LONG BAY ROAD GRIEVANCES.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 190, 14 May 1878, Page 3

LONG BAY ROAD GRIEVANCES.

To the Editor of the Akaroa Mail.

"Sib, —So it-appears we are never to grow tired,of some trouble or other existing up that way. The public have been patiently listening for years to the reiterated grievances and complaints, fancied or otherwise, of Mons. Le Chapelle, of cheese in ruins, broken bones, sprained ankles, horses frightened to death, and various other troubles, mirabile dictu, aye, and hairbreadth escapes, terrible in their contemplation. Surely the grave-yard must be nearly full; quietly sleep the dead, requiescant in pace. And fortunate your humble subscriber feels that he is so far spared to send you this proof of his existence, after so often being compelled, out of sheer necessity, to travel this terrible road. And it is' not one of Aix La Chappelle's accidents this time (bother Chappelle, I shall have Chapelle on the brain yet), but Mons. Le Lelievre, who is troubled about the honor of a Road Board. Risum teneatis, amid. Haloa! says I, here's a shindy, an' many a shindy, sure,

I've seen over that same word, honor, ere Heft the dear old sod, an' Maynooth to boot, where the shamrock's the emblem ay unity, and a man's word is the pint ay honor, an* to doubt which, sure, manes a broken head, and well I know it, but somehow my colonial Avanderings and experiences have made me a little impervious, or incredulous is more like the word, especially where interests are at stake, and proof ;I have had that public bodies are more prone to tergivisation than single individuals ; they seem to bave a knack of shifting tbe blame from one to the other, yet never acknowlege an error as a body. Talk about the honor of a Road Board ; what bosh, especially on the' Peninsula, and so soon after the public exhibition we had in coort the other day of Road Board wisdom from over the ranges, aye, and there are whisperings abroad that over one hundred pounds per acre has been awarded fey a Peninsula Road Board as payment of compensation, and fencing for a piece of lond taken for a'road and which Was previously used only as a sheep run. I opine the following is the chief standard by which we should guage the qualifications of our public men* A well-known author says:—lt is a self-evident truth, although sometimes lost sight of, that the first thing requisite to make a good citizen, is honesty and integrity of purpose, and a constant readiness to sacrifice self-interest to the common welfare. Everyone knows that no society can prosper if each member looks solely to his own interests in the narrow sense that we mean by the term selfishness, and we have seen one of the most influential writers of our time throwing his powerful ridicule over the political theories which profess so to arrange a community of rogues, that by balancing and mutual checks, its collective wisdom shall be wise and honest."

Ye Long Bay road residents, Board members, and Councillors in general, my lamp is lit.

DIOGENES.