What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2598, 5 May 1877, Page 3

What Everybody Says.

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

Tho.County Chairman has been pitting his wit against that of the wily savageand everybody says that neither has gained much advantage. The former has been artfully plying the young men with flattering speeches, and has succeeded in gaining them over to his way of thinking, but he has a difficult task before him to convert old Rewi, to say nothing of Tukukino and others of his kind o' people. Brpdie is not easily put off. He is like the importunate widow, and will not give in until he has carried his point—at least his road by Totara Point. By-the-bye old 'Rewi got abusive /the other day, and spoke of the rapacity°if the " rotten-eyed pakehas." When a^Taori descends to abuse he is pretty well hard up for argument, and the way to best him then is to give abuse in return; so if the County Chairman ihould feel inclined to try this on, every- j body could name a pakeha-Maori who can do that sort of thing to perfection. He has a vocabulary ot exasperating tiori epithets which would drive any sitire native mad in a few hours if levelled at him judiciously. Tukukino and Rewi would not be the worse of a little discipline. Let the County Council give over talk for a while and try action. Secure some of those mischief-loving, natives in the act of demolishing a newly made road, bring them down to Shortland and deal with them summarily, but according to law. A month in gaol would do some of them good ; saVe the money of the County, and the time of the Chairman and; some of ; his, colleagues who have shown such a disposition to conciliate the obstructive element in the native race.

'-■ Some time ago when T'noch-—not the seventh from Adam, but a journal of a prophetic tendency—Was seen more often than 1 is tibw the case, the prophesying editor published a diagram which bad, a grbat deal.t© tfb with. " troubles.".: Thus: Orangeism was one trouble,. Masonry another trouble!, and so on. , Troubles, as everybody knows* are plentiful enough; and apart from family troubles, of which most people have enough and tol spare, there arenational troubles, of which war may.be said to be one. One is not enough apparentlyy for Russia, which has war, for it is recorded in the New Zealand Herald that she (Russia) intends to borrow in the spring no less than, " 200,000,000 trQubles." • If 'application is made no doubt they canbe transferred.at least in part, from the Thames, and the time, of re-payment postponed indefinitely. With' this large Joan inthemarket our stockbrokers' occupation is not yet gone, as no. .doubt everybody will be glad to pay more than 1 i per cent.,to get rid of theirs. : •

The Georgias are to appear on Monday, and,: like coming events, have cast their shadows before to show everybody what they are like or unlike. These shadows take the shape of large and black woodcuts, and decorate or disfigure the windows and boardings where they are placed. They attract attention, and looking at one of theirii^he other day, one gazer said to his friend 1, " Look at that handsome man." By-chance it was that a youngman who, like many young men, was vain of his appearance was walkings short; distance ahead, and, hearing the above words, thinking they referred, to him, v turned round with a gratified smile. The speaker spoke injrony, and yet tbe.vain one knew; it.not, Surely everybody will allow that where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." •'■■ -••- ■ ■■/"■■■■■"; ': ■' V \ •'".' .■'-•

Everybody may not know that Professor W.K. Smith, of the Free Church College, Aberdeen, has been found fault with.for two articles "The Bible" and "Angels," which he contributed to the new edition of the Cyclopaedia Britannica. The New. Zealand Herald had an article on it, and it has beendiscussed in various quarters. Some people were discussing it the other day; and waxed argumentative, and one of these appealed to another whose thoughts were bent on mining affairs, and mining affairs only. The question put was, " What do [you think of the Pentateuch ? " The answer given, *' Well, I don't know, is there any money in it ?" It was explained to him that it was not a mine, but part of the Bible, on which he exclaimed, " Well, I don't know what it is ; I know there was a Queen of .Sheba claim down here; they call it the Queen of Beauty now;.so I thought this Pentateuch was another of them, and when they turned up gold they'd call it something else; everybody talks about the Bible to get *• something, and when they get it they. don't think more of the Bible then." Can anybody say whether this miner was ' altogether wrong, or whether he was not ■ in his own way affording another illustration of the truth of the lines-i—

When the devil was ill, the devil a monk would be; Bui when the devil got well the devil a monk was he?

Everybody is complaining slillabout the times being very bad—not here only, but in some parts of the Colony which have beeii regarded as the most It is not a healthy sign, this general complaining, and the undoubted increase of poverty and destitution in a young country is.,deplorable. It looms out as a gigantic.difficulty which concerns everybody, and will have to be considered by everybody seriously. . In the ''.premier city" of the colony the refuges for destitute children are said to be so full that the Magistrates have had to choose between sending unfortunate waifs to prison or into the streets again. In many places work is said to be scarce, and money very scarce. To come nearer home it is reported that in Auckland the other day, for an,assistant clerkship which" carries a salary- of £120-a year, there were over a hundred applicants. After this it is time, everybody says, that free immigration was stopped. Apropos of free immigration, woukbsome member of Parliament at the next session move for a return of the number of persons who have returned to the Colony at the expense of the. country after having gone home for; their own pleasure. The number would, if it could be arrived at, be.fqund to be not an insignificant one, and many of those who secured a cheap return passage vtfould have come attheir own expense if a beneficent government had not provided for them, which suggests that the free passage system is open to abuse. > v

Dr. Martin H. Payne, in a letter to the Hospital Committee, has revived an un-, pleasant subject, and everybody will now want to know something more about it.

To the House Committee has been relegated the duty of ferretting out full particulars, and while they are about it everybody would like them to do their work thoroughly. The matter referred to is the post mortem on that little old man who was found one morning about a month ago dead, at the foot of a cutting in the Karaka Road. As some ugly rumors are afloat, will the Committee be good enough to satisfy themselves on these points : Whether the cause of death was not ascertained to be dislocation of the neck with a very cursory examination ? Whether after that the brain was found to be diseased?; If the medical examiner did, as reported, unnecessarily " cut" the body for the purpose of affording to an assistant an anatomical demonstration? Is it usual for medical men performing post mortem operations to do more with the knife than is actually necessary to ascertain the cause of death P These and other queries might well be enquired into, because this case may be taken as a sort of precedent in Hospital matters for the future, as the Thames Hospital has hitherto been regarded as a healing instistitution, pure and simple. Everybody trusts tho enquiry will be thorough and impartial, for the sake of all concerned, including Dr. Martin H. Payne.