MANAIA DRILL SHED.

Patea Mail, 28 January 1882, Page 3

MANAIA DRILL SHED.

“ Vox Populi ” writes an amusing but too scathingly personal letter, in reply to something said by “ the Otakeho Major” respecting the site for a Drill Shed. There appear to be influences nt work for locating the shed on a section not approved by the majority of Waimate Volunteers ; and “Vox Populi” protests on their behalf.

DOG TAX. “ Inquirer ” asks what is the amount paid to the collector of dog-tax for Patea County. We do not know 7 . The office has been let by tender since the last meeting of the Council ; and Mr George Beamish, the successful tenderer, is likely to do the work with intelligence and zeal. EARLY CLOSING. An old arrival suggests that R. A. Rdams, with his usual magnanimity, set the example to those avaricious neighbors who may appear dead to a sense of justice due to their employees. Close at 6 p.m., Saturdays excepted ; trusting to the generosity of the public to bestow extra patronage upon each tradesman who sets a good example for the consideration shown to eraplo3*ees. His neighbors will soon follow his example, or sell out, and “ go west.” Ad Rem. Words could not express my feelings when I read in the Mail that Mr R. A, Adams had at length begun to think of others than himself. The idea of his becoming generous, simply because he has been beaten at keeping open late! He surely does not imagine we are all “New Arrivals or that we can forget, in a hurry, that the honor now occupied by the man over the way was, for a number of years, his own. Had Mr R. A. A. not previously kept open after everybody else had shut, we might have heard him ; but now we say “ Not this man, but another.” —Yours, Old-un.

Letters in the Mail on “ early closing” arc getting too warm. I thought the proper range for rifle shooting was behind the sandhills ; usual distances 200 to 600 yards. Shooting across a thoroughfare at short range is perilous to public safety. As one interested, I think the subject of early closing is deserving of consideration, apart from all reference to individual action. There are two methods of obtaining early closing. One is to sign a general agreement, and honorably abide by it. The

other is to sign an agreenn-nt so far as traders are wil ing to agree, and then appeal to the public to support those who agree as against others who refuse to join. Of course shopkeepers arc free agents ; but they are also dependent on the goodwill of the public, and it is a mistake for a tradesman to provoke a fooling of opposition among those who ought to support him. He should go with the swim. Trader.