King Country Chronicle Saturday, Feb. 11, 1911. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 336, 11 February 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Saturday, Feb. 11, 1911. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The re-arrangement of the registration boundaries between Te Kuiti, Kawhia, Awakino, Ohura, and Taumarunui is one of the urgent needs of the day. On the map Te Kuiti district goes from Lake Taupo to the Mokau river, along an arbitrary line across country and up to Te Awamutu. Places like Oparure and Pio Pio are ' cut in two, with results surprising \ and aggravating to settlers who imagine Te Kuiti covers all their needs. ; If one lives on the other side of the ; boundary, though Te Kuiti may be but | a few miles distant, a visit must be ' paid to Kawhia or Mangaroa to complete the formalities The law per- ■ mits of the registration of births and deaths being done by deputy,and forms to cover this may be had at any post office. But marriage is a per- J sonal act and if one lives at Pio Pio, j 3ay, outside this district, much incon- j yenience may be caused when it is j

discovered that the registration centre is Awakino. Some sensible re-arange-ment of the boundaries is very urgent and necessary. The old demarkation was made in a day when Te Kuiti was a ti-tree flat and some other places not even that. Times change and needs develop. To-day we require a re-grouping of the whole of these districts, so that townships naturally falling into each of the areas may be served from them.

The visit of Te Awamutu bowlers to Te Kuiti is one we hope to see often repeated during coming seasons. One of the speakers at the dinner given in their honour put his finger on the weak spot in connection with all visiting teams—the lack of ordinary faculties to come to Te Kuiti in the morning and return in the evening. When we get those carriages on the goods trains the period of play will be lengthened and it will not be necessary to bolt from the train to save the failing daylight. The suggestion made by the president of Te Kuiti club for an annual inter-club tourna- ! ment covering the Waikato and the ! King Country was an excellent one. j There is no game quite like bowls for I promotng good feeling and good fel- ! lowship. No wonder that it is becom- | ing so increasingly popular. The \ local club has done excellent work S both in preparing the ground and j practising its players for a first-year ! club, and is to be congratulated upon ! the position it has taken and held in I such outside matches as it has taken ! part in. j In a recent issue we drew attention !to the probable scarcity of labour l likely to be experienced hereabouts | between now and the coming winter. ; The position now seems to be this: |As a result' of the wide publicity \ given to the article referred to a large I number of men have descended upon • Te Kuiti and many of them have been j taken on by the Roads Department j and some by the borough. On Monday ' next the Borough Council will deal ; with several important road contracts, ' and if these are satisfactory let then contractors will require more men. On the other hand, if the work is done by day labour men will be required in good numbers. The class ol men available from the Labour Department is not regarded as a suitable one, and ; what the local authorities want are men of a hardy type accustomed to outdoor work with pick and shovel. ; Farmers, on the other hand, need experienced men, with some practical : knowledge of bush-felling, clearing, grassing, ploughing and fencing. It

is not sufficient for a man to be "out of work" to make him adaptable to such work as is available in this district. Consequently, while work is likely to be plentiful, labour of the right stamp may yet be scarce. »♦♦♦ Speaking in Auckland last week the Prime Minister forecasted some reduction in first and second-class railway fares next year. There is no doubt a reduction is badly needed. The effect of ) putting long distance fares up has been to reduce the number of people travelling first-class and to make some second-class travellers refuse to travel at all. That, at alt events, is the logical deduction from the huge falling off in passengers carried in 1910, as compared with 1909. British experience, as we have previously shown, goes to prove that, given facilities for travel at cheap rates, the public take advantage of them. We ought to have week-end excursion tickets to all health resorts in New Zealand at single fares for the double journey. These should be available from Friday to Tuesday, and would thus not interfere with the packed Saturday trains. But the

motto see ins to be: "Kill the traffic." Why, wo frankly don't know. In ■sparsely settled Scotland cheap fares and frequent services are the common experience. Why not in progressive little New Zealand?

It is interesting to learn that the outcome of the recent Pio Pio school trouble will result in all probability that a conference of chairmen of the different school committees in the King Country will be held. The matter was mentioned by Mr W. D. Hattaway to the chairman of the Auckland Education Board on Wednesday, who expressed himself favourably to the idea. The return of the Rev. Mr Mitchell, chairman of Te Kuiti school committee, is being awaited, when it is hoped that the preliminary work will be arranged. There will be many interesting points to be discussed, and no doubt the main one will be the advisability of the King Country having an Education Board of its own. We welcome the proposal, which will have our support, as we recognise the rapid rate at which the country is being settled, and the necessity for the more direct control of the schools in our outlying districts.