MUNICIPAL MATTERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1682, 6 March 1917, Page 2

MUNICIPAL MATTERS.

[To the Editor.]

Sir. —In your last issue, in dealing with municipal affairs, you stated that the Mayor had put in “a strenuous two years" of oliice. At the risk of rushing in where angels fear to tread, I should like to ask to what purpose has the strenuous two years been devoted? I do not know of one thing—unless, sir, you except the appointment of a Town Clerk—that has happened outside ordinary routine business during the past two years. I am prepared to admit that the Mayor has sacrificed lime, as also have the A Councillors, m disposing of ordinary business, and for this they are entitled to public recognition. But, sir, when you say this, you or any other person can go no further. I am not having a personal “dig" at the Mayor, because he is a worthy citizen, but as a public man he is wanting in initiative, and without this attribute no matter what the other qualifications, no new ground is broken. It is to the Mayor as a general rule that all Councils look for and expect a lead. The Foxton public are a happy-go-lucky crowd, and are very apathetic, but it stirred up—and they can be stirred if given a lead —they can boost public requirements equally as well as any other community. But it must be admitted, sir, that the present and past Mavors have been built on the lines of let things continue as they are. This means stagnation. We don't want stagnation, but municipal energy. The Mayor is the source from which such energy should spring. At the last election we turned down a candidate who set forth a definite policy and would have seen it [ through, for one who was pushed into the position against his will. Better one volunteer than ten pressed men. A\ hat Foxton wants is a Mayor fully prepared to make a personal sacrifice, with a definite policy lor the advancement of the borough, and the courage and enthusiasm to carry it out! Such an one will soon find public backing. May I ask why a public meeting was not called to protest against the railway time-table foisted upon us—we are not all lucky motor car owners; why no steps were taken to establish public swimming baths? \A hy the Council was not represented at the important hydro-electric / conference at Palmerston N., and why no public meeting was eon von- ■. od to discuss such a vital subject? W Jiy no public meeting to call Government attention to the facilities afforded for soldier and closer settlement close to foxton? Why was Palmerston, instead of Foxton (the port), allowed to have the bond * store 1 These and other matters * may not come directly under the Council’s routine, but, sir, they are of sufficient importance to Foxton to be dealt with publicly, and the Council is the only official body to take cognisance of them. What is wanted in Foxton is a lead in these matters, and unless we have a May- / m- who will take the initiative we will continue in the same old groove till the crack of doom, . Thanking you in anticipation,—l am, etc., KESIDENT, *

A woman’s sphere is her home, hut her horizon must be the world. —Mrs Alee Tweedie.

“Courageous consistency” •in maintaining: strongly avowed opinions is often raid; obstinacy. —Violet Tweedale,

Conference has appointed the Rev. A. Harding to succeed the Rev. W. Rowe as Methodist minister at Foxton and Shannon.

Sir James Allen has been advised that the second .section of the 20th Reinforcements has arrived safelv at its destination.

If you begin by thinking that nothing can be done without difficulty, you will end by doing everything with facility.—Lord Hailing.

For cruelly, ill-treating a horse, a man named Samuel Bray was lined £5 and costs at Wellington yesterday.

A single word is often a concentrated poem, a little grit in of pure gold, capable of being beaten out into a broad extent of gold-leaf. — Trench.

There, was a-iiortage of 88 recruits from the sixth Manawatu district for the 20th Reinforcements. As a result 2(54 mimes will he balloted for to make up the above shortage.

W-hal is it to be gentleman? It is to be honest, to be gentle, to bo generous, to be brave, to be wise, ami, possessing all I heir qualities, to exercise them in the must graceful outward manner.—Thackeray.

The Cape route from New York to India is now being adopted by several great American shipping companies, and as the increased cost of freight is less than lit per cent., it is probable that the scheme will, for certain classes of goods, be continued after the war.

M any claims for the smallest church have been made, but the distinction, such as it is, belongs to that of Cnlhune, a lonely and secluded parish on the coast of Somerset. The dimensions of Culbone Church are 33ft. by 12ft., and it is a complete structure, with chancel, nave, and south porch.

Miss White, who has been associated with the Town Hall pictures for the past two years as pianist, has accepted a similar lucrative position with another firm, and will leave her present position at the end of the month. Miss White has the reputation of being one of the cleverest pianists in connection with picture entertainments in the Dominion. The wealthy American who presented the silver Oommunion-table and rails to Sandringham Church, in memory of King Kdward VII., has now given to the church an illuminated Uible, covered with an elaborate design in gold and studded with gems. The clasps are of gold and ornamented with the precious stones mentioned in the Hook of Revelation. The Bible is insured for £1,200.

The employers of waterside labour iu Auckland have posted a notice in the waterside workers’ wait-ing-room on the wharf to the client that men seeking engagement on the wharves must show proof that they have registered under the Military ►Service Act or else are over military age, and thus do not come under the

Act. Should a man be unable to •show proof of his registration after lie is taken on, he will be dismissed. An employer has stated that practically all the waterside workers have registered.

' in the tiring-line it has often been noticed that bullets travelling at high speed produce two sounds. A man tired at from about 400 yards hears first a vicious crash. That is the bullet passing. A little later the report of the rifle comes along. The speed of sound has, in fact, been beaten by the speed of the rifle-bul-lets. Modern military rille-bullets, when fired, travel at from 2,000 ft. to 3,000f1. in one second. Sound can travel along at I,looft. per second. So it happens that when a man who has been tired at hears the report of a rille, he knows he is safe —at least, from that particular shot, ft is, naturally, at long ranges that the two distinct sounds are most noticeable. At a range of 1,000 yards a, bullet arrives at least a second, and sometimes more, in advance of the report. The sound of the Hying bullet is caused by a vacuum at its rear. The air thrown fiercely back from the nose of the projectile travels round and rushes to the rear, as water to the stern of a fast-moving boat. Thus a crash is produced —or, in certain cases, a kind of whining snarl, like no other sound on earth.