ARROWS.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1277, 4 September 1880, Page 2

ARROWS.

My frco drift halts not particuLulj . * * ~ Ku levelled m.ilice inlccts olio comma in the course I hold. One of the classics of America — to wit, Artemus Ward — -has laid it down dogmatically that •' lujuns js pison wherever found," and the good people of Pakekura have, by latest advices, beeu applying this maxim to public-houses. "Public-houses," they say, '' are a nuisance, and ought to be kept down." Peih/ips they are right : it is not natural to suppose that anybody possesses a thirst that will not hold out until he gets across the river ; and yet if I dwelt in that locality and had to travel m the dusty summer time over the swamp road, I don't know but that I should miss the short cut and lo.se a mile in order to quaff a foaming tankard at the rural retreat in Cambridge West.

"Who iv "Wiiikato will now say that the buu of the " Great Pro Consul " has set, or that his flag is tore, as Mr Squeers elegantly puts it ? This weak, doting old man, as his enemies have been wont to call him has still strength enough left to kill the Cambridge ewe lamb. People have been accustomed to liken the old man to a column tottering in decay ; and they may be right. The frosts and snows of age are creeping over him, and the crumbling column occasionally shoots down stone and mortar enough -to do damage, and in the present instance jsst about sufficient to bury the long-desired and well-deserved Cambridge railway.

How the burgesses do affect to despise the Borough Council of Hamilton, and yet how anxious they are to obtain effice. I heard only a few days ago that the vacancies in the Council would go a-beg-ging, and now, lo ! there are nine candidates. Out of these there are at least two who had in effect announced their determination not to enter into the lists except in default of any others forthcoming. Of course they have altered their resolve, only at the earnest solicitations of their friends, those people Avho, according to his "Worship, are the bitter enemies of the Borough. That such patriotism as has been displayed by these men in thus pocketing their own private inclinations for the welfare of their fellows, should exist in this degenerate age, is cheering in the extreme.

I am delighted to hear that the member for Waipa has urged the Government to take into immediate consideration the prayers of the ratepayers in the Newcastle District, as developed at a meeting a few weeks ago. When I think upon the odious conduct of those " corner" men at the annual election, I feel half a Whatawhata man, and wish I could have been in the skirmish. Why, a man guilty of such an atrocious crime as Mr Byron

was should be allowed to -remain on the roll of justice*, if -^ only for a day, is, I confess, a mystery which o'aunot be solved. If my , Milesian friend had had the interests- of the Colony at heart, he would have petitioned Parliament to have the obnoxious justice removed. Order and morality must be maintained.