IS A. V. MACDONALD ANGELIC?

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1305, 9 November 1880, Page 3

IS A. Y. MACDONALD ANGELIC?

TO TIIE EDITOR. Sib, — At the opening of the railway to Te Awamutu the above gentleman was reported to have coupled his name in some way with angels. . I ask, therefore, is he angelic ? And if so, was it the angelic part of his nature that caused him to alter the convenient railway time-table that existed some time ago to one that suits no one that is so unfortunate as to live south of Hamilton. Ordinary mortals would have supposed that when the line was extended seven miles that the time of departure from Auckland, if not made earlier would not at all events be later — so much later. Then travellers and mails got to their destination at 3 or 4 o'clock ; now travellers are benighted on their journey, and we do not get our mails till next day. The genial M.H.ft. for Waikato gets the credit (rightly or wrongfully) of having been instrumental in i causing A. Y. M. to err from the more convenient time-table. So, without any expression of public opinion, we got our present benighted and benighting arrangement, which I can safely soy pleases no one from Cambridge to Harapepe, say a frontier line of 30 miles. After some time, and about two months ago, the various public bodies got a circular from Mr Macdonald stating that only one train a day each way was payable, and asking them (as should have been done in the first in&tance) to state the most convenient hours for leaving Auckland and Te Awamutu respectively, So far as I have been able to ascertain there was very great unanimity, viz. : that the out train should leave Auckland at 8 o'clock a.m., and the in Te Awamutu at 10 o'clock. I now hear— despite the univevsal feeling all along the frontier th.it the hours for the trains should approximate to those mentioned—there will be no change made So it appears that if Mr Macdonald is related to the angels it is to the fallen ones, for he can change right to wrong but not wrong to right. I see by a late issue of the Times that our member is soon to address his con&tituents ; only, I suppose, personally at Hamilton, and through your columns these "obscure villages j" but, as this matter of the trains concerns the comfort and welfare of a great number of his constituents, I would ask him to come to Alexandra some night along with our Mac. (not the angelic one), and so get practical experience of how the thing works and how he likes it — if a wet night all the better. I beg to offer him a , warm welcome and shake-down. — I am, etc., A J.P. on the War Path, Alexandra, Nov. 8, 1880.

This Melbourne Argui> in a recent issue sa y 9 . — A stranger was in the Assembly yesterday, and could not be got rid of. The intruder was a handsome parrot, pos&essed of a musical turn. The bird made his presence in the upper regions known by interrupting 1 Mr M'Kean with the lively tune of "Up and Down the City Road," which he int'-oduced with a vigour and propriety which moved the House to laughter.

Me Chahles Matthews' will was proved sometime back at £20,000. Everything was left to his wife. Matthews came into a permanent income in a curious way. He was on a voyage to India in 187«5, ami a fellow passenger was so impressed with the chaims of hia conversation that before the steamer arrived at Calcutta, he said : " Mr Matthpws, you are the most delightful companion I ever had. I am rich and have no reason to live with my relatives. Permit me to settle £600 a year upon you, to be continued to Mrs Matthews if she should survive you." Matthews accepted. We bemoan the loss of fertility through the drainage of the land and the pewage of cities to the ocean. It is incalculable in amount, and seems to be irretrievable and total ; yet a portion of the phosphates, nitrogen and potash, are biought back by the seals and seabirds, in the form of guano, and the seaweeds, and oven the fish, are used to restore the wasted fertility of the soil. There is teoiprocity between land and sea. Tin: Dean of Westminster is preparing a series of e&says on ecclesiastical subjects whidi will be called "Christian Institutions." Dr Smiles is writing, under the title of "Duty," a companion volume of " Self Help" and other popular works of his of the same class. Mr Mivart is preparing a monograph on the cat, an introduction to the study of backboned animals. Pro+'es-or John Rhy*, of Jesus College, CKford, has undertaken to write the historj'- of the Breton Celts tor the soiics of the Christian Knowledge Society. The thanks of her Majesty's Government have been conveyed to the French Government for the euergvho steps taken by them to cause search and inquiry to be rntde on the coabt of Iceland for any truces of the Atalanta.