ECHOES FROM MOUNT BENGER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 25, 1 August 1868, Page 3

ECHOES FROM MOUNT BENGER.

If there is any one; subject more than another of which I am heartily tired, it is the bombastic anci empty twattle of our local scribes and self-constituted newspaper correspondents: If placed in blank space, they would cease to shine. They pester every one with absurd- personal question's and mojjnslliue trumperie3, and seldom write on any material subject, either social .or political. The limit 01 their creed-^which is self-sufficiency — does not permit of"th>ir going beyond the ■elfkJentred, self-sustainin|^&rSonal pronoun " I," although thtaf-require a framework of external .circumstances and integrity, * as wall as a of common sense, io. qualify their cacoethes tcribendi. ,But they have already something more cxmVincing'than '^JVloses and the Prophets j" and" if they don't take heed "tof that — which in" prudence they must — they will not.be persuaded, though, one rose, from the dead. Ji is indeed a very great blessing, to the inhabitants of Mount Benger that they have a "Moses" to guide their destinies, and an " Aaron" who possesses 'the natural talent of administering skilfully to .'their .political sores. The entire sympathetic organisation of those two savants constitutes a perfect-unanimity, all the parts of which we in mutual harmony! I cannot prefcend,<in my limited space, to lay down with any dcgtea of just accuracy their unlimited potency in ] social circles, .and the various useful, offices they conjoinijly perform; in the interests of the community. " Aaron?*".!* what many term, in colonial; parlance-, a would-be " literary barber,"and shares ■ sometimes very closely. "Moses" is not by any means "a *bold man, though he writes to your contemporary occasionally, in order to . relieve the appalling anxiety, of- "Aaron" re-specting-his interests in the township of Roxburgh. Vanity is a frightful disease, though it , does not vory materially affect tho organic principles of our 'system. 1 have it on good authority that 'vanity rides some pedple! of my acquaintance like a, destiny ; and I fear it rides; my symbolic hero, greatly to his own dispojnntute, In bu» U^rtry jh»re^rination» ,«i „*.,■■ i

have been dining off thistleaTflmoulcr fancy it was unpleasant ; and the same principlo seem'a to apply to their joint production to the " Press." However, if Messrs. " Moses " and " Aaron " like it, and the readers of the " Tuapeka Press" like it, I can merely record the facts, and express ray wonder at those who read the articles for pleasure, and my sincere commiseration for those who, like myself, have read them as a matter of business. The controversy with reference to the survey of the township of Roxburgh seems to be a hydra, of which the heads are always growing in size and number. " Aaron and C 0 .," writing on the ■übject, thought themselves able to dispose of the question with a couple of sentences, and a compendious expression of surprise that any doubt should exist upon the matter, when your correspondent "Sam Slick" summed up the results of their presumptuoua daring with terse logic. For the last eighteen months, and more especially during the last three months, the township question has been agitated from time to time with more or less vehemence, and by men of more or less mark. Mr. Warden Hickson, ignoring the interests of tho majority of the residents, and throwing a serious reflection upon their moral character, proclaimed himself th« source of "so clear a sunshine as no mistakes can veil, and no justice can darken for ever again." However, Mr. Warden Hick3on's success in the back ground is thus appreciated in turn by the residents in their letter to his Honor the Superintendent :— " That Mr. Wardfin Hicksori's roport, if morally or practically considered, will not stand the test of truth." La the " Tuapeka Press," of last week I perceive an article headed, " Mount Beuger, from our Own Correspondent," in' which the writer, in -has usual tacfc for ipecial pleading, saya, " isome people think that this miserable sqnabbk is, the rasnlt of a fueling of hostility towards an individual who has done more to. make the Teviofc what it is that all the other business men in the place put together." Perhaps tho writer may now venture to come a little nearer to the point, arid introduce, aay the individual in question. * With such a'philanthropic prodigy for ft text, he must be weak 'in reasoning if he cannot influence the Government ta survey the township to tuit' the interested views 'of that individual. I compare the writer of that article to kalf-hearted and fanaifnl people, who are only alive to the folly anil hollorrness of strong language, sometimes choose to be^blind to the-f&at' thai the strong feeling was' legitfmate^cnougti, thought unhappily and unvristlj expressed. An instance from abroad 'will- be l«si invidiout than one taken from nearer home. Every one Jtnowi that the .iidiridual i€ question strove hard, to the palpable injury of his neighbor!, to surrey the township with his owm gauge, and the recant survey favors tho hypoihe'sis'that^tie managed to get it surveyed in sudk a' manner^ at to agree with his own buildings. It would be a lasting dUgrase to< tha Government to have sold ill* township according to the recant sarv»y, which reSaett rejty seriously-UKlced on the professional -capacity of.tha.-sui-veyor. Any reasonable man will «,dmit tin absusdifcy of cutting'lso- square yards into dlevaa streets; but this, it would appear', had to be done, in order to suit the views of the individual in question. But the Government have attad wisely, notwithstanding the exertions of Mr. Hughes to the contrary, » in accedjrig to the wishes *f the residents, by adopting a more comprehensive plan. ' ' >