THE INTELLIGENT VAGRANT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4589, 4 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE INTELLIGENT VAGRANT.

(From the New Zealand Mail.) Qiiis scit an adjiciant hodiernal crastina summ.'e Tempera Di Superi.—Horace. The editor of this paper informs me that Mr. John Sheehan, M.H.R., and poor unhappy Erin haw been subjected to contumely in consequence of a paragraph I wrote last week, in which I mentioned that a convivial youth was a native of Mr, Sheehans county*. It seems that in consequence of this some people have accused Mr. Sheehan of conviviality, and have said that I insinuated an insult to Ireland by stating a convivial gentleman was an. Irishman, that is to say, a countryman of Mr. : Sheehan’s. This matter can be put right by me in an instant. I desire solemnly to disclaim any intention to connect conviviality with Mr. Sheehan. I have heard him too often and too long in Parliament to associate anything convivial with him. All my recollections of him are dismal and dolorous in the extreme. As to the implied insult to Ireland, X disclaim any idea of having offered such. Mr. Sheehan is a New Zealander., and I wish his country joy of him ! A Mastarton correspondent writes to say that if the editor of the Wairarapa, Standard cannot see any meaning in an allusion by the New Zealand Times to himself and thistles, there : are some of his neighbors who can. At the Agricultural and Pastoral Association’s show on Wednesday, Mr. Vallance drove into the . yard three donkeys. As the foremost animal made its appearance, a bystander called out “Make way for the Editor of the ll'ciirarapct Standard l trust that my literary friend will now find' himself assisted to a better . comprehension of the meaning of his contemporary. And whilst I am at this matter, I had better polish off the editor of the Watrarajia ' Standard. As the worst term of contempt for me he uses “ Itinerant Showman. Well, I have had, and I trust shall again have, claims to that title. For I have got a real novelty, and am going into the show business. I have procured in the Wairarapa, and am about to exhibit throughout the civilised world, the editor who understood Sir George Grey’s letter but couldn't see a joke. —The printer* had a soiree on boardthe Border biiief, lying alongside the wharf, on Monday evening. That same evening “Johnny came marching home again” in the persons of Messrs. Martin and Seed, who arrived by the Otago.. When they saw the crowd on the wharf they were delighted, and Mr. Martin is reported to have said to Mr. Seed “Well, aren’t we popular after all See .how the Elites (pronounced as if naming the family of the Jewish ,• priest) are turning out to receive us.” This gratification Was somewhat damped when they ■ heard one of the swell Elites say to a female “Here's Johnny Martin back again, and I suppose no one would have cried lus eyes out if the old nail had stayed away. We shall be late for the next quadrille.” .; That is a curt,' yet solemn, manner in which • a ■ Maori' is disposed of by a telegram from .Gisborne, which says:—“A Maori got insensibly drunk —he was buried to-day.” There is an absence of. unnecessary fuss about the . announcement that makes it charming in these days, when the acme of newspaper work seems to be reached by conveying the smallest possible amount of information in the greatest '■ attainable quantity of words. Now, the Gisborne ■ style is far better, and is like that adopted by a friend of mine in Ireland, some . twenty-five years ago. He and his father had gone to a distant fair, to sell some cattle. He ■■ wrote.home in a week,—“Hear Mother—/The cows fetched fine prices, and we had all the enjoyment, possible. The corpse will be back , on Tuesday, and don’t toe mean in the matter of eating and drinking, for I would like father to have a decent wake.”

■ • Mr. .Moriarty writes to me that my remarks about Sir. Po’Shay last week were as un- ' generous as they , were incorrect, and I am not inclined to contradict him, aspiring as I do neither to generosity nor accuracy, Mr Moriarty says that Mr. Po’Shay has in reality done the . thing beautiful ” (the grammar is Mr. M.'s, not mine) “and has sould the knowing ones. He carted round a requisition.to oidd Grizzy to stand as Mayor, and got -hundreds to sign it who would never have done ; so had they known that the mayoralty was to • ■bebut’ a stepping-stone to Parliament in the • interestsofasect,ando£ apublicpensioner; and now, those who signed, being honorable men, will not draw back, and so Gizzy will have a walkover.” Mr. Moriarty says that I ought to express admiration of 'Mr. Po’Shay’a tactics. So I do ; but having had some slight experience in these’things,'! may say that I fancy such tactics are but temporarily successful, and generally defeat their own ultimate object. People’were accustomed to laugh at Mr. ' ■ Frederic Alonzo Carrington and his intermin__able—Taranaki Harbor question. It- is plea-,-sant, for the: sake of that gentleman’s, good sense, to know that after all the laughing something has been practically done towards ' , the formation of a harbor at New Plymouth. A .Harbor : Board has been formed, and that Board has got a seal the size of a five shilling piece, oh which has been engraved - Mount Egmont, the Sugar Loaves (actual facts), a —breakwater,- lighthouse, and a harbor crowded with ships (matters yet in the womb of the future), However,.though the Harbor Board seal anticipates events a little, I am, not on that on account inclined to find fault with it. ~~ It really is a fair sample of all that Taranaki requires, and shows how gifted must have been the designer. A harbor, lighthouse, and ships that will fit on a five shilling piece, are quite up to the wants of Taranaki in such directions. When Councillor Gillon and I agree upon anything I think we must be in the right. X am altogether in accord with him as to not leaving the settlement of appeals against rates to the individual Councillors for their respective wards.. .Councillors are - honorable men; we are all honorable men (an observation not strictly original with me), but it would be as well to keep them above /’ temptation; and there would, if Councillor D rails field's suggestions were carried out, be a very great temptation placed before Councillors to curry favor with their constituents. Indeed, I should carry the principle involved in this out in its entirety, and not have'appeals heard by Councillors whether in individual or collective capacities. ’ , :_ T Sir George Grey will promise anything to - anybody, in order to obtain popularity. He has practically told the Thames people, that if he were in power, he would endeavor to "uarantee. a, dividend to any company that would undertake the construction of the Thames and Piako railway, and that a company would be formed immediately. Now, speaking with some knowledge of the subject, I may say that a more useful railway than this same one could not be constructed, and that had it not been for the provincial presv sure which thrust forward less advantageous works, its construction would have been uni dertaken long ago. But no one knows bettor . than. Sir George,, that if a: Government guarantee for a dividend were given, a comi pany could bo formed to construct a railway even to the Kawau, and no one should know better than Sir George that it having-been determined that our railways should be constructed by the State, and be State property, it would be manifestly unfair to the colony to ■ entertain his proposition in favor of a particular district. But Sir George is like the open-mouthed man who walked about, to his mouth as'wide ; ■ as: possible in order to catch votes. That may ,be his principle in opposition ; but it is one . which,-paradoxically speaking, involves a large . acrificc of: true principle.