RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 113, 7 December 1908, Page 5

RANDOM REMARKS.

[Contributions to this column are always welcome from any part of the district. The Editor does not vouch for the authenticity of the stories, nor is he responsible for the criticisms.]

"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick" and the only remedy for such a serious complaint is the realisation of the elusive hope. Such is at present the condition of Te Kuiti residents. For some time past they have been displaying numistakeable signs of illness, and general depression. The deplorable gloom and despondency will probably be lifted -when the news that the loan money for town improvements !is now available for expenditure, becomes circulated. The lethargic, [don't-care-a-hang feeling will give way to alertness and cheerfulness and life will appear once more to be worth living. Imagine Te Kuiti with a decent road system — at least sufficiently decent to enable residents to dodge the mud in winter; with drains to carry off the surface water, and a little of the ordinary comfort which any other self-res-pecting community possesses. Even the oldest inhabitant will take a new lease of life.

The mysterious is always terrible, and the closer we get to the barbaric the more superstitious and awe-inspired does man become. Thu3 is the Maori held in subjection by the tohunga; the negro by the witch dotcor, and the Red Indian by the medicine man. Just the particular brand of fetish which causes civilised man to invalun tar illy bend the knee, or bow the submissive head, it would be hard to determine. But we all dread the earthquake, that terrible force, the origin and direction of which is such a fearful and inscrutable mystery to ordinary mankind. Even the scientist prating gilbly of seismic phenomena, and natural cause and effect, and posturing before the public as the man who knows, may be excused for feeling an involuntary creep in the spinal cord when he realises how terrible a force is unleashed by the smallest earth tremor. Possibly such things are necessary to reveal to man the depths of his insignificance.

A friend of the writer's attributes all the unusual happenings of recent, years', to the baleful influence of Clement Wragge, the well known weather prophet, who visited New Zealand a few years ago. As my friend points out, potato blight, earthquakes, drought, the fall jn wool, to say nothing of divers other unpropitious happenings have all accumulated since the advent of Wragge, according to whom, all mundane occurrences were inexorably dominated by the spots on the sun. There is probably just as much foundation for such a theory as for many other deep-rooted beliefs of mankind. Still, why not include the carrying of no-license, the re-election of Kaihau, and sundry other happenings, controlled by the people, and which certain sections of the community view with feelings of pained and indignant surprise. Methinks the age of reason is as far removed from the present as it was from the past. Possibly it is just as well. The philosophers tell us that a world of reason holds no place for woman, so that even much-vaunted reason has its drawbacks.

Immediately the news of the granting ot the Te Kuiti town loan was circulated, prominent residents were to be heard discussing projects for the development of the place. Town Board, water supply, sanitation, and sundry other necessary and unnecessary schemes were drawn from their hidingplaces, and paraded before the gaze of the man in the street. Such are healthy signs which speak hopefully for the future. Taxation on improved or unimproved values was another all but forgotten subject which was heatedly debated, and one ardent advocate was seen drawing plans on the footpath to point his contentions. He was left to waste his efforts on empty air, as a drainage enthusiast captured his opponent with an insidious plea on behalf of the health of the children. In justice to the residents, I must say nothing was mooted

regarding an electric tram service, or a ferry service on the Mangaokewa. However, straws indicate the way the wind blows, and there is nothing like the force of example to move people to action. After all that electric plant referred to by a corresponent recently may not be necessary.