ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1607, 21 October 1882, Page 2

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

We liavn been going in for conclaves of one &ort or another lately. Last week we had the meeting of the directors of the Press Association, winch has, from small beginnings, risen to be a corporation of much impoitaneo, as it has now upwaul*. ot forty papers under its pioti-cting wing. I met one of the Southern members of the directorate— a joual young "Irishman — not so very young, but lie seems haidly as old as one would expect, considering the imp>itint position he holds in the journalistic Moild. Young or old, he is a most pleasant companion, talking well on almost any subject. He g.ive me a most interesting account of the celebrated Parihaka campaign, in which iie took part, as a volunteei officer. He was much pleased with To Whiti, whom ho dcsciibed as a fine, noble-looking man, to whom he would not lu\o the slightest hesitation in tiustiug his life. Tolm Mas •' a grey hoisc oi another color," being a repulsive looking man, whom no one who was a judge of physiognomy would lie willing to tiust, " as far as you could throw a bull by the houis." My fi iond mas much impi essed by the feeling of disappointment manifested by both the Volunteers and constabulary when they found that there was no lighting to be done. They went to Pauhakato fight, and they thought that it Mas rather like going on a fool's errand when they found the Maoiis quietly surrendering without striking a blow ior their libeity. One of those most surprised and dis. gu&tod at the Paiihaka ooup was Hiroki, the niurdeier. He evidently had no idea that lie would be hung, anil seemed inclined to treat his arrest as a ' huge joke. ' Even when lie a\ as handcuffed and iinpii&oned (his piisou was a bell teut at Piuigarehu) lie calmly amused himself by playing dominoes with the Constabulary men who were guarding him. However, he found that there was not much joking hi the matter when ho Mas tried, found guilty and sentenced to vlcath, though he seemed to believe, until the aotnal time of his execution arrived, that he would, be repiioved, My friend told me a number of very good snake stories, one of which whs very neatly being the. story of his own death. One flay he was out on the sand? near Sandridge, at the mouth of the Yarra, the river on the banks of which Melbourne is, built. A younger brother of his who was with him saw a snake, and informed him ot the fact. As waging a war of extermination a«ainst all dangerous reptiles was one of his favorite amusements, he *' went for" his snakeship, who was burried in a sandhill, with the exception of a small piece of his tail, which protruded. He managed to get the reptile out of the lair, and, as he thought, killed him with a stout stick he oarried. Believing the snake to be dead, , he took hold of it 1 by the neck' and held' it' up in his hand to show his brother. No sooner had lie-'douel BcOthanithVaniiiftJ, which had been merely stunned, coiled its body round his wiist. -His dread was that his arm would be paralysed by cramp, but he retained' his presence of mind and his hold of the. brute's neck. After what seemeel a 'terrible 'long time, (moijjeuts segmed like hours to him then) the'snake unwound -iifslf. <He threw it from him as far as possible, picked up his stick and belaboured it until he was quite'sure tKdt it could do no, more harm to him or anyone else. There was one, very laugl»a.bje, snake

adventure which occurred near Castletnaine. A waggoner, driving towards the town, saw a snake at the side of the road. Shortly afterwards he mot a number of volunteers, who were going out to the butts to do some rifle-shooting. He told them what he had seen, and they determined to despatch the reptile. They soon reached the place whore it was and began shooting at it. Every time a bullet struck it, it jumped up into the air. Alter the fnsilade had continued for some time, the volunteers summoned up sufficient courage to go closer to the reptile, when they discovered that they had been wasting their bullets on a stock-whip! This iveek we have had another conclave, a very different one from, the meeting of the directors of the Press' Association. This has been a solemn conclave, to wit, the meeting of the Diocesan Synod of the Anglican Church. Like" our Parliament, the Synod seems to have spent as much time as'possible in talking and as little as possible in work. In connection therewith there was a choral festival in St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral Church (a very poor and a very ugly substitute for a cathedral, by the way) on Monday evening., The church was crowded to excess, many people being compelled to stand, but the offertory amounted to only £14 7s lOd. I would like to know whether there were any coppers in the plates, or whether some large-souled individual, who could riot find a threepenny piece, put in a fos»« penny bit. As there could not havi|| been less than six hundred people in the church (there were probably more than that number) the offertory would have amounted to £30, had everyone put in the plate one shilling, which does not seem an extravagant sum, considering the quality of the music. The Roman Catholic friends manage these matters better than we Protestants do. When I was in Melbourne there was a grand reopening of St. Francis' Church, in Lons-d.vle-stteet, after extensive repairs. ' On all the available hoardings in the city there were large posters, announcing that the re-opening would take place on Sunday, the of , that the Opera Company had kindly given their services, and that the charges for admission would be, front si'iits, 10s Gd, second seats, 7a Od, and back seats, ss. The J high charges pi oved no deterrent, as the large church was crowded, almost to suffocation, and a very handsome amount was realised as the result of a collection taken up before the close of the service. A good deal of anxiety was felt in the eaily p.ut of the week, in consequence of the supposed loss of the steamer Lalla Rookh, on her voyage from the Manukati to Waifara. What made the matter more distressing, if possible, was the statement which was freely made that the Lalla Rookh had put up blue lights as sifju.Us of distress, that these had been seen by the officers aud men of the s.s. M.icgregor, but that no attempt had been made to render assistance to " the missing vessel. It has now transpired that the Lalla Rookh went into Kawhia to obtain shelter from the gale that was blowing, and that she put up no bliio lights, nor g.ive any signal of di^tiess. "All's well that ends well," but it would lu\e been a most unfortunate tiling for the captain of the Macgregor had the Lalla Rookh been lo&t. as in the fac of the evidence of his crew, it would have been almost;, if not quite impossible for him to have proved tli.it lie did not see and disregard the signals of distiess. What a soft, poetic sound th.it name Lalla Rookh has ! "Whi'iievcr I lead, hear, or speak it I always ii>el inclined to sit down and lead once nicne that beautiful poem of Moore's, wheuce tho name is deiivcd. I'erhnps lam not quite correct in calling Lilla Rookli a poem, as in my copy of Alooie it is called •' An Oriental Romance." Still all the language is poetical, aud nothing could be more musical thm " Paiadise and the Peri," "The T^ite Worshippers,'' and "The Ught of the Harem." I suppose I must admit that "The Veiled Prophet of Khoras&an "is musical also, but the story is so horrible th.it I find myself wishing that Moore had left it out of Lalla Rookh and given us something moie pleasant in its stead. St. Mrxc-so.

MrJ. 8 BucMaiul will b"ll .at the Cnml)iuli,'c V.ir.lb .it noon to-day, .iO hacks, li^ht harness a*d piouirh hoisc -,' troni Napier, lu'-ii-v dnpjflit colt, lumKom" Ihmvj draught filly by Loch l''ori?n% S.i. On I ui-clny next, it the Olini))') Y.mK, he will offor for sale tlio whole of Mr J.ibiv Westnoy's Ine stock and firming implements. The Oiangc Logdcs in Wuikato are .ibotit to ii',iuuc then mi'etintrs, tluir suspension hn-Mii},' been removed b\ the Grand I^odf^e. Sons of L'Nti'r, Xo. 9, m.'et it tlio Victona Hall, Hamilton, on Thursd i\ next, at 8 p.m., and the \bner No Si, at the Good I cmplar':, Hall, Hamilton, on I'uesd.n no\t. at tlio same hour.