IDIOSYNCRASIES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 383, 14 July 1876, Page 3

IDIOSYNCRASIES.

But every desperate blockhead dares to write $ Why not ? 'Art of Poetry.' It was a very foolish thing of me to threaten the public with the Piako swamp last week, for I might have known that I would bring a hornet's nest about my ears. The number of letters I have received, protesting against my little paragraph, is something appalling. Some of them are very elegant in their way, and instructive, aud I only regret that want of space prevents me giving more than one specimen . Mr. Parthian, — Sia, —I hev hecrrl tell as youro going to let us hev some more of this hero «wamp bisniaa dont you go fur to be sich a d d fule you* obedient Berya:)t to command. Perhaps I had better not give the name : the writer is one of the chief supporters of the present Ministry, and I am on the same side myself. It now occurs to me that I have written my paragraph after all, and that too with the assistance of the elegant letter writer above mentioned. Sterne was very anxious to write a chapter upon " Sleep," and, in expressing his desire, wrote his chapter; and so I, having nothing to say about the Piako swamp, have finished a neat paragraph about it, and kept my word besides.

The people of Waikouaiti have reason to be proud, now that their distinguished member, Mr. George M'Lean, has been appointed to a seat in 'the Cabinet. I don't know the gentleman personally, but I am almost certain I once heard him speak—that is, attempt to articulate; I might indeed say, quite certain, for the ordeal was not one which I was likely to forget. The soil whereon his ideas grow may be regarded as poor —very second rate, in fact, ]ike the unsold lands of the Province—so that a rich or even tolerable crop of these useful and ornamental articles is not to be expected. Nevertheless, the experience of a lifetime is hardly ever thrown away, and if Mr. M'Lean has any knowledge at all it Bhould be about trade. Possibly Sir Julius Vogel may possess the same delicate faculty that distinguishes Mr. Disraeli—that of instinctively choosing the right man for the right place. Mr. M'Lean is one of those' fortunate individuals of whom people continually say " ho must have something in him," although that something is of a very recondite and intangible nature, and has hitherto baffled the keenest scrunity, like the sources of the Nile. Sir Julius may now be the means of letting us into the secret.

If any one wishes for all time to be impressed with the deplorable state of helplessness which results from disorganisation among bodies of men, let them look at the spectacle presented by our present Parliamentary Opposition. The Otago faction are almost unanimous in their determination to preserve their land fund, and they are now backed up by a strong feeling in the same direction in Canterbury, while Auckland is only too ready to join with them in any action which is hostile to the present Government. Numerically they are strong, and, the units are> powerful enough, but the quality of sion is wanting, in consequence of whichtho Government is evidently going to carry the day. At the time when united action is most required Mr. Stout is.speaking fifteen times on the same subject., and Mr. Rees twelve, or Rces fifteen and Stout twelve, I really forget which. " Silence," says Carlyle, "is the eternal duty of man ; he won't get to any real understanding of what is complex without maintaining silence." There is complexity enough in our politics in all conscience, sufficient at the present juncture to make the cry for silence ascend to Heaven. The Opposition require a leader who can hold his tongue, and make his followers do the same.

A man must be very much behind tile times if he cannot write a paragraph upon Evolution. It is the subject of the day ; and as nobody knows much about it ex- ; cepting that it is a case of Evolution versus Creation, it afl'ords a very safe subject for the ignorant to expatiate upon. One gets very wearied of the very ingenious attempts occasionally made to prove that there is ccnflict between Christian dogma and the theory of Evolution—such as we see in the Darwino-theology of Mr. Fitzgerald and the lectures of Dr. Roseby—ho that it is with a sense of rcliefthat we read Mr. Salmond's statement of the case —simple, plain, bold and unrelenting, but withal temperate and courteous in the highest degree. It is pleasant tcf find, on the authority of the Professor, that it is not necessary for the preservation of our, mental equilibrium that we should assimilate fire and water, and out of the compound turn out a decent respectable belief. Thg most distressing position in which a human, being can possiby find himself is, in my opinion, on the horns of dilemma. It is uncomfortable at the best, and it may be permanent.