THE SUNDOWNER'S SWAG.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 115, 24 August 1877, Page 2

THE SUNDOWNER'S SWAG.

" Eight nouns Play !" D. Uncan's " Idyll's of ye Stump. ,, Matters educational are just now exercising the minds and tongues of most men. Sectarian or non-sectarian systems are battled over ; Bible reading or not is the fruitful cause of many squabbles ; the practice of reading prayers in schools, or not, is another cause of jangle and wrangle ; compulsory education is another bone over which growls, barks, snarls, snaps and yelps, are discordantly intermingled, but among all these "quips, quirks, and quibbles," " nary a word" is said as to the children's welfare and well-being, during the hours devoted to play. That system of education, which produces " muscular Christianity," is too much of the earth, earthy, for the lofty legislatorial mind. The dry bones of musty theology are considered of more importance than the child's playground. For my part, I consider that •education is not imparted in the schoolroom alone, and that the matters so persistently torn to pieces from stump, platform, desk and pulpit, are not the only essentials toward a thoroughly good system of national education. " Ample playgrounds are, or ought to be a prime necessity, in our public schoo[s." I go further than tht authority I quote above; I not only consider playgrounds a prime " necessity," but I also consider that they should be of that extent, and made otherwise so attractable, that they would be used at all hours devoted to recreation, not only by pupils attending school, but also by'" children of riper years." Give us good playgrounds everywhere, and, I will bet my old boots, they will have more effect in staying incipient larrikinisin, than the vigilant Bam, the frolicsome Lamb, the festively jovial O'Gonnan. Ruffle me if I am not right! " Ay coorse," every " mimber ay the force" knows I am right! Isn't this playing part of education worthy the consideration of wiser heads than mine ? I think it is, for the sake of "The whining school-boy, with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping like a snail, Unwillingly to school." "Epidemics is warious!" Without a doubt the Solon who uttered this aphorism spoke from experience, and knew " what was what." The appropriateness of the epidemical saying struck me as being particularly applicable to Akaroa ; for you seem just now to be suffering from a violent attack of petitioning epidemic. Not a bad sign this, let me say ; it shpws there is a kick left iv the " old boss ;" that vitality is with you and only wants arousing ; that those aspiring minds who take the initiative in a small local matter, may yet be got to do a something on a larger scale, say, such as keeping up an agitation on the Lighthouse question, which seems to me to want a little resurrecting. Grievances, or even fancied grievances, are the better for being ventilated, and well talked over, und as a means to that end, I consider petitionizing does, good. I bften wonder that I have not been petitioned against as an unmitigated nuisance. Who knows, my turn may come. 'As we used to say at Caiuß, » forsan." Eh?

Certa'ihly Councillor Waeckerle, it means " a small spark may lurk unseen." "There's many a trouble Would break like a bubble, And into the waters of Lethe depart, % Did we not rehearse it, And tenderly nurse it, And give it a permanent place in the heart." " Little things," it is said, " please little minds." I believe my mental capacity must be classed infinitesimal, for I am decidedly pleased to read of two "little things" that have recently happened among you. One of these '' little things" is the meeting in connection with that useful institution, the pastoral association, at which I observe the first business done was a "•racoful act towards the president, Mr. Buchanan. Right and courteous, and acting as gentlemen towards a gentleman! Always treat your officers in so kindly courteous a manner, and you, gentlemen, will command the respect even of a Sundowner, The other " little thing" which has pleasured me is the reading, of the 'meeting of committee of the Akaroa Library. I began to fear that the disease called atrophy was " wasting away" the vitals of this, useful institution; that its honorary officers were getting indifferent; that its subscribers list was dwindling down, and that its financial state was " wus and wusser." lam only sorry, I may say too sorry, that my " financial state," wandering habits, and doubtful respectability prevent me from being a member of, or giving eleemosynary .sup- 1 port to both these institutions, considering as I do, that the objects of each tend towards doing good. Yet this I can, and will do—consider me, J. Sundowner, going round with the hat and soliciting your aid, most generous public, for both these institutions, and requesting you to give, not grudgingly or of necessity," the support of your influence and breeches-pocket towards them. Think not of the advocate, but of that he advocates. Yes. " For maidens, they say, Do rfot always say ' nay,' When they are asked in the morning early. , ' Is Akaroa going in to rival "that city of stinks Cologne ?" A high distinction, but one that would be better remedied than cultivated, more especially if health and cleanliness are considered desirable. " Pat," with a County Gal way surname that sounds uncommonly like a sneeze, has " tnk the flure " odoriferous, by draw-, ing attention to a nuisance existing in your midst, and rightly asks, " if the present Inspector of Nuisance has no power of smell." I wonder has that official lost that sense. Perhaps not! He may be too high-minded « to trouble about a solitary drain; may carry his nose too high for a single stink to reach that ornamental olfactory organ ; may have the odour of spiritual sanctity so permeatingly subtle and powerful, that other stinks sink into unsmellod .insignificance ; may vote me a nuisance requiring removal, and shooting, as is done with other rubbish ; may, and I hope will, forgive my impudence. As that good man John Bunyan wrote : — " Thus I set pen to paper with delight, And quickly had my thoughts in black and white ; For having now my method by the end, Still as I pull'd it came, and so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you wee." , : •:-■■■'•■■■ Adieu.