ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1605, 17 October 1882, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Monday, October 9th, 1882, being the fortieth anniversary of the arrival at Auckland of the ships Jane Gifford and Duchess of Argyle, having on board about six hundred emigrants from Scotland, the occasion was celebrated by a re-union of as many of the passengers by the two ships as could be got together. The proceedings consisted of a few speeches, a concert and a ball, and everything passed off very successfully. How those old fossils who assembled in the Lome-street Hall, then young men and women, would have laughed forty years ago at anyone who had ventured to predict that, within four decades, they would see on the shore of the Waitemata such a city as Auckland is to-day, and that, beyond what were then impenetrable swamps and forests, there would spring up towns like Hamilton and Cambridge, of greater size and of far more importance than was Auckland in 1842. Those old colonists deserved to succeed, for their indomitable courage in coming so far from their native land to a country of which they must necessarily have known almost nothing, where there were no roads, no bridges, no railways and not even a tramway. However, they were of the right sort to get on well in any place, belonging to the hardy Scotch middle and working classespeople who would thrive where almost anyone else would st>rve. I am an Englishman, and am very proud of the fact, but I cannot help thinking it would, in some respects, have been b> tter for Auckland if she had had more Scotch immigrants than she did have. There is no doubt we Aucklanders are a very mixed lot. Rome of us came from London and the manufacturing towns of England, which are just about the worst possible places from which to draw immi grants for a new country. Others came from agricultural districts of England, but there were not many of them, as Hodge does not like to leave the place where he has been born and bred, and he has no faith in a country which lias no workhouse and no parish relief. However, Hodge is a little —a * cry little — better educated than he used to be, and, as the result of his better education, he will soon learn that he can live well and save money here instead of starving at home. Such men as Messrs Grant and Foster and their parties coming out here wil I tend to bring out the English agricultural labourer. We have received more of this chiFa of immigrant from Scotland and Ireland, especially from the former. The various British regiments which have been here have left a number of their men behind them, of whom some are good colonists, while others are cood for nothing. Our various wars brought us other colonists besides the British soldiers, including the men who formed the Waifcato Militia. Our goldfields brought us quite a different class from those who came from any other cause, including the hardy, industrious miner, not always very clenr in his notions of tncton and tuiini in the matter of the gold he found in his employer's mine; the mining speculator and the sharebroker, who did some harm by inducing people to enter into rash speculations, and some good by infusing more life and vigour into our commerical transactions. These are some of the sources from which the population of Auckland lias been derived, and the consequence is that we ate, as I have already slid, a very mixed lot. Mr Thomas Peacock, M.H.U., addressed the electors of City North on Monday evening. He made a capital, sensible speech, reviewing the work of the session fairly and impnrtially. and well deserved th< j unanimous vote o com fidence he received. I was latln-r sui prised that he omitted to mention tli.ii little matter, caiefullv overlooked by Mi Moss, the f.iet that the Auckland mem bers united in asking the Ministry to make special and separate provision foi the Waikato-Taranaki railway, and that the Greyite members voted against them for complying with their request. 1 think that was one of tie basest pieces of ingratitude recorded in the annals of the colony — an .act that might have b-en pri formed by Judas Iscariot without doing the slightest violence to his geneially accepted character. If Mr Peacock's speech had a fault, it *\as that it wn« rather too long, but as he gave his au.li ence a better idea of the work done dnr ing the session than they would othcrwist have had, they would forgive the length of the speech, which was as different from the diarrhoea of words to which Mr Moss treated the electors of Parnell as day is from night. The Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston, delivered a lecture in tlio Opera House on Tuesday morning to an audience which filled the building from fluor to ceiling. It is extremely improbable that there would have been; such a bumper house had there been a charge of a shilling made for admission, while it is a dead certainty that the Opera House would not have been half-full had a charge of half-a-crown been made. We Aucklanders do like a cheap entertainment, while we positively dote on one that is given "free gratis for nothing." I did not hear Mr Cook's lecture, but I have been assured by some who did that it was very good. It would need to have been, for people to have spent two of the best hours on a mail day in listening to it. The filling of that vacant seat seems have given the Ministry a good deal of trouble. What a pity it is that it was not an Auckland man thatwas wanted and that it was not the portfolio of Colonial Treasurer that was to be given away. In that case the Ministry might have secured the assistanceof that heaven-born financier, Mr Dargaville, who made such a wonderful speech on our coloni.il finances last session that neither he nor anyone else can tell what it was all about. I think I must send a telegram ("collect," of course) to Major Atkinson, asking him if he cannot manage to take some other portfolio, or even retire into private life, to make room tor this Chancellor of the Exchequer in embryo. The office of the registrar of births, marriages and deaths, has been removed from the small shanty at the back of the Supreme Court to the post-office building. This will be a great convenience to the general public, and should tend to a large increase in the number of marriages, as many a good man has started with the laudable intention of getting married, but has been so bewildered by his fruitless search for the registrar's office that he has quite forgotten what he was looking for and has gone down to the railway station and taken the first train for Howick. Talking about the railway station makes me wonder when that wretched abortion is to be removed and replaced with a building more in keeping with our city. I believe that some of the Southern members, who came up here after the last session of Parliament, expressed great surprise that we Aucklanders had put up with such a wretched apology for a station as long as we have done. They do not know what a long-suffering people we are. However, before long the station will be gone. The sooner the better thinks St. Muxgo.

A MAN named Smith, living at Kirkwhod, Missouri, chastised hi» son, a lad of 13, for disobedience, and the latter retaliated by shooting his father wHHa shotgun, killing him iPfontly.