonious end, the musicians at once start quibbling among themselves as to the dignity of their parish politics.

The Universal Brotherhood of Man as a workable theoiy comes home to me this week in a rare and unexpected manner. The sentiment is a favourite one of the moment in ci-rt.rin quarters — not Australasian ;— but, as I have had occasion to remark before, it is in the localising of great principles that we sun ourselves most gratefully. Th&s, when a gentleman of the bookmaking confraternity addresses me as " Dear Civis," and confides his sorrows to me as a. man and brother (without, however, inviting me to . "mix again" on the Im-es of Mr Venus and Silas Wegg), I feel that I am in my own proper person enjoying the brotherhood of man iv a thoroughly comprehensive manner. Why this honour should be thrust upon me, and what I have done to deserve it, is like to remain an unrevealed mystery. What I have to do is to try and discover the grievance which my bookmaking brother obscures" with much tautology and- move bad gramma*. Generally, I take Him to say in relation to the new Gaming Act : " Why this thusness?" Individually, I txike him to gird against the transformation of his old haphazard and Bohemian status into the respectable monotony of a legalised betting medium, paying the trifling fee of £520 per diem for the privilege. It is evident that the Racing Conference paid a delicate (but in some quarters unappreciated^ compliment to the "bookies" when.it placed such a price on the joys of legalised respectability. "Drastic and unreasonable" is thA label which "Bookmaker ' applies to the conditions imposed by the conference, and continues : " The rank and file in bookmakers' ranks must be countenanced by the racing authorities, as in other walks of life, when legalised." Evidently it has not occurred to the guileless mind of " Bookmaker " that prohibitive legislation is rather a specialty with us since we practised so successfully on John Chinaman; or that it is just possible that the Racing Conference would not be the only body deciding in the exercise of a sound discretion to " run with the hare and hunt with the hounds"; or, again, that it is not altogether unlikely that the Racing Conference may have in view more the survival of the fittest than the " countenancing of the rank and file." All of which *'s, I am perfectly aware, cold comfort. Civis.

The weather is again very warm (saya our Oromwell correspondent), and rain is badly wanted. If it does not come soon the outlook for winter feed ie not encouraging. The bulk of the crop is now cut, and the returns will be very favourable.

The validity of one of the Taieri County, Council's by-laws was brought into question in the City Police Court on the 4th. William Ellis was charged with failure to pay the proper license fee to the council for trafficking with a vehicle which, together with its load, weighed over 30cwt. Mr Burnard. for the defendant, complained that the by-law under which the charge was laid was unequal in its operation, because in the first place two kinds of traffic — farmers' carts and threshingmachines — were exempted, and in the second place s different license fees were charged for differont cla^sce of vehicles. Mr Cooke, for the council, pointed out that the~ supposed inequality was more apparent than real, and a fee increasing as the weights of the vehicles increased was the very method of giving 'equality of operation by the by-law. The magistrate, in giving judgment, intimated that his present view was in favour of the by-law, but he was not called upon at present to give a decision or the matter, as the case could be decided on the facts. The charge was dismissed.