STRAIGHT TALK

Fair Play, Volume I, Issue 9, 30 December 1893, Page 1

STRAIGHT TALK

Christmas Day has come and gone, and no doubt we all feel refreshed by the brief holiday season. In all Christian countries in the world, Christmas is looked upon as a time when, for a little while, we can enjoy an inmunity from cares and troubles of every shape and nature and during the period when every one’s feelings soften towards his neighbour, although it be spent in a humble or luxurious manner the result is much the same. We get into a retrospective mood and see more clearly the mistakes we have made in the past, and the general glow of the Christmas season acts as a fertile soil on which to plant the seed of good resolutions for the rapidly approaching New Year. Fair Play wished its readers a happy holiday season, and hopes that its wishes have been fulfilled. It also hopes that the New Year will bring in its train an access of prosperity that will make good the name New Zealand has gained as being, the most prosperous and happily governed colony in the Australasian group.

The Christmas season which fortunately intervenes between the general elections and the opening of Parliament will, we hope, have brushed away the cobwebs of political discussion and the barriers of party bitterness, so that with the New Year we can inaugurate an era of profitable legislation that will be of benefit to the state and redound to the credit of the legislators we have chosen to represent us in the councils of the colony. There is much to be done, and much is expected from our new Parliament. The new element which has been introduced into politics, in the shape of the women’s vote has brought about many strange changes, and the present Parliament must be looked at very much in the light of a gigantic experiment. That that experiment may prove for the best advantage of the public we most devoutly hope, but it must be bom in mind that the peeple of Australia-will be watching our every movement, and' ait no time in the past has the Parliament of this colony had so great a responsibility placed upon its shoulders. Many great reforms

are needed, and it is to be hoped that instead of wrangling on minor details our representatives will join their efforts to advance the interests of the State, and not wasto valuable timo in quarrelling as to who shall hold the tiller ropes. We do not suggest what should bo dono, wo simply stand in the position of critic. Whatover movement is right for the best interest of" the community will receive our unqualified support, no mattor from whence it comes, and that which is purely for personal aggrandisement or appears to a dispassionate mind to bp a wasto of the public time, will meet with our heartiest condemnation. To our readers, to the public and the colony, wo wish a most prosperous and Happy New Year, and whon we oxohango greetings again at the commencement of 1895, wo hope that it will bo a greeting of old friends mutually improved in condition and bettor knowing one another’s worth.

Christmas Day in Wellington was Bpont in a quiet manner, but everybody seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themsolvos. The city was crowded with visitors from the country and all the hotels were filled to overflowing. One particular featuro of the day we are pleased to make a note of and that is, notwithstand* ing the fact that the hotels were open all day and evidently did a roaring trade, there was a singular lack of drunkenness in the streets and scarce any quarrelling. Everyone seemed imbued with the Christmas sentiment and anxious to bo on the best of terms with his neighbour.

There must be something in the atmosphere of the city of Lille, in France, very conducive to longevity and the,reproduc* tion of the species, if the following item of news is any criterion to go by:—“ At Lille, France, recently seven golden weddings were celebrated in one day. The living children and grand* children of the couples number nearly 400.” A lew more couples like the above and the assertion that the population of : France is steadily decreasing would have to be withdrawn.

Mr. Thomas Rose is a native of Westmorland, England, where he was born on the 21st December, 1848. He joined the Post Office service as clerk at Penrith, Cumberland, in the year 1864, and two years later he was transferred to the Liverpool Post Office, and was appointed by the Civil Service Commission a permanent officer of the Imperial Postal Service. He worked through all the departments of the Liverpool office, and during the three years prior to his leaving for New Zealand was attached to the administrative branch of the Post and Telegraph service there, and acted as surveying officer of the Post and Telegraph office in the Liverpool district for a time. He was stationed at Limerick in the office of the Post Office Surveyor for the South of Ireland, his services having been lent by the Postmaster of Liverpool. When, in 1873, applications were invited by the Secretary of the General Post Office, London, for the position of Inspector of Post Offices for New Zealand, Mr. Rose, at the request of the Postmaster at Liverpool, became a candidate for the post. Sir John (then Hon. Mr.) Hall afterwards visited Liverpool, and, eventually, conferred the appointment upon Mr. Rose, the salary being i-400 a year and travelling allowance. Mr. Rose arrived in New Zealand in March, 1874, and at once entered upon his duties as Inspector, in which position he has continued until now. Mr. Rose is an able officer, and popular both .with his colleagues and subordinates.

The following from our Auckland contemporary, the Observer, is pretty rough and was evidently penned while the edi or was smarting from his unsuccessful efforts to collect a debt from some defeated candidate whose purse was as “ stony’’ as his heart:—“ Our experience of candidates for Parliament is that so far from buying the support or influence of any paper, the majority of them are unable to pay even the modest accounts they incur for printing and advertising. Evidently, the experience of the daily papers is much the same as ours, for one at least of them would give no credit to the candidates at the

recent election for their advertisements. A striking commentary this on the hundred and one stories in existence about candidates buying the support of the newspapers. Buy ? Why, the candidates find a great difficulty to pay their way.” Thank-heaven things are not so bad in Wellington. True it is just asimpossible to buy the support of the papers here as elsewhere, but our can*didates are usually sufficiently solvent to part up for their expenses.

In electioneering, what wins? Not riches, for Mr. A. E. G. Rhodes was beaten. Not the rarest of charity and good nature, for Mr. Swan was beaten. Not statesmanship and culture, for Mr. Rolleston was beaten. Not ripe parliamentary experience and effective debating power, for George Fisher was beaten. Not keen incisiveness, for Mr. G. F. Richardson was beaten. Not rugged manliness, for' Mr. Blake was beaten. Not a consistent eye to public expenditure in his own district, for Mr. O’Connor was beaten. Not an uncompromising opponent of corrupt public expenditure anywhere, for Colonel Trimble was beaten. Not a valuable but raking critic, for Scobie M’Kenzie was beaten. Not a common-sense and almost silent member, for Mr. Larnach was beaten. Not a man of nice perceptions, for' Mr. Geo. M’lntyre was beaten. Not banter and good humour, for Dick Reeves was beaten. Not enterprise in stock-raising and agriculture, for Mr. Boag was beaten. Not House of Commons knowledge, for Mr. W. S. Allen was beaten. Not scholarly attainment, for Mr. Wason was beaten. Not newspaper experience, for Mr. Carson was beaten. Not engineering experience, for Mr. E. G. Wright was beaten. Not a bush district pioneer, for Mr. Snelson was beaten.

But who wins ? These. The rasping, raging, raucous, Hogg; the ever elegant E. M. Smith ; Archy Medes Meredith, the schoolmaster, ye gods 1; Carnell, the photographer, one more genius of the “ haspirate horder; ” G. W. Russell, “ Windbag Russell; ” Hall, of Waipawa, ditto to Carnell and He Hem Smith; Charley Mills, of Pelorus, the well-meaning; dismal Jimmy Saunders; J. Kelly, of one idea or no idea ; the oleaginous Joyce who never told a lie; M‘lntosh, poor old MTntosh, who wouldn’t hurt |a fly unless he fell, then he’d break a railway arch ; r Buick, “ the_ orator of the colony,” single speech Buick, and he took twelve months to learn it off; A. D. Willis oh, poor harmless little Willis ; and another little oh! for poor little Tanner ; but Pirani, when let loose, will be worth his weight in wild cats. We beseech you, Mr. Hogg, to look to your laurels, for between you and Mr. Pirani it will be what the gentlemen of the P.R. call “ a very tight go.”

And this is “Our Democracy,” for which Sir Robert Stout and all the other political big-bugs have been pining for years. Well, there you have it, and we shall go on having the same old toast —“ Gentlemen, it is now my pleasing duty to submit to you the toast, ‘ The Parliament of New Zealand!’ Since the granting of the Constitution in 1856 it has been the proud boast of this fine young colony that in her Parliament she has emulated all the finest characteristics of the first assemblages of the world. The members of our Parliament have ever sustained its great prestige. Its orderly and decorous proceedings, the culture and learning of its members, have been well maintained from the days when Domett, Fitzherbert, Fitzgerald, Featherston, and Fox first entered its walls, and. I doubt not will continue to be ably maintained so long as the British empire endures, that empire upon which the sun, &c. Gentlemen, I propose ‘ The Parliament of New Zealand,’ which I think you will agree -with me is quite equal in all respects to any of its predecessors." (Loud Applause). Now then, Hogg, and Carnell, and He Hem,- * and Pirani, come up here and respond.