BY THE WAY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 246, 12 January 1889, Page 2

BY THE WAY.

Poor Earl of Onslow! What a dreadful thing it must be to be a real live lord, and what an exhibition of toadyism is in store for our new Governor 1 Already he :• creating jealousy, and the journals of various parts of the colony are disputing as to what town shall have the first chance ot beslobbering his lordship 1 Truly if wo have many opportunities we shalloon out-American tbe Americans, who are-said to dearly love a lord 1 Ido not place much reliance on the news of Home correspondents. It is at the best mere guess work. But granting that it be tiue, what in the name of Heaven does it matter where onr Governor lands ? If he really wants to find out the resource* and capabilities of Now Zealand I would advise him first o pay us a visit incog. He would then see wbat he would see, and I guarantee that his reception as a mere globe trotter and as a real live lord would be vastly different ones. Lord Onslow can at least thank the fates that his expenses of travelling through New Zealand will be a mere flea-bite in comparison with the German Emperor's recent visit to Austria and Italy. This trip is said to have cost the latter somewhere about £40,000. The greater part of it goes in presents to various rervante, and this is always a large item of Royal expenditure. When the Czar visited England in 1813 his presents to the royal household amounted to £20,000, and the Emperor of the French in 1855 distributed not much less. As an instance of how this is distributed, Mrs Henderson (the Queen’s late housekeeper), whose regular salary was £lOOO a year, received from the Czw as a “tip” £lOOO, while from Napoleon 111 she received a couple of magnificent diamond bracelets. The list of Emperor of Germany took with diamond rings and bracelets, and silver stars ; scarf pine, swords, photo-. graphs of the Royal family, and cigar cases ; to say nothing of some twenty stare in diamonds of ths Orders of the Black and Rud Eagle.

In connection with thia visit of Emperor William 11. there is related an incident which to a great many of ue must appear absurd. I know it does to me. A visit to ths Pope waa on ths Emperor's programme, but Leo XIII. declined to see him unless he came direct from German soil. Here was a dilemma, state etiquette requiring ibat the King of Italy should receive the first call. But Bismarck'a clever brain soon ovoroims the difficulty. The Emperor would go to the German Abassador's bouse after leaving th* King. Thia by a legal fiction would be considered German soil. The Emperor saw the King, drove a little way, and ha waa in German territory. Thence he drove to the Vatican and interviewed the Pope. The Pope and the King ot Italy were both sali>9«d with the arrangements, and so the state visit was paid without treading upon anyone’* corns. The event itself was a historical one, a German Emperor and Pope having never met on* another face to face for centuries. It’s lucky for Mr Gladstone, that be doe* not wear a crown, or his intended visit to the Vatican would be also hedged round with difficulties. By the way the Pall Mail Gazette has not a bad story about Gladstone and Bright, which is said to be given on the authority of the eminent painter, Frank Holl, who painted the portraits of both. When he was punting Bright, Gladstone's name wns mentioned incidentally, ths painter making some remark about the severed friendship. “It is painful,” laid Mr Bright, with a sigh, “ to think after we ha"e trodden the same path together, shoulder to shoulder and hand to hand, we should be forced apart on the evening of our lives! And by what? By * bogey that has risen up within him, and is beckoning him away from duty and sense, by his own Frankenstein’s monster. Do yoif know, Mr Holl, I seriously fear that my dear old friend’s mind has really become radically undermined ?” Some timeai'er Mr Holl was commissioned to paint Mr Gladstone’s portrait. “ When I was painting Mr Gladstone,” relates the painter, “ the subject ot Mr Bright’s portrait cropped up.” "Ab!’’ said Mr Gladstone, with much interest, “ and how did you find him “ Fairly well; and be spoke very affectionately of you. Mr Gladstone.” " Did he indeed ?’’replied he sorrowfully, “did be indeed ? Ah, that was a cruel blowl That after a lifetime of mutual esteem and of good work carried through together we should ba divided on so clear a question ! Tell me, Mr Holl,” —and here his mouth twitched, and his voice shook with great emotion—“ tell ma, did you observe anything in the manner of my old friend which would lead you to believe

that his reason was becoming in any way unhinged?” Truly one half the world thinks the other half mad, and the man who considered every man more or less mad was not so far out after all, when statesmen like Gladstone and Bright think an opponent a madman. Tbe great Times-Parnell Commission necessitated the bringing over from Ireland of a lot of witnesses. Spite of the distressful state of Ireland, the Irish have so much natural humor about them that wherever they are it ia sure to come out. One of the witnesses applied to the Magistrate for protection. Someone had threatened him, he said, and ha was in dread of his life. The Magistrate expressed his willingness to grant the desired protection, and requested to knqw the name of the party who threatened him. The plicant, however, would not give the namvH would not even write it—and yet wondorcH why he could not receive protection 1 Thia, however, was capped by a witness in * case of alleged attemp inz to shoot a Times witness. Asked if he did not make a judicious bob when he was fired at, “Faith, I did," ■aid the witness, “ it is better to be a coward five minutes than be dead all your lifetime." Tbe same witness was chided br the Magi'trate for threatening to tell a different story in the witness box to what he had told tbe solicitor for the Times. “Qiiteso. Woen* man gets into the box he cannot be compelled to commit perjury, can he ?” Thia making of different statements to those already made seems to be of frequent occurrence, and on one occasion counsel for the Times, on the Commission, complained of the reluctance of his witnesses in coming forward. One witness oould not be got to -xem°mber that ho had, in conversation with tbe Timas solicitor, alleged that the Land Learns had * hand in a certain outrage The President, Sir Jarnos Hsnnen, tried his persuasive powers with no better result. When at length the witness was confronted by the person to whom he had made the statement, he did remember it, but he •• wasn't on oath at the time.” Another witness, on being asked what his occupation was, did not understand, bnit on being asked whet he did for a living he thought "ths Times was keeping him just now," Captain O’Shea was especially amusing with his constant reference to the " Cabinet end I.”

I am glad to see that we ar* likely to have mor* agitation in Gisborne on Native land matters. It is not the first nor yet th* twentieth time that we have moved ourselves in this direction, but what does it ooms to f We get up public meetings, we pass resolutions, telegraph them to the ministers, and that is all I The diplomatic minister offers us a sop—tells us th* matter is just under consideration. The agitation ceases and nothing more is heard of the matter until the next eruption takes place. What is wante I isnotintermittentbursts.butrtreightforward agitai ion—something that will not be quietened by a polite letter of put off. Chief Judge Macdonald promised us muchin 1883 he is said to have declared that in two years our titles would be settled. Five years are gone, and though he started well, here we are ae far off as ever. Indeed on* is inclined to take aa literally true the word* M*dy®r«e critic published some time ago* The Native Land Court is incomparably th* most ineffioient, ill managed, dilatory, and oumberaome part of oar public aervio*,’* and »o on, UiNti