ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2058, 15 September 1885, Page 4

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

During this week the civil sessions of the Supreme Court have been held, the most important case being an action brought by Mr William Kirby, a contractor, against the mayor and corporation for the modest sum of £2,560, which he alleged Mas due to him on three contracts undertaken by him for the council. The case lasted two days, during which a good deal of contradictory evidence was given, and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for £3115 13s, a little moie than twelve per cent, of the amount he demanded The issue of the ease shows the wisdom of the council in declining to sub ntit the matter to arbitration, as it is pretty certain that no arbittators would have hi outfit in so small an aw did. Asa rule, the method of arbitrators seems to be for the lepiesentatm of each side to assess the amount lie considers due, add the amounts together, divide the sum total by two, and give the product as their awnid. In this ease tlieie were one or two of the. largest items in the claim w Inch the judge speedily put out of com t, ashy the conditions of the contracts, the city engineer's decision was final. Ido not think that if tins case had been referred to arbitration the representative of the plaintill would have accepted such a \icw of the matter, so it is well for the iatepa\ers that the City Council decided to let the matter go to trial One good result of this decision h that in futute contractois will not tender for works for the City Council without a full knowledge of this condition, while another is that, even though he may ofler to do the work for much less than anyone vise, Mr William Kirby will never more be the successful tenderer for works for the Council. Unless 7\fi W. L Rees can manage the affairs of his Cooperative Association better than he has done Ins own private business, it will be ,i bad look-out for the shareholders. He is a man of considerable ability, and lor years has been making a splendid income by his profession but yet he has been adjudged a bankiupt on the petition oftw o of hiscieditors. Since then, at a pn\ ate nu eting of his creditors, it was decided that he should be allowed two years to pay his debts, on condition that he transferred the whole of Ins assets to trustees. Of course, it may be said that this is a pnvate affair between Mr Hces and those to whom he is indebted, lint when a man comes forvaid as the piomotci of a laige public company, designed to ha\ea great effect on the welfare or the whole human race, he becomes a public man, and every one has the right to asceitain how he mamges his own business, that they may be able to decide w hether he is a safe petson to be entrusted with the management of theirs. That Mr Roes is not a man to be so enti listed is, I think, proved by those piocccdings in bankmptcy, and I should stionglv lecommend those whoaic thinking of taking shares in the company to carefully con sidei the m ittei before doing so. If, after mature dehbeiatiou, they apply for sluies, they will have only themselves to thank if they lo.se their money. Mr Rets is a clever man, who can piopound beautitul theories and excellent schemes, but when he comes dow n to such every day mattcis as pounds, shillings and pence he is all at sea His schemes and theones look \eiy well on paper, and 1 he lie\ c he honestly beliefs in them, but when they come to be put in piacticc, they piovc unmitigated fnilmcs. * The eclipse of the sun took place on Wednesday morning, accoiding to promise, but it was not so successful, at any rate as far as Auckland was concerned, as we had a right to expect. When a city of the &i/e ,md linpoit.ince of this Coiinth of the South has an edipse it ought to be a good one, and when it is not, either the local astronomers or the clcik of the weather should be taken to task. We ha\e .i splendid harbour, a gi .mil city for hills and mud, a man nificent champion of the unemployed in the pel son of Mi W. (} Gan.ud, a glorious piomotei of the happiness of the human lace in the mumbvr for City Kast, and yet we could not get a decent eclipse. We learn from tclegiams leccived that the inteiesting event was sie-n properly at Nelson, and we may fairly suppose that it took place heie, but the sky was so cloudy that we had only occasional glimpses of it. Ilowevei, we need not care much, as most of us have seen an eclipse, and nny see anothei if we live long enough, so we need not grudge the Nelson people their exwlicnt view of it, seeing that our membeis will not allow them to have the Last and West Coast and Xilson lailw.iy constmeted at the expense of an ovci burdened countiy. A stoiy is told of a man living in a place where an taithqiiakc was expected who sent his sons to stay with a fiiend until the danger should be ovir. The boys weie so full of mischief that then entcitamer telegraphed to their father asking him to send along the earthquake nnd take away his boys. I fancy that the Nelson people would be disposed to let us have the eclipse if we would let them have their railway. Ono day tliis week I happened to call at the laboiatory of my fiiend, Mr J. A. Pond, the analytical chemist When there my attention was attracted by certain square, or rather cube boxes, ftich side of which would be a little more than one. foot squaie. Being endowed with an insatiable thiist for knowledge (ill-natuicd people might call it cuuosity), I asked what they were intended for, and was told that they were butter boxes, to be used foi packing salt butter to send to maiket. The old system of putting butter in casks is a very waste ful one, as when the casks are opened theie is a good deal of waste which is lit only for cart-grease, the shape of the cask prevents it being packed without a gieat lo^s of space, and the empty vessel occupies as much room as a trill one. After an immense amount of icseaich, Mi J'ond succeeded in disco\ci ing a composition with which .to coat the wood, so that it shall have "no con osivc eflect on the butter. The cubifoun .shape of the new box will enable it to be better packed than a cask could be, as a pi ess, can be used, so as to get rid of any milk which might have been left in the butter, and there will be no loss of space m stowing on bhipboaid, or on a railway truck. The sides, tops and bottoms of the boxes are not nailed together, but are kept in position by being fitted intogiove>. The advantages, of this system are that when a giocer wishes to open a fresh box', he has only to icmove the top and sides, and then he has a solid cube of butter, weighing ~>V> lbs, standing on the bottom ot the box, and when that is sold he simply puts together the six pieces of wood of which the box was formed, and he can send them back to the farmer at a very small cost. The new invention is moat ingenious, yet veiy simple, and should prove a great boon to all daily farmers. The great journalist, 0. A. Sala, has paid another flying visit to Auckland, delivered one lectuie, and gone away again Like that other journalist, Archibald Forbes, the celebrated wai correspondent, he is a wiiter lather than a speaker. Still the large audience who filled the Choral Hall on Wednesday evening was evidently much interested and pleased with Ins lecture on Russia, though his elocution and delivery weie not of the highest order. His style is conversational, and he spoke with the authority of an eye w itness of many of the scenes which he described. However, he is not a lecturer and I am not surprised that he was considered a failure in theiole in Australia. He had a bumper house when ho delivered his first lecture in Melbourne, but ok the subsequent evenings there was not a great rush for Roats. On the wholn I think it it a good thing for us that " the conditions wasn't favourable" for him to give more than one lectuie in Auckland. On that oecnaion lie had a splendid lionse and was

well received, M) that he 13 pretty sine to have gone away with a pood impres sion of us and our town, and we may fanly expect to receive "honourable mention" in his newspaper articles and his book. Had he given a number of lectures and failed to secure good audiences the result would have been different. ♦ Those who have travelled with Sala ha\ c not formed a very exalted opinion of him. At table his whole conversation waa about eating and drinking and his fellow passengers were intensely disgusted with him. I fully expect we shall soon have as large a collection of stories about him as there were about Anthony Trollope after his visit to the colonies. For some time after he left Australia literally teemed with stoiics about Trollope's booiishnes>s and the tucks that were played on him On one occasion h" was up countiy in Victoria, far beyond the then limit of railway communication, the only means of travelling being by coach. On the morning on which he intended to start on his> return journey to Melbourne he went to the hotel from which the coach started. He was about to get on the box seat beside the driver when the latter informed him that that seat was engaged, but that there waa room inside. Mr Trollope said that he was going to have the box seat, and in spite of the piotests of the driver, he got up and took it. Other passengers got inside and soon the coach stated After it had gone about a mile it stopped to pick np the passenger who had engaged the box scat, who was a strong acti\e young squatter. He told Mr Trollope that he had made a mistake in taking that scat as he had engaged it come days before. The author said that he had made no mistake, that he had got the seat and that he intended to roniain in it, and proceeded to make some scry rude remarks to the young squatter. The latter told him that, as he had taken the seat after being informed that it was engaged, he h,ul better vacate in or he would be compelled to put him out of it Mr Trollope tried more bluster, but when the rightful owner of the seat proceeded to carry out hisshre.it, he got down Then lie discovered that the coach was full in«ide, .so the driver put hii lui/g.ige on the road beside him and drove away. Mr Trollope walked b,»i.k to the hotel to see if he could get a bugsy to take him to the ne.uest railway station, but found, to bis di-gust that the only vehicle obtainable was an old express. However, as he was bound to go on at once in order to keep an appointment in Melbourne, he had to .iccept it When he reached an hotel w here he had to atop to stop to bait his horae he was horrified to be gieeted by the landlord in a fiee-nnd-ensy stylo, and when lie indignantly demanded an explanation he learned that the passengcis had told the hotelkeeper than an old fellow in the show business was coining along in Smith's old expires. Xtiange to viy that explanation did not have a soothing effect 011 Mr Frollopc's temper.