A POCKET BOROUGH IN HYSTERICS..

Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1889, Page 4

A POCKET BOROUGH IN HYSTERICS..

♦ TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Truth is at all times a jewel, bnt to see the fcrnth at all times depends Bomewbat on the state of one's feelings. In the report of the Petone meeting last night one gentleman is made to say that Wellington city rateß are only 2s 6d in the £. If that gentleman's other statements are equally reliable, it would be well for Mb fellow townsmen to take his allegations with a grain of salt (cum grano salis). Petone has for years fought for a place in the van of rising townships, and bo far as the increase in nouses and property values is concerned, the rise has been not less astounding than tho rise of the Roman Empire. That its fall may not como as suddenly let us hope. However, hope is evidently vain at the present time. Hitherto progress is said to nave beon stayed by the grip of the dead man's hand or worao— absenteeism. Now the death blow has been successfully dealt at absenteeism, it turns out that the living section are at one another tooth and nail, the polioy of the place hypooraoy and intrigue, and the community a network of plot and oountor-plot, while tho most important oitizons (taking their example from " rats that leave the sinking ship ") cry " stinking fish," and tush their properties into the hands of tho auctioneer. " This above all, to thine own self be true, And it mast follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be fooled by any man." I am. &0., H. Bodlet. 17th January.