UNAPPRECIATED MR. CHAS. LEWIS. He Retires from Politics.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 50, 15 June 1901, Page 8

UNAPPRECIATED MR. CHAS. LEWIS. He Retires from Politics.

IN a fit of pique and disappointment Mr. Chas. Lewis has resigned his seat in Parliament as one of the members for Chrisfcehurch. His friends say he has been a prey to vain regrets at the ineffectual efforts of the Opposition to oust the Government. But the last straw that broke the camel's back was the studied indifference of the people of Christchurch to Mr. Lewis himself. Last week he invited them to meet and hear him discourse on politics. Evidently, he had gone to exceptional trouble to prepare for the event. All his latest jokes were probably furbished up for the occasion, and the long vacation of the recess may have enabled him to amass quite a fresh lot of quips and cranks to take the place of the old stock-in-trade. * * * Sad to relate, Christchurch turned the public refrigerator on to Mr. Chas. Lewis. Only sixty people mustered to listen to him. This apathy and unconcern have touched his amour propre to the quick, and in high dudgeon he resigns. Christchurch will probably recover from this grievous affliction. Parliament will meet as usual, and, with good luck, may struggle through its work without the assistance of the Opposition member for Christchurch. ♦ • • Mr. Lewis has sat in the House of Representatives since 1896. He was never taken very seriously there. He was noted for two amiable peculiarities. One was a penchant for joking. The other was a passion for snap-shotting with his kodak. He seems to have been very proud of his photographs, and to have set wonderful store by them. So apprehensive was he after last session that a northern journalist, to whom he lent some of his pictures, was going to publish them that he actually obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court to defeat an intention that waa never entertained.

It is a small incident, but a characteristic one. Mr. Lewis is a disappointed politician. The ambitions with which he entered Parliament have not been gratified. He has not impressed Parliament with his oratorical efforts. Even his jokes have fallen flat and insipid. And now Christchurch itself manifests a stolid unconcern when he prepares to treat it to a political harangue. Therefore, in a fit of petulance, Mr. Charles Lewis throws politics to the winds, and leaves Christchurch and New Zealand to look after themselves for the future. • • • The country will have to learn to do without him. Mr. Lewis will have more time on his hands to attend to his camera, and to protect the copyright of his pictures. That is unless Christchurch goes down on its knees in deep contrition, and humbly begs him to withdraw his resignation, and give it another chance. In that event, the political address which only drew a house of sixty might be repeated — say under the patronage of King Dick.