SCANDINAVIAN VOTING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 268, 18 September 1879, Page 2

SCANDINAVIAN VOTING.

To th Editor of ik Wairarapa Daily,

j3ravo, Osterling ! Go in strong, old man, " a l'abaiidon pro aria et focis, lares et penates !" and all that sort of thing, you know, my ancient Visigoth ! Wield thy spluttering pen " in foro coiiscioiitise" and down with the big lanaholdor—ah! a-ah! But, my friend, I fear thy weapon is veritably " teluin imbelle Bine ictu friolurr. alas! that I should have to bewail it, thou hast been siezed with that direful fit that is so apt to besiege some good folk-' 1 cacoethes scribendi." Oh, you naughty boy, I am afraid you are very fond of the halfpenny per head—a sort of poll-Lx on bunnies, you know-one gets under the Rabbit Nuisance Act on those rascally little rodents that devastate our district, How sweet those bawbees sound that you have, perchance, obtained for the Bunny's poll. When rattled with your keys in your breeches' pocket the devout believer, as you pass him by, feels inclined to whisper "That man has a plum." But my worthy Trojan, my venerable Ajaxlist to my simple lay, and an old saw, '• Chi va piano va sana et clu va sniiova lositano," therefore why, if you wished to travel safely and a long way, did you not consult the public papers before you make a statement you cannot substantiate } Ah, but of course I forgot! Ten months ago thou—the owner of education —wert engaged on thy celebrated works " The Odyssey proved a Myth," " Mtum maraud to Dido," "Solomon the Unlearned/' and such other erudite productions which have since become the loves

• well, not exactly of the Olympian Gods but at any rate these of the mundane au-thorities-the.cognoscendi of the literary turf. Hadst thou not, my Fidus Achates been so deeply buried in thy ante anno Domini explorations thou wouldst have seen in the issues of the Daily and that defunct organ the Wairarana Guardian, of the 15th November, 1878. and the Wairarapa Standard (a paper of such a solemn, dull Grey hue that I wonder it did not find admission into your studio) of the succeeding day, the following result 'of the election of Councillors for the Masterton Hiding of the Wairarapa West County :

Candidate. Mastqrton. Mauricevillo. Total F. G. Monro 87 52 159 T. H. Murray 30 52 88 B. P. Perry 25 1 26 D. Donald 24 1 25

Now, then, my friend, to analyse these small figures. You say the pseudo-scandal promulgated by Mr Moore, comes from him with :i bad grace, because, forsooth, " he, himself, has a seat in the Council by the votenf these unintelligent foreigners." Well, I feel quite certain your compatriots at Mauricevillo will thank you most heartily for clapping on their pates the cap you seem to think so admirably fits your own cranium, but at the samo time, spite of that educational ownership of yours, I doubt, old chum, if it comprises within its bour.davies a very extensive arithmetical area. Vide: Mr Moore .polled 87 votes at Masterton ; let, therefore the whole of

the Mauriceville vtes recorded in his favor be swept away and accredited to either of the other candidates and what would be the result ? He would still be

second on the poll, and consequently a ' member of the Conned. What then, 0 Fred, becomes of your assertion that the Mauriceville vote secured Mr Moore the position he so ably (ills. Go along, you young rascal. Hide your diminished head ; study your Colenso, and .learn the ancient proverb that a quiet tongue makes a wise head. Besides, you are an ungrateful young rogue. What would your roads have been like this winter if it had not been for the individual you malign I Did he not get you the £3OO to improve them, after a deal of hard fighting in the Council?. Did he not do'his best at the Masterton Highway Board to get that body to vote the amount supplementing the first £2OO of that sum, without which you would never have had it at all. _ Are there not French, Italians, Pablis Ullamites, Gentiles (oh bother, I thought I was a latter-day apostle for the nonce), as well as Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, in the valley? Why then, my Heber—my one that angrifies himself —conclude that when your worthy and energetic representative on the County Council used the words " unintelligent foreigners," he must necessarily have alluded to the mighty Norsemen. De plus you seethe specially states, "I use the word strictly in reference to voting," and since New Zealand politics and statutes as a body are one of those things no fellow can well make out, Mr Moore could well understand the difficulty the highly educated foreigner would experience in comprehending what he, as one of Her Most Gracious Britannic Majesty's natural born subjects, required a certain amount of study thoroughly to master. A word in parting. Why mix up with the question you were dealing with, two other subjects that were totally irrelevant to it—your amount of education and his knowledge of farming—that little flight of fancy, my friend, jarred on my ears—it sounded somewhat of snobbishness. Such phrases with the intelligent reader become mere apthungs. Don't answer this, '. let yuur'sileuce confess your error, since , Ohi TaceOonfbbsa,