TOO BAD.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 447, 26 July 1879, Page 2

TOO BAD.

(To the Editor of the Patea Mail.) Sir,—A public meeting was called here for Monday evening last, to consider what steps should be taken, now that the House is in session, with respect to native affairs and railway works, and to urge the Government to arm the Volunteers with efficient weapons. Out of a population of about 300 ratepayers, a dozen settlers and five small boys attended. There was, however, another meeting the same evening, viz., that of the Directors of the Waverley Town Hall Company. Now, Sir, I fully recognise the vast colonial importance of this company, the tremendous issues involved, and the consequent strain on the mental and physical energies of the Directorate ; yet I submit that an hour might have been spared for the discussion of even such a small matter as the pacification of this coast. If such a

weighty affair as a theatrical entertainment was on the tapis, I would guarantee a full house ; bat public business whuh affects the security of life and property, is too trivial to call forth such a supreme effort as attending a meeting on a fine night. One is irresistibly reminded of the, council of the NieuW Nederlnndts, under the beneficent rule of the renowned Woiiter Van Twiller, when the minute book always recorded the same business, viz.“ The Council met, and smoked 12 pipes each for the good of commonwealth,” and when' no sound broke the serene ' stillness of the council-chamber, save thepuff, puff, of the pipe's, or the sonorous eloquence which occasionally proceeded from the nasal app'endage of some somnolent legislator. It is such a state of things which places our County in the back-ground; for it is entirely contrary to human political nature to expect our representatives to interest themselves about local matters when the inhabitants go to sleep, and will not even take the trouble of bringing the wants of the district under their notice. —I am, A, JOHN W. KENAH. Waverley, July 23, 1879. .