Wairarapa Jottings.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 80, 11 January 1902, Page 20

Wairarapa Jottings.

—•• • © THK dawn of the new jeai was greeted in Masteiton with considerabh lews enthusiasm than usual Ido not know whether it was due to the inhabitants having had quite enough of the old year, or whether the} wanted to see the coming year out before they oaied to express an opinion A f«uily large crowd toddled about the streets till a late hour, and an enthusiastic Scotchman worked up anumoei ot his compatriots to a state of frenzy by producing a great quantity of that music which the ordinary Sassenach leansesho must get to Heaven before he can^tippreciate. At midnight, Major Pow-nall, attei the manner of an apparition, appeared on the verandah root of the JS.ew Zealand Clothing Factory, and addressed words of fatherly wisdom, tenderness, and general good-will to whomsoever happened to be in tlhe street at the time. The speech was not a success, chiefly because it was inaudible, owing to the "witticisms" of some unusually clever youths, who felt that they had ' the power of speech," and babbled accoidmglv. There was, however, a white figure in the back-ground, standing m the frame of a window. What it was doing there the crowd could not make out, and invited said figure to show up more plainly but the invitation was declined. Such is fame' As representing nothing, to support a mayor at a distance, and then to find one's self an object of amusement' There may be something in being a mayor, but playing +he mayor ?eems almost as silly as playing the goat. » ♦ • New Year's Day — more bagpipesCaledonian snorts — Caledonian concert everything Scotch, everybody Scotch for the day. With the next day many peonie again resumed their original nationality. Secretary Duncan and the Committee of the Society worked hard for success, and they have no need to feel discouraged at the results of their efforts. True, so many "baw-hees" as last year were not raked in. but both sports and concert were excellent. The total proceeds amounted tolerably close upon £200. • • • Advocates of phonetic spelling, in preference to the present form, have a splendid example of how readily and correctly the intellect would fall into line in a shopkeeper's notice in a certain Wairarapa town "Kokernnts 6d," is the pleasing information that meets the eye of the passer-by. • * * A case of "what might have been," but didn't, occurred the other day. A Masterton father, in a wildly extravagant frame of mind, wrote out a cheque for his boys, who were going on a holiday trip. Said cheque was cashed at the bank in sovereigns, and le°s one precious coin the boys started. It was subsequently discovered that the supposed sovereign was a gilded shilling. What would have been the fate of those boys if, in some strange town, they had proferred the coin, and the fraud had thereupon been discovered? Truly, some people have luck, but the generous present in this case does not consider himself luoky at all. • • • The Town Clerk of Carterton has been dismissed immediately — on the spot — at once, if not sooner' Mr. H. H. Wolters was a typical municinal official, and his enforced retirement from office, writer considers, will be a distinct loss to the borough. Mayor Baillie came into office with the intention, it was understood, of "playing up" generally, but his policy did not include the dismissal of a very capable, obliging, and courteous town clerk. The trouble a^ears to have arisen over a, chair — the clerk's chair — in which the Mayor very politely invited a health officer to sit. The clerk was absent from the room at the time. but. on returning:, had to "otand on his rio-hts," or rather his up-rights, leaning asrainst the mantelpiece. • » • Subsequently, the Mayor alleges the clerk declined to read an amendment, while the clerk sarcastically rejoins that he is not there to read resolutions time after time, implying thereby that he had read the amendment more than once. Mr. Wolters admitted that he had, in the street suggested to the Mayor that "if the hottest portion of the Inferno was heated seven times more than it is wont to be," it would be. too cool for His Worship, but the whole affair is a paltry squabble, and should have been settled by mutual apology By the way the magnificent salary attaching to the position of town clerk is £50 a year, a"d as there is considerable work, Mr. Wolters I should say, is not at all sorry to be relieved of the office