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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8986, 25 February 1888, Page 4

The troubles of the honourable the member for the Northern Maori Division are commonly made a subject of mirth ; but reflection on the nature of his difficulties at Wellington does not place Mr. Sydney Taiwhanga in a very unamiable light. So far 'as we have seen, there is not one of those difficulties that would have been likely to befal a European, and for the simple reason that the European, better than the Maori, has learned the great lesson of minding number one. Sydney is a philosopher of the Altruistic school, and carries his principles of " other - regard " to the extent of spending not only all that he has, but everything that he can beg or borrow for the benefit of others. The habit is an amiable one, though a little awkward for those from whom he borrows, and more awkward for himself in the end, as he has unfortunately found to his cost. The latest difficulty in which Sydney has been involved is in the matter of a passage by steamer which he had guaranteed for a Maori friend; and a few days before he had got into similar _ trouble with his tailor over a suit of clothes which lie had ordered for- another friend. In fact, all Sydney's friends appear to have been coming to the front with the laudable intention no doubt of augmenting his honours by showing themselves in his train ; and the honourable member appears to have felt it incumbent on him to feed and clothe and lodge them all so far as his credit extended, and at the cost of others. He has just finished a term in gaol to the onder of his landlord, as a sequel to the hospitality which he had extended during the session to a large crowd of his friends and admirers, and if the results of his kindnesses keep cropping up in this fashion he appears to have the prospect of spending the whole of the recess at Wellington in winding up the affairs of the session. Fortunately for the honorable gentleman the Queen's writ does not run in session time as against a member, so that he can laugh at duns ; but it is to be feared that his credit will have been somewhat marred at the metropolis by the brilliancy of his debut in the first session of his parliamentary career, and that the exercise of his generous instincts will be necessarily curtailed by the unsympathetic natures of the traders or Wellington.