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Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 94, 12 September 1877, Page 2

The " Marlboroirgh Express," having vainly remonstrated with its correspondents for the length of their letters, has now chalked off half a column as the maximum allowance for each. The "Evening Post" is rather hard on our aspiring townships. It has now gathered under the besom of its displeasure all the small towns that have become, or intend to become boroughs, and intimates that they ought to be put down. Of course no .town will dare to become a borough after this ; and there is nothing for it but for our burgesses to send the mayor and aldermen to the right, about, and petition the Governor to unsay his proclamation., This is wihaF the asseverative "Post" says: — "The Masterton Municipal Council is now m full blast Its estimated income is a little over £1000 a-year, subsides included, and inasmuch as it- is proposed to appoint an engineer at. £250 per .annum, a collector, a secretary and' treasurer, a solicitor, and •two auditors — all of whom will require to be paid — it seems probable that one half of the total income will be spent m salaries, leaving a very small sum indeed for ; public works. Somehow or other, there is an awful lot of Government in' New Zealand. Almost every small township m the country either already, possesses or .is about to possess a Mayorj a' Borough Council, and a whole lot of officials. ■ Mayors, indeed, are as plentiful as blackberries.; ' Then besides; the Borough Council' and Municipalities, there are the County "Councils, and the . chairman and members thereof, together with the staff of officials appertaining to each. Then, above and beyond that, there are the huge, costly, and cumbrous General Government departments, which are increasing m dimensidns every day.' People growl at taxation^ but how is itposible to avoid such with so much government mar ehinery ? There is one benefit, however, to be derived from those institutions of- local self-government — they furnish the'ineans' of. educating the people m the- conduct of public business. Still, it is possible to have overmuch of a good thing, and New Zealand has certainfy overmuch .government. It is not of ten we hear of duels — at any rate m the present /age— button the still, quiet plains of Tokomairiro, on Wednesday night, writes "the Bruce. " Herald/ two young strplings; so : to speak, faced- each other" with the full determination that one should die.- The night was well suited for .^the purpose, " nbt'a leaf stirred," arid there was just . sufficient' noonlight to make the " scene interesting.^ Eight o'clock was the time fixed; At o-;quarter of an hour before that time, the . two .youths arrived at ; , the chosen spot with their seconds. The place we will not mentipnj but suffice it to say ifc skirted the .Main. South, road, and was secluded from "the .passers- by, by "a. thick whin hedge. Ateight o'clock the prescribed distance of , twenty. :paceß was solemnly t measured by the; seconds. The pop-guns . wei'e than loaded: and handed to the antagonists. .The.scene rroivr became sligtly confused, for two! .feinale voices weVe heai'd . screeching and hurrying to the place where the young innocent blood was to have been;: spilt. The two; females were elderly ladies, and proved to' be the mothers of the combatants. It is' scarcely necessary to say : more. A young lady was m the case, and, of course, was tie. cause of the Intended fight. The mother of '"one of the suitors' got , wind ofctne intended spiiling of blood, and; she very naturally told the other young:; gentleman's maternity,- so the two hurried off and arrived as 'above;'' just m '■■■■time to ; stop what m all probability would have been the death of one, perhaps both/, of the most promising of our young farmers on the plain. . " A; police constable, says an exchange, has been fined Is for apprehending" two thieves. This was done not by a Magistrate, but by a court of "Foresters,"' of which he w&s a member, the excuse being i. that, m" making^ the arrest, he was" following his work,'" while his name was upon the sick list of the; club. He was not on piolice duty> but was merely returning from/" Scotland Yard, wither he had been to see the chief .surgeon," when he met the thieves, and it appears tHat y besides tbe'finv he forfeits his sick pay. The- other day Be applied "for advice on the subject to the Lambeth Magistrate, who, though unable to help him m any way condoled with him on the hardness of the case, remarking that he had : acted very properly, and conferred" a boon on society.A good tale of Mr Wardell, the Kesident Magistrate who is acting for Mr Crawford m Wellington .—lt is ;said that on the first morning he commenced his duties by: turning up at half-past nine to.see] everything -ship-shaped , While so engagedy be got_ into conversation with a pphceman, who," struck by the affability of his^demeihor, snddenly asked him, " What is the new- c beak' like?" When he took his seat on the bench, that policeman was covered- : with blushes the tint of a cabbage Jose.-— N.Z." Tinies." The " Wairarapa Standard ' r says Mr W. Lingard, brewer, Masterton, has disposed of his business to Mr J. G. Bock el. His validictory addressj tTs pubEshedby a contemporary says : — " The. number of friends he has m the Wairarapa has caused him a feeling of the utmost regret."! 'We ' presume Mr langard's motto is " Save meirom.my friends." . An exchange says :— The 1 following, anecdote, related by the Scotch correspondent of the "Pictorial World*" may afford instructive^ reading to. those persons' who! seek to stop an editor's pen by stopping', their paper :— " The other day. a prominent citizen of a provincial town m this, country, disagreeing with the treatment of a local question by one of the newspapers, stopped his paper. But the editor, who also happened to be the proprietor, was fully equal to, the occasion. In his next issue he published his irate friend's letter, subjbineda scathing paragraph, and put his paper m mourning !"