FALSE PRETENCES.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3125, 22 February 1879, Page 2

FALSE PRETENCES.

So Sir Julius Vogel is only a jackdaw m peacock's feathers after all, and Sir George Grey and the Hon. James Macari* drew are a pair of scare-crows, who would, if they could, dress themselves in the Agent' General's borrowed' plumes. These gentlemen have been taking oredit to themselves fdr the'inauguration of the great Public Works scheme, which has given such an impetus to trade in New Zealand during the past few years. But the real Simon 7 Pure has turned up in the person of Mr Thomas, gutter Shepherd, and the pretenders will have to hide their diminished heads in future. A friend ot mine informs me* that the carrying out of the Public Works Policy, the Abolition of Provinces; and 1 other important measures, are solely due to the glowing eloquence, the fervid oratory, and the powerful arguments of the late representative of the goldfields. He had it from the lips of T. L. S. himself, Who asserts that he (the said T.L. 8.) was the first to moot those questions in tho Provincial Council of Otago two .years before,Vogel gave vent to his (filched) ideas on the measures in the House,of Assembly. And yet how" differently fate, wayward fate; haidealt with those two great men. The AngloTeutonic adventurer, working under a false trade mark, is the companion of European plenipotentiaries ana Asiatio ambassadors, whilst the genuine inventor of the political nostrums remains a "mute inglorious Milton," in the land which he has raised from poverty to affluence by the force of his legislative genius, qifend. what think you, sweet child, it the Secret of Vogel's success and of T. L. S.s comparative failure in politics? Why. "cheek," in the first instftnceraodHhe lack of it in the next place; the genuine projector of the great, schemes which have raised New Zealand to a high place among the nations of the earth had not 'been a slave-, to that almost girlish modesty, which is \iu%h a marked characteristic in his, retiring nature, he would now. be resting on his well-earned laurels in the temple of fame, with a handle <',' to. his name whilst the pretender,'' whQ(Usirps his position,. would be, a simple^ti*en of Dunedin. But fate has ordairrfd it otherwise, sweet child—fate has ordained it otherwise j and whilst the ' proud Sir Julius struts with the air of an emperor along Pall Mall and Begerit street; arrayed in his borrowed plumes, the real benefao* tor of his country wastes his ''sweetness on the desert air "of Dunedin. Still, Mr T. L. S., with the proud consciousness of having performed his duty faithfully, has that sweet comfort which tee "stillwnall voice" whispers into the-hearts of her modest children to console him, whilst the pretender, who wears his crown, must be a preyto the gnawiiig anguish 6f: re. morse, which invariably haunts those Who occupy false positions.—Saturday Adver. tiser. ..••■! -.. . .■•,'■■. ':'- ■:\'i;'c f ':\,"v:^