Out and About

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 108, 6 March 1890, Page 3

Out and About

{Br Mbbgatob.) The abov* titl* suggests .to th* reader that the writer is not one who aits in his -editorial chair, and reads up on the various topics of the day, such topics as are agitating the public mind as, for instance, Free Trade or Protection, Home Rule for Ould Ireland, Federation of the Colonies, and a host of other things. These matters trouble me not. I don't envy your editorial chair with your frequent callers, the numberless complaints, grievances, . Ac., which are poured into your ears irom time to time. I like breathing the pure air, and corning in contact with the stalwart men who are carving out homes for themselves in this Britain of the South whether they be business men, merchants or farmers, and if from time to time I can giv«ra word of encouragement through these pages, 1 shall feel -most happy to do so ; but they must not be displeased if 1 also have to use the -lash, which will be applied where necessary. ' In re such topics as I haye enumerated, ■ which trouble the pate of the- editor, I think if the editors of papers — country -journals especially— were to study the interests of our own adopted country,'instead of writing of what statesmen should do at Home, it would be more acceptable to the majority of their readers. Such, indeed h-_6. been the experience of the man who is •' Out and About." I have often beard such expressions as follows : "What f the devil do we want to trouble ourselves about whether Ireland should have Home • Rule or not ; or whether England shook! annex the Kermadic Islands or any other country. We should endeavor, with all our might, to make our adopted country what she ought to be in tlie world — one of the finest and the best of lands in which to dwell. We .-have the best climate, the beat soil of any country, end the best minerals. We want roads to open up the lands and people settled thereon. Let . the papers agitate it; let the people be educated up to it." As the press is acknowledged to be a mighty lever and an educator of the masses, let it' fulfil its mission to the uttermost. Editors, take advice from the man who is " Out and J About" and giye the people what they want. Of course, you will always hava your " croaker," the faultfinders, no m itter what advice you give, but " all the same," as the Maoris say, the. very croaker will do in the end as you advise him, and of course he finds that he does right ; but he wont acknowledge the fact that he followed your counsel, oh no 1 Such is a •ample of the man of whom Solomon wrote of as being " wise in bis own conceit." I meet with such large numbers in my rambles. They manage to get into good positions, too, by their consummate cheek, I presume, and of course must air their eloquence and let the people know who they are. They are found sitting as members of our local school committees, and of course must celebrate their advent into public life by making themselves very The three celebrated and historical Tailors *f Tooly Street are mere pigmies compa-**_ to these men — in their own estimation. They compos* the Board, Inspector, Secretary and Chairman combined — tbe Schoolmaster and the whole of the parent* of the children. In fact these men ar* looking forward to be, not only members and ministers of our colonial legislation, but Chancellors of th* Exchequer of England.