TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 258, 13 February 1874, Page 3

TOPICS OF TALK.

The opening numbers of our fifth volume afford an opportune time for us to make one more progressive step, in,offering to our subscribers the latest news which it is possible to obtain. Jt is our intention to publish the copips * for circulation in the up-country districts on Satfli-day mornings, By so ■ doing, we shall be able to furnishi telegrams from Dunedin up to a late hour -on Friday,, niyht, or one day's later news than is possible to be found in any other paper coming up from Dunedin or elsewhere by Saturday's mail. In taking this step, at no inconsider-, able.expense, to disseminate the news I of the diy and advance the interests of' the district, we again appeal to,the re r sidents'forsupport and encouragement! The liberal. help and sympathy which has been shown to us of late induces the hope that,, ere long, we shall be placed in a position to be able to announce still: further alterations and improvements.

: How neb we are getting! Is it not jolly ? ' The banks—miserable shanties aa they'-are-—overflowing" with the deposits of a money-making community.' And then; ' What' is to lie done with it' all ? There is no auriferous ground rd^uirifl"*-only proper appliances and capital to. return large dividends to shareholders of > companies, ■ besides opening and developing the mineral 1 resources of 'the district. There are no hard-working residents who wish to put up homes for themselves in the place of the miserable hut or bothy, if an opportunity was offered''them of a loan on easy payments, such as a Building Society would afford. There is no land that will grow a blade of grass on which a wether could be peri: shaded, to put on tallow enough to *, rhake a:,farthing dip. iNone of these. „ can suffering capitalists rdo ?• ~ ; TJhefie spotty eruptions from, 'plethora of habit—of bank they, itch 1 so. Oh, sufferers, if you , would only bleed a little : subscribe to a Maerewhenua defence fund; or even let 'a few "drops trickle our way-. <Well, well it is good to meditate—How inch we ,are- but vyho 'would 1 have thought it ? _ " r '' ' ,

j V'-I'ribWibeeti ,a matter of regret" with ' us. that the Waseby Athenajum has not ; : been, so far, a financial success, if .we aclinit' that,'', "we admit then a doubt '•—shadow-like-—that success of/no kind has attended this institution. Several ( reasons,, we. conjecture, 'are in fault." ■■Among these has been the unnecessary expense of management, the bond-J age of the closing hour system,;'and-| 'the cold formality of the 'ro"om ? —in short,, the absence of any scheme likely to lead to the popularising of the read-, ing room. There seems to us no ne'- : cessity for the hall to be closed' at all' from 8 a.m. till 10 p.m., for in these ' quiet .times no one will run away-with the books and papers; All that would." be needed would be half-an-hour's-should not there be chessand draught alt-1 tendance morning and evening.. Then i why tables, with hot coffee and tea; if-re-quired ?—why not make constituents .comfortable, as if they were—as, in •truth, they are—members of a co-ope-..■.■...,rative:. club for self-enjoyment not like detained passengers in a railway waiting-room, only too.glad, when the opportunity arrives, to escape.' And last, though, perhaps, most pregnant reason of all for non-successr-The high; rates of charge and the 10s. deposit forbooks.

Coi'ld no way be devised by which a befitting and summary . punishment could .be inflictod upon the heartless beings—we do not like to call'them

men—who desert their children P How does the case stand at present?- ; A man persuades some friend- to itake temporary charge of his or maybe on 6 child. He then; quietly clears out, taking care not .to leave "a trace of his whereabouts'. . In course of time these, little ones find their way to either the Industrial School or the Benevolent Asylum, to be reared at theexpense of those who do not,desert , their families. If the scoundrel-is-heard of, he is civilly requested to pay 10s. a week for maintenance—that is all. This should not bo so., If there is any offence more deserving of the infliction of the cat, it is this one M child desertion. A few public whippings upon proved offenders would - very, soon reduce this class of offence.' ptasent, the success of Cjne. rogue in escaping from his natural' liabilities stirs up another to go and do likewise.,

There if* scarcely a leading gully opening up auriferous ground in ( the district but what, under the present '.system of applications and grantsj .is liable to become blocked up by an injurious monopoly. To sny that no right applied for in what is likely io be ,a leading outlet to ionajide applicants isbould be granted, would be to handicap'private enterprise very considerably.,: ; To recklessly grant every unop-posed';applloatinn--for there is no Crojvn 'jobjectur—would be to very a great drag upon the gono.ral pUtilic prosperity. Could not this ,«be done?— Could not the "Warden ex'ercise'his discretion, by making it conditional tliat f any outlet applied fop ithat is likely to be of necessity to the public, should be granted only on condition that a right of resumption shall attach to the Crown, on the Warden ■'being convinced of a proved public necessity ? Such a proviso would get ' over the difficulty, for it would remove any temptation to obtain a monopoly of a right for the mere purpose of extortion.

harvesting, nftpnvnrds In come b*i<■ Ic and-make u>=e of the autumn supply o.f water, There is something radically.' wrong 4 in this. AVe find a. district where, For a long time back, oats have' only been able to be procured (as a favor) at from 7?. to. 9s. per bushel. We see down the Flat from N:isebv as fine crops as a farmer need wish to cut —these on a small area of ground bv no means picked or favorably situated. Yat, with this proof of the paying; possibility of raising crons —with this sending away of the population which should be at work in their own district, no effort is being made by the public to obtain land open for settlement: land which, if opened, we have guarantees on all sides —not by theorists, but by holders, of .small capital will be at once.applied for and ;put down un- , der crop. There is no reason, except | the preseut lock-up of land, why the i district should not grow its own pro- i duce.