STRATFORD.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7987, 4 October 1887, Page 2

STRATFORD.

[from our own correspondent.] October 1. — The fighting is over, the battle is lost and won, and, I suppose, wo must shake hands aud be' friends again. It was good fun while it lasted, but like other earthly joys, but a passing gleam of sunshine on the dull monotony or! the milking stool. Costly as these frequent elections are, lam not sure bu 4 ; what they are well worth the money as mental tonics, bracing up the intellectual system. We need reminding occasionally that there are other ' things in life besides fungus, spuds, and butter. Of course there is a man here and there to whom the excitement of a contested election is the reverse of beneficial. There is a certain acerbity of temperament that causes its unlucky possessor to see personal animosity in every well-aimed ishot from the other side, : and to trace under-curreuts of petty spito which only exist in his heated imagination, in such a case the waste of nerve tissue must be serious •, I should prescribe change of air during election times, with total abstention from newspapers. However, if there should be any such amongst us, I hope he will take his cue from our new member, who, after thanking his supporters, kindly consents to overlook the fatuity of those who opposed him and heaps coals of fira upon their heads by promising them a share of those good things which it is part of his mission to obtain for the district. I am told that some "well meaning but mistaken people of the sect commonly called " Dippers " refused to vote on the ground that being '• saved," as their slan^ goes, so worldly a matter as the choice of a representative was of no consequence to them. If their oreed actually tuuohes that happiness in the next world is to bo obtained by deliberate negloc of duty in this, then the sooner the sect becomes " small by degrees and beautifully less" even to tbe vanishing point, tho butter. Spring, gentlo spring, ia upon us with its joyous hailstorm* and oold winds, its jocund "dandy fever," its gladsome i demands for Road, Board rates, ■

Now js nirht made hideous with the lamentations of the milky mother of the herd despoiled of her new-bora babe. Now does the lowly fungus put forth its tender leaflets, little dreaming of its iuture fate, when all its juicy flabbinesa departed, it is thrust, crackling, into the inconveniently crowded bale and consigned to the land of the heathen Chinee, thereto participate in some gross fraud on the tea drinking Caucasian. How's that for high ? Now, to coma down (like a toad from roost), the question is— how about butter this season ? A question for bush settlers almost us far-reaching as the celebrated query of Hamlet, Prince ol! Denmark— to be or not to be. By the by, had the doubt in his Highness' mind been whether 10 be or not to be a bush farmer, he would have had little difficulty in deciding in favor of v Government billet or failing that a snug competence as an unemployed. It appears that in future the price obtainable in London will regulate the butter market as it does others. When that is the cass the price hero will no doubt be steadier, but probably not very paying. It seems the way of things now-a-days, that the price of produce should be just enough to find the farmer in bread and cheese, but not enough to give him a glass of beer with it. The new bootshop is now open, and fills a gap. There is a good site for a tailor next door. A visitor from the South Island was heard to remark that there -Seemed an opening for a barber and a dealer in left off clothing. Mr. Capper was elected to-day to fill the vacancy in the Manganui Road Board. The question of the appointment of a ranger is a bone of contention. One party wishes to put a stop to the damage being done to the now gravelled roads, and the other thinks that the proposed remedy will be worse than the disease, and that the ranger will be a public nuisance. The proceedings at Inglewood last week seem to show the correctness of the latter view, but I should think it would not be difficult to devise some middle course that would please both parties.