The Standard AND PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 239, 16 January 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1875.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

If the following (which we clip from an exchange) be correct, it is certainly high time that the Annuities Commissioner, himself, became “ a step dancer” to step in and put a stop to such official mountebankism: —“ I am happy, says “ the Intelligent Vagrant of the Bruce “ Herald, in being able to congratulate “ Mr. Clapcott, the travelling sub- “ agent for the Government Life As- “ surance Scheme, on his acquisition “of a new accomplishment. Assisting “ at a recent performance at Balelutha, “he came out as a step dancer; and “ now I see a Wellington paper notices “an entertainment in the Capital, “ which, it says, was interspersed with “ violin and clarionet solos and read- “ ings by Mr. Clapcott. lie -has “only to learn the Pandean Pipes and “ the big drum, and he will be a host “in himself.” For our own part we do not believe Mr. Clapcott is capable of such buffoonery as that imputed to him; and we think the Bruce Herald’s correspondent has satirised the Government “ performances ” as they do exist, by importing his own idea of what they may become if continued to be indulged in. Nevertheless, as the subject has been started, the expression of public opinion may have a salutary influence in keeping the theatrical portion of these “ Lectures on Life Assurance,” within due bounds. There can be no doubt that there is a great incongruity in the fact of the Government of the Colony allowing its travelling commissioners to “ tout” for custom by mixing up the subject matter of their business with musical entertainments, for the purpose of drawing “good houses.” And, assuming that the “ entertainment in the “ Capital, which was interspersed with “violin and clarionet Solos aud “ Readings by Mr. Clapcott,” was given under the auspices of the Life Assurance Department, and in connection with one of Mr. Clapcott’s usual Lectures, we think the practice is calculated to bring the Government into contempt. We are fully aware that there is someforceinthe argument that Lectures on “ dry bones ” are not inviting; and that if enlivened with music and other attractions they will “ draw ” much better. So far as Mr. Clapcott is concerned the rtnvvilp.qjf* h fn him rather by sufferance of the innovation than an appreciation' of it. At first it took a mild, and, perhaps, under some circumstances, a pardonable form. The Lecturer (by permission of his expected audience) adroitly combined business with pleasure by varying the subject of his discourse, in the shape of Headings of a pleasing kind from popular authors; but, eventually they became rather the attraction, as well as forming the substantive portion of the Lecture, or, rather the evening’s amusement. The subject of Life Assurance was forgotten in the contemplation of pleasures of a more interesting and exciting kind; and so established and extended has the custom become, that we have been expecting to see the startling announcement made, under the glare of the Imperial Coat of Arms that the Lectures would wind up with a dance by the audience—but certainly not with & pas seal by the Lecturer himself!

We have not the slightest objection to recognise in Mr. Clapcott the possession of those gentlemanlike accomplishments that make the social partof his entertainments so felicitous, lie is, as we have said before, not only an accomplished reader, but a scholarly elocutionist, and we ourselves, have drawn largely on the gratuitous pleasure he has afforded us while listening to him; and, provided that there be some sort of genial relationship between the subjects treated of, a departure from the immediate subject of the Lecture itself, may form one of those exceptional circumstances to which we have already alluded—as, for instance, iu country places, where, from a sparse population it is not easy to obtain an audience at once worthy of the subject, per se, and gratifying to the Lecturer —but the descending process is so easy; and, supposing there is a modicum of truth in what we have quoted above, it is time that these concert-cim-drawing-room entertainments, in connection with the Government Lectures on Life Assurance, should be regulated with a due regard to the ostensible object of the meetings.

Thebe arc a few startling items of news to hand by the Luna, which had not reached us in time for Wednesday’s issue, for which wc may thank the remissness of our Napier exchanges—as usual. Chief amongst these stands forth the terrible calamity which has befallen the ship Cospatrick, one of Messrs. Shaw Saville and Co.’s liners bound from London to Auckland with immigrants. She was burnt to the wafer’s edge, off the Cape of Good Hope, and out of 460 human beings on board, only three escaped the fate of their fellow passengers. We have no particulars as to the origin of the fire. Two boats filled with passengers ende- - vored to escape, but, only for their living freight to meet death in a still n o *e terrible form. They were at sea, without any food, at the mercy of the winds and wares for ten day , the living subsist! i g

as well as they could on the bodies of those that had died, and the three were at length picked up by the ship Spectre. Full particulars will be looked for with much anxiousness. Death has been busy, too, amongst the notables of the old land, viz., Lord Romilly, Master of the Rolls; the Duke of Montrose, and Ledeu Rollin a French statesman who figured prominently in the ’4B Revolution. Amongst the lesser magnates, the death of Dr. J. B. Nicholson of Auckland, will be regretted.