Tuapeka Times.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 325, 28 January 1874, Page 2

Tuapeka Times.

ANO GOLDFJELDS REf OTTER AND ADVERTISER.

WEDtfESDA'Y-.jANUAKY 28, 1874.

"MEASURES. NQT MEN."

We are about to undertake a task in our editorial that we have not found very pleasant in o'tfr personal capacity. Guess what it is 5 ? Well, it is. something that- concerns crar neighbors, and they kindLy consent not to leave us out That at anyrate is coming a Jittle nearer the point \ and so-, • if ,your question is direct, we are "so far honest as to reveal in part our rhotives. fiowever, it is not directly in „our own interests we are going to write, thougTi we do hope that "when our readers apply -our advice -in the- case '6f others, they will not withhold a benefit from ourselves. But you aTe growing impatient, and really our space is too small to admit of longer suspense. But.you must excuse (

us if we proceed a little delicately in the j business. It needs delicacy. When we announce our little plot, we alrriost eipect to be flqdded with letters of thanks from all the business fifms within ;the goldfields, and to see the frown gathering oh the 1 brow of fhose who dress themselves with the ribhest and feed on the fate'st, and leave it to the chapter of accidents to supply the necessary coin. "It is colonial," we are told, "to* rush into debt. One is not in the fashion unless he has large "bills aiid of long standing. It is* quite respectable even not to pay one's washerwoman." To all such we have undertaken, at the request of our correspondent " Limited Liability," to slip in our friend General Dun through the f olids of out newspaper. The General himself wants in this way to serve his clients, and vary his tactics. He is afraid , should he come in some of his wonted personations, you would meet his advances bjr the counter- tactics of General Dodger, and either shut the door in his face or escape his attention by some back way. As grocer and draper, shoemaker and tailor, saddler, &c, he is very welcome when he leaves his goods, though with the proviso to call again for the pay- ' ment ; bill; when he comes as General Dun, in proper person, he needs all his generalship ; and so, ttt stdal a march on Dodger, he would by^our help iry to get at all the debtors in and surrounding Lawrence to talk them over into better ways aifd more punctual payments. General I)un can talk, and he does not mean to spare you in the interests" of his clients. He has something to say to those who go on in extravagant ways, and try to .stave him off by saying their luck has been bad. The General has observed they have fared none the worse, drunk as many no"bblers, frequented billiards, sports', and amusements as much as ever. He thus finds the money spent, and yet he must drag it out of them. Hard task his to make bricks without straw, and drag the breedhes off a Highlandman ! Here, says he, are my clients, grocer and draper, butcher, and baker, &c., with long bills, and it is consistent with his knowledge, and here he means to tell those whom it may concern that it is a mean and ungrateful trick to put the money past those who have been keeping them alive, and into the hands of the publican. His clients have to meet their bills monthly, and he sees no reason why they should not meet their bills also monthly. It would make the fourth of each month a pleasant instead of an anxious day. If only customers would come up duly with the ready money, there would be fewer bankruptcies and fewer honest men imder the reputation of being ngues. The real culprits are those who spend in their pleasures what ought to liquidate their obligations to grocers and bakers, &c. By-the-bye, in the interest of the latter, the General has to say that he knows no reason why they have recently raised the price of the loaf an additional penny, save it be that there are so many who pay none of the pennies, that they have been induced to reimburse themselves by an additional one all ronnd. And he is not without fear that the butchers will bepunishingallthe good marks in a similar way ; -and let the custom once obtain of punishing the good for the bad, and there is no saying where it may end. Those who will not pay ought then not only to have the General down upon them, but all those scape-goats, well armed with horns and hoofs, whom they have made to bear the most of their faults. And now, in reward of our good motives, the General volunteers a little service in our interest, simply to add that when such as this may concern become ashamed of all other bills of long standing, they must not forget his good friend of the Tuapeka Times.