ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2074, 22 October 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Thkrk is a mild controversy going on just now in the columns of the " Herald " as to the wisdom of the Bo.iul of Education in deciding to dismiss the assistant niastcts "f the (iirls' High School and omploy ladies in their place. The Board is not conspicuous for its good tnin igeiretit, an is proved by the w,iy in which it has allowed thin particular «chool to dnft into debt, but 1 think that it is adopting a vprv proper way to bring its expenditure down to the same amount a-, its inconi' 1 . It i* undoubtedly a good pi m to have a mister at the head of the school, but I do not nee any good reason why thr assistant teachers nhouid not b<» ladic, and there aie many reasons why they should be. Without exception, all the successful ptivate schools for girh lipip have been conduced by ladies, with ladies .is assistant tencliers, and though it i-> advantageous to have the supreme ontrol of a public school in tho hands of a in.ni, it is equally so to ha\c most of the actual teaching of the girls done by ladies. It is asserted that the result of the contemplated change will bp fchit many parents will remove their daughter-, from thp High School, but thin I do not believe, especially in view of the fact that, « ere such a coin -.c adopted, the patents would have to send then daughtprs to private schools, conducted by ladies, with the assistance, perhaps, of visiting masters for a few hours meach week. The opponents of the change h.vrp on the exploded theory that women arc intellectually inferior to men. I wonder if those folk^ ever heard of the Misses Edgar, Miss Harrison, and "uver.U young ladies down South, who have taken University degrees as good as any taken by young men. If I had daughter" attending the (iirh' High School, I should certainly feel pleased to know that their teachers were ladies, not men.

We have certainly made considerable progreßH in the way of enlarging the niicle of women's woik, and I Ivjlieve that as we become more enlightened and lews prejudiced we shall piogress still further in the same direction. It was n step in the right direction when the Civil Her\ice was opened to women, as there is much of the work in it which they enn do as well aH, if not bettor than men. Our Telephone Exchange, to which thore am now about four hundred subscribers, in worked by a Kuly, with the assistance of others of the gentler sex, and when, some time ago, the lady m question went away to enjoy a. well-cirned holiday, and a young man took her place, the change was not appieciated by the (subscriber I*.1 *. There was a lack of promptness and of politeness, and one or two of the subset iber* who expostulated with the young gentleman (?) weio recommended to go to a certain place wheie the climite is believed to be more sultiy than that of the torrid zone. A number of business men have employed girls instead of boys for clerical work, and are well satisfied with the result. A friend of mine used to employ cash-boys, and ho says they were a constant cnuso of annoyance. Most of them were cither rogues or fooh, and some of them were both. They seued every opportunity to leave their work, and some of them seized portions of ♦.he cash. At last he was recommended to get a girl as cashier, which he did, with most satisfactory results. She attends to her work properly, and not being inteiested in ratcatching and other amusement* of that soi t, which had a fascinating interests for the boys, she is always at her post. As she does not btnoke she does not need to filch her employer's money to buy cigarettes, fee. Altogethei the change has proved a satisfactory one, and as people get more enlightened the sphoie of women's work is sure to expand.

List Saturday the "Janet Niceol" returned f nMii her usual tup to the Islands, bringmp, among other passengers, Hit Most (iracious Majesty Makea Ariki, one of the three queens of Ruatonga, and her siuto. Ono of these, Tapou-te-Kengi, the Keeper of the (Ireat Seal, is a pn4ty little dai lmp about the, same si/c .md weight as that nice boy Wahauui. I h.ive not made my bow to the dusky liueen, nor am I likely to do so, but I believe that she is a senhiblo and intelligent woman, \\ ol 1 fitted to undertake the object of her mission, which is to endeavour to draw more closely the bonds which unite the l.md of her birth with New Zenlaud. Theru h a coriMideiable amount of fitness in tho proo is.U, as the Raratongans aro evidently sp" in;,' from the san.e source as tho Maoris. Their ap peiranee and language are very much alike, and many of thuir legends are tha same Unfortunately, tho fear of the cold weather at Wellington will prevent this modern <2ueen of Khoba Rom? to the Empire City to sen our modem Solomon. By the way, I wonder who would fill thii 1010 if a meeting weio possible? The nominal Piemier, Mr Stont, the real Premiei, Sir Julius Vogel, or Mr Billfttice, tin* Native Mnustpr, who hiM shown so cloarlv that, whatever ho may k.now or may not know, he is ridiculously ignorant of the proper w.\y to conduct tho affaiiH of the oihco he holds '! Happily, tho quostion of climate renders it unnecehsaiy to settle this question at present, bo we can leave tho discussion of it to one or other of our Mutual Admiration Mociptiri. Seeing that they cannot go to Wellington, the Karatongan* are h-tvinga " high old time " here, and if the modrtn Queen of Sheba carofully studios tho arohitectiual and engineering beauties of our fair city, eho will be ablo to repeat tho words of her prototype, " It was a true repoi t that I heard in my own country of your acts and of your wisdotr.."

Yes ! anyone who wishei to see a proof of the wihdom displayed in inn city engineering has only to look at (Jrey-stieot, and ho will have it. That street i«i practically i continuation of (^icen street, fiom wliieb it might have been made a /?ood outlet by filling in the hollow at the foot. The City Council had an excellent opportunity of doinfj this woik a shoit tune ajfn, whon the leanos of the allotments between the Afarkot Entrance) and Cook^ticct foil in, as they are city ondnunitMits and, not only would there be no compensation to pay, but the council would have loomed increased rental* had (Jiey-street been filled up ho as to liTM'ri" tht) p i«.io<t gradient and, conioqnentlv, the .nam nutlet fuun < ji.octi stieet. Howover. advantage w.h not taken of the opportunity, tho Mlhitnicnts were let /ifitnh nnd buildin^H nf a hiibstantial nature have been erected on them,

and the work is practically withheld toi many ye.us to come, or, if it is undertaken, tho expense will be immensely increased by claims for compensation.

The nnnml meeting of the South British Insaiance Company vv.is held on Wednesday, but, unfoitunately, tin- dnectois' lepoit was anything rathei than " a dnmty dish to set before a king." On tlif contiary, it showed thtt the compiny hid made a eonsideiablo loss on the past yeai'n bu>inoK«, .md, in order to have the wherewithal to piy the u-ual dividend of ton per cent., it wa< necessary to take credit for £11,000, the incrr.wd \aluo of pioDortics owned by the company. The rate of dividend is by no me ins high when we considor tho large amount of rnk that the shareholders run, bonij? very littlo in>ip than the inrere--t tliat would be rettJnod wno tho money I'Vit on the nnrlnubtc 1 sec\irity of frcehoM ]>r >])erty, and the pity \t that, in oulci to piy even tint dividend, the dimctrti^ hid to li'iort to the questionable procei^iin^ of giving List yen the credit of the whole of the "iineiined increment" of the company* piopertios. When I refei t.ithw'i 1 * a questionable pio ceedinsx, T do not foi n mr>ni' lit wish it to be inferred tint I h.uo am doubt .is to the cxistnnce of tint inci<Ms,>d value. The directors of tin company are too well known foi their piobitv and business ability, and aio tno deeply mteiested in the stability of the institution for anyone to suppose that they :uo not fully assmed of tho viluc of this .ivsct, but the incie>\sed value of projieities his been gradually accruing, and, theiefojp, it is, i questionable proceeding to credit one individual ye.ir with an amount neither earned nor accumulated in it. The shareholders naturally view the present position of the company with much uneasiness, and one of them pertinently asked wheic the dividend would come ne\t year if tho wme succession of losses attend their operations.

The chairman of directors referred very feelingly to tho fact that firos arc very pievalent when tliere are'periodn'of depression, Bueh aH that from which tlie colony is now snffpnnjr, and expressed the opinion, in which moit people willconcm that many of the fires which h,ue occurred lately have been caused hv incendiaries. That theie me good grounds for thia belief is unhappily tine. \.t tho same time I think that some, at least, of the hies which hiuo occmred sue the lesultof caiclessness, which might be called indirect, latherthan wilful, ar«on. We will take the c i">e of a man who his mortgaged his property to the extent of throc'f'iHtths of its value. So long as that value IB maintained he has a direct intetest in the property, and will take every possible cure of it, but when a period of depression come*, he has great difficulty in paying his intprrst and knows that, if tho mortgage should foreclose, a forced sale would not realise sufficient to pay the amount of the moitgage. He feels that his piopprty has ha« practically gone from him, he lobes all heai t and relaxes his care. Tho result of his Lvck of vigilance is that u proventiblo fiie occur*, and he is thus guilty of indirect annn. It is to be hoped that we shall soon have a renewal of our former prosperity, and, as, i lesult, fewer fires. St. Muxgo.

A nuiv moving at thirty-fhe miles mi hour clean fifty fnet in one second. , Thk London I]cho has lx-on bought bv Mi Pa^itnoie Kdw.uds, and tlio pi ice paid is <uid to be i,'lOQ,OOO Sumo three or four voai-i atf<>. Mi I 'am more Kdwnids sold the Keho foi £70,00 i), .\.nd he li.is thus had the satisfaction of finding that the property, *ince he p.uted witli it, h.is nson in value £30.000. Pa Ill's i* cleared of rats by her Munieip.il Council offering a pieinmm for then Two year 1 , a<ro, tlio prcmiuin w.is 3dols per 1000, hut it his lecentlj been raised to 10 dols por 1000, in order to get the city denied i if the pests. The lats aie of the Norway kind, and biocd four times a year. Jkwisii I'i.uis. — An American jounnl, commenting on Lord Rothschilds peerage, says :—": — " It is not Mr Gladstone, however, to w hom helongs the credit of pieparing the way of this signal triumph, which ha* been completed in his day. That credit belongs to Benjamin Disraeli. The possibility of the admission of a Jew to the peerage was the dream of Disraeli from his parly manhood. He never abandoned that idr i. but shaped his whole career with reference to its consummation. The writer had it on the authority of Samnel Rogers, 'the bard, th? beau, the banker' — who was the mean* of making Disneli a proselyte to the Ch'istian faith when the amMtious visiona-y was only fourteen yeais old — Ivt when young Distaeli propoaud to his cousin, Rachel Daniels, who rejected him on account of his slender fortune, the rejected suitor said that Mis* Daniels ' was a t cry shoi t sighted girl, for she had thrown away her chance of being an English countess,' which she would cer tninly have been had sho martied the man who afterwards became Karl of Bnaconsfield ! It is thus i>\ ideDt that fifty years ago Disraeli had created a Hebrew peer in his own mind." The same paper gives an instance of Disraeli's j snaring spirit, " When his uncle called I his father's attention 'to the nonsense | Ben was talking, about his intention to j be a Cabinet Minister before he died,'! old Disraeli observed jocularly : ' Well, ' Cousin Elias, I don't know any man i better fitted to be Chancellor of the Ev i chequet than my son Ben, for out of the ', two hundred pounds a year that I allow him he lir^s at th* rate of two thousand, and I never henr that lie has any trouble with the debts.' And wlim someone i mid he must bemad to talk such nonsense, j Rogers observed, ' Yes, he may be mad ; i we are all more or less so. But Ben has ; so much method in his madness that he'll | come out all right in the end.' " > A Raitifnn*m''sßiti< — l"he quick yenom of the rattlesnake hii notVilW so miny ppoplr a«i ' the more invidious but dradlv poiso»<: found in , the air of toul roMim. Ibe a ntion of th>* blood bv the lungs becomes impossible vometime 1 :, md ihe failing health, crowing weakness, and lfm of appetite are harbinirers of apprnichi i? dnath. For suth case* Hon Hitters are the | potentand all-powerful remedy to drive all fevers | out of the nj^tem, purifying the blood, and | giving a ocw and happy lease of life. Cot ! genuine,