BROUGHT INTO FOCUS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 448, 5 November 1880, Page 2

BROUGHT INTO FOCUS.

(Contributed to tjib Akaroa Mail.)

It is a strange thing how modest and retiring Irishmen, as a rule are, till cither the whisky is in, or the pugnacious clement is aroused. You rarely find the true Milesian pushing himself forward in an obstructive, self-important, consequential manner, and yet, their native shrewdness, natural ability, and rough common sense combined with an inimitable humor is sure to receive its full measure of recognition from those amongst whom their lot is cast. We have in our midst, and have had for years, a notable example of this Hibernian characteristic in a citizen preeminently to be respected and beloved for his sterling qualities of head and heart—a thorough man of "business—a genial social companion, yet one who is ever content to move placidly along with the stream, unwilling to take his proper place among the active workers for the public good, his share in the advancement of public affairs. In spite of " Tom Cringle " or any other equally unintelligible and ungraiumatical critic I am bound to bring a focussed light to hear on this serious flaw in an otherwise unimpeachable character. With the sincerest pleasure I had occasion in a former paragraph to compliuient Akaroa generally, on the accession of Mr Garwood to the ranks of the Borough

Councillors. With as sincere a regret do I continue to miss from the list of our public men the name of my old friend Mr James Daly. No man amongst us is more fit to come to the front than he is, and I venture to say that his connection with any of our public bodies would materially add to their importance and would increase tho confidence of the public in their administrations. Such men as he aro absolutely needed to take their trick at the wheel in these tempestuous days. James, my boy, " take tvva pneos to the front" and do your duty. If need be, divinely as your tootle, set aside your cornet, and buckle to at the important work of local regeneration and reform. Remember " union is strength " and don't stand aside. To be passive in these times is worse than to be actually opposed. At the next fortnightly Borough election I shall look for you.

As for your correspondent "Tom Cringle," if it wasn't that "I want to know, , you know," I should leave him to tho obscurity that must inevitably be his portion. . Of course he has his " log" always with him, in fact I should say he carried it on top of and directly between his two shoulders, but when he next uses it, will he oblige by infoiming me how one "hurls a kick" at any object, also what a "non-friend" is composed of, and whether it is not the same thing as a " non-descript," a kind of mixed up article, you know, part farmer, part horscdealer, part lawyer, with a little of the philosopher and. less of the scholar, a large slice of the "log" roller, any amount of self-esteem, and three quarters ignorance. The sort of object one doesn't expect to find in the' chair at a Road Board meeting, but which invariably crops up at a public meeting with nothing to say, but any amount of words to say it in. They didn't use to grow the kind of thing at Wainui—that pretty little suburb must be degenerating, and I cannot understand its having an air of genius, or whatever it is "T. C." attributes to it in his effusion. " More anon "he also remarks. Now don't, there's a good fellow, you're crowding out better reading—some of my notes for instance.

I see Mr Martin advertises not only to tune, but also to " regulate " pianos. Now, this is a step in the right direction I take it. A well regulated piano, if either one's self or one's neighbor owns such a thing, is most desirable. It will never play too fast, too slow ; too loud, too much ; too early, or too late. Think of the boon this will be to beginners, to teachers, to parents, and those whose fate it is to occupy a tenement adjoining; a young ladies' seminary; It was once my lot to be so situated, but unfortunately the instrument belonging to the school was a very badly regulated one. It began in th« small hours of the|morning, went on all day, and left off when the smallest hours of the next morning were well set in. "T|*e. Mug, belle of Scotland/ '* The carnival of Venice," " The harmonious blncksmith," and " Home, sweet home " the irony of it!) tainted my very existence, and embittered the family circle. My temper grew shorter and shorter, as my visago grew longer and longer ; my digestion failed, and so did the vocabulary ; my very flesh hung in " scales " about me. (N.B. —There's a joke somewhere about that.; My medical man said the house was unhealthy, and, begad, I believed him. 80 I left; but just think, if we had only had a Martin, or any other bird—l mean man—to set that piano right—rcgulnte it, you know—how the recording cherubim would have been spared, and it was in the thick of the summer, too. I should imagine he— that's the Martin, not the cherubim— would be in grent request roundabout. I hear he was at a < certain local girls' school the other day, and thnt, having fixed up the piano, he aeked the lady principal to try it. She accordingly did so, and on being pressed to sing burst out with, " Swallow, swallow, homeward fly." Martin took tho hint and left after the first few bars ; but some people have no tact!

Knowing how anxious you are for the earliest and most authentic accounts of what is going on in the district, I took up my quarters at the Hill-top, on the look out for the " mortal combat" between Irish Jack and the sporting man, orh'S dog. For the first two days I was doomed to disappointment and inferior liquor j but on the third there appeared in the bar a tall individual with an unmistakeable ?onk of the " fancy " about him, accompanied by a " dog " of the Retriever species. Being pressed to imbibe, the stranger consented, and proceeded to draw from ail inside pocket of his coat the left barrel of a fowlingpiece ; he next produced the right barrel from a similar receptacle in his right trousers leg. Taking off his hat, he brought to light the breech, aad extracted the stock from one of his long boots. He then put the weapon together, loaded it called his dog " to lieel," cleared his throat, and thus expressed himself—" If so be the dash individooal's 'ere as writ me or my dorg that there letter in The Mail, I Be 'ere to arnswer'im, and t , poop likewise—dang 'im—an' 111 show 'im as 'ow I'll play t . Old 'Arry with 'im." I need scarcely say there was no response to the invitation; in fact, though the sporting gent, and his dog stayed there three days, and regularly challenged three times a day, the combat has not yet eventuated, nor ever will. The whole affair is a practical joke on the part of — but that's tellings. How ever, I don't much believe in the sporting man after all. Between whiles lie used to go out shooting, you see, and

to iu.l»n by the results he must have blown all tlic feathers off every bird he shot. He swore they were pigeons, but it ever L saw a well I've been b ittae shooting in the old country and know a thing or two, you know. ASBESTOS.