RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 228, 26 January 1910, Page 5

RANDOM REMARKS.

It is announced that Clement Wragge, the gifted and versatile weather prophet, is to remain in New Zealand for some time longer. This is undoubtedly an honour, but whether it can be termed a blessing is a question which is open to doubt. Mr Wragge's presence is by some intimately associated with droughts, potato blight, and sundry other interesting but unwelcome visitations, and to the average mortal it is quite sufficient to have to bear with these inflictions without anticipating them. Of course, there is the other side of the question to which the proverbial "forewarned is forearmed" may apply. Still, there is a chance of even Mr Wragge being mis taken, and if one made elaborate preparations for a drought and a flood came along, the old saw "ignorance is bliss" would have a chance. However, Mr Wragge is remaining, and will probably have something to say regarding the approaching comet.

Te Kuiti may be said to be now launched upon its career as a dairying centre. With factories established at Aria, Piopio and Te Kuiti, the output of butter should be a very considerable item in the returns of .the district. „Hi.therto, the returns to settlers have been chiefly noticeable by their absence, and but for the dairying industry, would be still longer delayed. The man who remarked that every time he met a cow he felt like taking off his hat to her, no doubt had sound reasons for gratitude. He was, nevertheless, a sentimentalist, who did not sound the depths of human philosophy, and by paying tribute to the cow he was merely travelling on the surface. The cow certainly has its place in the scheme of dairying, but there are sundry other factors without which the cow would be useless. The animal could r.ot dairy by itself. However, the gentleman who. made his bow to the cow, being a sentimentalist, was perhaps moved by the spirit of gallantry. L'utgallantry and the local dairying industry are as wide apart as the Poles. This is u commercial age, and in wishing luck to the industry I can do so without regard to sex, and in the fervent hope that mankind in general will benefit thereby.

It is rumoured that the Te Kuiti cricketers intend engaging a coach for next season, with a view to learning something of the popular summer game. It has been a pleasing fiction with Tc Euitians for a considerable time that they held a fairly strong hand in the cricket field —if they liked to try. They did try, or are alleged to have tried, last week against a team from Taumarunui, and the fiction was exposed. Hence the gnashing of teeth and dark rumours of a coach. As an intelligent spectator of the game the conviction is forced upon me that he will require to be a gifted coach to teach the local cricketers how to wield the willow. The wild statement has been made that the man who could have saved the game callously refused to play. Even on the second day, when there was still time and opportunity to avert disgrace, the same •shameless disregard for the best traditions of the national game was exhibited by the person referred to. In this case anger at the action sorrow at defeat, and it is to be hoped mitigating circumstances will be revealed on a closer investigation of the rumour.