Auckland Gossip.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4429, 15 March 1883, Page 2

Auckland Gossip.

(FBOM OUE OWN COBBEBPONDENT.)

Auckland, Wednesday

'In the course of a month or a little more our shores will be visited by Mr Redmond, a Home Rule member of the Imperial Parliament, who is "doing" the colonies in the capacity of an accredited agent of the Irish Land League. He is now in Sydney, but does not appear to meet with much support. . A=«.private letter from Adelaide informs me that the Land Leaguer, after visiting Sydney and Melbourne intends visiting New Zealand, and that in Auckland the propaganda will be promulgated. It is very probable that before leaving this portion of the colony he will take a run down your way, and make an attempt to rake in some of your "good sugar." T trust that like sensible men you will button up your pockets and say " No." Were the money required to alleviate the sufferings of a famine stricken peasantry, or even to assist a patriotic band of reformers in carrying out a much needed reform by constitutional means, colonists would subscribe liberally; but when our money is asked to assist the machinations of a nest of fire brands bent on the disintegration, of the Empire, I think the time has arrived when we, in the eyes of the world \ should assert our loyalty, and send Mr Kedmond from our shores empty-handed. When Britons crossed the sea to found a nation on these lands, they left on the other side of the equator religious and party hatred, and they have found by experience that prosperty, happiness, and unity are the results. If we, the colonists of New Zealand, assist in any way in the furtherance of Mr Redmond's mission, we will have ourselves to blame for the crop of dissension that will inevitably result. Tennyson writes— " Man ia the true cosmopolite, who loves his native country bes'." New Zealand is more to us than our native country ; it is our home, and as we make our bed so we must lie in it. Therefore let us New Zealanders of every shade of of political opinion show our patriotism and strict attention to the interests of "number one '' by declaring contraband all such articles of commerce as "privy conspiracy, schism," and, I may add, interference with matters of Imperial policy that do not affect us in the least degree. "United we stand, divided we fall."

But I must not let my soaring patriotism become boss engineer of my pen. What I .have seen coming on for some months, and what I predicted in a former letter, is now upon us. I refer to a cessation in land speculation, and consequently depre* ciation in the value of landed property. The newspapers are full ot "for sale" advertisements, and those who " hare money to invest, and are willing to do so, are holding back for cheaper prices. Only last week, a friend of mine desirous of purchasing a house for about £300 sent round to fire or six of the leading land agents asking for lists of properties they might have for sale at the price mentioned. The result was astonishing ! He received next morning catalogues enumerating altogether no fewer than 65 properties. Thomas Russell and his brother capitalists hare commenced the cutting up of their fine estate of Surrey Hills, 400 acres of undulating fields bordering Ponsonby.road, and when this comes into the market, it should have a generally cheapening effect on all city and suburban properties. Of course I make reservation in favor of Queen, Hobson, Shortland, and one or two other leading thoroughfares. Rents in Queen street are terribly high, and if they increase much more the effect will be that the great bulk of the retailers will be driven into cheaper thoroughfares, and old Queen street will become two sombre rows of wholesale stores, banks arid insu^ ranee offices. The cheapest and smallest shops produce £6 per week. Goodson's rent for the London Arcade is £12, Montague's £8, and Dallen's about £7. So you will see retailers require to "stick it on" in the price, of their wares to make the balance come out on the right side of the ledger. Should the Harbor Board decide on adopting their Engineer's scheme of harbor improvement, which provides for the dismantling of Queen street wharf and the erection of the principal landing place off Hobson street, that thoroughfare will go ahead greatly. Indeed, it has much improved lately; nearly £12,000 has been expended on it in the erection of public-houses alone during the past nine months.

And now for a romantic story of real life, reeking with newness. In the chorus of the Simousen Opera Company, on its arrival here, was as pretty a little piece of womanhood as ever caused the manly heart to flutter, or the manly reason to .undergo that temporary state of aberration known to the initiated as lore. Her dark, clear, olive complexion, and eyes like—l was going to say ; like: Raglan diamonds, only they are black—showed that her birthplace lay in low latitudes ; while the faint soupcon of foreign accent proclaimed her a native of "La belle France." Alas ! fair, but frail. She had loved not wisely, but too well, one of the male members of the company ; but long ere her arrival here his intemperance and cruelty had dulled her affection, and driven the love-light from her eyes. [I am getting on swimmingly. 1 think after this I will give up writing "Auckland Gossip," and start in the three-volume novel trade]. Well, while in Auckland, the little woman received a curt lawyer's letter, informing her of the demise of a distant relation, thousands of miles across the sea, and adding, as a postscript, that a thumping legacy—some thousandswould follow in a few months. Her whilom lover heard of her good fortune, and endeavored to induce her to marry her. But no; she saw that it was his love of Mammon, and not of herself that induced the offer, and she steadily declined his advances. Then he began to persecute her, and to such an extent did ho carry his annoyance that ahe left the company, and took a situation as barmaid in a snug little upstairs bar. A day or two ago a burly Thamesite—somewhere from Owharoa way, I think—was doing what the Yankees would call " a tall mash " with | the fair foreigner, when who should come into the bar but her disappointed lover. Without any ado he began in hectoring tones to order her to come away with him. On her firmly refusing, he called her some sweetly polite names, and cast loud voiced reflections on her virtue. The Thames masher drew himself up to bis full height; he made tw% strides

towards the traduc>r of the woman, and the third he finished on a soft part of the coward's anatomy, sending him sprawling down about a dozen steps. So if any of you Thamesites see a stalwart miner gazing with the acute accentuation of love delirium at a tress of raven hair, you will not be curled up in agonised efforts to unravel the mystery; you will know that Hugbie has struck a big bonanza.

The Rev. George Brown, the brave and esteemed South Sea Island missionary, is again in Auckland. During the past seven years he with his staff of native leaders has been laboring in the islands of New Britaiu and New Ireland, and has reclaimed many of the cannibals from their state of savage barbarism. The adventures of this man would give material for the writing of a whole library of sensational literature, and he absolutely seems to bear a charmed life. It has been truly written that a prophet has no honor in bis own country ; neither has he in his own time. As assuredly as I now write these lines, when the next generation look back from a common standpoint on the history of missionary endeavor and missionary enterprise of our days, the intrepid workers amongst the islands of the Pacific will be placed in the foremost rank, and amongst the names considered worthy to be mentioned with those of Livingstone and iVJoffat, that of George Brown will stand out prominently -—written in indellible characters on the undying tablet of Fame.