RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 542, 15 February 1913, Page 3

RANDOM REMARKS.

By Onlooker. 1 have always entertained strong opinions about the sort of hide bond people who never change their opinions. This class of persons seems to consider the getting of an opinion of any sort on any question as the final and complete act of a monumental intelligence, and that only one opinion can be right on any given question. This would not be so bad, but the same class of individual also holds it as a sacred doctrine that an opinion once acquired should last for all time. It should be as immutable as the laws of the Medes and Pesians, and should withstand equally th 9 storm of heated criticism, and the wiles of insidious cajollery. Fixed principles, and firmness of purpose are altogether commendable virtues in the abstract, but the person who pretends to possess them is usually rather tiresome to meet. It is strange how uninteresting the cardinal virtues can make the j ordinary human being.

However, philosophic reflection is a bad beginning for a reference to bowls, and it was in allusion to that noble pastime the opening remark was made. Although I have strong views about uninteresting people, I also hold that every responsible individual °houlrt show reasonable cause for any change of opinion. The reasons for changing my opinion with respect to the great game are altogether too complex and varied to present to the general public in cold, unsympathetic print, but when winter comes, and I' have to ke6p off the green there may! be time to reduce the matter to writing in self justification. By that time, moreover, may have arrived at the opinion that a yearning for self justicfiation is a manifestation oi weakness, and that football is worthj of special consideration. One reads a great deal from time to time about freak wagers made be tween sports, or among those who figure in the ranks of the idle rich. A gratifying feature about bowls, and at the same time a tribute to tht! purity of the noble game lies in the fact that wagering is notable for its absence among those who take their pleasure trundling the biassed sphere. However, anything is possible in a young and progressive district such as the King Country, famed! for its great natural resources. Chief! among the said resources is the re-| sourcefulness of its inhabitants, What! is impossible, therefore, to the ordin-] ary bowler is a soft snap for the King Countryman, and the deeds recorded of our touring bowlers are such as make the hearts of outsiders throb with envy. It is rumoured that on a recent tour the Te Kuiti team was concerned in a wager wherein neither silver nor gold was mentioned. Pewter was the article at stake, and cf course the Te Kuitians won. Everything considered, it seems strange that any sane person should wager in pewter against Te Kuitians away from home. Ohura might stand a fair chance, but any other district is not worthy of consideration.

Events march with startling rapidity nowadays, and the hurry of events in the King Country at present rivals the rapidity ot the Bulgarian advance on the Turkish capital. The analogy ceases here for while the Turkish battlefield is left strewn with soldiers, the King Country defunct are represented by marines. However, the pace never slackens. The conference of local bodies at Ohura was next day supplanted in public interest by the Ohura Show, following which came the Te Kuiti races, and now the Te Kuiti Show which happens next week is wooing public interest from the eternal roading question. These, of course, are merely local events, and a charge of parochialism may be laid for not giving the rest of the world a chance. Still local affairs are important to local people, and it is safe to assume the rest of the world is more concerned with itself than with the King Country. There is one event of recent occurrence, however, which is destined to live in history as long as our Empire lasts; which will cause a thrill to stir the heart of every good man and true who understands. Captain Scott's ill-fated, but heroic band, who strove manfully and succumbed on the edge of achievement have left a record which wil inspire mankind to noble action, and heroic sacrifice for all time. He would, indeed, be callous hearted who could read unmoved of the gallant man who calmly sacrificed himself to give his comrades a slender desperate chance of winning out to safely. "The act of a brave man and an English gentleman." 'Tis a fitting epitaph. Two Guineas for four lines of poetry ! Read Tonking's Linseed Emulsion intimation every Saturday amongst news items. The one great safe and speedy cure for colds —Tonking's Linseed Emulsion. If you don't know that Tonking's Linseed Emulsion won't let you cough, well, then, you ought to. l/ 6, 2/6, 4/6. The careful mother's surest winter safeguard—Tonking's Linseed Emulsion.