In Memoriam.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2351, 22 October 1889, Page 3

In Memoriam.

By A Bushman.

■With talents like these, and an excellent heart the man had his failings.” Goldsmith. Although this heading is usually assosited with an obituary notice the subject fit io the present insian.e, is still, I am tiad to say, ha!e and hearty, us was also e subject of the above couplet at the a* when Goldsmith epitaplnd his illusion friend Garrick. So that notwilhlanoing I have no funereal event to tcord, I have nevertheless a good recede nt for the indulgence of a few rHtaphian remarks “in memory of ” any pleasaut and instructive hours spent , a reader of the Waipawa Mail during L present editor's tenure of office, and faich we have been told is now fast hwing to a close. |The anouncement headed “ Personal ” |the Mail of 10th inst. has been read, I Lieve, by many families in this district L sincere regret, for it has been generL remarked that the paper in question, bder the present editor’s guidance, has Eeo from the position of an insignificant L..,t whose political influence was harinLly weak, and whose record in a literary Ese stood at aero—to one of conaiderI,importance in all matters connected |:h the material prosperity', and the lellectual advancemeni of the community Ljer its influence. [Notwithstanding that, like most people [and generally the best people at that—lie man had his failings,” I have frelently heard it said even by those who lopposed to him in politics, that, with a [ger population in his neighborhood to bport him, the same enthusiasm which |ucharacterised the labors of the present f-.oi for the public good ; and the same [flagging zeal with which ho has estially identified himself with the social Ej intellectual welfare of the rising lerati-n around him, would certainly Em his paper to a position of widetiding influence. Be this as it may, I Ire observed that his untiring efforts I draw out the literary talents of m neighbours have not gone alto|:her unrewarded. The principal Itv Zealand weeklies are not prone to Euscribe origiual literary matter connoted to up-country newspapers and tod, or even first rate town dailies, ft they are not above taking a bit from E» Waipawa Mail now and again—a Inpliment which, while it is creditable E themselves, also, of course, reflec ts Edit upon the discriminating tact of our litor. Elbe great influence for good or evil of m family newspaper in these times of lurersal education is infinitely greater that of the book of Milton’s day, yet mu great cud good man wrote in referBee to the “ Freedom of the Press,” “ As Bod almost kill a man as kill a ■dbook.” Had he lived in our time 1 ft -re he would have applied this aphorm to the family newspaper whose Buimns are devoted to the cause of Right Hpiost Might, to the discomfiture of ■isn coteries, and'petty local tyranny, Btfce promotion of general welfure by ■rty encouragement of everything that Wi to elevate the taste and suppress the ■wof the community. would of course be desirable to allow ■’friend to be properly interred —in his ■’home, —wherever that may be, before ■taroring to say how far he has suc|>ded in attaining the above standard ■•ditorial perfection, but I think I may ■•vconclude this In Mcmoriam with a of the generous and practical Btyort he has always given to benefits ■°nghoul his district of cither a chariHjk, musical, or dramatic nature, and I Biaaured that when he does give up B(gbo8t I was nearly saying—ln B®oriatns are coufusing) the editorial ■•[leofthe Mail, he will have a resBhble following of wellwishers.