RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 293, 10 September 1910, Page 2

RANDOM REMARKS.

(By "Onlooker.") A short time ago Mr A. W. Hogg, M.P., discovered that the King Country lands were being monopolised by soeculators, and produced a little list to substantiate his case. Unfortunately for Hogg logic statistics require to be up-to-date in order to be reliable. Figures are said to be able to prove anything, and are useful to quote as long as your audience knows little or nothing about them. But, reverting to Mr Hogg's discovery: The peculiar feature oTthe matter was that, nobody discovered the point at which Mr Hogg was aiming. Upon one memorable occasion, being carried away with Ministerial dignity, and various other unassorted emotions, the member for Masterton advocated 20-acre farms for growing soup, or oysters, or menu cards, or other equally profitable commodities calculated to stimulate and uplift the workers of the country. This strange doctrine brought its apostle much notoriety but little material benefit. Perhaps, however, Mr Hogg cherishes the idea of converting the unoccupied lands of the King Country into farms of the description mentioned and resents settlement on any other lines. It is soothing to reflect that the developing of our national resources lies not with any single individual. The further we get in the march of progress the more complex does life become, and we must develop in more than one direction in order to fulfil our high destiny. Soup and oysters and menu cards are merely the trimmings of life. The satisfying doctrine is that which reaches the heart of things. It has evidently been mislaid in modern times, but there is talk of a Royal Commission being set up to enquire as to its whereabouts. Meanwhile, Mr Hogg's doctrine is not attracting serious attention.

The Hon. Rhoderick McKenzie has just discovered that the retrenchment business is the most unpleasant thing he has even had to deal with. Such an admission from the man of administrative mind will elicit wide-spread sympathy. It will also, perhaps, cause a readjustment of hastily formed opinions. There is little doubt many people formed the opinion that the Hon. R. McKenzie was the most unpleasant subject they had to deal with. In the light of the Minister's naive admission it will be readily seen that Ministerial action was open to misconstruction. It is well-known that "like begets like," and what more reasonable than to suppose that unpleasantness breeds true to type. It is to be hoped our settlers who have been disposed to think harshly of the Minister for Public Works, will have the grace to shed a joint and several tear over the grave of a rash conclusion, and think of an appropriate text with which to point the moral.

Incidentally, the Minister stirkes an admonitory, note and "hopes it won't occur again." Whether the subject of the admonition was a concrete personality, or whether Mr McKenzie was merely addressing "hard times" in general, or the surrounding atmosphere we are left to decide for ourselves. The majority of us have some experience of lean years, and will cordially re-echo the Ministerial admonition be it addressed to whom it may. There are some verses which fit the occasion, and should Mr McKenize be sufficiently moved to break forth into song, he will find a lusty chorus to join in rendering "Hard Times Come Again No More." * * * * * "Spring is Coming!" And as a consequence the "fruits of the earth" seems a much more understandable phrase than it did a couple of months ago, which leads one to speculate upon how much we are indebted to turnips, which thrive and grow sturdily when most other fruits of the earth are hibernating. I am not referring to the obvious utility of the turnip for feeding hungry winter-stricken stock, but to the purely sentiment are not usually associated. This, however, is an over sight which will probably be rectified by our poet in his usual spring crop of verse, when he is brought to realise that turnips have a highly sentimental application. As a matter of fact there are so many sentimental issues connected with turnips that I have difficulty in choosing the particular brand of sentiment to suggest to the poet. Suffice it to remark that if the turnip by its own unaided efforts contrives to grow and mature when other crops are withering it serves to remind us that even in the winter of our discontent we may achieve something besides hoping for the good time coming. The foregoing is not a homily, though its appearance is "agin it." It is a fact —a fact moreover which may be applied to other humble and worthy fruits of the earth. The turnip just happened to come first. A Scotsman would naturally have thought first of his beloved kale, as a sentimentinspiring vegetable kale is entitled to high rank. I have seen a Scot's face beam, his eye kindle, and the cnobling emotion of true sentiment spread its dignifying influence all over him at the sight of a solitary kale stalk in a kitchen gar:len. The sight of a kale crop would have an uncanny effect on any true Scot. To think that the immortal Burns trifled with such a ken's peckle theme as a daisy when he probably had kale growing in his back yard is past ordinary understanding. Such a striking example tends to show that the true poet is never merely national in his thought; he is universal. Hitherto, Burns has been regarded as a Scottish bard; henceforth I bow the knee to him as something greater.