FREE AND EASY NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 208, 25 January 1872, Page 5

FREE AND EASY NOTES.

BY P. TENAX.

I have been credibly informed that the Teviot people are so outrageously verdant that they entertain the idea that the requisition they have presented to their illustrious representative will induce him to resign. As a friend, I recommend the good folks of- Roxburgh and parts adjacent to give up that illusory idea as soon as possible. J. B. B. resign ! I reckon not. He's not one of the resigning sort. He'll stick to his seats in the Provincial Council and General Assembly and draw ' his salary and honorarium till the " bitter end," and as much longer as he can. I fancy I see him sitting in his office, reading the signatures to the requisition, with, the thumb of his dexter hand planted on his classic proboscis, and the four fingers of said hand extended derisively in the direction of his deluded constituency.

A work on the natural history of the jockey would command a large sale. I confess that remarkable species of the genus homo is an enigma to me. Where does he come from ? and where does he go to ? When the racing season commences, he suddenly appears, gorgeously apparelled, wonderfulty bejewelled, and apparently with command of unlimited capital ; and when the season is over, he as suddenly disappears. In the "off" season is he turned out to grass with the horses ? or does he spend his mouths of leisure in studying abstruse problems in poker ? (This latter supposition is given some colour to by the fact that the jockey invariably displays a high degree of proficiency "in that exciting but uncertain game.) Can anyone enlighcen me on the subject ?

There seems to be a great dearth of enterprise in Otago. Reefs innumerable have been discovered, and yet a decent miuing swindle has not yet been successfully perpetrated. With the view of remedying this deplorable state -of affairs, ,T suggest that the Government offer a bonus of, say LIOOO, for the most scientifically salted, reef— judges to be mining managers from the Thames and Sandhurst. Also, there might be a sum placed on the' Estimates for the encouragement of the manufacture of quartz specimens —a branch of industry very much neglected at present. ' Were my sugg'stions adopted, I feel confident that the depression the Goldfields are suffering would soon disappear. ,

Poor old Clarke ! The..Waste Land Board, with a cruelty which can "only "be described as fiendish, refuse to let him have the land he has S3t his aged heart upon. And why do the Waste Land Board barely refuse to allow Bii» Clarke to have the land outside the "red line?" f-'imply because a few wretched cockatoos want to settle on it ! Is this a free British colony 1 Is this the Province of Otago 1 Can it be that Clarke's virtuous desires are to. be thwarted "by the covetousness 'of the miserable cockatoos ? To the rescue,

people of- Otago ! Cb^iv I forward to-pro* tect the poor but honest pld man against the Waste Land Board and t!i« ravenous cockatoos." 1 suggest • that subscriptions be gathered from all parts of the province to enable Big' Clarke to enforce his claim in the Supreme Court to the 2000 acres the Waste Land Board refuse to let h m have, and that the lists be taken- round by the members of the .Reid Government.