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Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 735, 4 October 1870, Page 2

Lattekly, onr contemporary the West Coast Times has been suffering from a severe eruption in the shape of leading article?, having for their object the glorification of Mr Barff. Happy Barff ! After so many years of the cold shade of editorial neglect, to have at last found a trumpet to sound his praises ! He might have been ungratefully allowed to quietly disappear from the political scene, but for the charity of the West Const Times/ and it is quite refreshing to see how uncompromisingly our contemporary lends its aid to that hitherto sadly undervalued and misunderstood statesman, We hope our contemporary ia not indulging in n ghastly joke} at the expense of the member for

Westland South. Such things have happened as men writing their own epitaphs, and occasionally public journals have by accident delivered themselves of memorial notices of persons not yet dead. Possibly the West Coast Times thinks that if there is any virtue in the old axiom, de vwrtins nil nisi bonum, it is none the worse for its application to the moribund. Perhaps our contemporary is right ; and we don't see why Mr Barff should not be allowed the mundane gratification of discounting his political epitaph. But there is one objection to this reversal of common usage. One may read with a smile tho catalogue of virtues inscribed on the tombstone of one in whom few good qualities were manifested whilst living, but when one is asked to swallow the notion whilst our friend is still above ground, it is rather trying to one's patience. Had the West Coast Times for instance waited unMl the next general election had consigued Mr Barff to his normal condition, no one would care to take exception to the affectionate "taradiddles " it has been guilty of on that gentleman's behalf. But Mr Barff is for a short time longer politically alive, and it is rather too bad for the West Coast Times to cram down people's throats every day "Mr Barff did this," or "Mr Barff did that ; " "Mr Barff's influence," " Mr Barff's strenuous exertions," " the member for Westland South moved this," or "the member for Westland South opposed that," when everyone knows the real measure of that gentleman's standing in Parliament and the exact amount of his influence. Yesterday our contemporary ascribes the defeat of the annexation scheme to Mr Barff, and wonders that Mr Harrison did not remember that he had a colleague in the House. Mr Barff had about as much to do with bringing about the failui'e of the annexation scheme as he had with creating war between France and Prussia, and no more ; and as to Mr Harrison's failure to remember that he had a colleague, it is impossible that he could forget that fact, for Mr Barff is one of those gentlemen whose light is not hid under a bushel and whose presence is not likely to be unfelt. The legislative halls of Christchurch entertain a grateful recollection of him, and no doubt next year tender Barffic memories will haunt the Parliament House at Wellington.