NOTES BY THE MAN IN THE STREET.

Southland Times, Issue 1113, 24 February 1869, Page 2

NOTES BY THE MAN IN THE STREET.

No. L (TO THE EDITOB OF THB SOTTTHI.AIID TIMB8.) Sib— l propose to supply you from time to time with the current gossip of the town, in order that your readers at a distance may form an idea of the politics, social condition, and general peculiarities of the inhabitants of the Province. In doing so, I will abstain, as much as it is compatible with weak human nature, from unnecessarily treading on people's toes, whilst carrying out my task, and if my gossip has no other merit to recommend it, it will possess at least that of strict impartiality. First and foremost in importance comes the question of the railway. "We in the street are heartily sick of the slow progress the Government appear to be making. We think that after the land has been set aside, and the lowest tender accepted, the work should be either proceeded with at once, or some sufficient reason given for the delay which has occurred. If Messrs Abbott and Packham decline to accept the terms which the Government lay down, why on earth are they not at once informed that in that case their lender will be considered cancelled, and the next lowest on the list accepted. There are all sorts of rumors current on the matter, some of them of course extremely silly. On the one hand, I learn that the delay ha» arisen in consequence of a quarrel between the partners, but I cannot see that this is a sufficient reason why the work should not go on. But on the other if it be true what I have heard — that the Government have placed almost prohibitory clauses in the deed of contract because they have got no funds to jay for the plant which is shortly expected from home, and that in consequence the Superintendent and Executive are only throwing dust in the eyes of the people, and waiting like Mr Micawber for something to turn up in the way of a large sale of land — I can only say that their policy is a bad one and likely to turn their supporters into opponents. The Superintendent is loosing ground every day. He marched into office to the tune of the Eailway whistle, but he has failed to keep his engagements, and his friends are noir said to be quite able and quite determined— if public affairs are not conducted in a better manner to request him to resign. Such is the gossip in the street. I speak thus plainly without any intention of offending His Honor, or of making light of his past exertions, but to tell him a wholesome truth. If his advisers were as open with him as I intend to be, he would perceive the " signs of the times," and prudently act accordingly. However, lam done with this subject for the present. Possibly I may not again have occasion to allude to it. Is the Provincial Treasurer vain of his personal appearance ? Does he ever contemplate being pitted with the small-pox? Has he been vaccinated, or does he think there is no possibility of the scourge making its appearance in Southland, that he is so indifferent to taking the necessary precautions to avert so dire a calamity ? Surely some steps might be at once taken — the medical faculty ought to be invited to co-operate in order to provide, as far as human foresight can do, for the establishment ojf the most stringent preventive measures. No reasonnble trouble or expense should be spared to guard against even the possibility of the introduction of this loathsome and fatal malady. What in the name of goodness has Mr Walter Henry Pearson been doing with himself lately. I am told one time that he may be found cultivating the "sweet voices" of the Orepuki diggers. Then again, I hear that he has been observed roaming solitarily about some gloomy gully, stealthily boring for a reef somewhere in the neighborhood of the Nokomai. All I can say is that if Mr Pear. son succeeds in discovering a payable ree f — a nd I hear he will take the odds on it — he will be the benefactor of Southland. No German Immigrants required then. But no sooner am I satisfied that he is deeply engaged drawing up the prospectus of a quartz company than he is found serenely presiding over the Land Claims Court, one day at Bluff and another at Inverear. gill. What is the Land Claims Court? Perhaps Mr Green would tell me it was a quite unnecessary and rather mischievous institution, called into existence specially to torment and harass poor hardworking 'industrious pioneers. Ah, Mr Green, I am greatly afraid you are not quite so I verdant as your suggestive cognomen ■implies ; neither did you discover any of that placid and innocent tint in the eye of our wide-awake Commissioner, eh ? • What glorious times those were when 'you could purchase a million acres for a ; fig of tobacco— not Barrett's either — or gain possession of an island by simply giving away an old blue shirt. I suppose ; that was what you would call a aelf- > reliant policy. Invercargill, Feb. 19, 1869.