THE FROG THAT APED TO BE A BULL.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 49, 11 June 1879, Page 2

THE FROG THAT APED TO BE A BULL.

" Dreams are fables, And fables are lies ; And he that believes fables Will. never he wise." With all respect to the above poetical dictum, we must beg leave to differ with tbe assertion that " fables are lies." Just as history is said to reijeit itself, day after day we nee the words of wisdom uttered by the Phrygian shive philosopher iEsopus borne out by facts, and the frog thatwishing to be a bull— puffed and puffed itself out t'll the strain was too great, and it came to grief, has its counterpart m the insurious fate of the Rakgitikei Advocate. Twelve months ago that jou'-nal, if not valued, was at least not despised, but being disguited with its lowly lot, it sought to be the representative journal of the whole Coast, and ignoring quality, went m for quantity. It announced with a great flourish of trumpets that the plethora of advertising favors compelled an enlargement and a more frequent publication of its issues. Strange to say, however, the bona fides of the announcement was proved by tho paradoxical conduct, of soliciting by written application advertising favors thirty-seven and a AaYper cent, below the rafce<oharged by The Trass. This is no fiction, but a fact which can be proved. Since the advent of the Guardian it has fared even worse, and finding itself crowded out entirely it has now sent its emissary to Feilding to intimate to advertisers that remunerntion i« a matter left entirely to themselves; all that the Advocate is anxious about is that its surplus columns may not be all dummies. Truly, the climax has been soon reached, and the frog has burst, even before it attained the coveted bovine proportions !