PASSING NOTES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume VII, Issue 244, 3 June 1896, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

[By Mercury.]

Captain Eussell could uot have

stumped ihe colony with. Premier : Seddon at his lieels without a passage' - at arms in which the humorous is blended /witli political warfare. Capt. Kussell in one of liis spooclies, with singular bad judgment, made allusion to the declining birth rate of the colony, blaming the present Grovernmerit for the catastrophe in bold and unmeasured eloquence. What evil fate had guided tne utterances of the leader of the Opposition would be difficult"'to conjecture. He said it however, and Mr Seddon never alluded to the matter until in the course of his tour lie came to Hastings, the very centre of His opponent's constituency. { Then Mr Seddon had a fling in which, notwithstanding the bantering style in which it was delivered, contains a sting quite visible to all who are acquainted with the'general surroundings of the case. With a merry . twindle in bis eye, and a theatrical shade of sorrow in Ms voice, he' drew his handkerchief over his eyes, and admitted the unpropitious social phenomenon, but he added with a reassuring smile that it was the best lambing season ever known inHawke's . Bay. This provincial district^ as we all know, is a great pastoral country owned by a few people. Mr Seddon had his eye on some of these large estates in- order to burst them up for settlement. The Premier's sarcasm loses none of its pungency in the light of the fact that Captain Russell owns 30,000 acres of the best land there, with double, that number of sheep.

, * *• ' Paeroa does not mean to lag behind the times from "want of mental culture. Already we have launched two institutions, . t the Magazine Club, and the " Literary Society, and we have another on the stocks to be christened the Dramatic Club. Here is a fair field, for all who thirst, for intellectual exerIt may safely be asserted that there are many even in this small community who augur happy, results from these signs of the predominance of intellectual culture over the transi- ; ent interests of material affairs. If however instead of diverging into three separate bodies with limited membership, and stinted resources, all the available force at our disposal were welded into one strong Society, better results, I feel sure, would be obtained. The aims and objects of these societies, if not precisely the same, have a common basis which ought to render amalgamation both easy and agreeable. I feel quite sure that many of. those who have had experience in these matters will agree that one strong society is much preferable to three weak ones. It.would I think be to the advantage of all parties if "some one who has influence with the various organisations under review should approach them with the intent of uniting them all in one strong phalanx. The combined intellectual efforts of the many would sustain an interest, whereas that of the few is liable to be exhausted and end in failure.