WHY IS MR MACANDREW SO POPULAR ?

Otago Witness, Issue 1248, 30 October 1875, Page 5

WHY IS MR MACANDREW SO POPULAR ?

TO THE EDITOR. Sir— l believe that the experience of most observant men goes to prove that when a man is rising m the world there are fifty who are willing to give him a lift, and when his course is down the hUI, a hundred are ready to give him a kick. It is neither a kick nor a lift in the world that Mr Macandrew will get from me, but the relation of an incident that befel me some fourtTJ»T a P I vvas travel *ing on business among the sheep runs at the period when the Dunstau rush broke out. At this period there were no accommodation-houses on the road 1 and travellers had to lay squatters and shepherds' homes under contribution . for a meal T™ hungry, and called at a shepherd's hut S3 begged a cup of milk ans piece of bread from a nne, healthy-lookiijg matron, who was surrounded by & miscellaneous flock of children, fowls, pig 8 , calves, cows, &c. The answer to my request was -"Surely, «Wi come feenj aae o' y« w Wa s j> a gj

the gentleman's horse ; come awa in. We're just rough a wee, but, thank God, there's plenty o't comes aye frae Dunedin, Sir. I wager I wudna ken the town now. They say there's heaps o' houses now, and bits o' calico nouses lac." I informed my land hostess I did not live in Dunedin, though I was frequently 1%, "Ye'llkenMr Macandrew, I'se warrant ? I again replied in the negative. I had never seen that gentlemen, although I had often heard of him. " A weel, I ken him, an' 1 11 aye think kindly o' him. When my good man an' me cam here, we hadna muckle, I can tell ye. He gaed to see Mr Macandrew an* asked him what he had better be doing, for wark wasna ower brisk then. He advised him to gang awa into the country— that was the best place, he said, for a man like him. Weel, ye ken, its easy to say, Gang awa,' bit whaur was the siller to come frae, and my gude man telled him. that. Now, what do you think he did? He gaed him twa pound to keep his pouch and telled him to send me till his place for onythmg I wanted. He said we were sure tae dae weel, an faith we mauna complain. Thae cows is our am, and a wheen mair that's ower bye there. God bless him, if I could do him ony good I m sure I wud. We paid him the twa pound back, and every happeny the weans and me took on, till my gude man cam for me and them. I've often tiiocht of sending him a crock o bntter ; then I didna like. He may forget ua but we dmna forget him." No language I possess equalled the natural eloquence of this warm-hearted and grateful woman, andean we wonder that Mr Macandrew was carried so triumphantly to the highest political position the country could bestow, on the shoulders of the people, and where he still remains, their favourite. — I am, &c., An Old Tbavelleb.