AUCKLAND NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2053, 3 September 1885, Page 3

AUCKLAND NOTES.

[FROM V COURKSI'ONDKNT.] Aicki \m>, Tuesday. The leading sensation of tho week has been the publication in detail of tho " Pall M.ill Gazette " revelations by the freethought organ in this city, and although an e\tia charge in consequence has been made on this issue, an immense number of them has been sold. The "hocking tales of piofligacy nnd debauchery disclosed by the " Pall Mall Gazette are, when read in det.nl, sickeningly repulsive. Personally, I think it well that the light of day should be let into those dark dens of iniquity and death. In many cases the subject is being tabooed, and we find Mrs Grundy lifting up her hands and crying " shocking." Nevertheless we may reasonably expect that the fe moral atmosphere will be rendeied piuer, 'now th.it the inhuman sjtitem audits at tendantevilshavebcen unmarked, exhibiting the vile ulceious sore in all its loathsomeness, and disgu-<ting impurity. A s|a\eij more diabolic.il than that which has cost, and is still costing the English people millions to Mibduo, is ,it oiu doors, and I lepent,'tis well th.it wo should with no un sparing hand probe to the bottom tins social evil. What matter if some of the " ton "of society may be implicated, as isgenerally suspected, by furthei isolations. So much' the more loason that they who ,ire by some people looked up to as a pattern of etiquette and just behaviour, should, if found to be aiders or abettois in such criminal act-<, be severely punished. Next to the revelations just spoken of, tne position now occupied by the Stout- Vogul Ministry has claimed public attention. From the beginning of the piesent session the policy of tho Hou.se seems to ha\e been to keep in the Ministry but to keep out their measure--. The position, to my mind, is an nnomal.ms and undignified one, and not likely to pio\e conduct* c to good government. The narrow escape the Government had fiom defiat on Saturday morning, which was averted Milelv by canvassing for vote-, with nioro oflicious /«wl than would be diHpl.i\ed by an importunate life assurance agent, and the .issuianco to the Maori mouthers that the lands of their fellows would be made exempt from taxa turn, manifests a strong disposition fo cling to office. This has been a characteristic of > the present Ministry met since they assumed tho reins of Government. And when they deteuninedly follow this couise, despite the expiensed hostility of the House, their actions become lepugnant to fair-minded politician*. It smacks of loaves and fishes, and calls to mind the shrewdness of one of Fielding's definitions, "Patriot: a candidate for place; Politics, the art of getting one." This is anything but a healthy state of things, and it is geneially considered that the Government, in pursuing the course of Parliament iry tactics they have done lately, are but pay ing the way for an ignominious defeat. That it is in the power of a sea captain to mnke things unpleasantly hot for his crew is evident by the troubles which have recently occurred aboard the good ship Grasmere. Home of the captain's crew having brought him before the Police Coint fur alleged ill treatment, the presiding magistrates said, " that if they called for further evidence it would be tantamount to declining the captain a lunatic." In the evidence it was shown that the captain had good grounds foi being excited on the two occasions in question. On the hist his j child had died, and his wife had attempted to poison herself on the second. But how the bench could have accepted this as an excuse for chasing his crew around the deck of his ship with a cleaier or a\e in Ins hand, evidently with intent to do bodily harm, is one of those things, "no fellah can understand." We have it oi the decision that with a little morn evidence the mm would ha vr b"pn dfclucd a lunatic, and now we find him about to sul again m comnnnd of his ship with unfettered jMiwor*. Let in h')|»e th.it his tecdiit escapades will have brought him to respect prudence Mid modciation. The managers of Llrnir registry offices ' have occupied anything but an enviable j position during the past few weeks, and if j some of them are not moio caieful in then doings their reputitiou will soon become j very senon-dy tarnished. Numerous letter have appeared in the daily papeis on the subject. Weaietold that it is usual to send, on receipt of a fee, half a score of ap plicants or more to the tame place, wheie it was repieientrd there was a vacant situation. From twenty to a hundred miles is not an unc"inmon distance for a needy applicant to have to travel to find the expected employment ; i i many cases u akint; n*e of his or hyr last shilling t > pay necessary travelling expenses. On at rival at wh it thr>y hoped was to be a temporary home foi them, they find that the situation has been long smco filled, or peihaps that theic never was imp, this whole affair iioiiitmg to the concbm on th it the ow nor of the registry office had simply misled them with the object of seeming his fee, Male and fern lie persons are alike made the victims of this iniquitous work. As these public exposnies go on we have of cour-e a number of " Suno'i Pnres " springing up who as•ertth.ittlx.yh.no "no connection " with »ny other office. It is well that the public should thus have the opportunity to individual ise the perpetratois of such ciuel and abomimblo swindle, and, if continued, as Htst in dealing out t> them the punish » en t they so richly nient. Tho Anglican Church Mission now going on hore is attracting considerable attention. S. M ithew's Church, where the missioneis are at piesent pioteedmg with their uojk, is every day, both at tho morning and ovening st»ivicjs f ciovvded \vttli attentive congregitions listening to the earnest, powerful discourses of the preacheis, the Rev. Messrs 13'iddington and Mason. The Rev. Mr lioddington, at one of his meetings made i suggestion that in older to get the noirchnrchg >ing portion of the community to attend tho s"i vico-«, the mission workcis shculd in the evening march in procession through the stieets with banners and lanterns, singing hymns, anddeliveiing pithy addresses at the street corners. Tho Anglican Church, however, at least in the city, would not fall in with such a suggestion, and it is questionable whether the missionaries will succeed in persuading them that after all it would not be ho " infra dig," if they really did so. Mr Boddington offers as a precedent for his idea that inasmuch as the Chuich of England Salvation Army at home is doing good work among the masses in this way, having its bands and banners, its captains and lieutenants, its War Cry in the news paj>er " IJattleaxe," it would not after all be so strange if they followed suit in this colony. Our clergy are, however, rather too conservative for this. lain afiaid that tho missioners will experience some trouble in making them believe that any action of this sort would be productive of good. The freethonght lectures delivered by Mr (Jerald Massey every Sunday evening m the Opera House continue to draw large Audiences. In hit last lecture on the " Coming Religion," he spoke of it according to his version an a sort of modified spiritualism. Very well, Mr Massey, but to yet the large majority of your listeners ore inclined to hay with Job, " What do all your arguings prevail," and are as yet satisfied to stand by the faith of their forefathers. We shall soon see the initiation of another Bteani service to tho North Shore. Tho traffic to and from this suburb is rapidly increasing, and it is felt that tho present service is not carried out with such safety and efficiency at it ought to he.

Tub Toryism of Lord Randolph Churchill bears a curious resemblance to the Radicalism of Chamberlain. But if office is the legitimate object of political ambition, this resemblince must bo au ceptcd as unavoidable, while, after nil, the lines on which Lord Randolph Churchill proceeds are ultntical with those emphatically defined and consistently followed by Lord Beaconstield from the beginning to the end of his oareer. — Wot Id.