Correspondence.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 32, 7 March 1913, Page 3

Correspondence.

While it is our endeavour to give correspondents every facility for he free expression of their •pinion, it should 1)3 borne in nind that the \ lews expressed do , lot, nece sarily, reflect the >pinions of the Editor.] TEN N IS. . 1 rizzler Crunch: We regret that we cannot print your reply to I ‘ Another Member ’* of the Tennis Tlub. The personal note is so strong that it becomes splenetic, and this journal has no intention j >f printing anything calculated :o wound the individual. While ;ladlv affording ample space for liring grievances of a nature hat may affect the community, >v<* distinctly and unhesitatingly refuse t > id-come a medium for personal abuse slung above an monymous signature. Editor. THE SCOT IS’ CONCERT. Maister Edit r, Ah hive jist ram lnm - frae th. Scots Sassiety’s concert, and canna ?ang tae bed wi’out gieing ye ma impressions. As ye nae doubt ken, A’m a Hielander masel, an* i Cawmell at that, an’ as 1 liearcd t!ie skirl o’ the pipes an’ -een the swing o’ the bit kilt, as the braw piper ma itched the j Tneif tae his sate playin’, as lie swaggered across the j stage, “The Cawm.dlsare Cumin ,” j Aii wis prood, very prood, if a ; little disappointed: prood tao see ! a Cawmell in the chair, but ■ lisappointed that he didna wear the garb o’ Auld Gaul \vi* a’ it" j bonny colours, instead o’ the ; Jack and white duds that j my ordinal- waiter never I is wi’out: and the chieftain wis as bad. Chief, ye’re nae Hielander. Ah could have ta’en the brooks aff ye the licht a tiling ye should na be ihlo ta dae ta a Hielan nion in an iffeesliial position like yours. But that’s by the way. Weel, when Ah heard the auld, auld Kings my mind gaed back tae the leather land, and when Ah saw the lassie dancin’the sheen trews md the hornpipe, J thocht o’ Balmora where Ah used tae gang is the guest o A’ll no id} wha, as it roicht look like

! braggin’. What wi f the drone o j the pipes, the sicht o’ the tartan ! and the soon o’ the braid Doric !Ah felt the love o’ country ! swelliu’ and seethin’ and boilin r in mabreest to sick an extent tha . I proved in ma ain case tha absence males the hairt grow ] 1 fonder, an’at the same time luu 3 tae confess that the farther A 1 5 am frae the auld Countree the } fonder Ah'm o’t, an’ Ah’in weel ! ] eneuch pleast tie be far awa, , ! But that’s atween ourselves, . I ‘ntfirr imo, as the puir French , body ca’s it. “ Loch Lomond, “The Dear Homeland,’’ “Annie ! Laurie,” “The Old Countree ’’ and “ Far Far Awa,” recalled I memories too sacred tae mak’ a screed aboot, an’ feel in’s o’ : eemotion that necrlv garretl me | greet. An’ when the maimie wi’ the Aeolian name sang the 119th psawlm Ah thocht Ah was back in the auld Kirk listenin’ tae the monotonious bleatin’ o’ the sheep as they tried to peacify their hunger in th ■ cauld Kirkyard. T ic Aeolian’s was a solemn ten meenits, an’ man, but Ah wis 1 gied tae luff tae ma een were fu’ o’ tears when Dan Wilson sang ' about lutein* his brekfust in bed and hou he lo’e.l a lassie. He wis funny ;he wis that. Hairry Lauder ower again, hut a wee <hade back. But Ah hae a pro- ! test tae lodge, and that is again ; dancin’ Irish jig" tae the pipes 1 a protest echoed by ma mates : wha sat fornenst me in the gallery. It’s what may be eaY I an anakronisum; for tho* Irish an 11 inlanders are bait-h (’ ■li j there are Celts an’ Celts, jist as j there are pipes and pipe, an’ S |Ah canna help cryin* hack tae the bonnv bit lassie that dancot sae wccl. Ah wis g non* tae j quote a fav’rite couplet o’ mine j which says something tae the effeck that her little feet cam in j an’ out like mice beneath her i petticoat ; but the quotation wad I na ho ahfirnp.i (French again, to I show the circles ah moved in ! a boot Bal bit, A’ll no i say’t), as her coats were unco brief tae let mice rin oot an* in I amang them. Tae sum up: | 'fhe concert was guid, bit wad ha* : ’ lO* them doch an’ dorrishes that Dannie sang aboot. Man, Mr I Eeditor, it’s a queer thing, but tin* uptak’s stiff tae see a joke - 1 eated wi’ a wee hauf yin. It’s guid tae be a tee-tot a Her in some case", that is; but to !oxoreoese due desere nn natioa j ! in humour, an* tae rec mise a joke before it knocks ye cloun- ye must liae a draum. Ye canna laugh on sody waiter, ony mair than ye can pick oot a joke on ice ; cream. All cood write a lot mair, and wad like tae, but the wife wha’s in her bed, is yellin’ oot £ hot A’m simply wastin’ marrafin, an’ A’ h somewhat tlJuk - lie’s: no far wrung. Wha/s your Yt-ui’s in sincerilv, ANGUS CAWM ELL. APOLOGY. Huntiy, March 4th. Si it, While 1 have tho’- uglily appreciated both Alwuza-ka’s : •ati re and N i’s Ira n > ;r, 1 regret that owing to my ignorance of the identity of either it Ini 'been impossible for me to act as letter-carrier between them. ! shall be glad if you will foward to its rightful owner an en- I closure 1 have received addressed “ NEBRASKA, K, The Local School Teacher,” together with my apologies for 1 having inadvertently broken the seal. .J s ours faithfully, W. M. KAY. [The letter alluded to lias been | duly forwarded to “ Nebraska. ” j Ed. Press J Slit, 1 hope you will pardon ; me for taking up your valuable space ; but 1 have been waiting for a letter from some one ; backing up Nebraska, whoever he is. because I think that much of what he says is very true. Not that I think that that gentleman j i" notable to fight his own battles, but it is only fair to let him j know that he is not the only one ; in Huntiy who is disgusted with : tho way things are carried on. | I have been a resident here for , some years now/andji don’t think ; , we are a bit better off than we j were on the day 1 landed here. When I first came it was winter, \ and ii is just as hard in winter ! now to get to my place as it was ; then, and then it took me nearly three days to get all my furni- ; tore through the mud. Then the j next summer we had to buy our ; water from the river at half-a- , crown a small barrel delivered. , So when we come to think of it, Mr Editor, our local bodies havenot done very much for us, and Nebraska is quite right. I think the Town Board must find it very , hard to put in time sometimes, , but if they ev r find that they ( have time to do something, as , Nebraska asks them to do, 1 will show them a few of the bills i ! have to pay for carting goods to , my place, and I will also show , them where they could make a reservoir very cheap to give us j water for domestic purposes, and I also for a fire brigade; but ! i don’t think there is much chance ‘ of us getting the tilings Nebraska and the rest of us want till an \ earthquake or something comes and shifts our Town Board, or till its members move into some of our back streets. I always look carefully through the paper to see what they are doing, but : J don’t get much satisfaction, because they don’t seem to do anything—only make bylaws and then adjourn for a month to consider them. 1 hope some abler , pen than mine will take up this matter. OLD RESIDENT.

o’ Sir, — I crave space in yoi in. columns to reply to Nebraska ic, letter which appeared in yoi ry issue of the 28th Februar; in* When I read Nebraska’s letter, at felt so crushed that, on the spu at jof the moment, I resolved t (w j efface myself; but on seeon id j thoughts I saw that I woul Hi I thus be doing some membe ie j of the Town Board an injustice el . and therefore decided to writ a. and correct a false impression s, Please, Nebraska, if you find i di necessary to reply fo this, let nn ” down more gently. lam a timi< ie being, and those pointed anc ” sarcastic remarks of yours made h! me squirm. 1 don’t want t' a argue about my name. ” Deac o*l tired” or “non-starter” wii ie i suit me as well as any other L In fact, either of them would sub h me better than the one 1 have n for. if known by one of them, 1 e | should probably live a more p j peaceful life; for, then, people ii- would not think it necessary tc 1. call upon me so often to do n little thing" for them, and a s short period of being Inst would 1' be heavenly. £ I 4 Nebraska’ has been harking 1 up the wrong tree. ‘ Ahvuzaska ’ '■ jis not member of Town Board. >' j and is never likely to be one. e: He would consider it an honour ; to Ik* elected to that body, but i) j knows it can never be, and o i is. therefore, content to do a • s I little in a humble way without p I c uning into the limelight. f Regarding the 4 fiver*: ‘ Alwuz ii ask;: ' is prepared to give it -• as soon as it is needed. Tho - condition mentioned last time d ! was put in only because of •• Nebraska’s expressed desire to " be ‘ kicked ’ into being proud. - ; M< st people bee ime proud witliout the application of force, and p it struck me tliat one who p | required to have pride ‘kicked’ 1 j into him, would need the emr I ployment <ff very drastic meas--1 i ures before he consented to part ) | with tho coin. However, my 1 i object is gained, and unless heis an > | expert at fencing and planting > it wan'd he belt r for the Town 1 Board for him to work at his trade, business, or whatever it is, tinti! h.* has earuedj the ‘ fiver ’ and then use the money tj t > pay one who is an expert, r and thus get the best value for t his money. While on the ques- • S tion of the ‘fiver’ I might say - that my Bank balance at pre- - sent i> £> 14< lid, so that you 1 i can hardly sav that ‘ fivers ’ > I are plentiful with me. 1 i The idea of asking the I T.tupiri Goal Mines for a site ' fur a reserve, though somewhat ancient, is a good one, and J w .Id sigg.,: that ‘Nebraska’ j head a deputation to the the object of laying the matter j before thoin. ! Regarding Cambridge and! ; Hamilton 1 would like to point ! ; out that each of t.lu»mi Boroughs has endowments which bring in j I a considerable revenue, and that i the receipts, over and above j rates are nearly £3OOO per annum in Cambridge and over I j £6OOO in Hamilton. Also, J understand the rat * in Cam- j | bridge amounts to 32 - per head ; | of the population. In Hamilton I (without counting the rate on I the recent loan) it is 23 - per head, while in Huntiy it is j about 5-. Would the people j of Huntiy consent to their rates] | being brought up to the rate I i paid in Cambridge or Hamilton ? ' I As regards the office of j 1 Registrar of Elector.". I have I t >0 much 1 c"po« t for the people jof Ngaruawahia and for the ! present Registrar to think that ; ] they or he would even attempt j jio over-reach Huntiy in any j tiling. They have got the office j : there,, and, rightly or wrongly, ! no doubt, they think Ngaruai wahiu is the proper place for i it. i should lie sorry to accuse I them of overreaching. However , v. o have both wandered from the point, * Nebraska This correspondence was started by ‘ Kahifcatoa ’, whose object J in writing was to awaken the ] people of the town t>» a sense ! of their responsibilities, and v.e ; both owe him an apology for I drawing a red herring across j the scent. Each adult in this I place has a duty to perform, and j lie cannot remove the responsibil- ] ity from'his shoulders by pointing ; out the alleged short comings of the 'Town Board, or ■ the Chamber of Commerce. As ‘ Nebraska ’ says the men ] who are members of these bodies are successful business men, but they did not make a success of business by initiating ! schemes they could not I carry out. Anything for the j advancement of the Town must cost money, and from past experience the Board knows that the ratepayers are not keen on voting for anything that will touch their pockets. Kahikatoa’s idea was, no doubt, to initiate a movement which would result in the education of tho ratopa>ers up to the point not only of desiring improvements, but also of being willing to pay for them. To write about * Real ’ and ‘ Nominal ’ wages is to side track tiie whole j affair. We working men know quite ; well the difference between ‘Real’ and ‘ Nominal ’ wages, and don’t j require newspaper correspondents to instruct us in the matter. Let ‘Nebraska’ initiate a movement for the awakening of the civic conscience (I would if I could) and he will find many solid men to stand by him. Yours etc., AI AY UZASKA. N.B. If Nebraska will send me his address I will lend him a copy of Webster —and it’s an old one which gives the meaning of ‘ carpet-bagger A,

Dear Sir, I beg to hand you a subscription list in aid of Claude Bilderbeck, who IoH his arm by falling 0:1 lk- circular saw at the mill in Mercer, I would common 1 this to your favourable consideration, as the lad is very unfortunate, having not twelve months ago been severely burned. Then he was some months in the hospital. His mother is dead , and he, consequently has been deprived of a mother’s care. I His father is a hard working man, but has a large family to keep, and cannot do much for ] them individually, as he is wholly dependent on his wages. J It is thought by the Committee that if a sufficient sum could ho raised to have the lad edu- j eated sufficiently to get him j an office position, he would bo able" to fight his own way in* life, as he is a good, cons cientious worker. Trusting you will assist us in j this very distressing case, I am. Yours etc, W. C. PICKETT, Hon. Secy.

the bridge which is in course of 0 construction, are most unsatisfactory, and hardly weigh at ali witli the reasons against raising the road so as to pass over the bridge. In the first place, the road could be lowered so as to pass under the bridge without bringing the road below flood level. It is true that the great flood of 1907 rose high enough to come into such a cutting as would be necessary to ir give a good clearance below the is "bridge, but even then, not sufficiently to stop traffic, and as Is that flood was feet higher than n any that had occurred within the 37 years previous, it could safely be neglected, for no one expects that the road should be made proof against such a phenomenal p rise of the river. At present the crown of the road is about I.Bft above water level, and as the cutting would he only about Bft deep, it would be necessary for the river to rise 10ft before it could come on to the road. 1 have been in my present position for about six years and have never seen the river high enough to cause trouble during that time. We, therefore, contend that | consideration regarding the flooding of the road can safely lie ( j left out of our calculations. f . As to the quicksand there probably is a small bed of loose a sand at the spot whore the bridge must cross the road, but it is only :o | a thin layer (about t or a feet), and most of this would be taken j out in the making of the cutting, j and the rest would present no : sort of bar to the making of the j road: I *- 11 There is any amount of clay it ;to I>‘ had within half a mile >t | which could be us d to make a • bed for metal to rest on, if nei cessary. Thee uintry under the } quicksand is hard. Although 1 j have no authority for saying so, ! I believe the Town Board would i take the risk of making the road \ j under the bridge provided the Government found the money. The arguments that can be raised against the proposal to carry the road over the bridge n are many, but 1 will state only a l * few of the principal ones. In the first place, it will cost more to carry the road over than under, ‘• s for thousands of yards of extra >• filling will he required, a retaining wall along the river bank will have to bo provided, and probably another retaining wall between the new road and the I ■ : filling will ruin the whole of the frontages from the Hotel to the Town Board Office, and as this is the most valuable part of the town, no doubt heavy compensation would be awarded. Then there is another aspect of the o matter. When thi- bridge is . built, it will be used very cx- ' . Au o\ . - would mean that when a stock- ; man wished to get cattle onto the e bridge at this end, the cattl * would just race up and down the j Great Smith Bond ; for no 1, a-t . would willingly turn int a lift p bridge when there was a clear roadway ahead. There would also be the objection that cattle . coining off the bridge at the 1 ITuntly end would be let 1 -se in s the busiest part of the main street of the town. 3 and, if young. would pr< - bably be excited and a danger t-> the public. I'uder the original plan, they would come off the bridge in a side street in a wide space, where it would he possible for the stockman to get round them and so keep them within bounds. We contend also that the erection of a barrier such as would be made by the heavy filling required, would be a distinct injury to a town which labours r under sufficient disabilities a- it s is. The people of ITuntly haw . looked forward to an increase of business when this bridge ierected, but if it is going t > inmade so that stockmen will he afraid louse it. their hope- are j likely to he unfulfilled. My Board has no desire to hamper’’the Department in itwork, but we feel that in this matter, where relief can he granted without extra cost to the Department and with distinct gain to the town, we are justified in pushing the matter t<> the utmost. Tin l reasons placed before us for the alteration of the plans with.respect to this mad are so far unconvincing, and we feel that we have much the stronger case. If the Minister cannot come here to investigate the matter on the spot, we are willing to send a deputation to Wellington to lay our viewmore fully before him. I trust you will let me know at an early date whether this course will be necessary. Yours faithfully, F. HARRIS, Clerk. A reply to the Clerk’s l ist letter has not yet come to hand. Failing a satisfactory answer every means will be employed to defeat the object of the Department, the ground of the , Board’s objections, as formulated by Mr F. Harris, being reasoni able, just, fair, and calculated to prevent the perpetration of a i blunder which would prove an everlasting eye-sore, and which is not consistent with the principles of economy.