The Chronicle LEVIN. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1916. SOME THOUGHTS UNTRAMELLED—AND WITHOUT HEAT.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 February 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1916. SOME THOUGHTS UNTRAMELLED—AND WITHOUT HEAT.

Now and then it js a good thing to "let oiie'o soil go," and have i:o regard to couscquonceii. It is very well to "■•ul for and be calm" as a general ruie. but tlmt rule has its limits. A good growl, honest andi heartfelt, possesses uses; and whether the growl be a.

(lie wpather, the cost of living or 'the lack of news in The Buster," tlio effect is helpful whenever the growler is not. a chronic malcontent. One hears tio many complaints aibout the laok of news in "The Buster" that the thought arises,*\Vhat is tlie quality of the missing news? "We indicate. a few iterns tha.t have been turned down by u.-' tliis year. A report reached us that Bill Brown's cow got into a bog and .bellowed until Bill came out in the moonlight, in silk pyjamas, -as every Levin farmer is clad these times, and spoilt them through the rope on which h© was hauling coming .away (with old Poley's horns attached) and letting bill go hard-'bump into a barb-wire fence. Interesting, no doubt; hut does Bill I want that in print P Not lie. Three 1 pounds of. gravy-beef were shiited from •fcjam Brown's sale last weeji, and yam doubts whether the longest-legged dog 1 i.i the district could reach as high us Sam's safe stands, let uloue unlock it. But who caresP Wain's poor breakfast made him feel 'bad-tempered, but that item is of no public interest. Mrs Clem. Brown weut to Wellington last week for a trip, and Mrs Joe Brown came down from back oi beyondtliere on a visit to her cousin's sister-in-law, but "The Buster" made no mention oi these world-stirring events. Folk prouder why, seeing that Tiie Dominican, Tlio 'Noose Heel unci Dimes. and The Eventide Ghost all print personal columns. There are various treasons, why The Ohrtmicie does not specialize in personal news pars. One is the inability of two men to dio the work of ten; the disinclination ot Levin's few settlers to subscribe daily for eighteen thousand copies of The Chronicle, in order to induce sufficient advertising in The Horowhenua Daily Chronicle to make the publication of an 8-eheet daily newspaper possible and profitable. Levin and district, in short, gets us good a, paper as it can afford.-to finance; it gets as much real news as the district produces and more than fiome people care to see in print. If The Chronicle is smaller in extent and less one-eyed than the bright particular sheet by which the out-hack farmer swears, that is partly the fault of the farmer who will not .make the necessary local expenditure to justify him in continuous growling a- L "The Buster." The necessity to i>e our own fugleman hurts us no whit; as Will Shakespeare so prettily puts it, we are writing this "tongue in cheek. ' cheered by -the reflection th<it a circus has come to town, that "The Blister" "still is on deck" alter its many year.s of fighting, and that its policy o?_ independence occupies a nicEo of approval in the minds of many equally indepenHI out tradespeople of Levin who show "their" independence by sending their printing orders to the cities and so saving lOd on a £2 10s order less 9d cailage and a trifle for wear and tear on loots, and clothes caused tsv lumping heavy parcels from the railwaystation after shop-hoy*. Advance

Levi nl We live"in a progressive age, and there are many amongst us who < hope to become financial magnates on i the tenpences saved every three months 1 by sending printing orders to Palmer- t ston or Wellington. Meantime Tlie 1 Chronicle is making Inrgov profits by em. ] ploying two hands less Uia't it had Tour i years ago, and coping with rush-times 1 by getting its willing remnant ot 0111- i ployecs to work overtime. .Meanwhile," 1 too, the drapers and butchers and bak- i ers and grocers have two families less to supply, through whicli reason tlie '"saved" tenpenccs have ibeeonio as nonexistent as sound political economy amongst the economizers. The whole great trouble with Levin, to our mind, is the endeavour ot from two firms to five firms to make livings where there is room lor only halt the number. Il any critic replies that Tlie Chronicle must go with some of the rest, the answer comes aptly that The Chronicle has passed its risky times and now is entitled to preach to its less-success-ful supporters and others. Levin needs more self-reliance amongst its business people and its citizens. As we started out wit'h some samples of the "news" we don't print as a rule, Ave will conclude with two more examples, preceded by the explanation that when we "do" set out to be unorthodox we "see to't" effectively. A cockatoo farmer-with a spare minute in his way paused near Stansell's cow run yesterday, to watch the circus tent being set up. Near by an elephant was cropping long grass from under the hedge. "By jingo," was his comment, "elephants would do 110 goo l at my place; the grass is too short'this dry season!" The foregoing item reminds 11 s of the witticism of one of our farmer relatives — long-since dead. He journeyed fj'oiii Blenheim to Wellington, and (next, to the big chimney of the citv destructor) he was impressed most by the sight of a giraffe in Wirths 1 circus. "What a bad time a giraffe must have if ever he gets a sore throat!" was his comment. Items ot news such a;-, these are readable once in a way, maybe, but they are not the real need of any community. If any of our readers misses an item of news he knows of personally lie should let us know a.bout it. Every newspaper is helped in that way ; even the newefiapeifc cif Wellington. -^ 8 a > final broadside The Chronicle would remark to those critics who think our district of 3000 people should he afile to run as good a newspaper as \\ ellington does, that when that day arrives many of our critics will find Levin's general standard of doing will necessitate the employment of smarter men in our critics' walks of life.