A QUAINT LETTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7942, 17 January 1906, Page 6

A QUAINT LETTER.

Before tho elections, and while the rolls wero being compiled, a registrar in the vicinity of Auoklaud received a quaint letter protest from an elector who had been many things, including guardian of the peace, says the Auckland Star. He has abandoned that profession for farming, but the appeJation sticks, and he objects. The letter is almost pathetically humourous. Says the injured ex-puliceman:—"Sir.—l very strongly object to my occupation being stated in the margin appearing in the electoral roll, and am considering the question of a claim for damages, as it is h public advertisement in the lobby of all post offices. Considering that 1 shall have completed my ten years' residential qualification on a farm at , and it's years since 1 was in the police force, I think 1 have a claim to be ranked as cockatoo, settler, farmer—anything less objectionable than policeman; as in these days, although there are pensions, there is little honour attached to the calling. Perhaps I am the pioneer of an honorary rank, as 1 get no pay. Had Irish been added to my occupation, my cup of bitterness would have been full. Perhaps, like Masonry, once a policeman always a policeman, and I shall hand down to my descendants a crest with a baton and a pair of handcuffs, with the motto: 'Move on.' When I visit your city and try to rise as an equal of a bank clerk, on the hotel table is a directory, and 1 am always bowled out by being crowned—poilceman! I have been ' postmaster, clerk of court, drill instructor to volunteers, and nearly everything, but no occupation sticks except - policeman!" This is,*iu sober truth a genuine letter, whereof the original is a registered document.