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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 6272, 19 May 1881, Page 5

It is said to have been a picture to see the twinkle in Sir George Grey’s left eye when he solemnly complimented the Thames people upon their forebearauce in “Nover thinking of themselves at all” in the matter of Government pickings. The beauty of the joke (remarks the Star) was heighthened by the appearance on the platform of the portly figures of Wilkinson, the Mayor, and Brodie, the County Chairman, the indefatigable McCullough, the preserving Ebrenfried, Speight, and Adam Porter, who —singly or in conjunction—have worried to the verge of distraction every Cabinet Minister who has ruled New Zealand for the last ten years. The Thames is notorious for having picked up; the cast-off mantle of the “ Sturdy Beggar ” of Wellington—Eitzherbert. Not a session goes by without a deputation being dispatched to Wellington to lobby. The announcement of a Ministerial visit to Auckland is the signal for the appearance in town of a number of the old familiar phizes from Hauraki, and one Minister tells with great gusto how these modest Thames youths, having asked for everything they could possibly think of, at lust begged for a few old plans that were lying about. The Thames people have earned among the members of the House of Representatives a reputation of the champion cadgers of New Zealand, and it was too bad of their member, who knows it very well, to poke “ borax ” at them in that unfeeling way.