What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1926, 6 March 1875, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

\ "In multitude of counsellors there is safety." —Old Proverb Ohihemuri is open, and everybody rejoices thereat. It is as if a great load had been lifted off the mind—a dreadful i nightmare had been shaken off. The feelI injr. of relief which succeeded the opening is followed in some instances by another equally unsatisfactory to that which preceded it, a dread lest it should turn out to be something not worth having. All people are not constituted alike. Some of those who expected fo much from this, the great event of the week, are already beginning to pull long faces and put on poor mouths. The opening has not come quite up to their expectations, and their Hope has suddenly changed to fear. The poor beggars who expected nothing from the opening, on the other hand, are as cheerful as crickets, and as sanguine as children who have just commenced to indulge in that peculiar, pastime castle building. Everybody is more or less affected ; some one way and some another; and it would be impossible just now to say which feeling prevails with the majority, hope or fear. So much has been said about Ohinemuri that the district has come to be invested with a golden halo in the minds of most people. These gilded, impressions have been dispelled or weakened with some who have been to spy out the land. " When Thomas went to London he did not find the streets pared with gold;" and when a good many Thomases and Johns got to Ohinemuri the other day, instead of seeing gold galore they found themselves in a fine country-r----yes, everybody says it is a fine country— but gold was not to be seen sticking out of the ground and claiming the attention of every casual visitor. No; it is evident that if gold is to be got it will be by dint of hard work and the expenditure of private means. But though everybody didn't see gold at Ohinemuri, no doubt it is there. Diggers as a rul* are very reticent about what show they have : it is a peculiarity they have acquired in the pursuit of their occupation, or an acquirement peculiar to diggers. It is not confined to diggers even, but the diggers' camp followers and shanty-keepers are just as canny over their claims and their takings as the diggers are about the gold they win. T'other day at Ohinemuri a storekeeper was accosted by another of the same guild, and interrogated as to the amount of business he was doing. "How are you getting on ? " said enquirer j " doing much business P " " Divil a bisness," replied the cautious man ; " only sdld a box of matches since we've been there." Of course this was a fib; the trade had been worth a good many pounds a week ; but, however much a rush of miners would gladden the heart of the gentleman whose business had been confined to the sale of a box of vestas, he had no wish to hold out any encouragement to storekeepers— and quite tight. Diggers are even worse. A party on a southern gold field used to go '• tick " with iheir storekeeper just as long as the latter would trust them, pleading a poor claim as the reason; and the same party washed up quietly every night of their lives for some weeks not less than ten ounces, and one of the partners afterwards said that at one time '< there was a plant under their fireplace worth at least five hundred pounds. But I their caution saved, them from annoyance by jumpers, although some suspiciouslooking " Tips " were nearly taping them off and taking the tent site once. Caution is commendable, and diggers know it, and so it happens that they don't usually go gassing about their claims. ? That was rather a munificent shout of Mackay's the other day, if report be true. Two hundred thirsty throats to be wetted at a single shout would be rather more than most men would tackle unless doing the stump on an electioneering tour. But they say Mackay is not like most men. He has a way of his own in dealing with mobs, and his way generally brings about a conciliatory feeling where before existed a disposition to aggressive action. The Good Templars will be glad to learn that there are few men living who can say they have ." shouted" for two hundred at one time.

The respected writer on prophecyunfulfilled prophecy —has made the startling announcement that Napoleon the Third will be, or is the Antichrist. He said that years ago, and when Napoleon died some people were anxious to learn what prophecy said to that; but the reader of the signs of the times was not to be driven from his position: he had made an assertion and he must stick to it; consequently Napoleon must come again—be raised from the dead. Now some people are a little sceptical about these matters, and they naturally say if the reader of prophecy could see that Napoleon was to be the Antichrist, how was it that he couldn't see a little further and let everybody know that the Antichrist would die, and be buried, and rise again. If prophecy is so plain to the student, surely the passages which point so clearly to Napoleon the Third as being tne.man before referred to would indicate something of his dissolution as well as his resurrection. A little light on this subject, and this particular portion of the subject would go a long way towards conviction with those who can perceive the difference between the fulfilment of pro^ phecy and the utterance of fresh prophesies.

The latter is much the easier work of the t*ro, as has been proved in many notable instances outside this little world of the Thames.