The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1884. THE COUNTY SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1815, 16 October 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1884. THE COUNTY SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION.

Mr Hawkins hopes that the County Settles' Association will survive in some form or another, and w this wish we heartily concur. When it was first formed we recognised from the basis on which it was established that it wa3 not likely to live long, but that it was an admirable prelude to some other kind of Association which might follow it and which would better meet the popular needs. It was started as a non-militant body in which all classes of settlers might find a community of interest, aud become trained and educated as patriots and politicians. A good many settlers joined it in the first instance because they misunderstood its objects, and distrusted Mr Hawkins its founder. They imagined that he intended to use the Association for party purposes, and they became members of it in order to watch and check bis little game. When they discovered that after all the Association was merely a Mutual Improvement Society, they dropped out one by one. The question now to be solved is what is the best shape for it'to take in the future. During the.past year it failed in endeavoring to combine politics and agrioalture. The agricultural element seceded, and the political element alone remained. This did good work by directing public attention to questions of public polioy, and if the Association has a field of utility in which it can do further service, it is this one,' The only political associations that appear to ' be thriving now in the colonv are "mimic parliaments." If our Association resolved itself into a "mimic parliament" it might perhaps take a new leaso of life, and succeed better in fostering political contention than it has done in cherishing political brotherhood. It might seem derogatory for a County Settlers Association to resort to such an expediency, but both in England and the colony "mimic parliaments" are becoming honored institutions, and very able men are not too proud to take part in their procnedings. The present Premier of New Zealand has been an active member ot a "mimic parliament" down South. Such an example ought to remove any prejudice that might exist against these institutions. A Settlers' Association to be successful must either be a party organisation' or a i)ebating Society. Experience, both at home and abroad, points out " mimic parliaments" as the most successful type of modern debating societies, and it is, we think, worth while to consider whether the County Settlers Association cannot adopt it.