CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1496, 29 September 1883, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE NEW ASSOCIATION,

(TO THE EDITOR),

Sin, —Your report of the meeting of the "Settlers' Association" yesterday must be regarded as eminently satisfactory. It is a great relief to the minds of simple folks to find the matter taking so harmless a position. Vague rumors were afloat in the district yesterday that a hole and corner political meeting was to lie held ; the time and place of meeting were enshrouded in mystery, and only a favored few knew the particulars. However, possibly it was a wise precaution not to expend the finances in judicious advertising, so that people who had forgotten, or never received, the first circular might have attended and joined tlie happy family. It is, very interesting to be told what the association is not, but it would have been more interesting to have been told what it was to be. An association that had no existence could scarcely possess even the negative qualities, and it was superfluous to enumerate them. But after all. these are trifling matters unworthy the notice of those who rite superior to law and regularity, So also may be considered the unseemly haste with which it was proposed to appoint the principal officers from an unknown list of names. The work would have been all cut and .dried before inviting the southerners, and thus saved heartburnings over an election. This association is to be understood, then, as incapable of definition; it is an indefinite article, according to Mr Hawkins. Its base is as broad as that of the Salvation Army; in fact,judging by the conclusion of Mr Hawkins' addi'pss, and his self-imposed martyrdom, one must believe he lias been "taking lessons from "Captain" Colley, and is now running an opposition regiment, We are told by the promoter that he is aiming at good government, wise legislating sound finance, and honest administration. It was not considered a repetition, and the conclusion is that good government does not include wise legislation, etc. It was rather a novel idea, though, to blame the Government for the unproductiveness of colonial sheep! Let Mr Montgomery make a note of this, The outcome of the proceedings appears to be that the present Government is bud, but not radically bad; that at the next election we must seek another representative • and that the new association will furnish the requisite material, If they will go another step-make the association broader, take in the amelioration of the human race,- amend the laws of gravitation so that the sun may gyrate around the earth, and generally raise this globe iji the solar system—they will lose that bashful iudefiniteuess which new militates against the success of the association. f am, etc,, . • An Admirer,

GOVERNMENT LIFE INSURANCE

(to the editor wairarapa daily.) Sir,--Witli your permission, I should be glad to have an opportunity of suggesting that both sides ought to be beard before the Government Insurance Department is condemned in the matter of the transfer of the Industrial branch to other branches. If the Department allow judgment to go by default, then go for them. In the meantime, supposing the case to be as stilted in your articles and correspondence columns, it is scarcely right to go in for wholesale condemnation, You must admit that even a Government Insurance Department is not infallible, and if a mistake has been made of so grave a character, they are quite right in withdrawing from a false position in such a delicate unostentatious manner, so as not to give occasion to opposition insurance firms to point a moral or adorn a tale. I think too they did quite right in letting matters go on as if no financial collapse were imminent untij Parliament closed, as already there . has been too much abuse showered on the Department by that august assemblage. Every person in

New Zealand is interested in maintain'

ing the honor and credit of the colony, and when that honor is at stake the matter should be hushed up and a dignified but silent retreat made. ] am, ike Humanun est errore,