MATAKITAKI NOTES.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 290, 11 September 1886, Page 2

MATAKITAKI NOTES.

(from our own correspondent). Murchison, August 81,1866. The Jockey Club are making an early start this year, and consequently should be able to bring out a great success on Boxing Day, as it is the day out of the year for all hands, and is well patronised. The first the Matakitaki road was turned on "Iriday last. There was no general rejoicing, though it was well 4 wetted " by the elements. The session is over at last, and no more will the dreary night watches be enlivened by the intensely thrilling speeches from Hansard of our law makers; no more will we be able to quote the profound wisdom of the member for Waimea, the legal acumen and convincing logic of the member for Kumara, or the biting satire and polished irony of the member for Wakatipu; before whose light the lesser luminaries of Stout, Vogel, and Atkinson pale to insignificance; their dry statements of facts and figures comparing so unfavourably with the graceful wit and polished diction of backwoods members. But the troubles of our representatives are not yet over, as the constituencies have yet to be faced, to give an account of their various stewardships, some awkward questions answered and explanations given, not as to why they did or did not vote for or against the Loan Bill or any other Bill of importance to the Colony at large, but as to why they did not sell their political honour, (if there is such a thing,) for bridge and road for their electoral district; that is the way New Zealand is governed, and no Government will ever be popular or powerful unless there is plenty of money to be spent to buy the votes of the representatives of that hungry shark the Great Unwashed. " Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" and " let posterity take care of itself" are the mottoes of our representatives. There must be " something wrong in the State of Denmark," if there is not plenty of work at the regulation 10/ per day. Why we wish to go to Parliament, is not from a self sacrificing love of " My own my native land," as Sir Walter Scot sings, but because we have each our individual axe to grind, in the shape of few debentures of an insolvent railway to sell, from which we get a swinging commission, a piece of land required for defence purposes, or a railway route to bo diverted through our run in the back country that we may make a few thousands in these hard times as compensation. Most of our political views are taken through the telescopic medium of the breeches pocket. Quid Nunc.