WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2895, 10 May 1888, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(Prom our own correspondent.)

Mustering tor the SessionThere are faint premonitory signs in our streets of the approaching session. Coming events cast their shadows before them, and the shadows of Mr Vincent Pyke, several other members less known to fame, together with those of many familiar pressmen may daily be seen upon our pavements. But there is an utter absence of any excitement, and little hope of change on the political firmament. Wo are promised hard, steady,legislative work and less mere talk, Well, the leopard may change his spots, but we have /scriptural authority for considering the operation a doubtful one. Members may be impregnated with the best resolutions, but it is to be feared that the eacoethes loquendi will prove too much for them. Indeed, the seditious Seddon. has emphatically promised his admiring constituents that they will shortly hear Irom him, which, being interpreted, meaneth that lie. purposeth to stir up the animals (parliamentary) with a long pole on the first available opportunity. He will possibly grow wiser as he gets older. The ex-Premier, Sir Robert Stout is in Wellington, looking very well and not nearly so haggard and worn as when last here. No doubt, the wounds to his vanity having healed, he is at heart glad to have escaped parliamentary bondage, and to be thus enabled to devote himself to his profession.. He must have injured his practice considerably by his attention to politics. As a lawyer Sir Robert finds his proper sphere, as a statesmen he would probably now own that he was a failure.

Land Sales. An immense amouut of real estate Lis changed hands in Wellington recently. Yesterday the Wellington Athenanim was sold, and purchased on account of Kennedy Macdonald for 19,200. The Fernhill property, Wadestown, was put up immediately after and a number of allotments were sold at fair prices. The balance of the Karori estate is going off slowly but surely, and land in other places lias been disposed of at good prices. Ido not know Whether this '• land boom" denotes prosperity, or a desire on the part of some enterprising citizens to make money circulate and to give the building trade a lift. A number of new houses are going up, yet at the same time a number of houses are empty, and I am assured by more than one builder that building can be effected now very cheaply. Chinese Immigrants.

The anti-Chinese demonstrations at the Bluff, Invercargill, and Dunedin, have excited some considerable interest here, where our yellow bretheren are none too much loved. At this I do not wonder, for some of the Chinese dens in this city are of an atrocious character. There is one shop kept by a Chinaman which is constantly full of very younggirlsivho donotappear to buy anything, but simply to loaf about and obtain small presents of fruit &c, Of course all this maybe perfectly innocent, and the presiding John may simply he one of those benefactors of his species who keep a shop for the mere pleasure of donating its contents. At the same, time very queer stories are in circulation, but tho columns of a paper that penetrates into domestic circles, are hardly the best media in which to discuss these delicate matters.

The Auckland Refuge. This place is either very uuforfcunato in its officials, or those officials are very much maligned. The Refuge is once more in bad odor. A Mr Bailey has made most serious allegations touching the treatment there of a Mrs Sharp. Bo far back as March 1886, the most horrible charges of cruelty were made against the manager of the Auckland Old Men's Refuge-the same institution I believe as that now under a cloud. A Mi' Kidd, a member of the Hospital and Charitablo Aid Board, was informed of tbeso charges and at once communicated with other members of the Board, and they went to the Refuge and made enquiry. The powers of conservatism and concealment arose in arms. The New Zealand Herald jeered at the whole matter and dubbed thegeiitlemenwlio interfered as " a self constituted committee." Subsequently there was some kind of an enquiry, but the charges of cruelty were never disproved, though the managor was retained. Jt is to be hoped that a searching, exhaustive and independent enquiry, may now be conducted. Nothing is ifiore heartrending than the supposition that those who are old, weak, ill and poor, and with no. means of defence, should be subjected to the brutality of some dreadful, cruel, and heartless Bumble in authority.