An Arcadian City.

Manawatu Herald, 20 April 1893, Page 3

An Arcadian City.

There are numerous cool sequestered vales of life even in Europe which keep the iloiseleps tenor of their way undisturbed by the turmoil and bustle of the busy world, but the Quietest of them 1 all is a Babylonian vortex in comparison with the Sardinian town of Salti, the inhabitants of which lately petitioned the Government to allow them to form a community of their own, instead of continuing to be all integral portion of Buddeso, which is forty miles away. The Government sent a ctoniriiissidn to inquire into the motives of the petitioners, and the official report contains an account such as would astonish us were it descriptive of an American "city" out west. "Salti," says the report, " has no town council, no police, no clergyman, no physician. It p'dsls'esse's iio post office, no church or chapel, no school, no registrar's office. On the maps of the kingdom, although it contains 1, 200 inhabitants, it is not marked. And yet the State receives taxes from the people, but sends no collector to receive them ; the taxpayers are compelled to undertake a journey of sixty kilometres once every eight weeks in order to pay their taxes. Once a year, in May, all the children born during the year are taken to Buddeso in block and there baptised. The dead are buried in the most primitive manner and without any trace of religious rites. Marriages are conducted on the same system, without any formality or ceremony, and are declared later on to the registrar or parish priest, sometimes long after they have been blessed with issue Vaccination and medicines are only known from hearsay. The children grow up without schooling or instruction of any kind.