Notes from the West.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 488, 2 August 1890, Page 3

Notes from the West.

[most oca own cobbbsfondent.| Mabaetaha, July 30. Matters have been quiet here lately— too much so from a correspondent’s point of view—the state of the roads being such as to effer no inducement to travellers. Several natives have been obliged to shift their habitat to higher ground, on account of the amount of water lying on the flat. There is some talk of opening the mouth of the Murewai river, and permitting the escapo of the superfluous aqueous deposit into the bosom of the Pacific, as was its wont in the brave days of yore. But talk is cheap, while digging out a few chains of sand means money, ergo, the chances are in favor of the project not going beyond conversation. But the wea'her, though certainlv inclining to humidity, is wonderfully mild for this time of the year, and consequently favorable to those ovine juveniles who have had this season appointed for their first appearance on the theatre of Life. I see that your Makaraka correspondent has gone in for cheap moralising on the superabundance of race meetings, and whines in the orthodox fa-hion over the “ prodigal waste of thousands.” and the decadence of tbe New Zealand-bred horse of to-day, I wonder he didn’t instance Carbine as an example of this inferiority. This howl against racing by would-be pnrists always seems to me such senseless twaddle. Nobody is forced to go to race meetings, or to spend money in the only legalised form of gambling, unless they like to do so, and in this matter, as in everything else, the supply must be regulated by the demand. With some of these moralists it is a case of “ Lead us not into temptation.” What a wonderful thing is the force of example. I anticipate your comment and admit that the remark is trite and devoid of originality, but I was led to make it by an incident which recently occurred here. A gentleman, whose pleasing task it is to conduct, through devious paths, those gentle beasts of burden so frequently mentioned in Scripture, moved no doubt by contemplation of the exemplary patience displayed by these docile quadrupeds beneath the burden of the yoke, has voluntarily submitted his own neck to its matrimonial prototype, tbe late Mr Hannaford of Auckland acting as tbe “ Deus ex maohinA.” The following lines seem appropriate :— Though weddings are made in Heaven they •V> Yet Cupid, who mischief oft hatches, Sometimes deals at the house t’other side of the wav, And there they make Lucifer matcher.