HALCOMBE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8744, 19 February 1907, Page 4

HALCOMBE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) | I regret that we have shortly to say | farewell to the Eev. E. McClean, who I has been in charge of the Presbyterian I Church here for the past three year , | and who has been appointed Ip a charge 1 at Pongaroa. Apart from his dermal duties while with us, the re», gent - f man- has taken an active interest w all our social and progressive As president of the local branch of the Band of Hope he has done useful work; as a member of our Literary and .Debating Society his liberal views, extern siTO reading, and scholastic knowledge, though never obtruded, have always been apparent and helpful to the memlots of that institution. Mr McClean is one of those ripe scholars and theological students who, while deeply conscious of the value of the lessons conveyed by the dead past, realises the importance of the momentous questions of the living present, and thu« keeps ia touch with the civic and rehgious .problems of to-day. The withdrawal of such intelligent workers is a loss to any community, hence my regret and best wishes for the happiness and suc- ,| cess of Mr and Mrs McClean m their new sphere of usefulness, X was pleased to learn that Mr Fred, Thompson, so favourably known in this district, and who after his connection with the Patea County Press visited San Francisco and indulged in an extended tour abroad, has become a member of the Wellington Times stab, j | where, I have no doubt, he will further develop his journalistic talent and gratify a worthy ambition. We were favoured with a most refreshing rain on Saturday, which was continued on Sunday, accompanied by thunder and lightning. , Judging by the number of truck loads of chaff that are being despatched from our railway station I conclude iha,t qur farmers are putting up their I oat crops. „.. - _ The members of our flourishing tennis club, finding that one court does not afford them sufficient r.oqm, are preparing another playground for them accommodation. , A .Castlemaino Chinaman, charge,with murder, whose name ia Ah You, | will at least understand one portion of S the vital question—" Are yoq guilty or not guilty ?’ . „ Eoading that the fitting of old coronets on new heads in preparation for our King’s coronation disclosed the fact that the Peer craniums had grown smaller since Queen Victoria was crowned, gave rise to the question whether the present trouble with them, which seems to indicate brain shrinkage and hidebound non-progressivenesa, has any relation to this signifieant 5 revelation,. Henry L. Call states that 99 per cent of the entire wealth of the United States is in the hands of 1 per cent of the population, and ho is calling for a solution of that and other economic problems, and as sure as death this Call will be heard and answered—some time, somewhere. Discussing the novel and ill-advised strike, a, bystander remarked that the slaughtermen “ were cutting their own throats.” “ Thai may bo so,” another observed, “ but in any case they will I not bleed for ten quid each.” Beading of the death of Jeremiah Curtin, the Washington scientist, who is said to have mastered 70 languages, it dawned upon me that there at least was one good man gone who could have crushingly replied to “ Mrs Caudle s curtain lectures.” The hem of a lady’s dress, with which the fair wearer had swept the London streets, provided lodgings for 10,072,000 microbes. Tbe same authority tells me that many_ children who suck pennies given by indulgent parents die from effects of germs thus introduced into their anatomy. I don’t know if I was addicted to that I sort of sucking, but X have lively recollection of ecstatic gratification derived from sucking the sweet black sticky stuff for which my pennies were eagerly exchanged. . On behalf of the Halcombe invalid, I have to thank Mr E. J. Glasgow, of Jurakina, for a parcel of stamps rej ceived last week.