THE THAMES VALLEY ROTORUA RAILWAY.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 147, 7 July 1883, Page 243

THE THAMES VALLEY ROTORUA RAILWAY.

■ Mr ,R&lle8ton!s determined antagonism to this injfportaht undertaking isexplicable on one hypo— thesis—a, pe'tty J Southern spirit of jealousy against Auckland-. ■•Were this line constructed it would • ' open up a large extent of country, and with the rapid removal of • other obstacles to progress by the increase of amicable relations between the two . races in this part ;of the -North Island, the Pro#vincial District % 'of Auckland would soon outsti-ip the South m, population," commerce, and wealth. No doubt Mr.Roliostom and the party of whom he is the mouth piece, dread anything which would restore the balance -of "political power to theNorth, and upset that state of things which has enabled the South to"; manipulate the public funds to, its own advantage. This we believe i to be the, secret of Mr Rolleston's Opposition to #j& Thames Valley and Eotorua Railway- as well igdfpther equally important works. The Sotfth is paramount at present, and wants to v.r^rSinain so. „''**' A LITER AKY ODDITY. Old printers on tb3e Herald and other Auckresidents of long standing . will remember a J* q^Rr fish named Richard Egan Lee, or " Dick ■' Jjde'f as he was called bj his friends and cronies. Dick hadyu'ndoubted genius, both as a poet and a prose writdr, but his failings were a fatal fondness for • Jevigjthan beers, nearly as long as himself, and an kficentricit-.y of character that made him reseffimle ia comet. He was the thinnest man ever seen in Auckland, and threw such a sharp shadow that people used to keep out of his way ■fti^-fear-Of being Cut in two. Dick first diss|§uished himself in the New Zealand ' Herald b^ writing a" Sensational story, entitled " The Tangled Skein," and ''A- poem, called "TheLayof the J .Last Maori." He was a humourist of the .jjfirst watery 'stnd played' practical jokes' with the *reckles3 abandon of a monkey.- One of his was to come home- every; Satui'day night •with ithe ■ loss; of a boot. His. greatest feat in pracwal joking was -to marry a;girl and b6lt next ■ morning. to- Australia/ ;s« •:■'••'.= :.•* • ,

■§f"picj£ travelled muoh. He. got an engagement and- waa- sent, ta .report a |f meeting on; the/; 'Licensing. rque&fton.' -Half-a- --( 4sM!en . leading citizens^ vwirote next morning ..furiously. disdaining .the ■; traitorous and abomin- , able senMine,nts- which . had . :been • put, , in their mouth?, ' Xlie.editor inserted .a humble,, apology, stating that. he. had been imposed upon. Dick vamoosed at daylight. He. got employed on Victorian, country 'paper, and the proprietor invited him to write a leading-article. ' ", Make,, it warm for, somebody," he said,' "the paper wants Jivening ,up." Dick did make it warm, quite sultry in fact. He wrote a shocking libel on a lady of, m-eproachab.le reputation connected with a-.rtvM paper*. , It began like this : " When a female baboon squats .in a. gutter and slings mud at respectable journalists, it is time to raise a mild protest." o

The woman's brother rode many miles to horsvvhip the writer. When he arrived Dick was lying out in the back garden, basking in the sun, eating ripe pears, and quite oblivions of the tornado that was raging in the editorial sanctum. When Dick went in, wearing his usual sardonic grin, and not much clothes to speak of, he found the apartment like a butcher's shop, the atmosphere surcharged with skin and hair and' sulphurous oaths, and' an unfortunate prop7i'otor lying about in v«ections amidst fragments of a stock-whip and great pools of blood, while a gigantic hushtnan was sitting on the table breathing like a steam-engine from the effects of violent exercise. Dick was adjudged to be too warm a mem Wot for the offi' c. So he moved on again, and some months ago we heard • that he had banded in his stick and gone to join the majority with' the .Great Father of the Universal UhapeL He was one of a type of Bohemians very common among lifernry men. '•