What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2586, 21 April 1877, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." . —Old Proverb

As everybody knows the business of sharebroking is supposed to. have become very lucrative lately, and as a consequence the ranks of the men on 'Change who are* good enough to negotiate the sale and transfer of scrip have been recruited from a variety of callings. This has excited the cupidity ot the Borough Council, some members of which body see a way to improve the state of the exchequer by levying the license fee which a piece of hurried legislation inflicted upon the Colony. \Vithout going into the political, social, or moral aspect of this question of a license fee, everybody says that its enforcement would not be an unmixed evil for the brokers themselves, or the public. It would tend to give better security to buyers and sellers, and it would be a protective measure to the brokers, by excluding- some whose qualification for the business lies in their possession of a largo amount of assurance. But everybody is not agreed as to the fairness of the tax on brokers. Some are for limiting the business to a few, by hedging it about with exacting conditions; .others advocate free trade without any, restrictions, leaving', it to the public to look after their own interests. If the law is to be rendered operative and the license fee exacted, those who comply with the law should be protected. Else why im-

poso any conditions at all? The other day .some one' likened the present scrip dealing to pool playing—the public being the players ; the brokers the proprietors of . tho tables ; and it was said that although some might make a little money on one transaction and some, on another, in the end the brokers would pocket all the profits. The similo is not altogether perfect, because people who deal in scrip are supposed to act on their, judgment as well as their skill, and if they "operate" in stocks which there is no prospect of realising upoa except by a rise in the market, tUen the chances are not much better than billiards or any other transaction which borders upon gambling. One great argument in favor Of tlie license fee is that some of the brokers find it to be to their interest to pay nearty as large a fee to join a private association which cau confer no legal privileges in the conduct of their business, and affords no immunity from prosecution if such were decided upon, which is improbable, or it would have been undertaken before. '

The Moanatairi mania has not been stamped out yet. Everybody is relieved of the strain of trying to realise day by: day the amount of wealth to which they might hare attained if they had done something they didn't do, but the daily bulletins regarding- V breaking down," and half tons of specimens have ceased— it is to be hoped only- for a time. A fashionable tailor who was about to dis* play " the la(est novelty in coats : tlie Moanatairi" has laid by the pattern until another spurt. > A youthful printer has it still pretty strong. Having to " set up" a few lines in which Ts Moananui appeared, he made it "Te Moanatairi." This is not half so bad, how.ever, as some persons who,, under the excitement which the possession of a few shares engendered, forgot how many they had, and sold a few more than they were entitled to. .'■.

Sprue people are rather vague in expressing their wants through- the medium of newspaper advertisements, but occasionally everybody 'sees an exception to the rule. The other day an advertisement appeared as follows, or something like it: —"Wanted for the Waikato—-a good general servant who can cook and eat well." Now, although this appears very plaiu, there is something vas;uo in it too. It may be the advertiser had it in his mmd's eye that if he got a cook who would eaf her own cookery "well," she would probably, be a good cook. But a ; more probable reason has been suggested. It is that the general servant was wanted for a hotel; that some cooks drink a good deal and eat little ; and that if one .were found who eat well as well as cook well she would probably not "drink " much in the sense of using intoxicants. There is some show of reason in-this suggestion.

It is proverbial that people who arevin the habit.of going to auctions do ; not regard the old maxim, containing .'excellent advice, " never, to buy anything becauseifc is cheap."> Everybody who has any experience at all in these matter kn,ows that it is more often the case that these same people, unless they are very • old stagers,' seldom ; succeed in getting what' they require, but, not liking to come away without something, they make desperate bids towards"^ the last and get things knocked down to them which they do not want. They console tbemselvesvas did : Mr Toodles when reproached by his wife" for filling the house with; all sorts of lumber, "that it is handy to have it in the house." In one case out of twenty this may be ;the case, but in the other nineteen, bargains at auctions, unless they' actually consist of the articles really wanted by the purchaser, are myths. They are expensive luxuries. (At a sale the other day a party went out with strict injunctions to buy some enamelled, saucepans. He missed these articles but he bought a house. At another sale, which extended over four.day s> several people made great bargains, not so extensive as buying a house, perhaps, but enough to find that they had become possessors of articles' which they could very well do without. : J£very body could furnish in? stances of the kind from their own ex* perience. Perhaps few have gone the length of Mr Toodles, who invested in a coffin, " because it was handy to have it in the house,".but people who. buy things because they are cheap in the long run pay; dearly enough for their bargains. '

Everybody knows that our Thames Volunteers are decently—not to say respectably clad, and are not to be seen out at elbows, so' that the polite request tomembersofone corps "whose arms had not b.ee.n seen for a "month " was scarcely understood. Why should any company of volunteers, or any member of any company keep their arms out of sight fora whole month P If they succeed in doing it they cannot have much to do, for the " arms "are very necessary limbs to miners, or the miners without arms must be useless. (The ■" devil," who is a " cadet," mildly reminds everybody that," arms" is a milingtary term for rifles and bayonets, and has no reference to yojupteers' eyes and limbs, so the terms of the advertisement were an fait). ' : ..-.