NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1534, 16 April 1887, Page 3

NOTES.

. » New Zealand, we fear, cannot be credited with any warm feeling of gratitude as towards its public men for services rendered to the State, or the proposal made several months ago for a memorial to the ever-faithful champion of the factory-workers, the late Mr J. B. Bradshaw would not have collapsed so grievously ; nor would the more recent movement m honor of the memory of Otago's foremost representative, and the father of steam communication with the colony, the late ; James Macandrew have hung fire so | sadly as it evidently does. At first there was great discussion as to whether scholarships should be founded, a statue erected, or both, and at latest advices, although the matter has been before the public for weeks, all that had been got together towards the Macandrew Memorial scheme, m any or all shapes, was the miserable sum of This is positively a disgrace to the whole colony, and to Otago m particular. No doubt the excessively trying times, financially, through which we have been, and are, passing has a good deal to do with the reluctance shewn to loosen the pursestrings, but there are plenty of well-to-do colonists>ho, notwithstanding the depression, are well able to afford handsome contributions, and there is some ground for thinking that the pinch which has been felt so severely by others, and scarcely at all by themselves, is being made an excuse cover their own meanness and niggardliness m this as well as m other directions. Indeed, we strongly suspect that some people are really turning the bad times to profitable account by saving largely under plea of necessary retrenchment. The rowdy proceedings at a recent meeting of the Dunedin Committee, at which Mr Fish made himself unpleasantly conspicuous, are also calculated to interfere with the success of the movement, and it is to be hoped that we shall see, or hear, of no more of this sort of thing, but that the promoters of the Macandrew Memorial will systematically, energetically, and good-temperedly proceed with the task they have set themselves, and that the result will be worthy of the man and of his work. As a contrast to the apathy and parsimony exhibited m many quarters with respect to the proposed memorials of two of our public men above referred to, it is pleasing to note that the Hon George M'Lean has set an example, well worthy of imitation by other wealthy colonists, m contributing the substantial and handsome sum of p£iooo towards the Imperial Institute fund. The Institute, if established, will undoubtedly be of great value as an exponent of the resources and capabilities of the colonies, and will be the means of attracting to them the class of capitalist immigration of which they all — New Zealand especially — stand so much m need, and the spare funds of wealthy colonists could therefore scarcely be applied to a more patriotic purpose than that of aiding m its establishment. To Mr M'Lean, therefore, belongs the honor of giving a lead m this direction, which there is room to be hoped will be followed by others, it being aheady said that at lea6t one other gentleman is prepared to come forward with a like amount, and a number of others to follow with hundreds and fifties. While, however, it seems that after all the private liberality of New Zealanders is not unlikely to enable this colony to take a creditable position as amongst the promoters of the Imperial Institute, we seem to be getting along very slowly m the matter of arranging for local memorials of the Queen's Jubilee year. There is some little activity m Christchurch it is true, but there seems to be even there a lack of enthusiasm, yet even so the city people aro a long way ahead of Ashburton, where the whole matter seems to have been suffered quietly to drop. Of course there will be a public holiday on the 20th June, but the question is whether a day's outing is to be the only notice taken of the occasion? It won't say much for our public spirit if that is so, and though almost everybody is short of funds, we do not believe that there would be any insuperable difficulty, if the. matter were set about energetically, m raising sufficient funds for carrying out either of the two proposals which have been made for the establishment of a local memorial of Her Majesty's Jubilee, either m the shape of an ornamental fountain or a public clock. Possibly some better suggestion than either may yet be made, but it is tfme, if anything at all is to be done, that we set about doing it, or at least preparing to do it. The 20th June will soon be here. | That America is not the only country capable of producing " smart " people is evident from the following amusing story, which we are assured is entirely true. As we do hot wish to give a clue to the identity of the parties, we will suppose that A stands for Christchurch and B for Selwyn, or any other places respectively that the reader likes. A contract was out for certain work, and Jones and Brown residing at B, being the only local tradesmen m that particular line, laid their heads together and agreed to send m each a tender at an understood sum," and subsequently, m the event of either tender being accepted, to share the work and the profit. After making this arrangement, Jones has a conversation with a workman, 'say one Robinson, m the same line residing at A, and Jones and Robinson agree to put m a tender a trifle under Brown's 5 so as to put Brown out of it altogether. But that conversation happens to take place m a certain building where Brown, unperceived, is within earshot, and accordingly Brown, keeping his own counsel, quietly withdraws the tender he has already sent m as per the first-men-tioned agreement, and puts m a fresh one a shade under that of the plotters, Jones and Robinson* Of course Brown gets the job, and the other two plotters are left to the reflection that however smart people may be it is always just possible that somebody else is smarter still.