What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1997, 29 May 1875, Page 3

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors there is safety." ■ —Old Proverb,

The business which lias kept everybody in a state of suspense for a week past has been settled at last, and we breathe again. The big pump is not to be stopped; the place is right yet. The Superintendent and Provincial Council have overcome their scruples about assuming the dreadful responsibility of spending the best part of fifty thousand pounds, and it is not very clear that they feel any the worse for having done it. They begin to feel now that they have done the right thing. In fact some'of them are wondering how they could ever have had a second thought about the matter. As with Councillors, so with many others—knowing ones who affected to be in the secrets of the big bugs: they can now admit that it was right and proper the Province should be held responsible) as it was so understood frcm the first. Tbey won't admit, J&ottgh, that they were very nearly jeoparjfflmsing the big pump's career by their I. asinine proceedings, wanting to ride the high horse and bully Soapy Dan into paying over the money as they would have liked. Oh! no; the quid nuncs are jubilant, as if they had achieved a great feat, while the fact is that if some of their counsels had prevailed, Councillors would have got their backs up, the money -thrown at our heads would have remained unappropriated and the big pump would probably have stopped for a time. The rest—well never mind ; it is suggestive of; disagreeable consequences —a too intimate acquaintance by some with the Court in bankruptcy jurisdiction, and a general breaking up. But, talking of stopping the big pump, which has been threatened several times during : the last few weeks, could the directors ■top for any length of time? Some people . say that they couldn't without entailing partial ruin- upon themselves and a numerous following in Auckland and elsewhere. To itop the pump would stop half the mines in which the ring is interested, and in which so much money is sunk. Then our banking institutions would suffer, and the collateral consequences would have been of such a dire nature that it is questionable if the " Association" could afford to carry out their threat of stopping the pump for more, than a few weeks. The "little people"in the community would undoubtedly have suffered, but the consequences would not have fallen alone upon them; while as for the miners thrown out of employment, they could betake themselves to new, fields.

It is said to be a good and pleasant thing to see brethren, dwelling together in unity. Our honorable^ M.P.C's., it appears, have not been in this happy state during their sojourn amongst the dwellers in the city. The happy family has somehow had the apple of discord thrown into its circle, and the members of that family group have forgotten the old illustration about the bundle of sticks. Whose fault is it? Taihoa! You will hear from the lips of members when they deign to give an account of their stewardship. Jealousy is said to be the cause. One honorable member has been all along afraid that his superior claims to consideration in case of a billet being bestowed would be overlooked in favor of the meretricious oratorical gifts of his colleague, whom he- has seen gradually winning his way to ministerial confidence; while the two plodders have taken a " skunner" at their coadjutors playing at cross purposes, and been • pretty well left to their own devices. This is a matter that will have to be enquired into. A learned gentleman got rather warm the other day in the Court. He is not given to choleric disglays, his temperament being rather phlegmatic than phlogistic. Naturally enough when he did : boil up he was at a loss to find exprpssive adjectives exactly suited to convey a sense of his virtuous indignation. He didn't make himself very clear after all; He laid something about the business, being rascally, but it is a moot point to this day whether he meant the business then going on or the little comedy enacted at 'J airua which led up to it, or whether, indeed, he intended to say that the Government had been contemplating Borne rascally business. Ohinemuri was going to be, it was said, a storekeepers' rush. Well, it was^not rushed at all, and the storekeepers are now down in the mouth. One person's household gods found their way down to Grahamstown the other day in charge of an " officer ;" the reason being that no purchasers could.be found for the miscelr laneoua assortment of useful articles which had been collected in such a short ' time. Well, Ohinemuri having proved to be no storekeepers' rush, if; was thought the lawyers would have" a better . show, but there .was no money for* litigation, so it wasn't encouraged. Tairua then turned up opportunely, but by all accounts the storekeepers up there are .not going to make a pile. Ona genial soul has a first-class stand—a sort of halfway house where everything from a glass of colonial to an iron bucket can be obtained. He keeps a joint of corn beef always in cut, and it is not an uncommon thing to see half-a- dozen hungry travellers pegging away at the corn beef and bread, which they wash down with a pint of beer; "which," saysonewhoha3travelled the road pretty often, " doesn't pay, for I know when I come down I can put myself outside a pound of beefy with proportion of bread, and the feed for which I pay nothing costs more than the pint of beer for which Ido pay." No, the storekeepers are giving Tairua best —some of them at least. The lawyers have a better chance j their turn is now beginning, and if the gold is only sticking out there will be any amount of law for some time to come ; Tairua will be more of a lawyers' than a storekeepers'rush.