TE AWAMUTU GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2139, 25 March 1886, Page 2

TE AWAMUTU GOSSIP.

V precocious urchin, no doubt the uncon--ci'ius father of the future president of innately republican New Zealand, asked iiis nearest ancestor td explain to hit infantile mind the meaning of politic*. Th« f .vther surprised at, but puflingly proud of tha rjuefction, after much scalp scratching and profound meditation, thus replied :—: — "Politics, my boy! well politics are, my boy, The oiga-n notes that gentlemen play, my boy ; To suit tho tiste of tho day, my boy, Whate\er it he ; they hit <>n the key, •Ynd pipe in full concert away, my boy." [s that so, father, returned the lad, in all tho pnda of the fourth certificate, then ule.i-e. father, Wluifc is pa#iotism? The checkmated paterfamilias gruffly replied : " The school brll is linking, and you had better .skedaddle." Tha boy dutifully ibeyed, and the rich parent refilled his "ipe, lit it, and sin >ked .md pondered, and dissolving view of Beacon-afields, Gariit'ld-, Bismnrrk*. Voxels and Stouta npidly passed before his dreamy vision, uitil they .ill culminated in alime-light per'■uititin <>f his l.uiikin son, arrayed in all l ip regalia of eh ie honour, and the father f that boy went in unto his mother and ititoci.itically ordered a currant cake for <mn£ hopeful's tea. Young hopeful lo.noli-.hcd tii it cik», selfishly ignoring the jiiims of hU wistful brothers and sifters. )f course he was by tha act of his selfish ,'luttouv propel in iteri >l f..r the ancestor >f future presidents. X»w Zealand in her fall-, upm her knees and .ipplieites against --uch. Yes! politics .nd euchio aro synonymous. Both can bo lone^tly played or the reverse. My ideas niy lie deemed cvmcally wrony, but my \.penence has been— and I have mixed in t f e's highest and lowest society, and been ontaminared by neither — that self is th« iiulitv idol of the prvMjnt generation. If chenj.tiualc.uv of -.elf isgood, the worship ot -elf ought to be b°tt->;\ hut lor ! the miserable •• td.uerous \ Kajjeof worshippers proveH the blasphemy of their doctrine, and they vvill yet hate themselves for Unitarian aelf--•onceit. Tlie prospector Mr .T. Barry and his ,>aity have iutmn><d t» Te Awamutu after a Iwo months' gold seeking tour through the \ing countiy. Mr McDonald, Barry's •n ite, who was with Barry when arrested wo year-> ago in Tuhua, told me they got 10 gold, but for all that he does cot conloum tho country as inamiferous. They ~*\\e had giear difficulties to contend with, ml as far as they have gone they consider 'icir work satisfactory, although but preliminary. They have experienced great 'rouble in getting up provisions, for they ir<> not abl« to take the open road, but have ■ > work their way through country closed *;n piv»pecton. After a few days recruitmg they will .st ut again, either as before, ir separately, as personal motives incline. Mr J. S. Bnckland, so deservedly nopul.ir throughout the length and breadth .f the Wiikato, is to be right civicly aononred by a valedictoiy banquet to be i^en in the Cambridge Town Hall, at which ho will be the chiefesfc guest, with ;he unchallenged right to btep up highest, is the most commercially enterprising man among his peer*. Te Awamutu will ba strongly represented, for he is as popular md nccesstuy to it as bread is, and universal regiet is expressed at his denurture. My goose-q-iill tenders its tribute, md the act of its scribbling may perhaps urge home pen of higher standard to take up the cue and render consistent homage properly. According to the late survey of the Government block, which Governmental appropiiation theieof I believe has never been officially gazetted, the fences will have to be uftered, or school boys high up in Euclid will ignore the teachings of the Egyptian mathematician of the Nile as commonplace. The county council and town board im-provement-i are the older of the day. Private enterpiUe is giving the place a "hllip" along, and public bodies rightly recognise these efforts by improving roads and making approaches to new residences, mostly the places they lead to. Messrs Mandeno, Cox, Lewis, Rodgers, Short and otheis have been, and are busily engaged in the erection of houses, while farmers residing near Te Awamutu are extending their buildings and enlarging their farm houses. The Town Hall is to bo ve-roofed with corrugated icon, and that public institution is to bo renovated and uo longer remain a disgrace to thus curate township that ia soon to be ord«vined a city. The Government paddock— Te Awamutu'b sacred beautiful patch of luxuriant floial and shiubby wildness — has been surveyed and pegged off into town allotments, and by the doing thereof » new btreet has been formed. Te Awamutu as yet possesses no "slums," but if she keeps advancing us she now is doing in her noblo self-reliance, the "blums" are sure to follow as darkness does light. Slums are not desirable but they are inevitably, and will only exist when grumbling Mrs Grundy ceases to wear spectacles. Royalty patronizes London slums and " knights " them as fashionable. We are loyal and love to be fashionable too, but I do not think we, in our worst attack of petulancy regret the absense of "slums." A Presbyterian soiree is soon to take place, when the Rev. Mr Dunn will give a lecture on "Heads .wnd Face?, and how to read them. Considering the meagre attendance at his last lecture here on " Lips and Noses," I am verily inclined to think a lecture on " Fingers and Thumbs" would be more successful. BILLT.

T»l spiing of life— when you discover a bent pin uudor you. 'Mr Fangmi, what was the Spirit of '76, tint I see mentioned in the papers 10 of ten V 'As far as I can ascertain, my dear,' replied Faugle, 'it was Jamaica rum.' Mi: Moody has denounced church fairs because he read ut a recent one they permitted men fcr> Iciss the frirle at 25 cents a kis& Mr Sloody (says the Pittsburgh Chroniole) is ri^ht. They ought tab* TO charged a dollar..