DUNEDIN LETTER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 5966, 3 August 1912, Page 3

DUNEDIN LETTER.

(Own Correspondent.) Ves, Tarn has got always has and he always will, and 'being a very decent fellow (for a politician) 1 don't mind. Still, one cannot help laughing, not an uproarous " hawhaw "' tout just a quiet sort >of snicker, one of those that you cannot very (well explain while knowing, very well what you moan. 'And the beauty of it is that ii one saw Tarn at tmis moment and congratulated him one almost knows thaq (Toonl would smile too. Yesterday a "Premier or Prime Minister,, the day alter kicked out by farmer Massey and today kicked into the High Connnissionership 'by the same rodouibtable seven leagued -hooter. But, there, all the wiorkt's id stage and all the pven and iwomen simply playcs. They have their entrances and their exits and one; man in his time plays several parts. First, the pushing, hustling, storeman, hunting for the dollars and the dimes ; then the hardy mountaineer opening up the wilds of Milford Sound and bringing cold lakes to our doors. A'ext the politician, ever on the alert for votes, oatohing the electors as he talks, a nd seeming many things to miany men. Then in Smithfield mart tongueing the slanderers of frozen meat (New -Ziealand brands) in Saxon strong and rich ; the man of sobet and sedate mien, chatting of education and winter shows ;- tho member of the House neat poise, i upon a fence ami doubtful on which side to, jump. Alas ! he (alls but rises up a minister. Then, who so suave as he, distributing wise saws and modern instances on' agricultural and pastoral grounds. And, next, as Premier ! .Grave of part and slow of speech, seeking a bjare majority even to Massey's hurt. Last scene of all, a well-groomed High Commissioner, sans cares, .sans pairs, sans.votes but not sans everything. iNo, you can't help liki.. f _ .aw-! True, wo can't say of him as someone has said of Lord (Roberts "'c don't advertise." But he was, always good tempered, always knew what he wanted, had absolutely no faith, or belief, in the Liberal-cma-Labour tomfoolery antt, iinally, out of the very jaws of defeat ho has plucked the biggest prize- of all ■! I can imagine Laurenson's tragic, face and melodramatic air as, drawing- his cloai* round him, he cries " crushed again," and retires to take counsel in the corner with Messrs i'ayne and Isitt (the moral political twins) on the outlook lor the democracy. As for Russell o! Kiccarton, that holy mian ol many acres and more indiscretions, he, I am afraid, will content himself with a>

"no mat-e-r-r tlie time will come when this people will have uie." Payne of Grey Lynn, naturally, will yell " Traitoi' !" and heave half a load of verbal brinks (which are not so clean as the real article) at everybody. I forget when and where 1 lirst met Tarn. In an office, 1 think, and we had a uhat about the then AgentGeneral—thoso were the day* before lie became a High Commissioner and before tho Colony 'became a bwminion. No, I am not conic In >.: [)eat tales out of school. Then, 1 met, or rather saw, and talked with him at a garden party. We took snuff out of the Siinie snuff 'box and we. both sneezed. Lord Raufurly took hi out a murmur of remonstrance (troni his nose). Like everything else yo'i have to get used to snuff-taking before you can " take a pinch " and go on talking. My inclination, 1 romember, was to emll/racc Tarn like a Ion.; lost brother. Poor old Mac, who passed Ike box round, has loner since passed over lo the other side of •lordon— the side where snuff is prohibited. " i'akdn' notes," said Tarn lo me. ' Um-uiu." " Good," said he and smiled and showed his teeth, but why wink? I knew and he knew that f knew. Well, good luck to him though it is very, very funny is it not '! Wan! may eome a nd Seddon may co but "Tarn" goes o,u for'ever. Like the boy who would insist on ciimibing the Alps in the middle of the night carrying nothing but a flag, Tarn, too. has had for his motto and slogan th« word " Excelsior." '■ Oh stay," Sir Joseph said. " and rest " Thy busy head upon my breast." A tear dropped from brave Lgmont's eye But, yet he whispered : " I'm not ily Will 6ee you later !" No Puss, no fume, no posing. Laughed at, shouted at, ignored, but to-day, a nd every day, over on top. What hitter memories for some of us ■! As Sir J- — wanders desolate through the lobbies looking for a party, or walking in the leafy lanes of Awarua chewing the end of bitter reflection it must, ever and . a srn.hi, eome homo to Mm that the man he made is hobnobbing with the big uns and rich uns and titled uns while I—heavens alive what has happened '! Do I dream, or is wisions about ? Such, however, we have long been assured on most excellent authority, is the fate of man. . To-day he struts and fumes upon the stag*, and noxt there comes a keen and killing frost and his name is—mud.

Locally, there is nothing doing, not e'\en at the cheap sales. Thanks, too. to tho weather, our streets more nearly resemble a quagmire than they do a billiard table. The treasury is empty (as usual) i.ho 'bank overdraft is perilously near the '' personally responsible " point and we arc (some of us) seriously talking of raising a tt7fl,ooo or £150,000 loan for street repairs. Imagine our unhappy plight. Owners of tramways, electric light and power works, water works and gas works having a n indebtedness of over one million and unable to koep our streets in decent order ! Up the hill at Roslyn they are much tho same or worse. Time was when Roslyn looked down upon the city in more ways than one. I ha\'e heard the late Mr A. C. Begg proudly claim for Roslyn that the citv should take a lesson from the hill borough on how to run a nrunicipalty and on how to keep out of debt. Mr C'hisliotm also in the long ago was a Mayor iof Roslyn and even ho chideel the city fellows with having to come up the hill when they wanted men with brains to run their, council. Alas ! alas! for Roslyn ! There has come into many a ratepayer's pate Since the days of which, these spake A text, which every wise man knoweth, ■That pride, ah me! it often L"oeth Before a fall.

[And a fall the Boslyn 0 f old has had. To-day inim are going about tho streets, and writing 'to the papers and holding meetings, the object whereof is—tell it not near Mr Ohisholm's home, nor mention it at Sir Begg's corner-4hat the Belgravi a of Otago must amalgamate with the city ! Could municipal humiliation deeper go ? Whore be our gods today ? fioelyn held up to the scorn of the masses ! Koslyn. proclaimed as owing £23,00», Boslyn! aa having reached the limit of her overdraft, and that her liabilities exceed her assets ! Shades of the stalwart A. C. B. who, when in the flesh, answered with pungent phrase and acrid words those who dared asperse the honour of the hill, speak, if thou canst, the right epithet wherewith to smite your degenerate successors ! Of course, among Jthe faithless there ore many faithful—these gre they who

stick with, the -tenacity of Hotpots "to the doctrine of no dealing with the Samaritans beneath and thoy may not improbably oarry the day. But amalgamation, sooner or later, must come. The greater attracts the lesser and the fate of all outside suburban townships as distinct municipalities wag sealed froma the hour •when the first one of them crossed the line.