POLITICAL JOTTINGS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2090, 31 January 1896, Page 5

POLITICAL JOTTINGS.

When the present Minister of Lands first stood for Parliament he opposed the Hon. G. M'Lean, for whom he had been working as a shepherd. At one of his meetings Mr M Kenzie was asked if it was not presumption on his part, he being only a shepherd, to stand against a man like Mr M'Lean. He paused for a moment, had an inspiration, and ashed in old Scotch accent, " Was not David, a shephe.-d, made of Israel ?" The retort won Mr M'Kcmie the ebction,

A Northern paper 3ays that *' the n?w appointments to the Legislature >vill not strengthen the statesmanship or dignity of it. George Jones plays on the fiddle, and was leader of a brass band. Dick Reeves r.sed to be reckoned che be*t euchre hand in Recfton, and the two are North Island men who will swear by anything the present Cabinet doe? or says." During the progress of a meeting held by him at Purekiroki last week, Mr Thomas Mackenzie, M.H.R., in an3wer to a question put by a:i elector as to whether he would support a motion to do without a Parliament for ten years, said lis would, provided three reliable men could be found to guide the affairs of our colony during the time—but these men would need to be of sterling worth, such as were found at the head of the government in the early days of New Zealand. Mr M'Kenzie was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.