The Road to Perdition

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 7, 16 July 1891, Page 2

The Road to Perdition

By Old Grumble. The road ho perdition is strewed with good intentions — so is the road to Awahuri from Feilding, in the shape of posts lying along the whole course of the way. What is their purpose? Their present one — to startle horses, and make them shy. Their end ? Uncertain — perhaps to be reared at last to sustain the promised e insulated wire which should have connected the two places by telephone, in accordance with the good intentions of long ago ; but it is improbable, for that Ministry in whose time they were laid at the roadside, has gone ; its little triennial life run out, leaving behind it a host of incompleted works in testimony of the amount of money squandered, and another Ministry sits in its place. More probable is it that the grass which already is growing over those posts, will soon coyer them, and then they will, pass from sight and memory, where they will rest until age has made them venerable, when they will be unearthed by some seeker after antiquities and placed in some museum as relics of barbarous bygone days. Yes, Mrs Grumble, the constitution of this country is a relic producing constitution, and in a few years we shall vie with Athens in the number and grandeur of our public properties which have fallen into decay. How impressive will they be ! And although only of wood, what feelings will they invoke ! For s let me tell you, Mrs G., that there is as good stuff in wood to make sermons out of as there is in stones, although the latter is more appreciated, and a wooden lecture penetrates as deeply in a reflective mind as does a petrified homily, But, leaving homilies and sermons to future sentimentists, there is one thing these yet silent posts forcibly declare. It is that while those who have the management of our public affairs rack their brains as to the best method of wringing the money from the people by taxation, they are culpably negligent of duties tending to the convenience and welfare of the people. But Old Grumble will be magnanimous, and pretend to believe that the erection of the telephone is delayed with the best of all possible intentions — as the better the intentions, the quicker will the intendors be in perdition. Mrs Grumble says it is wrong to suppose that the title ofK.C.M.G. is the most noble one ever given to a true colonial. By adding B he can have a nobbier — a comparatively better one. Mrs G. is not a Blue Ribboner.