ANOTHER DISTINGUISHED CONVERT TO BLUE-RIBBONISM.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 233, 28 February 1885, Page 3

ANOTHER DISTINGUISHED CONVERT TO BLUE-RIBBONISM.

His Worship the Mayor has been trotted out a good deal of late. He has been called upon to preside at almost everything, from Sir Julius Vogel's meeting to the presentation of a sixpenny doll to a good little Sundayschool girl. How he bears the ordeal is what no fellow can understand. It is enough to kill a horse, much less a mayor. The last straw has been laid on by the Blue Ribbon Army, who have selected him to preside at the farewell meeting of Mr R. T. Booth. This gentleman came to the colonies for the good of his health. It was said that his constitution had completely broken down under the strain of lecturing on temperance, without sufficient stimulants. But the Blue Ribbon party would not give him a rest. They trotted him out for the good of the cause, and the poor man had to go to the Lakes to recuperate. He had got the publicans into hot water, and then went into it himself to see how it felt. If Booth, having been dragged out of bed and propped up to lecture, had suddenly collapsed and given up the ghost, the temperance people would have sworn that he died a martyr to the cause, or that the publicans had killed him. It must be a consolation, however, to the ratepayers to learn that Mr Booth has made a convert of His Worship the Mayor. There is more joy over one sinner that repenteth than over nintynine just- men. With a teetotal mayor Auckland will have reached perfection. Of course the first result will be that grog will be rigorously banished from the Council Chambers, and there will no longer be any necessity for late sittings of the Council.