PASSING NOTES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 2, 11 June 1887, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

li is to be hoped that our local footballers may “ pull themselves together ” a bit before the all important match with Hawkes’ Bay comes cff. There is far too little training going on, and the play is therefore weak and nerveless. Bone and sinew are as good here as at Napier, but they must bo strengthened by exercise. A couple of hours once a week Is not enough, and 'the meh should eschew all lute llourt, pipes, and whisky till the tveeiful day comes off. A word in time satfeai it there, you know thereat doilt 1 boys. Pull yourselves together— Wire into hard practice and no one will be bettor pleased than we when we stick up an extra outs'de the ST.iND.itm office—“Hawkes’ Bay v. Poverty Bay.—Result, it Win for Gisborne.” Train herd “nd you’ll win. * <f $ f * * * The corpulent form of the .Old Salt and preßent newspaper proprietor has been puffing and blowing about the street corners the last day or two mest distressingly. Our friend is evidently hard at work reporting. sVaen anyone speaks of the Standard, muffled tones are heard to proceed from the mountain of flesh to 'he effect “that it Won’t last a month,” “ can never pay,” and so on, and the bulky ono thm Chrisply proceeds to Scott’s to refresh himself——at some one else’s expense. Poor old boy, we’re not dead yet. • . « « * • • In the rank? of the great unpaid in N. Z. there are some queer fish, but there is at least one queerer and more ignorant than any Of cur own in Australia. One Cramp, a country publican, was nominated for a J.P.ship, and the phonetic wretch accepted the billet thusly 11 Dear Sir,---This comes hopping it will find you quite well, and I have great pleasure in ackceptin the position of Justis of the Piece, and shall endeavour tu cohabit kordially with my brother magistrates.” Thera was a signature attached like a fiend goblin in hysterics. On receipt of this a great effort was made to shunt Cramp before it was too late, but, alas ! Cramp had been sworn in, and was already “ cohabiting.” Of course he meant “ co-operatc.” «**«««* The Opotoki Herald is much exercised about the report that Te Kooti is about to visit that district at an early date. This may be true. For the sake of the Opotiki people, we hope it is not. But the Herald gets terribly scared at the fact that Opotiki has no volunteers. It says : —There is not a rifle on the coast, or a sword, or any weapon of defence other than a few fowling pieces in the possession of the settlers. It seems to be customary to lock the the stable door after the horse has been stolen, but why should we remain in this absurd state of insecurity. Is there not some person in the place who will take this matter up. If we cannot raise a rifle corps let us get 200 rifles, a supply of ammunition, and arrange some place of meeting in the event of an alarm being sounded. These precautionary steps are necessary, not from a fear of a general rising among the natives, but simply as requisite as boiling the door of your house when you go to bed. ♦■** * * * * No.v in the first place, we don’t think Te Kooti will go near Opotiki. If he does, the people need not be alarmed. One courageous man. who will drill a hole in the fiend’s head would bo a benefactor to the whole coast. Unfortunately that man has not yet boon found. But times have changed since he did liis murderous villanies along this Coast, and we hardly think Opotiki, or any other place, has much reason to be alarmed at his proximity, If he kicks up any bobbery let the local policeman arrest him. Like Te. Whiti he is a quack, and merely requires the arm of the law to be used. The more fuss Opotiki makes about him, the worse, the sooner the local bobby runs him in the better. The days of Te Kooti massacres are over. Our up coast friends need not alarm them-selves on the matter. « « * « « Lord Randy is waking them up at Home about the extravagant expenditure on the Army and Navy “Bandy" is a bit ol a Radical after all, despite all his Tory bring-ing-up, and in drawing attention to the millions squandered annually he is doing a good service for the British taxpayer. Lord Randy’s big fault is that he is not a Home Ruler but we don't fear but what he will come round to the right side yet. • »«*»»« Apropos of Home Rule, what a silly telegram that is about the Times accusing Gladstone of conspiracy ! If it be conspiracy for an English statesman to speak out his mind on the side of justice and fairness, than the G.O.M. is a conspirator, but to couple his name with that of Rossa, the dynamiter, is a gross insult to the intelligence of its readers. The grand ovations tendered to the G.O.M. on his trip to Cardiff prove that the tide of political feeling is turning in favor of the People's William. Time and a just cause conquer all obstacles, and Salisbury's Ministry may yet rue the day they went in for coercion. »»•»#*# We have to acknowledge the receipt of several letters expressing approval of the line the Standard is taking and promising support. Take the paper and advertise in it is how our friends can best show their sympathy. We have a lot to fight against. The Herald people prophescy failure, but who cares a dump about a paper which has done its best to damn the district. The bulky one threatens vengeance deep and dire upon our heads, but if the public back us, wc can laugh at the Herald and all its allies. The Herald is the only really reliable local organ. So say its proprietors, at least one of them, and if semi sarcasm and the mild satire of second childhood could wipe us out, we might put our shutters up to-morrow. But the public will judge us fairly. For instance let them contrast our proper, accurate report of the Waimata Road Board meeting, with the two inches of hashed up errors which did duty for a report in a recent issue of grandmother Herald. A paper which had any pretentions to being the leading local “ buster ” would be ashamed of such an abortion of a report, but the Herald people evidently think anything will do for the country people. We think otherwise and therefore give a full report.