The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, July 1st., 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1116, 1 July 1913, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, July Ist., 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

We congratulate the Methodists upon their fine new church in the Avenue, which was formally opened by the President ot the Conference, the Rev. S. Lawry, and used for the first time on Sunday last. It is many months since the old church was destroyed by fire in its centrally situated position in Main Street, and there was a division of opinion as to whether the new church should be re-erected on the old site. Wiser counsels prevailed, and a new site was secured in the Avenue and the surplus from the sale of the old site added to the building fund. The new church is erected in a very commanding position, and is an ornament to the town and a worthy edifice for Divine worship. The total cost when all the improvements are effected is about and it is pleasing to state that there is not £IOO of debt on the outlay. The interior ot the building is comfortably appointed, welllighted and beautifully finished, and the acoustic properties are first class. Seating accommodation is provided for two hundred worshippers. Members of the congregation have contributed many necessary extras in the form ot gifts. For many months Divine service has been held in the supper room ot the Town Hall, and during the whole of that period the congregation have cheerfully put up with many inconveniences. The new building is a fitting memorial of this important branch pf the Christian church.

The practice of leaving a loaded gun lying about in a house where there are children has, time and again, had a tragic ending. Another distressing fatality from a similar cause happened on Saturday, when the five-year old son of John Todd, a farmer ot Papatawa was shot dead. Two brothers

were hunting for mice in a storeroom when a loaded gun taken from a corner, was placed against a table. It fell down and went off, the charge striking the boy, who was sitting underneath, in the forehead. Death was instantaneous. At the inquest a verdict of accidental death was returned but nothing was mentioned in respect to the criminal carelessness of leaving loaded guns lying about within reach of children.

In respect to the splendid reception given to the President of the French Republic by the English people during his recent visit to Eondon, it is interesting to note a declaration made by M. Poincare in the Chamber of Deputies some time ago on the subject of the Entente Cordiale, and which was received with great enthusiasm. “The entente with Great Britain is complete,” he said. “No parchments are needed, for the Entente Cordiale is written on the unanimous hearts of the people of both countries. The two Governments have not cared to join in the controversy as to the advisability of transforming the entente into an alliance. Both Governments understand that the friendship between the two nations will as long as both deserve it.”

The Christchurch News says : “The Citizen Army, of the SocialDemocrats, would be the army, not of a dream but of a nightmare. The men composing it are to be volunteers, they are to be paid standard wages—whatever that may mean, all class distiucticns (including, we assume, differences in uniform) are to be abolished, and rifles and ammunition are to be supplied by the State to all able-bodied citizens who apply lor them. Everybody is to learn Esperanto, so that in case any foreign nation does take it into its head to raid the Dominion, our defenders may argue with the invading force and thereby induce them to retire. The workers of each country must support the workers of every other country in their struggle ‘for larger opportunities, for higher standards of living, for wider liberties.’ The Japanese or Chinese who wish to make a practical test of the larger opportunities’ afforded by New Zealand will therefore be received, with enthusiasm. At least, if the Social-Democrat policy does not mean this it means that the workers of New Zealand want to keep their opportunities to themselves. In which case, what becomes of the ‘brotherhood of man’ ideal, and, also, what would China and Japan have to say if it were not that we have the British Navy and our own strength to enforce our views for us ?”

“ The man who has learnt to say no to the demands of his own insurgent nature,” says Mr G. W. E. Russel in the Manchester Guardian, ‘‘has armed hjmself betimes against assaults from without. Take the case of the politician, the clergyman, the man of letters, the man of business. Each in turn has to bear the brunt of an assault on his moral rectitude. Pick a quarrel with some weaker Power, and your Government will survive the General Election, or support that wrongdoing, and you will save your seat. Preach a dubious doctrine which is popular in the high places of Church or State, and you may die a Bishop. Write what you know to be poisonous and debasing, and you may acquire a reputation for artistic realism, and the profit which that reputation brings. Sail very near the wind in professional transactions, and you may make a fortune, while the more scrupulous practitioner dies poor. To such voices as these—and who has not heard them?-—there are only two possible answers. Eet yours, my brother, be No, and you will have saved your soul alive.”