VERMIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 61, 14 February 1880, Page 3

VERMIN.

To the Editor. Sir, —I am the father of a rising famil}', and as a £eod citizen and vise parent, am anxious to give my children the benefit of a sound education. I have also a profound respect for the efficiency and general management of our public schools, and therefore would like to see my offspring educated in one of these establishments. In course of conversation, however, with a friend, I was somewhat surprised to learn that one of what I should consider the most necessary qualifications for admittance in the school was not insisted on —cleanliness ; my informant insinuating that a class of insect which our dusky friends the Maoris esteem as a dainty, was the constant companion of some of the scholars. Now, sir, while this is the case, you will not wonder if parents, who have some regard for the health and comfort of their children, prefer for them ' an inferior education in preference to having their homes overran with such un- " desirable tenants as the species insinuated ‘ at above. If our local public school is to retain its hitherto deserved popularity, the sooner the newly-elected School Committee take this unpleasant subject in ‘ hand the better for all. PATERFAMILIAS. THE COMPLIMENTARY CONCERT. } To the Editor. Sir, —ln your Thursday’s issue you j seem to express regret at the smallness of £ the attendance at the above concert. Now j as one of the Ashburton public, I not £ possess the same feelings as yourself on the matter, but 1 am rather inclined to the reverse. When I read the advertisement in your cslumns, the question rei’y naturally ( arose in my mind, as to who Mr. and Mrs. Florence were that they should lay claim j to the support of the Ashburton public. Were they residents in the place 1 Had , they conferred any benefit on the town or district I Had they benefitted any of , its inhabitants or anybody else from a public point of view. With these j questions before my mind, I resolved to ask a few persons whom I thought could give me a little information on the matter. I did so, and I was rather surprised to find ‘ that they were just as much in the dark J on the subject as myself, and so, failing to * obtain answers to my questions otherwise ‘ vtbari in the negative, I was about to come ; to the conclusion that it must be some | private individual trying to raise the wind. But then I was confronted with the fact ‘ that it was to be under the patronage of > his Worship the Mayor and Councillors. , I thought surely oursage Councillors would not lend themselves as tools to aid such exclusively private^Y 6 ' ests. It, however, j appears that sucuvras the case, and it is a poor pitible position for our leading men of the town to bring themselves into, 1 to allow themselves in their public - capacity as a corporate body to become patrons of private benefit concerts, which have no public significance whatever. It ‘ is much to be regretted that a number of * our Councillors could patronise such a benefit concert, and yet, when it came to a question of feeding the hungry thou- n sands who are mw starving in Ireland, ' and by whom they are appealed to for ‘ help, made themselves conspicuous by their absence fr'" a the public meeting ! called for that fjfcpose last night. I think sir, the sooner the public of any place set there faces, and shut their ' pockets, against such private complimen- ' tary benefits, the better it will be for ' themselves, the place in which they live, ; and other objects more deserving of public ' support. —I am, &c. , ■ Observer. -- - 1