THE MEMBER FOR WAIKATO.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3160, 24 September 1892, Page 2

THE MEMBER FOR WAIKATO.

A rOItTKAIT. Fie. fob, and film I smell the blood of a British man. Shakespeare. Ax intense Briton. British beef, so to speak, to the backbone. The most remarkable thing perhaps about Mr Lake is his sometimes astounding resemblance to the late Sir Harry Atkinson. I have to confers that until my attention was called to Mr Lake, from professional reasons, I was not aware of his existence. One evening recently I happened to lift my eyes as Mr Lake was entering by the opposite door, and experienced vividly that shock we all feel on seeing, as we suppose, one who has crossed the " Dark Divide "in his habit as he lived. Twas then I learned who Mr Lake was. No doubt, the closeness of these resemblances wears off in time, andi ndeed may not always be there. Certain movements, certain expressions, may occur but once in a way. Nevertheless, I shall always have an uncanny feeling as I recall my lirst sight of Mr Lake and his then likeness to the great chief that is dead. I fear there is small probability of Mr Lake following in the political footsteps of Sir Harry and becoming a leader of men. At present it is difficult to say what he may become. He is a small.speaker. He only orates under hydraulic pressure, and then parts with his syllables as if they were precious as much fine gold. But he is au intense, almost bitter worker. Some time since he remarked in the House that he was induced to come to New Zealand by reading Sir Julius Vogel's " Handbook of New Zealand." He had Dever known, added Mr Lake, so many fallacies crammed into a work of the same size. I am inclined to wish that the romantic Sir Julius may produce more such fallacies, to induce more men of the Lake stamp to come here. b"or he is of the sort of men who build up young countries—hard, shrewd, unsentimental, hopelessly practical. The kind of man who would have shocked Wordsworth by seeing in " a primrose by a river's brim " a yellow primrose and nothing more. If I wanted a town built I would go to M r Lake. Mr Lake would establish a fishing industry were one to be established, but would hardly shine ona fishing excursion.—" Phiz," in Weekly Press,