Coming, 1889, and –

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 239, 25 December 1888, Page 2

Coming, 1889, and -

[TO THE EDITOR.I Sir,—This is a time of well-wishing; the spirit of the occasion prompts me to spacially extend my greetings to Mr Washington Weaver, who I notice is again in town, looking as jolly and rosy as ever, despite all the vexatious trouble that he must be experiencing at the South Pacific Oil well. I could have wished that Mr Weaver had succeded in getting the plug dut before the time had again come round for us to partake of our indigestible Christmas dinner, but it all goes to prove what a weak mortal man is after all, and if it does not satisfy our immediate wishes it will at any rate give us a grand subject to moralise upon during this last week of reflections before 1888 shall remain to us only as a memory of past failings. “ Just think of it, ” we might say to the children as they gather round the table, “ there almost beneath your feet is a mine of unfathomable wealth, which for years past we have been expecting day by day to tap. At last we succeded, but man’s success is never certain, and whenever our hopes are at their brighsst some little thing occurs to upset them. Now Mr Weaver has bean fishing for months, but like you little boys when you fish for tommycods in

the well something always prevents success,’ and so on. Mr Weaver is certainly to b( sympathised with for the unfortunate delayi that have occurred, and again I must expresi our hopes that he will have a merry Christmas and that the new year will see hirr triumph over the many obstacles which always block up the path of progress. The worst of it is, too, that those obstacles are al so small that they are prone to think that thei] very littleness would make them easy to overcome, but then, in any case, the public de hold queer ideas at times, and it would not be at all surprising if they should not come forward one of these flue days and advocate blowing the whole piping to smithereens with dynamite—indeed, some sections of the public are so unreasonable that they would not be al all opposed to trying the experiment with someone sitting on top to watch the progress of affairs. I hope that someone is left it charge of the works during the delays thal occur while the appliances are being put ir order, or some one of the impatient public may yet be wicked enough to steal up some dark night and experiment with dynamite, If such an experiment would affect the works only it might not be such a serious matter, but then the intervening space between Gisborne and the springs might ba endangered. Some people ask, though, why if Mr Stubba can get on with his work so well, cannot the South Pacific do the same? Ah ! but the Minerva has no plug to contend with—if they had that serious accident by which Mr Stubbs nearly lost his life the other day might have been avoided. Still, we must be thankful it was no wone. Mr Weaver, I had expected, had a Christmas surprise in store for us, for I fully believed he would have by to-day succeeded in fishing out that plug, the release of vrf-iich would have been such good tidings to us. This hope has been banished by the fact of a slip socket not.being handy, and we will simply have to wait until that has been completed and then concentrate our hopes on that socket. Owing to this further unanticipated misfortune Mr Weaver has now no option than to wait until the first holidays are over, but still I hope hewi:l be able none the less to enjoy them. Who can tell that the new year may not be the new year of commercial prosperity and happiness, when Mr Weaver shall have gone forth like a giant refreshed, and succeeded in getting the obstinate plug out of the flowing well? True, the unexpected does sometimes happen, as may be proved by the innumerable recent disappointments, but then again they say that all things come to those who wait. Goodness knows, we have waited a long time, but what in comparison to long weary years are a few days, weeks, or months ? But the impatience of weak humanity passeth all understanding. Let us look forward to the new year with that confidence which is inspired by hope. Have we not done it in the past ? Yea : therefore let us try and do it in the future, because if we do not try it just amounts to this that we needn’t, for the destiny which shapes our ends will settle it all for us. In conclusion I again wish Mr Weaver and his assistants a Merry, Merry Christmas, and better luck in the coming new year. May Fortune reward their pluck, And the oil again be struck, The game be once more won, And the fishing soon be done, I am, etc., A.R.A. TOUT TOFT HET RAP,

We must decline to publish the letter signed “ Isaac Walton ” re “ queer fishing excursion and oil on troubled waters,” Isaac Walton can obtain all the desired information he requires by a personal application in a gentlemanly manner to Mr Weaver, for we deoidedly object to inflicting on our readers on Christmas morning nearly a colutnii of drivel that would disgrace a luuatk asylum record,