PROTEAN PAPERS.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 754, 10 July 1894, Page 6

PROTEAN PAPERS.

(BY PROTEUS).

Phew ! Which means That it’s been rough lately. You’re not going to draw me about the weather.

Keep cool. You mean, keep warm

No ! I mean, don't get excited over nothing. I didn’t refer to the weather. What then ?

Assassination, arson, anarchy, annexation, almost anything awful I Trying your hand at alliteration ! No, my pen. First., assassination. Yes, poor Carnot ! Such fiends’ as Santo deserve drawing and quartering. Aye, and they threaten Perier. By Jove I The Anarchists are making a rod for their own backs.

As the rich, as a class, have done in many cases. Some of the better off in Kaikoura I could mention are, relatively, more liberal than some millionaires.

What fools those Queensland shearers must be to burn down shearing sheds. Yes ! Only makes things worse for themselves. And others, too. They are going about the work of reform in a stupid, duuder-headed fashion. What’s your style ? By Legislation. What ! Legislation! Legislation!! Legislation ! ! !

Too slow The dunder-heads think. But it is sure, and saves bones. And misery. Solomon saw ! Cut what ? I mean a wise interjection. Ab ! There are two ways of asking for and obtaining reforms. Very true. More perhaps. Yes ! Bully and bluster rarely produce anything satisfactory. Makes the other roan set his back up.

Exactly ! A calm, dignified, selfrespecting. but, withall, resolute manner, wins more in the end than fire-arms and fire-sticks. Neither side believes in application of a lash.

But it’s what the Anarchists want every morning before breakfast.

May he they deserve it. I would prefer killing them with kindness. No ! No ! Be firm with the sinners, and make them respect law and order. True ! But show them their errors, and if reason is thrown away upon them then, I suppose, harsh measures must be adopted.

If you talk that way I’ll give in to you, Proty, old chap.

What about annexation ? That’s the rub. Well, what ? The Bank of New Zealand. Oh, it’s all right. Yes, I know that! What are you driving at ? It's this way. Bothered if I know whether the Colony has annexed the Bank, or whether the Bank has annexed the Colony. , Y’ou have put the matter rather amusingly. By Jingo there wasn't much amusement in it the other dav.

No, indeed ! It was a raging fever heat ‘ quarter of an hour ’ —or quarter of a week, perhaps—for the Ministry. And for some others, too ; Murray, the Bank Inspector, included.

What I don’t like about the matter is that the Colony is now so much identified with the welfare of the Bank that its few—comparatively—shareholders may be helped at the expense of the vast majority of Colonists. I didn’t view it that way. I heartily wish the Bank a prosperous future, and I don’t see bow the State can now avoid standing by it, at any rate until it thoroughly recovers from its sickness—for it was, apparently, sick unto death—but I fear that the arrangement will prove a disturbing influence in politics.