WEEK-END COMMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3550, 22 July 1905, Page 2

WEEK-END COMMENT.

The man in the street who speaks so disparagingly of Foxfon’s backwardness in bringing itself up-to-date in those things which tend to secure commercial progress came in for some strong criticism last night at the meeting of the Parliamentary visitors entertainment committee. He was accused, and apparently with a good deal of justice, of complaining of these things and then, when a move was made to lift the place out of its figurative rut, quietly lying low for fear he should be called upon to contribute something toward the effort. In this respect the Foxton specimen of the genus does not differ from his brothers in other places, so those who are sufficiently public spirited to move should

take heart of grace, pull themselves tog^h <?■!', and remove the reproach from the town. No great thing is achieved withal sacrifice on somedrie’s part;

At last, after a great deal of agitation on the part of local school committees, Foxton is to have a new school bnilolng ia place of the present structure which had become out of date and too cramped for the accommodation of the scholars. We understand, however, that the proposed building to to Ho deigned to hold 250 children. This will ridt allw for any appreciable expansion in the future, and savours somewhat of cheeseparing. Still, it is matter for congratulation that a modern building is to be provided,- find possibly something more may he iff stop? now that the defences of the Education Board’s treasury have been broken dovfn.-

Dynamite has figured largely in the news items of the past few days. At Murchisbn a Court roomful of people had a naffo# escape from sudden removal to a higher tribunal, and one man made the venture. He is believed to have been insane. At a West Coast town a little girl picked up a papier parcel containing 150 dynamite caps one evening in a wheel rut near the local post office'.- By a strange chance the mail coach, which almost invariably passed over that particular spot, had not done so on that evening, and another catastrophe was averted.

Yet again we are told that a small boy in a Southland town cherished a grievance agaiast his school teacher and determined to settle up old scores with him. He secured a couple of dynamite cartridges, arranged a fuse to them in a business-like mariner which suggested close study of Russian revolutionary methods, and placed the lot under the school, intending to finish the job when the classes fell jn for work. Too much confidence in a chum ended in the betrayal of the design, the removal of the bonb, and the severe caning of the would-be anNihilist. All these tbhigs _ suggest laxity in the control of explosive supplies which should form the subject of careful inquiry. Life is too full already of trials and dangers for people to be subjected, without protest, to risks *of sudden transition to another state through the reprehensible actions of irresponsible persons.