ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1613, 4 November 1882, Page 2

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

The great sporting event* of the colonies —the' Melbourne* Cup 'Vafte-i-tdok' <place l - on Tuesday,, and, as everyone who takes an interest in' racing ' 'matters' 'already knows, resulted in a " boil-over," a rank outsider winning tKe race. The reVult of the race does not affect^ me personally, as I had no money on Assyrian or any other horscentered-ior -the Cup,- avhalf-crown -> sweep on the course at .sueh^of our local i % aces as I attend' being the extent of my gambling on Jiorse races., .Taking the; Melbourne Clip as their text,' the' two' daily papers had leading articles on Wednesday on the gambling proclivities of people nowadays, and the possibility or otherwise of putting down gambling by law— of making people moral, in this respect, by Act of Parliament. In my humble opinion, gambling has grown to ,_ such an extent that it has become an un- * mitigated evil, "and there will be no mitigatiou of the evil so long as the law forbids a few friends to get up a half-crown sweep, while it allows professional bookmakeis to pursue their calling in the hotels' and' the public streets^ without letj^ or hindrance. What we want is an act' which will make it an offenqe to promote a sweep for purposes of profit;, with 1 ' the exception of such firofit -as any one winning the sweep will get, and which all engaged in it shall have an equal chance of getting. The only exception' to this rule should be totalisators, worked under the inspection of the racing clubs. Any per-; son making a bet on any horse jShoulu be' liable to punishment! 'If 'some 1 such act as this were brought into foi'ce, the horses ' would be rim on their merits and we should hear no moie of horses "being pulled and races being sold. ■ > - - Anyone who lived in Auckland in the old military days will remember how/ differeut our races were then from what 1 they have been of late' years. Then > the horses were owned by the officers and the gentlemen living near, here. There was little betting, and what there was was not for large amounts. The horses nyi ? on their merits, no one thought of pull- '. ing a horse or selling a race, and, ,bar ' accidents, the best horse won. Bookmakers were as rare on the racecourse as the moa, and, if the now familiar cry " I lay ! I lay ! I lay !" had been heard, most of the people who attended the meetings would have been- at a loss to know what * ib meant. Now everything is changed. * People do not know whether the best horse will be allowed to win, because they do not know whether it will suit the book of his owner or whether the owner has been " squared." Of course, I would be sorry to say, that owners of racehorses can be influenced by the consideration of how their horses' winning would suit their books. Some of tliem are as honest gentlemen as ever sat in a pigskin, but it is, unfortunately, true that there are others who are not, like Csesar's , wife " above suspicion." The question is " Will it evermore be thus ?" or shall we L see a reform of the turf » The other day I walked up to the top of Mount Ellen with an , old gentleman' who had not been therp for thirty years. He (a young man then) and some' other young men went up to the top , ot the . hill one day to reconnoitre and then wen'fc up again at night, taking a lantern with them, to get some Maori skulls out of the crater. Now there seems a probability of that crater, which was then a Maori burial place, being used as a reservoir for the city of Auckland. The change which hud taken place in thirty ye-us in thej varied landscape viewed from the top of ' Mount Eden simply beggars description. It was almo&t impossible to believe that it Wiis the same panorama of views which lay below. Nor was it the same, for everything had changed. Scoria, ti-treo and scrub had been cleared away, and churches, houses, gardens and •well-kept shrubberies had taken their places. No ! not quite everything h.id changed, for Rangitoto looked exactly the same as it did thirty years ago, and, probiljly as it did three - hundred or e\ ea a thousuid years ago', for geologists tell us that it is upwards of a thousand years since it was in erup* tion, and that it was probibly the last of the volcmoes in the neighbourhood of Auckland to become extinct. There seems to be a probability that within the next thirty ye irs, or probably in much less time than that, a change will be made hi the appeal ance of even Rangifcoto. The Crown Linds Board have decided to giant the harbour board a quarry reserve on the island, and to offer threfc other areas for leabc as quarries, so that in time an alteration will be made in the appearance of this old monument. By the by, I do not suppose that it is •generally known that Rangitoto is not ' always isolated. At low water it is quite easy to walk from it to Motutapu. On evening Bland Holt's company brought a very" successful season, of six week's duration, , to a close. It was very successful as far as attendance was concerned, the Opera House having been filled almost every night, sometimes to excess. It was not very successful as far as the , character of the pieces played was concerned, as they were not of an elevating character, being sensational dramas, with one or two, murders, a fight, a shipwreck, the ex- , plosion of an infernal machine, a racing swindle, and the kidnapping of a child by way of a pleasing variety. I fail to see the attraction in plays of this sort, but they draw the people, and so long as they do managers will continue to produce them. " There is no accounting for tastes, and peoples' opinions will differ." Said an old Scotch minister to one of his elders. "If everyone had been of my opinion, everyone would have wanted to marry my wile." "And if everyone had been of my opinion," re* f .plied the elder, a crusty old' bachelor, " no one would have wanted to marry your wife." I heard a very good story about hard swearing *the other day. A bricklayer sued a builder for a sum of money which" he alleged was due to him for building a chimney in a house for which the defendant was the contractor. The plaintiff went into the witness-box and swore that he had built the chimney according to the specifications and that Mi' Plans, the architect, had seen it and approved' it. The defendant gave his evidence, in which he swore that the chimney was not ac- *■ cording to the specifications and that he refused to pay for the work because Mr Plans had examined it, ,but refused ,to ' pass it. As neither plaintiff nor defendant adduced any corroborative evidence, the.plaintiff was non-suited, , After the . Court had adjourned, the Magistrate, just as he was'going out, trieb Mr Plans, and told him what had occurred. "The < one is as bad as the other," said Plans. i" I have not seen the chimney" yet." The Mayor has called a meeting,- to be held to-morrow, > (Friday) afternoon, to decide what steps shall be taken in the I matter of < electing, -a', local > committee to 'take the control of the Hospital and In--It i?*to be hpoed that, a^largev - numb'tfinwillatM, iKrf^fcatfl^wffl 1 < be takeu^ to .place these institutions ,on f a , more satisfactory 'basis than 'a ; t pVesent * , ■„ !t? \7,j'\ u.Sft -Muyoo. '

',* M^Vi^AFd^m^if^r^ci *6f Wales' ' •(Hotel, Hobson-strcct, Auckland, announces that ho has-risbuiif thcxhbtcl and. fumijliccl same- r in firet-<&ss style/ which is *rcple'fe *with l every' | None but, the; chdlcdst br»hds ,of , wines,- ales", anS' spirits "are , kept, " The billiard rbora is«iit>de£the superint.Qfidenco'oC Mr Ford, 1 , lato ; ; , of Gwyquos Hotel, Hamilton. Waikatu '7Y/WM- filed. ,. '; , ; . .1 -?-■-, <* .< a j » * !r-~& j IV 7,'/- j » -r»"i l 1' 1 ,"„ 'l