LOCAL INTERESTS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 364, 16 January 1880, Page 2

LOCAL INTERESTS.

To the Editor of the Alcoroa Mail. Sir, —I quite agree wih your correspondent in Tuesday's issut—l have mislaid your paper and forget his signaturethat it would be well for .he interests of the inhabitants if they oicasionally met together to discuss matte's touching the ii, ..,<-.. iiutwiiat • ying to bing the people liuic • . • iO matter how important the question may be. Pronise a man £50,

and if the obtaining it involved a little energy beyond the usual cow dragged, slip-slop life of a Peninsula specimen, your £50 would be safe. Sleepy-hollow, our beautiful country is dubbed; yes, truly, and more than that, it is an idle and infatuated hollow. Polite indeed was the individual who went no further than this innocent epithet. Had he examined the eraniums of some of the lords of this isolated soil, he would have discovered what nature so justly abhors— verbum sap. Hollow, indeed ? The physical features may be so, but test the image that moves and has a being, and by the Lord Harry if the practical definition of a vacuum ia ever forgotten, I'm a Dutchman.

I have often heard of a weakness in human constitution called absence of mind. Many a time have I been puzzled to know what it meant. But it is all out now. Six months residence on the Peninsula has solved the problem—prove an alibi said old Weller, a great difficulty, as everyone knows, especially when the subject was not absent. But "in regards of" the mental faculties of any Peninsula friends, an alibi would require no corroborative testimony. Howover, I begin to think I'm coming it rather strong. Ease 'em down, a friend, whispers in my ear, and if you've nothing to give them but abuse, you had better shut up. This practical remark of my practical friend has brought me back to the point which originated this interesting epistle. I want to know as the Yankees say, what made our member so delicate about opening his month in the General Assembly on the question of the Akaroa Railway. Why should it be delicate and proper for Mr Macandrew to say, what if said by our member determined itself into indelicacy and impropriety. This is an out-and-out puzzle to me. Besides, admitting that there might be the smallest shave, or perhaps better, the largest shave of delicacy mixed up in the matter, whoever heard of this quality being a national trait of the country from which our member hails. And again, I might make the point stronger by referring your readers to the subject in question. Take a glance at him, measure him from tip to toe, mentally and physically; there is no mistake what the most prejudicial would say. Speaking for myself, he is a fine looking, good tempered, handsome old boy, and altogether I like the cut of him. But just take another look at that starboard eye, watch the knowing twinkle, the intelligence. Would any man in his conscience, taking the tout ensemble of the old man, think there was delicacy lurking in the system. But here we are going adrift again. To return to the practical. It (is quite clear, delicacy or no delicacy, the railway is up a tree. Things have gone shockingly bad, there is no mistake about that, ani this banshee, I mean this monster delicacy must be laid low, if we pickhandle it. There is only one cure that I can suggest, and it is that our member should take up his residence for a short time in the little town in the hollow and take lessons from a towny, we both wot of, and if delicacy or scruples ever trouble him again—well then, como to me, and I'll take my oath I'll fix him ujx But Mr Editor, I know I'm getting wearisome, but one word more before Igo to bed. I want to know as before: Why, in the absence of railways, no special grants have been passed for the benefit of the Peninsula. Surely, where we have no railways, like the people on the plains, we are entitled to a little extra consideration. The plains' fanners and storekeepers have every one of them a cheap and rapid means of transporting their goods to and from the best markets. They can move 60 or 100 miles, complete their business, and return to their homes the same day, and hundreds of other advantages. But look at us, who have paid exactly the same price for onr land, how do we stand ? Why, we take a couple of days merely travelling to Christchurch and back; another day, between whiles repairing damages, business of any sort in the meanwhile being extremely painful. I ask, whether in the most common acceptation of reason, we should not be allowed some compensation for the disadvantages under which we labor. Surely it must present itself to everyone that if we cannot have railways we should have some compensating assistance in making good roads, and not leave the whole , burden on the shoulders of the ratepayers. Never a juster claim belonged to any district than ours against the Government. There is not another spot in New Zealand, unless it is Jackson's Bay, so isolated and cut off from the general advantages now pervading the country as this hill country of ours. And then, again, I ask how it is our member has forgotten to let his voice be heard anent this matter. Is it delicacy again ? Surely this excuse will hardly answer a second time.

And now, Mr Editor, the whiskey bottle has done duty, and I have written myself almost asleep. I shall be glad to revert to this subject on another occasion, if desired. But delicacy, I think they call it, forbids me any longer trespassing on the patience of your readers, so I shall wish you a good night.—Yours truly, FOSCO.