WAIRARAPA JOTTINGS.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 17, 27 October 1900, Page 18

WAIRARAPA JOTTINGS.

THE' sudden departure of Mr C. E. ' Copping, sub-editor of the Waira- ./ rapa J)aily, was a complete surprise for Masterton., Mr Copping's lcjng association with the paper Iji question made him a settled institution in • the town. However, to a few, a very few, in the know, the event was no surprise, for everybody considered it inevitable that this really first-class journalist should cut the ropes. However, the townspeople showed in no mistakable manner their high appreciation of Mr Copping's steiling worth. The presentation, got together in 1 less than two days, was a memorable 1 tribute such as few journalists secure. Anyhow, the change is to Mr Copying [ nothing but a blessing. A man like him can only be lost in a provincial township, for often the effect, as time goes on, of journalistic work on a country paper is to stultify capacity, crucify ambition and foster general degeneration. • • * For uncompromising independence iThe Wairarapa milk vendors easily come on top. A hint, however remote, that the respectable retailer of milk and water is ruining himself by lavish measure, brings a haughty request to "find somebody else," which means a stoppage of supplies, for these people stick together like burrs. • # # An up-to-date circular is just now being considered by the residents of Masfcerfcon, having for its primary object a Utopian scheme for compelling people to mind their own affairs. The promoters propose forming a society to be called The AntiPoking One's Nose Into Other Peoples' Business Association. Whether the proposition will be successful or not it is, of course, impossible to say ; but if any town on earth needs a society of the kind more than Masterton, it is some place this flaneur knows not of. It is a fact that whenever a hapless individual takes a short straight cut to his objective the heathens furiously rage. That society is certainly much wanted. m # • The Masterton Town Lands Trust has lost its chairman, Mr John Hessey. To say he was the right man in the right place is but to give a very limited idea of his ability. He is undoubtedly a man of affairs, cool, judical and masterful, and under his guidance the Trust made excellent progress. Unfortunately, pressing private engagements compelled Mr Hessey to resign. However, though he rightly felt it might possibly not tend to conserve the best interests of the Trust, were he to continue chairman, still he has consented to remain a Trustee. To succeed John Hessey as chairman is a task few men would care to undertake, but the successor has been found in Mr C. E. Daniell. Mr Daniell is one of those anomalies one occasionally meets with in small provincial towns — men with metropolitan business instincts, cooped up by inadequate surroundings, handicapped ' by i the short-sighted opposition of compeers who stamp every man with courage for progress as that most unsafe of all characters, a visionary. But Mr Daniell has gone on progressing, and in losing the really valuable "services of the late chairman, the Trust is to be congratulated on his successor, who brings to his new appointment a buiness experience and capacity for detail, possessed by no other man in Masterton. • Bunny's Bush ! Alliterative certainly, and euphonious. Nevertheless, strange to say, the borough would have nothing to do with Bunny's Bush. Subtle joke ! But humour avast — the loss to the community is the thing. How many Masterton people have been through Arcadia ? Few, this scribe ventures to say, and the proprietor does not look that awful, austere landlord, known particularly to Irishmen, who threatens trespassers with a shotgun, and refuses leave to all. There is not the slightest doubt, from the writer's point of view of course, that Masterton is losing a chance — a life chance. Think of it ! Eight in the heart of the town — or to be severely accurate, within ten minutes' walk of the Post Office — lies a little gem of bush land. Rustic seats, dewy dells, and smiling streams make old folk regret the days of love are past. It is an ideal retreat for serious reflection or maiden meditation. Has sentiment gone from our breasts for ever? It would appear so. The public took, or seemed to take, no interest in the matter, and, though the Mayor did his part, the matter ; has been shelved, most probably per- j manently. Will Mr Bunny wait ? Very unlikely, many justly think. He is a fool who knows not '■ there is a tide in the affairs of men."