CASTLEPOINT DISTRICT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4934, 15 January 1877, Page 3

CASTLEPOINT DISTRICT.

BY THE UNKNOWN NUMBER. Christmas doings up-country are entered into most thoroughly.. The enterprising and public-spirited individual . who invited all the public to the opening of his new store, which event. was to be celebrated by a ball,deserved support The "Unknown Number "■ did not attend, but regrets to have to report (upon hearsay' only) that the ladies were conspicuous by .their absance, not more than three or four having graced the festival with their company. 'My informant tells me the grief which then bachelors no doubt felt might have been very real, but; certainly was not apparent. ,

I:.hear * of one Irishman on the Coast upon whom the Christmas libations had the singular effect of transporting him (in spirit) to Dannybrook fair. His companions /have l reason to regret-that he was not there in body also, as he did not fail to apply Paddy's golden rule—- : wherever you see a head, hit it. One of the i sufferers was for four days under the doctor's hands.. A • friend at my elbow mutters, " Sic(k) transit gloria mundi" —glory o' Monday, he explains. The district doctor has taken his departure, i and we believe that another will shortly be [appointed if a suitable applicant appears. > ■ j - The County, Councillors recently elected wear their laurels very modestly. One says : "Talkof Christmas pudding, mince-pies, roast goose, &c. They are not half so difficult to swallow and digest as the Counties Act, the Public Works Act, the Financial Arrangements Act, and two or three more whose very names have passed from my memory." The "Unknown Number" discovered that the Councillors are personally liable for any money illegally borrowed by the Council. Just fancy, the pleasure of having to comply with a posse of. conditions, legal" forms, and technicalities scattered through four or.five Acts of Parliament ; and then if any lawyer can discover a flaw in the proceedings the Councillor, is personally liable ! The sword of Damocles overhead would have been quite an insignificant peril compared to that incurred by a County member. I question if the game is worth the candle. The subscription list for the public hall has filled well, considering all things. Some ingenious but parsimonious individual made an

excuse for not subscribing by saying the schoolroom was a public room out of school hours, and would do well enough. The first election held there would no doubt furnish ample material for six months' grumbling on the part of the schoolmaster, and would not the rising generation enrich' their' vocabulary? The wealth of words of 'powerful significance which the boarders would absorb with open ears is too dreadful to contemplate.