RANDOM NOTES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 110, 5 June 1875, Page 13

RANDOM NOTES.

" A chiel'a amang ye takiu' notes, An' faith he'll prent 'em. Mt " amusing " friend of " Passing Notes " is at it again, and appears to have forgotten the last Random shot which he received* The term amusing must, however, be accepted cum grano sails, a s the risible faculties of his " numerous " readers are affected, not by the facetious qualities of the writing, but at the insaneand persistent efforts of its author to make it appear so. This sucking Junius takes the Tablet to task for the character of its selections, and with a ray of intelligence, which at times visits the dullest intellects, strives by courting a castigation in the Tablet to be rescued from the oblivion in which he is buried in the columns of the ' Witness.' Now, I -will be merciful to him against his will, and, like the negro Demosthenes, show him that I am too magnanimous to strike at weakness, and, therefore, grant him the mercy of my silence. Had I not, however, come to this resolution, and determined steadfastly to adhere thereto, I should have been inclined to cavil, not at one of the individual "selections" of which his " original " column is composed, but at the series of articles inglobo. I should have felt inclined to tell him that his tastes and the public were very much at variance j that what he flatters himself to be originality, is only such as being the emanation of an Original of an unique stamp, and that his productions when viewed through the large end of the telescope, like the sun's rays dazzle and confuse with their brilliancy, but, when seen by the reverse, are too far off to be intelligible. This and much more could I say, but, as I have promised to be silent, and my lips being sealed, and my pen powerless, I will defer till a future time any remarks I might have wished to make on the subject. And so Otago's most " rising " young orator and his colleagues — the great Fish and the smaller fry — have been compelled to rise from their seats much against their will. Scarcely had the Hon. Horace mounted the State Coach, and comfortably tucked the Government rug round his Ministerial feet ; and his passengers found places to suit their comfort, when himself and his cargo have been peremptorily ordered to descend. Alaa ! for human greatness. Not even the passionate eloquence of the newly fledged Commissicner of Railways could avert the stroke, and the Ministry of Reform which was to save the Province from the ruin to which it was fast drifting, have only been allowed to shuttle, but not deal the cards. In the words of the inspired young orator in his Dying Speech, who knows what they might have turned out to be had they had but time. They who, in the short time in which they have had the public coffers into which to dip, have dealt out "justice" with no niggard hand, and whose hooks were freighted with golden baits, have shared no better fate than their miserly predecessors. Who, in listening to the impassioned tones of the Ministerial mouthpiece, as he indignantly forged link after link of the chain which was to weigh down the Reid-Executive, could have imagined that the member for Caversham would caiise them to melt like dew in the sunshine. But true it was, and in the calm, logical, and convincing speech of the late Provincial Solicitor — a speech which, by its utter absence of either personal or vindicative motives, stood out in bold relief in comparison with that of their accuser — unmistakeably convicted the member for Dunedin of the suppressio eri, if not actually of the suggestio falsi. It is somewhat strange that after the elaborate details of the arduous labors that would devolve iipon the Minister of Railways, after proof of the necessity that the office should be filled by a young man of activity, industry, and intelligence, and then the announcement by Mr. Fish of the extraordinary amount of work performed by Mr. Fish since he has been at the head of the department, the Council did not take the hint, but sacrificed the future prosperity of the country by the expulsion from office »f such a prize. Of course, that gentleman did not care to occupy the Treasury Benches for one hour — -at least he said so — and it appeared there wa's a majority who shared in the wish, and did their best to gratify so worthy a young man, and as a consequence the piscatorial lines are cast in troubled waters. After the modest resume of his labors since the assumption of office, '.an. Executire without so admirable a working partner must be viewed in the light of a national calamity, but amidst this universal wailing, I venture to say that there will not be many ffcwet eyes found poring over the books of the Railway Department.