FAG ENDS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 247, 25 August 1879, Page 2

FAG ENDS.

To (k Editor of Ik Waihakapa Daily Slit—l have heard it said that there is certain matter in every newspaper office known as fag ends—that is, matter which comes in handy for filling up corners, and correspondents who pass under the name of fag end writers. Perhaps, if you have space at command, you will add my name to the list of your fag end writers, and find room for my unpretending production in some corner of your paper. You gave us a faithful epitome of Mr Beetham's earnest, straightforward address to his constituents here on Monday evening last, but you passed by the sayings and conduct of Mr Renall, by which many of us were .very much annoyed. First, when he was justly called to order by the chairman for taking up the time of the mooting by reading from a, printed paper how Mr Bcethain and Mr Bunny voted the one for and the other against certain motions. When called to °order this seemed so to touch the dignity of the great man, causing him nearly to burst with rage and to utter some very mean and insulting expressions. This brought to my mind a saying of Napoleon the First: " Pride never listens to the voice of reason, but behaves in a wrathful disorderly maimer."

After, a vote of thanks, etc. was moved and seconded to Mr Beetham. This brought up Mr Renall again, when I was reminded of Addison, who said : " So excessive is the egotism of the egotist, that he makes himself the darling theme of contemplation. He admires and loves himself to that degree that he can talk of nothing else." Mr Renall told us that he had saved this town large sums by surveying roads, &c. , gratis. Then ha took us to'the Hutt, telling us how Mr Fitzherbert and others were paid larr e sums, ho himself getting nothing. He also told us hew Captain somebody, who was sent to protect them at the Hutt got out through a window in his shirt, and ran to hide, when they "were threatened by the Maoris. Then he alluded to the Zulu War, and to crown all, he told us how, at a certain time, the land in France was taken up by rich men, to the'"injury of the working men, and how Robespierre cut off the heads of these rich men and gave the land to working men. But it is sickening to follow tins sort of Blatherdom (to use an Americanism) further. Can you toll me what Mr Renall did mean by alluding to this murderer, does he wish Sir G. Grey to cut off'the heads of the rich men of New Zealand and divide their lands, or does this proceed from a fellow feeling, for Garrick has said that fellow feeling makes us wondrous alike. Well can (I'll call it by a smooth name), assurance go further. "For bold knaves thrive without a grain of sense, but good men starve for want of impudence." Let me ask again what had this bosh to do with Mr Beetham's candidature, yet we had to sit for more than an hour to listen to such clap trap. I should not have said so much on this subject, only it appears that we are to be annoyed at every meeting by a repetition of this sort of thing. Will Mr Renall study this verse, by Burns, the Scotch poet :-

" Oh! that someone the gift would give us, To sec ourselves as others see us'; It would from many a trouble free us, And many an hurtful snare." Yours, etc., Fag Ends.