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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 501, 25 September 1890, Page 3

An old joke in a new dress Johnny : Pa, does the devil ever go to Wellington when the Assembly is in session? Pa: Why do you ask such a silly question ? Because if he does he must have an awful cold in his head. How so?. I read the other day that the devil takes off his hat whenever he meets a hypocrite.

The Lyttelton Times states that those curiously perforated “ threepennies ” and “ sixpennies ” which have lately been so conspicuous in collection platos, and which are thought to be the work of the Chinese, who punch out boles for the sake of the small pieces of silver they thus obtain, are to be refused by the banks and pest offices. The natural result of this will be that shopkeepers and others will refuse to accept them, and the result of this will be that the only means of getting rid of these depleted coins will be through the offertory. Writing before the recent riots the Sydney Sunday Times, a staunch Unionist paper, says: —Of tha orderly behaviour of the men so far as the strike has progressed, too much cannot ba said, and this feature is highly creditable to the leaders. It is nnt too much .to say that the “ digni'v of labor ” has never been better exerqplifisd,' end this is a circumstance which ju«tifi?s the hope that the men will yield to wiser councils and consent to arbitration, mediation, conciliation or whatever one pleases to call any reasonable means by which the country can be spared the devastating results and diie distress which at present threaten i*. Surely Patriotism bhould rank befrrs Trades Unionism. This is th* issue the men have to face. Will they persist in bii gi g financial ruin upon this colony and unspeakable distress upon thousands of innocent women and children, or will they make a patriotic attempt to meet the masters and at least emleivor to arrive at a basis of settlement? To the masters we ray the same. Pocket your piide and meet the men in a spirit of conciliation while there is yet time, before angry passions have been aroused and privation has rendered the men desperate, perhaps implacable. Now is the time. It you want Parliament to legalise Boards of Conei iationjyou wait in vain, and before many weeks are past you may find that, irts ead of a social civil war, this country may b« plunged in a civil war wi hout any such comfortable prefix. We tender this advise in earnest hope that our staunchest supporters, the working men, will at least take it in the spirit in which it is given. Our sole aim is to honestly endeavor to point out to them what we think is the right path in this time of sore trouble ; our sole hope is that we shall on many future occasions, as in the past, join issue with Labor and fight with it the battle cf Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.