PASSING NOTES. (From Saturday's Daily Times.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 5

PASSING NOTES. (From Saturday's Daily Times.)

[ Since the advent of Seddon and Seddonism, the point from which we date Modern History, political testimonials in New Zealand have usually transacted themselves on the principle — To him that hath shall be given. " Liberalism " (in quotation marks) has been a kind of Parsee sun-worship ; — all faces turned one way. Politicians there were many; the source ot political power and patronage remained One and Indivisible. Hence if there were any big banqueting to be done, or a National Purse (in four figures) to be collected, there was only One Object to which or to whom such expressions of homage could be addressed. Remembering these things, I find the Massey^ testimonial — a thousand guineas, and a- hundred thousand good' wishes — striking and impressive. Giving tp Mr Massey is giving to him that hat-b not. , The Leader, of Mai^iv's Opposition has no well-dowered portfolios to dangle, nor ,any .fat' billets to fling" about; h-e cannot so much- as make or unmake a Serjeant .of police. Any testimonial going his 'way is sheer waste. That is, on the principles that hitherto have ruled- in such matters. But we have gome back to older and better precedents. Which makes us to be, once more, " reactionaries " — happy word ! Much comfort may it yield to. the other side. They are needing just now all the comfort likely to come their way. Cooking and housekeeping — alias " domestic .economics "— as an ' academic subject —at the Otago University — adopted by 6 to A — at the first time of asking, — is this great business now settled for good and all ? Or, more accurately, for bad and all ? Have the minority no fight left in them? Are they really flinging up the sponger I am loth to believe it. On the issue at ptoke in this instance votes should be weighed, not counted ; — a principle which enables usto .do.ubt whether the minority was a minority at all. But, waiving that point, it is indecent that the Council should adopt a policy of adventure on the authority of a single vpting and a majority to narrow. Let there be a " call j of the House," a full sederunt, and another count of heads. By count of heads we must stand or fall at the last, no doubt; but at least let it be clear that all heads are counted. No one suggests that these most potent, grave, and reverend signiors include a softie or a wobbler, — perish the thought! All the same, let them take this weighty matter ad avisandum and vote again, Bible research, in itself a good thing, is responsible for some queer products, from Quakerism down to the Higher Critics. Queerest of the queer is the Dunedin Bible Research Society, which has just been holding a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon. Monday morning's report reads like Satan's Invisible World Displayed, — just that.^ In the words of the reporter, the Durildin Bible Research Society "comprises self-confessed infidels, Atheists, Agnostics, Freethinkers. Socialists — in fact, representatives of all creeds and beliefs other than what is known as the Christian religion." The effect produced by turning upon them the light of day reminds me of a passage in Oliver Wendell Holmes; let me turn it up. Did you never, in walking in the fields, come across a large flat stone, which had lan, nobody know 3 how long, just wbere you found it, with the grass forming a little hedge, as it were, all round it; and have you not, in obedience to a kind of feeling that told you it hsd been lying there long enough, insinuated your stick or your foot or your fingers under its edge and turned it over as a housewife turns a cake? What an odd revelation, and what an unpleasant surprise to a small community, the very existence of which you — bad not suepected, until the sudden dismay and scattering an-.ong its members produced by your turning the old stone over! 2\ T o sooner is the light of day let upon this compressed and blinded comniun iy of creeping things, than all of them that possess the luxury of legs — and Eo:no of them have a good many — rush round wildly, butting each other and everything in then- way, and end in a general stampede for underground re-

treats from the region poisoned by sunshine. This passage may not apply in every par- • ticular"; I don't pretend that it does. But in> general effect it is an inspired conimentary on the report, in Monday's Daily Times, of the Bible Research Society's Pleasant Sunday Afternoon.- , And here should "come in the evarigelicai herbalist, a tragic figure— Neil the "name of him ; a benefactor to his species who ministers^ not onlj- to" their bodies by dispensing herbal medicines, but also to i-heir souls by Sunday evening discourse from the Cargill monment (otherwise "the Fountain"), amidst the contradictions of sinners, and at the cost of an occasional pelting. The oddest fact about the agncetic and atheistic Bible R«searchors is that they' had Mr Neil as their president. Que di:ible allait-il faire dans oette galore? Only the diable knows. Other points for solution might be referred to the same authority.. Thus the herbalist, it seems, possesses "two shop — the one devoted to dandelion pills "and the like, tlie other ranted by a Bible Reseaa-cfoer of agnostic • prancigles • *ho, *selis " infidel books" -under^Ws "landlord's evangeK6 no?e. "And- -I' am osiiain' it is God's own ehopr! " — writes the -gcod man- to- the Daily Times, in an agony. It belongs to Neil, ergo to the Deity. Here is a-situa-tion ! It is all very well now to turn cut the sacrilegious bookjEeller vi et armis ; why was he allowed- to get in? The Bible Researchers in wrath and indignation have disposed their president ; but as he appears to be the landlord not^only of their infidel book depot-, • but also of the > rooms/ in wli-ich their Bible researches are carried en, and seems determined to use all the tyiTiiiny with which our capitalistic system endows Mm, the case looks bad. " Deprived of their customary roosting-place, the Bibla Rea-earche-rs may have to camp out next Sunday, making what appeal is passible to their presiding genius : — Fair Moon, to thee we sing, Bright regent of the heavens; Tell us why is everything Either '^at. sixes or at sevens. Amongist proofs of Christianity not given in the Shorter Catechism is . the patent fact that it outlasts not only the calculated jnalice -of its enemies but the hot and hea-dy succour of its friends. It is of a tough vitality that survives the apologist and the evidence-monger, .the revivalist, the boy-preacher, the AngloIsrael theory, street music,, and Moody "and Sankey's Hymns. .Here in Dunedin it will .survive * the students' mission now going on in "thre\EaTly- Settlers' Hall," and also "the 1 stormy testimonies of ■ Mr Neil the herbalist at *he Fountain.' Tcs, r&ligkm contrives to survive- however rotigh a time you give it j but % -ii©t-hii3£" not divine' could survive at all.' -'It is not tbe_ irregulars only — the revivalists, boy-preachers, and inspired herbalists— tliat give religion' a rough time. OiteH the regulars are about as bad. The Arcadeacon of London, one would say; sifeee^ he is an ecclesiastical 4 bigwig, should be the pink of propriety Yet at" a clerical meeting reported in the London press the Archdeacon of London, described with sympathetic huniojr the proceedings of a neighbour cleric, Father "Stanton, of St. Albans, Holborn, who, preaching on the shipwreck of St. Paul, had leaned over the pulpit and imitated the toesing of a ship so realistically that a lady sitting in front of him- wrs tajctn with sea-sit. <ness, and had to make for the door and the open air. The dramatic powers of Father Stanton will ba envied by some of our Dtmedin local divines, judging from their advertisements any Saturday. "A Tale of Two Cities" (punning on a Dickens title), "A Trinity of Fools," "Was Calvary a Blunder?" and "I Stole Apples :- Beat Me ! " — these are samples. But for light and leading in this as in other developments of the higher civilisation we must go to America. In Cincinnati last Sunday the regular musical strength' of the IXncoln Baptist Chapel was recruited by 40 canaries, brought in cages by their owners, and the" combination' of their " unpremeditated art " with the more sophisticated , efforts ' of the human voice and the strains of the pipe organ is .said - ip- h>ve been highly successful. The -feathered vocalists seem io have understood ?neir - business so far as to wait" for the lead of the organ, and to suspend their efforts when the hymn was concluded. This is a valuable hint, and I pass it on. Dear " Civis, —In past years you have tendered good advice to the Comretitiona Society. I thin* you pointed out the possibility of encouraging pulpit eloc\ition. Let an evening be set apart for our local clergy, and a programme be arranged of sermonettes and prayers, bo J h prepared and extempore. It is evidently a point with the /society to bring the masses into touch With things sacred and holy. Here would be its chance We have heard a lot lately about "Why don't people go to church, but this would be- an opportunity of getting tham there without their knowing it and might mean the turning of the tide.— Ycurs, etc., Serkonette. This suggestion, I suppose, is to be read . ironic. Here and there, and in spots, ! the Competitions are undoubtedly good j fun, — quite good enough without calling j on the local clergy. It is not so much j the competitors and the competing that are a joy, as the judges and the judging. ; However, let that pass just now. I will j say only, as I have said before, that in relation to art the Competitions are much ; ado about nothing. Their level is • that j of a students' carnival or a Christmas j pantomime. In this community the real . contributors to musical art — theory and practice, either or both — are the musical societies — the Choral, the Philharmonic, the Orchestral. I accept the annual Competitions as a cheap form of entertainment, the chief drawback to which is that it can't help being somewhat cruel. As I have mentioned music, let me add, apropos, that I find an English news- [

J paper reviving against Handel the ac- ' - cusation — always intrinsically incrediblf — that much of his music was stolen. For the first and second acts of " Israel in Egypt." It is now veil established that its aiieged composer " conveyed " wiole movements from •» -M^gisificat by Elba and- a setenata hy Stsodella. '" Messiah," ** Samson," , " Judas, ' " Sokmon," an<? many others' cf Ms oratories -were niort or less Tjijilt up"" from' Continental com-v-'posers' publications then almost unknowu in England. The commandeering was e« thoroughly done that in many cases he. merely changes the libretto. This is from the Daily News, a journal that is Little-England,er and anti-Im-perialist. I -have satisfaction in saving that its history and its art are as bad "as its politics. The question of Handel's alleged . " thefts " was finally cleared up in a volume published' last year — " Handel and his Orbit; by P. Robinson;" and, says the Saturday -Review, ".the author demonstrates forcibly and convincingly that Handel ,did not,. commit any single , act <jf th^eft." The .movements he was said to have stolen from Erba, Urio and Stradella he is now proved to have ■r- -stolen from,- his own- earlier compositions. : t And *the intelligent " Daily News is un- ; aware of this ! Handel himself, his music, i and his good na^me are so much a national treasure that it should delight us all ■ wheitfliis detractors are laid by the heels. .' Let "me -find" room for a closing sentence or two from the Saturday Review :—: — To-day everyone feels the strength and colour of Wagner's painting; and when we come to a sounder and better understanding of Handel we shall realise that hi 3 energy is not lesa inexhaustible, his touch less *ure, his sense of colour less gorgepus than Wagner's. And in the . inevitable irony of things in this mundane Fy«tem. just as ire are finding this out,- the' musical doctors will be inouiring into the serious charges of i&eft brought ag*inst Wagner (for Wagner used more of other people's .material' than ever Ha.ndel did). And the statue of Hsndal in Westminster Abbey will th*t day be forgiven if, in spite o* the strains of " I know that my Redeemer liveth " to which it Js listening, it indulges in a quietly sardonic smile. CIV«V The arrivals in New Zealand ductnsr July numbered {says a- Wellinjrton mess )g?) 2232, and the departures 2839. In Jme. , 1908, the arrivals were 2941, and the departures 2264. . At last Tuesday's meeting ot the St.Kilda. Borough Council letters were <re-J -oeivod from the Portobello Road BoanO; * arid iie. Peninsula Road Board asking thy.; 1 stofcfcKdrover* be- allowed to drive catt o . along Bay View road at certain spacififdJ; times on Burnside market days. The - 'council isi at present on the verge of re- ' framing its by-laws, and io "this end a. ' By-laws Committee has been set up, and 't was decided to refer the letters to this committee. In the meantime it is undo - stood that the council is not anxious \o place obstacles in the way of drovers using 1 the Bay View road on Burnaido sale days. : " From i 8 croper I caw taken four dozen soles," said Mr 5. M. Thomson on August 25. '"That is where oui coles go vihet we can't get them. Talk about the flshs - men diminishing the supplies of fish. A 1 shoal of groper will in a day catch mo - -j soles than all our fishermen will catch <n a ye?.r." Mr Thomson also ridiculed tfra idea that a tiawler disturbed the fish over large areas. "What harm," he askpr\ " would a 30ft stretoh do over a 25 or 30mile sweep? To represent this to scaJu on a map it would be necessary to use n microscope to do it. /When we had 50 trawlers in place of three, some VM'.a damage might ' result ; but that would sot be for gene vat ions." A hearty round of applause g.reeted the mention made by Mr G. M. Thomson, »» his lecture on Aug. 25. of the shame which it seemed to be to throw good fish back into the seas by-fia!xermen because the prlca which' was obtaining in tho' market was not deemed sufficient "If we had an open fish market," he said^ "where the fishermen would be able to sell bis catch for \fbat it would fetch, we would. get a much •large*- and'fl much cheaper supply of fish. It would also benefit the fishermen, because a*> the present time they- were entirely in the hands of one or two men, who fix prices to be paid. If these prices are not paid, back the fish go into the sea." It way mentioned by Mr G. M. Thomson, in the course of his lecture on August 25, that -it was estimated that some 130,000 lobt/ter larvae had been turned out from the Portobello Fish Hatchery up to the present time. They now had there 17 female lobsters, which,, it was .estimated, would yield 500,000,000 eggs, so tha* in the near future greater strides would b« made in lobster production. It would b» iear!y, five years before lobsters would be ready for placing on the market. .To show how the work being do&© was not a parochial affair, but would really result to the generalbenefit of the country, Mr Thomson mentioned that the strong efbb tide of tha harbour carried the young out to sea, where they were seized by a strong northerly current, flowing at about one and a-half knots an hour, and scattered away up the coast.. That, he said, was the argument used by ( them in endeavouring to secure- assistanco from other bodies. He feared, he said l further, from observations that had been made in the ponds, that when lobsters became fully acclimatised here the common crayfish would require to beat a hasty; retreat. While many would regret the probable passing of the crayfish, the matter should be looked at in the- economic light that while crayfish never represented to the fisherman more than 2s 6d, per dozen, lobsters, would represent 9s or 12a.