LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXX, Issue 9638, 23 June 1941, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

THE MAYORAL CHAIN (An ode to Waihi Philosophers) Poets and writers by the mile, Row themselves up in majestic style Prose and poetry is in their domain, And they’ve a good subject in the Mayoral chain. Plenty of scope, stacks of critique, ’Twill make the new council look pathetically weak. ‘•‘Fancy buying a gilded and useless gee-gaw When we're poor and there’s war. Ilaw, haw, haw. “The council is crazy—it must be half nuts. We've elected a heap of incapable muts.” Maybe so, wise writers and poets bold, Who so brilliantly write ere the story’s told. Your sterling efforts, the powers you possess, Could be used on subjects of greater distress: Throw aside your pens and your powers dissipate. In cleaning the grass from the front of your gate.

And think fifty pounds, which is really fifteen, Is iivepcnce a ratepayer, if it's a bean; And that, dear philosophers, if you think it a scandal, Means the sacrifice this year of only one handle. One handle of beer, or a packet of smokes, Pinched from you by the (new?) council blokes — You should be thankful they ve answered your dream In giving you food for literary steam. To write something clever and noble too, To bring your wit and perfection to view, lias cost you each livepence, and think of the jeers That you can hand the new council for the next three years. As final advice, a game opportune, Is to blindfold yourself in a darkened room; And instead of pulling the chain of the Mayor Pull the tail of the black cat that isn’t there. SPOKESIIAVE (another hack poet).

Sir,-—lii my recent letter re the purchasing oL' a Mayoral chain I e\piessed my pleasure at the City Fathers’ decision to carry out the good idea. It should have been done years ago. I also suggested that the members of the council and officials should, too, dress as belits their posi .ions and in conformity with the honour bestowed on their chief. The only fly I can 11 ml in the ointment is the shoddiness of the inisgnia that they intend to get. We cannot expect to get a decent Mayoral chain for a little over twenty pounds, and surely something much better would he appropriate for a town that contains the richest gold and silver mine in the Dominion than a string of paltry - Wool wort liian tin-buttons, which are of little more value than a girdle of polished “crown tops” dropped from a brewery cart! If we are (o have a Mayoral chain, ict it bo a good advertisement for good o!d Waihi, the boss producer of gold in New Zealand —even if the cost is over .11100! For our Mayor to be bedecked with the cheap necklace decided on at the recent meeting, it wouldn’t look out of place if all the councillors turned up dressed in a conglomeration of styles of clobber — rusty-looking blazers, half-masted denim trousers and odd socks —and I wouldn't blame them for not being fussy.—l am, etc., CIVIC PRIDE.