Topsy-Turveydom.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 249, 19 January 1889, Page 3

Topsy-Turveydom.

Few people would take Sir Harry Atkinson for a humorist. Yet he is really one of the first water. His humor finds its most congonial development in practical jokes. Some of these are regular screamers. He has lately been very much impressed with principles upon which the Gilbertian burlesques, to which Sir Arthur Sullivan has wedded so much charming music, are constructed. That principle is generally described as topsyturveydom. The fun arises from placing round pegs in square holos, and vics vena, and at once recognising how much amusement has been got out of the arrangement on the mimic stage, Sir Harry Atkinson determined' to try the effect on a larger scale on the political stage. This is the secret of many of the late appointments. What could be more incongruous than filling the Native Land Court Bench with Judges who know nothing of the natives, their lands, or language I And what a side-splitting aeries of complications and blunders arc sure to arise out of the situation ! Then, again, the appointment of a surveyor as Chief Commissioner of Railways is almost certain to produce a series of farcical entanglements which will provoke mirth on all aides, save amongst those who have to pay for the joke. These eff rts are, however, only mild experiments in the art of topsy-turveydom. There is much more to come, and at the risk of violating the most sacred confidence and causing some of the contemplated jokes to miss fire when officially sprung upon the public, we will venture to outline a few of the appointments, promotions, and interchanges which are in preparation under the stage management of Sir Harry A'kinson. In the first place, then, Mr Gavm, Secretary to the Treasury, is to be appointed to the command of the s. a. Stella, with the rank of Inspector-General of Lighthouses, and Captain F..:rchild is to become InspectorGeneral of Schools, in the place of the Rev. W. J. Haben’, who is to succeed Mr Gordon, Inspector of Mines, the Premier rightly holding that if Mr Habens is an Inspector, it is quite immaterial what he inspects. Mr Gordon is to receive the vacant Judgeship, and Mr Haselden, Under-Secretary for Justice, is to be'appointed Surveyor-General, being succeeded by Mr William Agnew, temporarily attached to the Prisons Department. Captain Edwin is to made Secretary to the Treasury, and the duty of forecasting the weather is to be transferred to the Commiss oner of Police, the person to fill whose office is being at present sought for amongst graduates at Mount Cook. Major Gudgeon is to be an Examiner of Titles. Mr Reid, Solicitor-General, is to be Mr Blackett’s successor as Engineer-in-Chief, and Mr W. R. E Arownistoadd the duties of SolicitorGeneral to those of the Registrar-General. Mr Sperrey is to leave the Property Tax Department to become Government Printer, and Mr Didsbury to succeed Sir James Hector as Director of the Geological Department, the latter re'iring on pension, as it is universally acknowledged that it would be quite impossible to find any office which he was not specially well qualified to fill. Lieut. -Colonel Hume, Inspector of Prisons and Volunteers, is to exchange duties with Mr Frankland, Government Actuary and Statist, and Dr Laishley, of Auckland, is to be the new Property Tax Commissioner. These are but a few of the transformation scenes of the great burlesque of which Sir Harry Atkinson is the gifted author.—Wellington Post,