"KEEP YOUR AIN FISH FOR YOUR AIN SEA MAWS."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2137, 17 May 1889, Page 3

"KEEP YOUR AIN FISH FOR YOUR AIN SEA MAWS."

TO THE BDIXOR. Sib, — For a long time there have been sad oompltints about the Library wanting . light. Then (here are the matters of the public clock, the bathing grounds, our Domain and our Baod, and lastly oar poor. All these want money ; our storekeepers have long faces, and I daros»y the newsmen also. I should like to ask your readers whether they have thought of all this, and at the same time would have them think how they are continually galled by the very good persons who visit ' this little town. There was for instance one party, that of the Bisk Minstrels, who drained the large and the small coin, alrted by the ministers, and made their boast of it m a Melbourne Court, to the tune of £30,000 They no sooner disperse than another is on the stage. They are also good, and oan carry a jeweller's shop about with them, and yet they are gathering for the poor, and the people are giviog to keep the poor elsewhere. What good people we most be to give away what does not belong to as 1 But, eayn the parson, "we want attraction." Have we not got it? I say "Yes" I could give a better temperance leoture myself and charge nothing for it. Are there no singers and musicians among ourselves ? Why don't these people combine together and keep the money for our own requirements. The law ot God is to love our neighborthat neighbor is In our midst. But Beys the eooa man we tried it and it failed. Why? Becauee it was too dry. These showmen don't make it too dry. That's wby they s.cceed. Our entertainments must be got up on a free and easy principle The man who heard on Sunday night after prayers all that thumping on the boards must know the job was not a dry one. Theee shewmen are too wideawake to make their entertainments dry — that is to gay uninteresting. The drinking men and lads of oar town are not all snort- witted, and the way to gain them is to please them better than a publio bar oan do. That is easily enough done, and they will leave the b>r and join you, if you wiil condescend to place them on an equal footiog, and drop pride for the sake of the weak. Thus you will make them strong, and by making them strong you will be working for the good of all m this tQwn and keeping the shhwmen out. If you will kindly give mo space for this letter I hope it may do some good ; if not, let it go where many a better one has gooe — viz , into the waste paper bavket. I am, eto , 02U07THX Poor.