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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2274, 20 August 1908, Page 1

[Correspondence oil public matters is welcomed at all timos, but it must bo distinctly understood that tins iournal is in no way associated with the opinions of its correspondents.] WIDTH OF TYRES ACT.

[To the Editor.] Sir,—l consider the tilling of carters £2 each and costs nothing more or less than a gross injustice. \\ ill any. man with common sens© toll inc wliat difforouco a loaded waggon will make to tlio roads whether it liad a four or fivo inch tyro? It 'is tinio the public approached the local bodies who foisted such an outrageous act on the public and insist upon its being wiped out. I think some of the members who voted for this fjcandalous measure ought to ,get lined £2 for allowing the roads to bo in the Totten state they now are. That the roads it property made and crowned even with the poor metal we have can bo made a success is exempl.hed by a piece near Morrell and lay lor s stores on AYhataupoko road, wheie it was crowned and rolled by the road roller and has stood all this heavy traffic in the wet weather —1 am, etc., “DISGUSTED.”

THE OLD AND THE NEW IDEALS

[To tiie Editor.] Sir, —Skimming over a diary which I have kept in an irregular way tor many years during a good deal ot travelling over the world, I came across a conversation in which 1 took part in the smoking room on a big liner, which seems to me so good an illustration of two ideals of life, the modern and 1 that of only a- short tune back, that I think it worth recordUI A (aged about 35, bachelor, smoking an expensive cigar): “I can’t understand how it is that a man of your powers, and individuality, and experience, and good reputation in London, and getting on in years, should be so hard up for money.” B (aged about 55 to 60, married man, smoking plug tobacco in an old burnt pipe): “Oh. 1 made some money once; as much as it was my duty to moke for the sake of others; but'recently 1 have been too full of work to have time for making money, now that-the claims of others are satisfied.”

A: “I’m lunged if I know what your driving at i Did you invest the money you made in stocks and-shaw-

B: “Part of it, enough to give my wife an annual income with which she is perfectly satisfied ;about the same as you pay your chauffeur, but I invested the rest of it also, though not in stocks and shares.” A: “What! did you do a bit on houses or land specs?” B : “No, I invested it on one girl and three boys.” A: “What the deuce do you mean?”

B: “The money gave my four children the best education I could buy with it, and fitted all four with professions. Even tile girl, who, should slie not marry, will be ablo to earn her own living; and all three boys have turned out grand investments, the finest any man and woman cm possess in common.”

A: “Oil, that’s all tommy rot; you could have made heaps .more with your abilities and reputation.” B: “That last thing, the reputatou, is what I made my filial investment in ” A: “But, mail, whero is your pleasure in life. Do you over have a good time? and what .recreations can you take if you 'are so ‘hard up’ ” ? B: “I am never ‘hard up,’ my reputation gets mo work enough to earn my own living, whilst saving a little for an old ago pension. Why. if we both live to old age, and I oin work no longer, our united incomes, the one I made years ago for the wife, and the one I am making now, will equal those of your chauffeur and your cook put together!” A: “D d_ silly rot! you might have been a rich man.” B : “I ‘am’ a rich man, wealthier by far than you (and I -know your income runs into four figures, and the first one is more than a unit), a lid compared to what ‘l’ have, the love of wedded wife and children. ‘your’6’ is just rubbish!” A (after a long silence, and throwing away half a shilling cigar to light a fresh one): “But whores’,y your amusement; your recreation; your fun?” B: “There is another point whero I am better off than you are. I am musical, and for one shilling in London I can hear the grandest music in the world. You don’t care for music, and besides, my girl’s profession is music. You never heard her play and sing. Talk of pleasure! You can never como near ‘that’ form of it! My own girl, part of myself, expressing for me in music the thankfulness and hopes whiclil could not so express, howovor deeply I feel them.”

A i(aside): “Bit of a religious crank, too! (To B): Well, how about other recreations?” B:-..“You say I have abilities. If so, they were given me to Use. 1 try to use them, and one of my highest forms of recreation is to impart to others what I have been allowed to learn.” A: “What sort of stuff do you learn and impart to others, and how do you learn it without money?” B: “Why, the ‘sort of stuff’ that creation is full of, earth knowledge; wb.it every flower and insect and the myriad forms of life teach one, and all gratis for nothing, and behind it all the grand search for God, Who gives it all so freely!” A: “And you don’t want to make

money, after you have got your old ago pension?” B: “No, why should 1?” A (silence). I am, etc., “LONDONER”