RECEIVING A DEPUTATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 130, 9 April 1879, Page 3

RECEIVING A DEPUTATION.

B The Lyttleton' Times' Westland covroH spondent writesMr Macandrew's recep--89 tion of a deputation is some thing that B our Ministers in England might take a H lesson from. It is an example of high art. ■ Talk about Ulysses 1 Ulyssea was only n B Greek, while Mr Macandrew is a Scotch--5 man. And a Scotchman who has been 30 I years in New Zealand and lived all that time in Otago. Ulysses was nothing to him. See him receive a deputation with gravo coursesy-mark—not with that profuse and bland courtesy which would at once make old colonists suspicious or disgusted, but with a quiot and respectful manner, whick implies that they have come to teach i® expound, amd that he is there to listeifind to learn, and all the time ho knows quite as much about it as tlicy 00, and perhaps a little move. Ho knows how the fluent gentleman, who so glibly oxplains the advantage of the road or the bridge or the wharf, has a little lot of land lyingclose by, which will be trebled oij quadrupled in value if the work is done, but he treats the fluent gentleman as if ho were actuated solely by the noblest and purest motives, an unselfish and disinterested wish to benefit the human raco in general, and the inhabitants of Mudtown in particular. Listening with great attentions ho occassonlly interposes a question, •showing that lie lias followed tlio argument closely, and evincing an intelligent and clear sighted appreciation of the subject. And thenwhentheinemorialhasbecn read, and the deputation have had their talk, with what judical impartiality he sums.up the whole case, and sends away the deputation delighted and triumphant, until the report in next day's papers shows them that lie admitted very little, and promise! even less, Then the meekness with which ' he would confess that " the Executive" could not be induced to carry out what lie half-hinted, half-implied, were his own ' fondest wishes, As if, when James ' Macandrew was superintendent of Otago, there was ever an Excutive that did more ■ than register his. decrees ? Oh, it was grand ? Machiavelli wrote before the era of responsibe government, or Machiavelli t might have added a new chapter to his i book—"How deputations should be dis- i posed of by the Hon. James Macandrew." c