MAXIMS AND MEMORANDUMS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 61, 29 February 1868, Page 3

MAXIMS AND MEMORANDUMS.

BY PEEGEIKE PICKLE, J.P., AKD A.S.S. INTRODUCTION. What a comfort it is to have a paper to register our thoughts, but what a blessing it must be for the Wairarapa people to have two newspapers to enlighten’them. It hasbeen said first start was half the battle, if so, you have first claim upon my “ maxims and memorandums ’ which I think you will find contain something worth knowing in a small way. I have therefore to request that you will put them in large letters and legible type, so that those who run may read. SUBSCRIPTIONS.

What a lot of subscriptions are now going on in the Wairarapa! Wherever do people get the money to pay towards them ? There are for the railroad survey; for the Churchbuilding at Greytown; the Wesleyan mission house at Greytown ; the town halls for Greytown and Carterton; for river embankments for roads; for markets; for races; and no doubt a small trifle will be wanted to amuse his Royal Highness when he comes. Where is the money to come from ? With butter at 9d per lb., and wages at £SO per annum. I cannot stand it that’s a fact. Then what’s to be done ? Sir, I contend that every man before he is generous should he just, hut I fear that people are not so, for I hear of long bills unpaid, and long neglected. If a honest man be the noblest work of God, to he honest he must be just, I should therefore recommend him to pay his debts before he gives. I intend to do this, aud disregard what people say. I do not consider I have a right to give away other people’s money, and money they have worked for, that they may keep their heads above water in had times. Don’t he vain neighbours ! Don’t be vain! It’s the root of all evil. At the same time there is no reason to he mean and stingy.

OUR TREASURER. I hear that our Provincial Treasurer is now on a visit to the Wairarapa. What an opportunity for getting our old tables and chairs valued correctly! I hope people will avail themselves of the chance, they may never have it again! Immortal Treasurer ! Ho one dare say that he has not a soul above buttons! I once was afraid that King Stafford would send him home to the money market instead of the Colonial Treasurer, but thank goodness for the mistake. We have him still, and we shall ne’er look upon his like again. The ark of immortality arising from the valuation of three legged stools, and bandy-legged tables! Let no man despair in Provincial matters! neighbors make the most of him, but use him gently! There is no knowing who may be Treasurer next or what a man may come to It may be one of you. “ A farthing rushlight is better than no candle at all.” If theproverb is applicable make the most of it!

ALFREDTOX FARMS. The A fredtou people that are to be, want 10,000 acres of land for a commonage, adjoining that settlement. I hope they may get it, Mr Mercury, and may I be there to get the benefit of that same. With a Provincial Treasury “ up the spout” it seems a bold demand, but then what business have Provincial rulers to put the Province up such a nasty place ? I for one, do not like commonage rights, they lead to everlasting quarrelling. Ten acres of freehold land is better than 100 acres of commonage, and I have never seen the

place where the exchange would not he made. It’s a genteel way of getting out of the Government what you cannot pay for, and belongs to others. It won’t do, Mr Snooks, es pecially with a dilapidated and sinking Treasury! Try again boys! If you do not ask, yon cannot have.

ALFREDTOX. They have given the wrong name to the new Township, Alfredton! In fifty years hence the origin of the name will be forgotten, or falsely attributed. My grandchild will give the honor to Alfred the Great, and associate it with burning the old woman’s hot-cross-buns; Some will say it is called after Alfred the Hut the, a man great in the day when Isaac was king ; others will naturally attribute it to our Masterton Alfred, a man immortally great both in war and the Councils of the State. A‘‘Senator” too, before they had a specimen of the breed in England (vide Kennard's history of Patent Slip and Provincial thieves.) How easy it will be for posteiity to make a mistake and put the saddle on the wrong horse. "We shall none of us be here to remedy it and put the people right ? Why not call it Duketown? And why should there not be a “ Pickletown.” If I am not a great man now, I may he sometime or other, or I may have a giant for a friend or namesake. There are other Pickles beside me! THE WEATHER.

We have had extraordinary weather lately in the Wairarapa and in fact throughout the Provinces. To what is it to be attributed ? Are there comets traversing the unseen regions, and whisking their tails about to our annoyance and destruction ? Are the meteors so abundant a type of their destructiveness elsewhere ? Are there natural causes to account for it ? Some, a very few, consider it to arise from a superabundance of money, and refer to Mr Stafford’s generosity as a proof of it ? But this is nonsense, they may as well say that a Minister may get fat upon “ bacon and

eggs” from Lowry Bay. Was ever such a thing heard of even in the columns of the “ Independent ?” The Clerk of the weather at £IOO per annum, impressing one that raising the money and raising the wind are two different things. It is just possible that had Mr. Fitzherbert commenced operations on the Stock Exchange, great changes, both atmospheric and commercial, would have resulted, and we should have felt it to the tune of another quarter of a million, hut as he has not had time we must carry our thoughts elsewhere. Does it foretell the downfall of Provincial Institutions ; or the giving way of the Waiohine bank; or the advent of the Provincial Treasurer to the Wairarapa? Or most of all does it denote that Mr Bunny will not he elected to the General Assembly. Terrible weather may he expected about that time. I know i for a fact! THE PROBATE DUTY, &c. Thanks to Mr Kelham for first calling the attention of the public to the iniquity of this Act, and in a new colony where we have no business to have a public debt hut such as could he paid off in a year or two. Of all acts this is without exception the most infamous—the most disgraceful, and from a man too who was going to reduce our expenses £240,000 before you could say Jack Robinson. By a late death in Greytown, and the tears of three orphan children it is brought home to the consideration of the inhabitants. Let fathers and electors remember at the next*election all those who voted for suchjan Act and throw them out with a kick! It is had enough to he taxed living, hut to know that as soon as the breath is out of your body, your widow and children mil he taxed on account of it, by no means smooths that journey from which no traveller returns. Political infamy which nothing warrants. Let a candidate ask me for a vote to he made a M.H.R., and I will very soon know if he is one' of Stafford’s black sheep. “ Jam satis!’’