EPHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1649, 30 January 1883, Page 3

EPHOES FROM THE CAFE.

As 'I predicted a fortnight ago would be the casej the 1 electors of the £eninsula have* given ' a most decided proof that they do not wish the present educational system of the colony interfered with, by placing Bishop Motan at the bottom of the poll? Of course,' the 1 ballot is sacred, but if it were examined to see how each individual voted, I believe that it would be jfound that a large proportion, and those the more intelligent of the Catholics in the electorate voted against the bishop. However" the result was obtained, it is a satisfactory one, as showing that the electors do not wish the introduction of denominationalism (that's a •long word, too long to please me, but what can a poor man do seeing that the English language provides no shorter equivalent) into our educational system. It will serve as a warning to those holding 1 similar views on the subject that, however excellent they may be in other ways, they court defeat if they admit that they are not " sound upon the goose" as far as education is concerned. As a result of the Legal Practitioners Act, pa.ssed during the last session of our Pailiament, the J)uncdin lawyeis have decided that in future they will, if desired by their clients, take up cases on commission, .so that the amount of their payment will depend on the degree of their success. Many a man would be saved from serious Joss, possibly from niin, it the lawyers canied the matter still tiuther, and decided that the rule should be, "No cure, no pay." It not unfrequeiitly happens that a lawyer goes into court, well knowing that his client lias not the slightest chance of obtaining a verdict unless through the uncertainty which chaiactonses the law. On the other hand it sometimes occurs, though not veiy often I think, that a man who has a good case finds himself defeated and compelled to pay costs through the neglect of his lawyer. A good many people will lemember the almost intcitniiiablc litigation in which the late Mr J. >S. Macfarlane, Mr Thomas Craig, Mr L. A. Hauis, and Mohi Mangakahia weic concr-rncd, and the bankiuptcy case of George Thorne, jum\, which was left by Sir George Ainey as a legacy to Mr Justice Gillies, and settled by him. Those cases would not ha,\c lasted a tithe of the time that they did had the lawyeis been paid byiesults.

The alleged Hamilton minder case ha= been the pnncipal topic of conversation this week and has drawn huge mini hers of people to the Supiemc Court. Each night the juiy has been locked up at the Albeit Hotel. This is a great improvement, as far as the jurymen aie concerned, on the old system of locking them up in the Couit itself. A gentleman told me a rather good story ot w hat happened some yeais ago, when he had the pleasiue of being locked up all night. Instead of being locked up in their own 100 m, the juiors were, as a gi eat concession, allowed the mn of the Supiume Couit-house. One of the twelve "good men and tine" was a pious ft ami named Eastgatc, who was in business in Auckland at that time. He it was who called a meeting of his creditors, and -when they had assembled said that, as it was a serious matter about winch they had met, he thought that they should begin the meeting with prayer. The chairman said that he quite agreed with Mr Eastgate, .stood up, clooed his eyes, bowed his head, and said in the most solemn tone of voice, " For what we aie about to leceive may thcLoid make us tiuly thankful." To letumtoour sheep, as the. Fiench &ay, or lather to our jury stoiy. When daylight came in the morning after the jinymen had been locked up, they began to look aiound and to count noses. Eleven of them saw each other, but w heie was the twelfth ? They looked on and under tables, foims and desks, but could see no tiace ol the missing link. What theii eyes tailed to do their cais did. They heaid a sound— theic could l)e no mistake about it — of snoiing. They went to the pl.iec whence the sound oamo and found Eaitgate sleeping as. peacefully a& a pig m the judges chair, with the cm tains loaning the canopy diawn comfortably around him. * A meeting of sub&ciibcis to the hospital was held on Wednesday for the piupose ot electing foui governois of that institution. Although it was stated that about a huudicd and eighty had paid subsciiption.N, only about thirty put in aii appeal, nice, and it seemed that they might have saved themselves the tioublc of going to the meeting, as the committee, who had been appointed at a picwotis meeting to obtain subscriptions, had o\ idently got the whole thing "cut and dried." One of that committee proposed and another seconded that Messrs J. C. Firth, T. Peacock, E. A. Mackechnie and J. M. Clark should be elected go\emoi& of the hospital. The majoiity ot the subscribers present did not object to the gentlemen pioposed, but did object to the way in which it was done. They ueic like the Scottish nobleman, who said, when he hea.d that the English Regent, appointed dining the infancy of Edwaid VI, had sent a message to Scotland, demanding that a maniage should take plate between Maty Queen of Scots and the English king, or else he would nnade .Scotland, that he disliked not the match, but he liked not the mannor of wooing. So it was on Wednesday, the consequence being that a resolution was cariied that nominations should be received until Friday at noon, and that a election should take place on "Wednesday next. In all piobabdity the four gentlemen nominated by the committee will be elected, and it would be difficult to get four better men, kit the subset ibeis have the opportunity of pioposing and electing otheis, if they are disposed to do so. The Haibour Boaid is the public body which is attiacting most attention at present. Its member*, seoin to be divided into three distinct parties— the old identities who think that, as wo have managed to rub along with wooden wharves and other makeshifts for so many years, we ought not to change ; the young bloods, who want to leave behind all the old foeey notions and push on at once all important works ; and the moderates, who aie, or say they aie, quito willing to go ahead, but feel bound to look before they leap. The great bone of contention is the scheme of permanent harbour works proposed bv the board's engineer. The young bloods wish to adopt the scheme at once, and to make all future works in accordance with that scheme, while the moderates wish to send home the plans with all requisite information to the best engineering authority in England for his opinion, and the old fogeys o.bject to the scheme in toto. L believe that the moderates are in the right in this matter. The scheme proposed will involvo an immense expenditure, and it behoves a body of men who have to expend thousands of pounds of public money to take every possible care that that money is spent judiciously. The boards' engineer may be, and probably is, a man of great ability, but, being human, he is liable to err, as he proved by his celebrated railway wharf blunder, and it will not do for us to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds, and then to find that the money has been worse than thrown away— that it has been spent on useless works, ani v that our harbour has been spottefl. $c. Mungo.

Fresh tepcjer^ are invited for the erection of a post and telegraph office at To Aroha. ,The names of tlie sub-rogfctrars of dogs in the County or Pjako, are given in our advertising columns, ; Mr J, S."Buokland will sell, at" the AVaihou yards on ' Thursday next, Ut and store c»ttle, dairy cows, sheep, horses.' On Saturday next he will sell at the National Hotel, Cambridge, a large number of useful horses, also bacon and hams, &c. On Saturday, the 10th Feb., he will sellalj Cambridge, 2fi horses overland from Napietvin-1 .cludj.njf,. harness ponet aqd. •up^rio?^wotkh^ v