ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1794, 5 January 1884, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

The year 1883 has finished its course, and gracefully retired to make room for 1884, which has one slight advantage over its predecessor, in the shape of an extra day, for this is leap year. I think it well to draw attention to the fact, so that the spinsters may not forget their privil'ge, and that the baehelois ma) be on their guard. I think it is pretty generally known that, during leap year, the ladies have the right to propose and the men to accept, or if they decline they are expected to present new dresses to the ladies who honour them with their preference. No doubt it will be a great relief to many a bashful man, who is afraid to ask the momentous question, to be saved the trouble and anxiety by having the question asked of him, and only having to to answer, " Yes, if you please." It will be very pleasant, provided the question is asked by the right lady, but quite the reverse if it is asked by the wrong one, and if he, in his bashfulness, bays, " Yes, if you please," by mistake. My advice to the bashful man is to remsmber \\ hat Shakespeare says :—: — " Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the flood we oft might win, By fearing to attempt," anil piuek up his cournge and speak at v once. .That «s the best way to secure the lady of jour choice, and to avoid the -Trisk of getting married iv spite ot yourself to someone whom you would not choose. * ♦ It is very satisfactory to know that the Hon. I<\ Whitaker— the Nestor of the Australasian Conference — lus consented to deliver an addicss on Tuesday next, in which he will give us a buef and clear account of what was said and done at the Confeicmc. Of coiuse we alieady know the gist of what was decided upon, but we will h.ivc a clearer idea of the re. .sons which induced the lcpiesentatives to adopt the resolutions winch wcie cuiicd when we ha\ c heard the st itenu-ut of one who not only " was time all the while,' but who can say of thcConfeienceas(Euuas did of the siege of Tioy, "in winch I was one of the piinoipal actoia." It would be useless foi me to attempt to indicate what the e\-Pienuer will &iy on Tuesday evening, but it is quite cei tarn that he will give us a cleaiei and more concise account of the woik done by the Conference than we now have, or than we could possibly obtain fiom newspapei repoits, however copious. Theiefore, I think, we may fairly congratulate ourselves that Mr Wlutaker has piomised to delher an address on that .subject. * *• There was a special meeting of the Haibour Board held on Monday, which was called for the puipose of considenng w hether the specifications for the gra\ ing dock at Calliope Point should be altered so as to peunit Dunedin stone to be used by contiMctois Theie seemed to be but little doubt about the Dunedin stone being infcnor to that obtainable at Bangitoto, the leason given why contiactois should be pemiitted to use it being that it was fcaied that theie would not be a feiiihcient supply oflaige blocks of stone to be had at Rangitoto. The engineer to the boat d stated that lie did not believe theie would be sufficient, but th.it lie did not consider the Dunedin stone good enough to be used to make up the deficiency. The membeis of the boird wisely decided to abide by his opinion and allow no infeiior stone to be used. A chain is as strong as its w eakest link, and a dock is as strong as its weakest stone, so it is well that we are to have no bad stone used in our dock, even though we hint the feelings of our Dunedin friends by condemning thenstone. Of coiuse, the engineer knows his ow n business bettei than [ could be expected to do, but judging by a cuisoiy (no wicked pun intended) seiainble over a portio.i of llangito'o, I should have supposed that there were enough Luge stones theie to constiuct a dozen docks. I Know that I saw tin immense number ot immense stones, one in paiticulai being so immense that I should think a foui -loomed cottage could be cuved out of it, and the pieces that would be kit would be laij:c enough to make a good sized stable. I remembei it well, because I neatly tell ofl it and got my shins " baiked " in sa\ ing myself. Of course, we weie delighted that our cricUeteis finished the old sear with a victoiy over the Canterbury visitois, the moie so that it was such a docishe wctory. Bcfoie the match began, the chances of the two teams vseie consulcied very even, but when the visitois scored 171 runs in then- tiist innings against our team's 141, people began to think that our ni'jn weie going to suffer a woise dofeat than they did at Chri&tehurch last year. When, however, the second innings of the visitois closed for 121, we began to think that our men weie "in" it," as that left them 1.1 1 to get to win the match, as it was felt that they could do it, provided they did not meet w ith any of the accidents so frequent at eiiokct. When the luncheon adjournment took place, our men had made (>S ot the 151 runs with a loss of thice w ickets, Aftei lunch they set steadily to woik, and the score giddually rose, each addition il ten on the telesjiapii board being greeted with checis by the spectatois. Forty runs weie added to the scoie at an expense of two wickets, and then Dew es joined Aineil, who had alte.idy made 37 runs, not to be sepaiated from him until the desired 151 had been made and the match had been won. Both men played well and des"ived the praise they le ceived, Arneil making oO inns, the top score of the match, and Dewes 1.1, neither man being out. Of coiuse Arneil received the lion's -share of the piaise, but Dewes was not foi gotten, as he, like Arneil, had made the runs when they were wanted, besides which he caught five of the Cauteibury men in the second innings, so that he contributed his full quota to the victoiy. •r- * The Auckland Racing Club's Summer Meeting was held on Boxing Day and the two first days of the new year, and was, on the whole, vciy successful. The attendance on the fiist and second days was laiger than ever befoie on Ellershe Racecourse, and on the third day it was very good. On Boxing Day there was a great deal of dissatisfaction at the way in which some of the Southerneis lan their horses, but on New Yeais Day they were "out of it," as Auckland horses won every race that wps run. Welcome Jack carried off the Publican's Purse, but it could haidly be said that he won the race, as he was never asked to gallop, there being only one other horse running and the result being a foregone conclusion. The most popular win of the meeting was that of the Racing Club Handicap by Bobbett's libeller. Mr Bobbett is very much fcjSked, because it is well known that he ' always runs his horses fairly to win if they can, and Libeller has always been a popular horse since first he ran under the rose and white stripes of the late Mr Walters. It only required the knowledge that his win upset a Southern "pot" that had been put on "Tim Whiffler" to make the crowd go almost mad with excitement, and give cheer after cheer for the horse, his owner and his rider. At the close of each day's racing we had the usual proofs of the excellence of our railway management. I need say no more. Considering how easily flowers grow here, and that almost every house has a piece of land attached to it which might be turned into a garden, and that nearly every man has some time which he could devote to gardening, it is a wonder and a pity that people do not grow their own flowers instead of allowing their children to beg, borrow, or steal those grown by other people. The children generally beg them, and they usually have some plausible reason to offer for so doing. The most frequent are : " Pletae will you give me some flowers to put on my ptfber'e grave/ <jr " Please, will you $ive

me some flowers, because my little baby brother is dead, aud I want some to put on his coffin." In most cases the father is alive and well, and either there is no baby, or he is "as good as gold, sitting in the gutter a making of mud pies." A fi lend of mine had a new excuse given him on one of the holidays. He is rather proud of his house and garden, so when he saw two little wclmis enter the latter lie went to enquire the reason. The younger asked for &ouie flowers, and the older, thinking it necessary to offer some explanation why they had gone down the garden path away fiom the house, said: "Please, the little boy thought it was his aunt's." My friend «as so disgusted that he could hardly speak, but lie managed to order them out of his garden. St. Monoo.