STRAY CHILDREN.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 21, 24 June 1874, Page 2

STRAY CHILDREN.

» To the Editor of the Globe, . ' Sir, —It is said that Diogenes searched in daylight with a lantern for to find out an honest man, but if Diogenes had been in New Zealand at the present time he would not have required any illuminating power to have discovered one, if in his peregrinations he had dropt across that man Hollo way, for he seemed to find himself at home wherever he went; in fact, to slide into this place as naturally as if he had been born either at the Toi Toi'fl, Cape!Saunders, or Pott Cooper, In the first place, sir, there was no superciliousness or humbug about him ;;he neither avoided nor courted and the only thing I have heard that some people had against him, was a lingering partiality for the costume of some forgottten age, which "rather lowered him' in the estimation of what jg khWnas New Zealand ' JBut,, : I, sir, might inform that class of' individuals' that his rusticity of behaviour only arose from his not being taught, all those fashionable accomplishments, like sojme of those, for instance, who sign hieroglyphics after their names to every letter they write; whether the letter be official or otherwise. Holloway, then, was only graceful and accomplished in those things to which he paid his whole attention ; namely, trying to benefit the class he sprang from, and which she now represents, to attain their proper level with the rest of mankind. To give you; a description of what he thinks of Canterbury as a field for immigration, I would almost require to give you the information seriatim,) starting at Lyttelton first.* Lyttelton, he thinks, would be a splendid and stirring town if it was a little bitmore in the country, which is quite natural in a man like Holloway, seeing that he has been almost all his life in the country, He find Out that Lyttelton,'like all other places he has touched at ; in New Zealand, could employ and support all the agricultural labor of Great Britain—almost all the population of the town want servants, while not a few of them want to get rid of them; more especially when payday comes, if it was at all convenient for them to go. Being introduced, as Mr Holloway was, to all the contractors, railway officials, lumpers, orphans, and reporters, he of course carries an amount of information away with him that will make glad the heart and hearth of many a Yorkshire household ; but what touched him the most was, that the town of Lyttelton had actually elected a man in his own sphere of life as Mayor—a plodding, working, industrious tradesman. I have not been informed whether he took a drink with him or not, but I presume if he had, he would have found the exact quantity of water where it ought to be. The railway officials he considers to be the greatest ornaments of this or any other country—a pride to the Government that employs them, and a fortune to tax-paying Canterbury. Of course he was introduced to the orphans, and proud of them ; but it struck him, being an observant man, that some of them resembled grown-up males, whom he saw walking about the town, which should have precluded them (meaning the orphans) from receiving any Government aid, as long as these males were allowed at large. His ideas about the lumpers and reporters were thin, and rather mixed; in fact, sir, it was like a loose sketch in oil, not properly hung. The harbor he considered the finest in the world, but the greatest disappointment of all, was that he had not seen it lit up like an amphitheatre, with that fiendish glare of fire and light, which took three pounds and a half of some people's flesh off their bones that were witnesses of it. The Lyttelton drains he thinks could not be improved upon, so far as giving them a wide berth is concerned; he was not aware that there was any other place in the world, where they allowed peopio to fall down into the sewers, and likewise allow them to rot there instead of taking them up, and interring them decently at least; he thought that the stench resembled that, more than other thing he had ever smelt. Morally speaking he imagines that Lyttelton can stand the test in comparison with the rest of New Zealand he ha 3 visited. The cold drinks supplied are excellent,-the hot ones nectar, by all the gods. Physically speaking he has only to say, look at the claimant and you will be convinced, beauty, health, and happiness. Financially speaking he knows nothing about it, having not required to borrow any money while he was there on his visit. Yours. Jcc. Q.