GOOD OF BICYCLES.

Patea Mail, 16 February 1882, Page 3

GOOD OF BICYCLES.

Bicycling, says Land and Water, is now the great movement of the rising youths, and many thousands of young men are kept out of mischief and innocently exercised and amused by the daily use of the iron horse. It is said that there exist no less than 330 different descriptions of the machine, but that six only can be said to embody the proper requirements, England has invented three, France two, America and Germany one each. Of these, the English are considerably the dearest. The bicyclists’ memorial to the English select committee on railways, estimates the number of bicycle-riders at 10,000 in London alone; and the total number throughout the country at 100,000. .

HOSPITAL and CHARITABLE AID.

Taranaki County Councillors complained to the Waipawa County Council, of the hardship imposed by Government on counties through the cost of hospital and charitable aid maintenance being deducted from the amount of the subsidies. After discussion the Waipawa Council passed a resolution “ That in the opinion of the Council Taranaki had no grievance, and that the Council take no action in the matter.” The Hawkes Bay Mercury says : —The reply of the Waipawa Council will convey a well-merited rebuke to Taranaki, the County Council of which is evidently a fair representative body of the whole of that district. To shirk the responsibility of supporting its own poor, and to throw the maintenance of the hospital on to the Government is what Taranaki calls justice, but to have to pay others for doing those duties for her she calls injustice. It is most satisfactory to know that the treatment of which Taranaki complains is exactly that which is meted out to all counties and boroughs which sought to saddle the colony with that which they should pay for themselves. Our own Hospital Committee was at one time under the impression that the charitable institutions of the district were on a different footing to that of others. The enquiry that was instituted shows that the only difference is in our favor. That is to say, that our charitable institutions are supported by the local bodies and the general public, and the contributions of botli are supplemented by the Government, by a similar amount. In other districts where the local bodies hare thrown the charitable maintenance upon the Government the latter has very fairly deducted the cost from the annual subsidy. Taranaki, no doubt, thought she had done a very clever thing in shuffling off' her responsibilities, hence her howl of disappointment at the discovery that she has been paying the Government for doing the work she should have done herself.