CONSIDERED TRIFLES.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 126, 1 April 1926, Page 5

CONSIDERED TRIFLES.

(By Scrutator). The “ luck of a Chinaman ” was not vouchsafed to a certain two ladies at the Matamata races. Seeing near them a member of the race that built the Great Wall of China, invented the magnetic needle, and compounded the original stink-pot that was the forerunner of poison gas, they went up to him, and asked for a tip for the next race. With the blandness characteristic pf a nation .th.’.t had a literature 4000 years before t’.n birth of Christ, John replied, in perfect English: “ Consult your own judgment, ladies.” Inscrutable are the ways of the heathen Chineese! * * * * There was some humour in the remark of a Wairere settler who, when the question of motor taxation, by means of the proposed benzine tax, with exemptions for milking machine engines, was being discussed, said:— “ The farmers will be buying benzine for milking machine engines, getting the exemption thereby, and then milking by hand and using the benzine to go joy-riding in their cars.” * * * * An intelligent retired farmer surprised me the other day day knocking the bottom clean out of the very prevalent belief that the country is far more clean, healthy and bracing- place to live in than is the town. “ They told me/’ he said, “ that I would not like the town to live in after being- in the country, but I am quite satisfied that the town is a more healthful, clean, and attractive place than is the country. In the town we seldom see a flea, or even a sandfly, and all premises are kept clean. In the country there is always some vile odour of ill-kept pigstyek or decaying unburied cai-cases to offend the nostrils and stink up to high heaven. Moreover, to come back to a house with no septic tank, and with the ordinary pan sanitary system is really d’sgusting* after having got used to the flushing* or sewerage methods.” My farmer acquaintance’s observant observations are too brutally true to be gainsaid. They prove three thin ;-s in particular, one being that popular beliefs are generally astray in proportion to their popularity (which all thinkers know), a second is that all people who live in the country are entitled to extra remuneration on ac- s count of the absence of conveniences and the presence of effluvia, and the third is that places like Matamata that are destined to become fairly large inland towns had better hasten on with sewerage systems, up-to-date theatres, good roads, high-pressure water supply, and the general services that induce people of the district to live in such towns instead of retiring to some other place that T s fully civilised. Matamata has some ->f these things in part, hut needs to have the faith and .the courage to go further. You must give before you can get. j ..^„. r .... t , .

“ A Truce to This Unpleasantness.” -—D’Aubrey. Nothing- is more inconvenient and unpleasant than, an autumn cough or cold. Occurring right at the commencement of the cold season, such complaints may lead to serious complications unless treated at once. The ideal remedy is, of course, Baxter’s Lung Preserver—the rich, warming, penetrative specific that is always to he relied upon. A dose in time may save trouble later on. You can obtain a generous-sized bottle for 2s 6d from any chemist or store ; or, better still, get the family size at 4s 6d.