WAITARA NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 7, 19 April 1901, Page 2

WAITARA NOTES.

(FKOM OUB OWN COEREBPONDEST

"Ake tollgates a necessary evil?" A tantalising, exasperating, eiuside quos tion. It is like asking " D 303 marriage lessen crime ?" In my great perplexity I " stuck up " a candidate for the Council, who, i surmised, had piobibly been studying the subject. His first answer was a gasp and a m»lodramatic start. Then he stared at me in pitying wonder. When I repeated the question fie frowned severely, then I beamed inconsequentially and apparently apostroplmeg a large and thiiviog spider on an adjoining wall, gave vent |to " language painful and frte." But the fat old spider scratched his ,left ear with his right foot and preserved a discreet and diplomatic silence. "Are tollgates a necessary evil?" The man I next questioned had a haggard and weary expression.

It w»s a batterer) Council-man A worried look he ware, He had been nsed extensively For wiping up the floor j His heart was very heavy and His bones were very sore 1

For righteous souls Omata tewa Were deeply pained to gaze, Upon suchignorance; they felt Their duty was te raise, That heathen and convert him from The error of bis ways!

There was such a wild and awful glare in his eye as he muttered something about a " meat-chopper," that I did not deem it prudent to press the question but remembered that I had a sudden appointment. Thy natural delicacy prevents me from expressing in a respectable fimily paper the tumultuous feelings which have been inspired by the treatment accorded to me in my search for information on the all-absorbing qufstioD, " Are toll gates a necessary evil ?" If I attempted to tell the tale in full 1 should have to writs it with go. e. But when are the candidates coming down to Waitara to eoligbten us ?