MR GEORGE BEETHAM AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1948, 25 March 1885, Page 2

MR GEORGE BEETHAM AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

When Mr George Beetham firs aspired to Parliamentary honours, we' remember desoribing him as a very nice young man for a small tea party, but expressed considerable doubts' as to whether. ;he was. equally qualified to shino in the House of Representatives. We have watched hjs career there with interest, and we"readi}y admit having somewhat underrated his political usefulness. He has- certainly not proved himself a great- statesman, or a brilliant orator, but he has beenim Eminently faithful and ÜBeful local; representative, always attentive to. the'interesJß of his constituents and' the •general business of the House, while at the • same time a staunch and steady party man. There has been no backing and filling, coquetting or trimming, about Mr Bee- <•': tham, His allegiance to party, hotter, jfu, has not been that of Sir Joseph Sner, K.C.8.,wh0 ~ • " Was always ready at his party's call, ■ And never thought for himself at all."

.Mr Beetham has frequently, thought for himself; and in a modest, unassuming way has stated his thoughts, and we believe that they have, on more than one occasion, beneficially influenced the action of his party. There are few men in the House more generally respected on all sides than the member for North Wairarapa, not for the profundity of his political wisdom, but for his thorough consistency and invariable courtesy. He has never forgotten to be a gentleman in being a politician, as a good many people unfortunately do. In the difficult position of a whip, he displayed such tact, pood temper, and energy as to prove of signal service to his side, All these thing? considered, we are Boniewhat surprised to learn of the treatment he has received from a meeting of his constituents at Masterton. There has certainly been nothing in hia political action to justify the discourtesy whioh he experienced at the hands of a section of the late meeting. We have read all the reports of ( and the conclusion to which we are|n{ jl, is that Mr Beetham did not get and that far too much latitude was to his opponents and detractors, The intrusion of a Mr Bwse with a lpt of extraneous County Ofii|pciland persona] grievances w M entirely unjustifiable pn theoccasion, and should not have fjepn, tolerated. That Mr Beetham should have resented certain allusions by a section of the local Press was but natural, as was also Mr A, W. Hogg's retort, but on the whole Mr Beetham has reason to complain, although the final resolution in some degree made amends for what he has gone through. We do not agree with the views of 'the political party to which Mr Beetham belongs: we are glad the country is relieved from their administration,, and we should not object to see Mr Beetham replaced by a representative of mpro generally liberal and advanced views, but on the whole he has fairly done his duty is a Wairarapa and Wellington representative, and we are therefore sorry, that he should have experienced such treatment as he has done at the hands of those from whom he deserved better things.—PaA

At the opening of each year the articles used in evidence in the Paris courts are sold at public auction. Governors of Siam provinces have to make their own living, all .the taxes coing direct to the royal.tfeasury! "' In London 140 tonsof ohloride of lime are daily used for the deodorizing of the sewer outlets, .. '-.'.',■' M. Alexandre I}umaa has presentee! ..tg the Comedie'ftranijaiße* t|)e only toiowjj example of the handwriting of Moliere.' During the past year the foreign missionary societies of the world.report, again of 308,643 communicants. ; ;'.. ; ,. ; , At St. Roch's, Quebec, recently < a wealthy widow, aged' 74, married her coaohman, 19 years-old. ■ ,•„ A Dresden publisher has been .senr tenced to one month's imprisonment, for publishing and selling a translation, of Zola's "Nana and "La Cureei- f ".' ". fngljsji is tjmghjj in the "board'.! schools 'of Norway, in addition to the three R'b., the .elements-iof physiology and of physical science.,; ~ ..,.',. V..,,'. -"* t^ Henry Kingston' was fined : £2oj in f™Melbourne, for having damaged a book in the Public Library. Kingston cut out an engraving from Fairbairn's Crest Bart.. "'A Baptist church jg mentioned ujßbRichmond, Va., Religious Heralcrui whjah a cradle js kept'for, tjie pacification of restless infant a)ip] *!w many ,ap; half a dpzeri babjes are rocked to sleep In it" during a single sermon. *

A tyw has been enacted in Bavaria ior* bidding the marriage of couples, who/-do not possess sufficient means" to" support themselves or who, during the "previous three years, have received help' from : the publicifurids, or ; who' have-hot paid"w?ir quota of taxes; : =' >*>"■<■'-■ <\' -':■ .j.'j-J viiii" ; From 1672 to the ; end of than 3G4 earthquakes occurred in' Canada and the United States,' .not'incltfdmg Alaska, It appears that an''eartKpuako occurs about once.in, every twelve days somewhere in 'the."United States and Canada,'and about,once a montivon-ithe AtlahtidooaitV";"';'.',','";'. .;^ |/ MV.ilfti

v The English Baptists roporV--19G1 Churches, 2894 chapels, with Bitting accommodations for 882,503; 1434 pastors, imd 384,013 Sunday-sehooll ache-huts, with 89,032 teaoliors; an increase since last year of 25 churches, 7937 sittings, 19 pastors, 2&i212 Sabbatli-scliool scholars, and 1937 Sabbath-school teachers.