304 . ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XH. 
A rival club was once set up for a short time by 
some men who would certainly not have been admitted 
into the first; but it broke down in a disgraceful fight 
between two of the members with the poker and the 
chairs inside the locked doors of the club-room. 
And as the exclusive club still continued to sift the 
arrivals carefully, unmindful of calumny or ridicule, it 
was at length looked up to and acknowledged, to a cer- 
tain degree, as the legitimate censor of polite manners. 
And those who had begun by being its most strenuous 
opponents were the first to call upon it to perform its 
duty, when one of its members was discovered to have 
committed an unpardonable offence, and to have escaped 
its penalty by an inevitable train of circumstances. 
Mr. Murphy, the Police Magistrate and Government 
representative, had been seen to abstract money from 
the pool at a game at cards, by a young member who 
was looking on. Being only a looker-on, his inexpe- 
rience led him to suppose that he had no right to in- 
terfere in the game. But he took one of the players 
aside and told him what he had seen. The })layer re- 
turned to his game and also observed the proceeding. 
But he wished to secure more evidence, as the first ol)- 
server had gone home ; and he only took the precau- 
tion to t^ll a third member what he had seen as they 
went home for the evening. The third person could 
only advise that nothing should be said, but that the 
culprit should be taken in the fact at a future opportu- 
nity. He had, however, observed that he was detected ; 
so he returned once or tAvice and played honestly, and 
then gave up play, saying he could not afford it. Thus 
it became a delicate matter to rake up the question — 
one of those which should always be settled at the mo- 
ment; and people only wondered for a long while, 
why the two persons who had seen the deed gave up 
