RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 505, 2 October 1912, Page 3

RANDOM REMARKS.

By Onlooker. ! Debating Societies bid fair to perform a highly useful function in the King Country. Questions of burning public interest are week!" discussed at Te Kuiti, Otorohanga, Taumarunui, and Ohura Debating Societies, and if the various problems which are said to exist in the district are not satisfactorily solved the fault lies not with the societies. In the complexities due to a hurried civiliaaton lie further matters worthy of the attention of our infant publicists,and ordinary folk will doubtless sleep the sounder in the knowledge that the world problems are to be attacked in due course. Hitherto the purely local questions have attracted much attention, but these are now in a fair way to being completed. With the setting in order of domestic affairs a broad and attractive field is opened up, and decked with th 9 laurel of high achievment our budding politicians will doubtless add further to the renown of the district in the near future.

It is refrshing to see that the seed sown in the Debating Society is bear ing fruit in our public local bodies,and the great social questions are being attacked by the city fathers. The liquor traffic in the district has long been a hotly contested question amung all sections of the community and judging from the vote recorded at a Taumarunui debate on the subject it is likely to remain a contentious question. Unfortunately it is one of those things upon which people rarely agree to differ, and as long as human nature remains on its present plane there will be heated arguments concerning the liberty of the individual in respect to the flowing bowl. Many dreadful recollections, and awful examples are associated with the wine cup, and are used by advocates in favour of prohibition. On the other hand many fond memories are recorded in the lives of people who have not suffered from a tuo frequent association with the denounced traffic. It is difficult to elevate the question from the personal aspect and regard it unemotionally. However seeing that the matter is to be dealt with by the Te Kuiti Debating Society it would be presumptuious to proffeT an opinion at this juncture.

A suggestion by the Mayor of Te Kuiti that the Backblocks Local Bodies' Association, which was established last week, sould strive to command a larger field, and wield a greater power, did not meet with much support at the hands of the delegates. Still, there is merit in the suggestion, especially in view of the fact that our public works demands are being regarded just now with a cold,unsympathetic glare. If the soft sweet tones of reason will not suffice to charm the nimble dollar from the exchequer necessity demands that sterner measures be adopted 'Twas ever thus. Stern occasion has always demanded the man, and the note sounded by the Mayor will dountlesß reverberate in the heart of the man fore-ordained to be the crusader in si»ch a worthy cause. We are the people most affected by the existing state of things. We must look to ourselves to secure a betterment.

The ostrich is a creature which possesses a certain peculiarity calculated to render the bird ridiculous in the eyes of members of the higher animal kindgom. Man is inordinatley amused at the peculiarity of the ostrich; in fact, he is so edified at this, and other singularities around him, that most of his own little weaknesses escape his notice. At odd times a vagrant genius flits across the stage of life leaving after him a half understood prayer for the gift of seeing himself as others see him, but commonly such yearnings are sternly repressed. This, of course, is as it should he. Nothing could be more upsetting to the dignity of the oridnary mortal than even i;n occasional glimpse of himself as viewed by his friends. Naturally the opinion of his enemy would disturb him not at all. Such a warped view could fairly be attributed to prejudice. We are all susceptible to the friendly opinion. Moal: Let us be charitably minded.

Of course we are all charitable in thought; much more so than our utterances would lead others to imagine. Before going further I should make plain the fact that these remarks merely apply to the masculine man. We all know that woman with her tender, loving heart: her warm sympathy for suffering in all its guises is charity personified. That is, the right sort of woman. Mere man stumbles along blindly saying things and doing things for which he is continually repenting. Possibly he does not do much harm —few people have a great capacity for evil—but his influences towards charity are dreadfully restricted by reason of his similarity to the ostrich. The only redeeming feature of the situation is that a senae of humour is engendered in some by association with people of this kind. And the dissemination of the "saving grace" ib a virtue to be recorded on the cherished tablets of Time.