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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 169, 8 April 1864, Page 8

To the Editor oJ‘ the Hawke's Jlai/ Times

Sir, —I wish you to know how 2 letters from our river here, Wairoa, which were printed the other day in the other Napier Newspaper the Herald, stirred up the Wairoa folks and set them all agog—thinking and talking. You never saw the like ! I haven’t seen such a sight here for many a day —not since Spooner’s tom cat kittened, oi\ at least, the first visit among us of Commissioner Bussell. For some pretty consi-ler-ahle time we could not make them out, and then too some of our old A. 1. chaps Were absent, down South with you there at Napier. And some of us thought as how one of them wrote the said 2 letters, and then absquatulated,—not liking those shamefacedness to stand the first breaking of the fame of the think. One of us said, it was C , who we know intends coming out next time for the Mohawker ; another" said it was L , on account of the bravely spun yarn, so slick like ; another said, that he and J y D s had put their heads together, and they were sure it was G , there being such a display of Schoolmasters stores in them —copy book headings and all that kind of thing. And another, I must tell you, thought as how it might be the new R.M. but then this cove had no better reasons to give why he thought the new R. M. was the writer, but that he had. nothing to do, and wore specs., so that went for nothing. Now yon see, if C., and G -, and L , and others had been at home, We should soon have got to the bottom of the secret, and then, on the top of the tide, as I may say, we should have serenaded the writer, or made him stand nohblers, which is just the same here, while we were debating aboutit,our< 11 friendatWykokk ipoo,M , W 7 ho had got hints of what was going on, dropped Spooner a note, to do nothing until Joe should return, —So we waited. But I must by no means forget to tell you we bad nearly a row about the name of the said writer, Jdnnvs: now, first of all, we had to decide, whether this was a misprint done

by Wood’s devil; some said, it was, it should be Genius; others said, it should be Join-us, from the drift, as I may say, of the 2 letters and we had nearly agreed to this last, it seemed so reasonable like, only A would have it, there could be no misprint of the name seeing it was printed twice. Then J y D s put in his oar a second time, and said that he was sure Jannus was Portugueze for Tannifer. I suppose you know Tannifer is Maori language for hobgoblin, and our Maories tell a fine yarn of a Tannifer which lived at *

But their again S said, he thought Jannus was German, and that the said 2 letters were 'scribbled by S m, the German, who is a bit of a scribe, and like some other scribblers, don’t write over-clearly; and some of us thought of giving it to S , he being a bit of a doctor somewhat learned. And so the talk went on, but I cannot tell you half, bless you, it will fill a' hole Paper. However, asT said, we waited until G. and C. and the rest returned, and then w r e got to know, that they did not write the said two letters at all, but they heard down South there at Napier who did, and all about them, and that the said mysterious name Jannws was a famous good one and suitable, and meant, Lookiny-two-ioays-at-once , all so proper like, —didn’t we laugh ! Well now, I did think of writing a few words about the wording of those two letters, that is what we know of them, but I won't just now, as I havent got the Newspaper by me. Only if you will print them again, in your Newspaper, this time, just to keep them before the public and His Honor the Superintendent ; or if not all, do print that part about our River here, Wairoa, and the bit about the right spending of the borrowed money, and the bit about the Ahuriri plains, and above all the neat little bit about “ our clear headed Superintendent,” that Jannus may be gratefully remembered. I know very well, that Joe C is saying, that Pompey says, “ them is his sentiments in those 2 letters, and that W—n (or Jannus) got ’em from him but I don’t believe Pompey; and even if it was so, Jannus deserves the pay, as he boldly come out with it. I would send this to Wood, but as he is going to print Jannus letter to the Times, of which 2 pages and half is all ready, and then his valuable book of experience, 1 somehow think h.e would not cave to print it, as I aint a subscriber.

I remain, Yours, &c. ScAMPERUOWN. Wairoa, March 26, 1864. * Maori word unintelligible.— Printer's Devil.