Strikes me those by-laws are coming to grief. They must now, anyhow, since they have come with a knock against the pro bono publico display of the Mail's columns on a board outside the establish ment which gives the paper birth. A law is always bad that interferes with the maker of it, or trenches on the liberty of the press. You may go hammer and tongs against the doings of a common carrier—fine him for crossing with his horse the heaps of clay or shingle ivc respect so much because we call them foot paths, or line him again for being away from his stand —but don’t dare to touch a breach made by a newspaper man. Now, Look here ! I’ve seen your publisher stick outside the Herald office a board with a list thereon written of all the striking things that were to be read in that evening’s paper. Just try it on again, and the R. M. will have a say in the mat ter, mind that. About those footpaths. A friend of mine recently arrived from the Old Country after nearly two years’ holi day, came up to see me. I had sent him copies of the current literature of Ashbur ton all the while he was away, and he came back firm in the belief that the town was quite a little Paradise, with pleasant streets, smooth footpaths, and a reformed climate. His dream has had a rude dispelling, and the old “ down” he had on the petrified kidneys that ruin our shoe leather 13 just as bitter now as it was when he left us at a date away .-back in Ashburton history. As the child is the father of the man, so are, perhaps, those lineal heaps of clay and shingle the embryo of decent footpaths ; therefore, let us be gentle and careful in our treat ment of them. They may not be of the highest class as pathways, but, like Tam o’Shantcr’s Nanny, with her “ cutty,” garment — “ It was her all, and she was vaunlie.” So let us be proud of such footpaths as we have, for in truth they are “ all” that can be evolved for our good from the wisdom of the multitude of “ Council” we possess, and from the excess of jaw labor that is expended for our benefit.
