HALCOMBE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9126, 22 April 1908, Page 7

HALCOMBE.

From Our Own Correspondent. " A meeting of _ the representatives of onr athletic, "cricket, hockey and tenuis clubs- was held in Mr L. Seigel’s scissors shop on Thursday last. The president of the athletic club (Mr J. Morrison) occupied the chair and, in introducing the business, stated that the cash to the credit of his club, which was available for-the fencing and general improvement of the Sports ground, amounted to £7 19s lid, and that this sum would be subsidised by contributions from the other clubs using the Recreation Ground. The question of fencing was first discussed and dealt with, and a committee consisting of the chairman, Messrs O. C. Pleasants, A. W. Bell, J. Lukashefski and L. Seigel was set up to arrange for and supervise the necessary work. The practical and valuable help offered by Messrs Morrison, Bell, and Pleasants was accepted with thanks add it is to be hoped that onr Recreation Ground will, this season, be made worthy of our local and visiting sportsmen and women. ,

Owing to the inclemency of the weather the meeting advertised for Saturday night to consider the question of right-of-way to and along the Rangitikei river, was postponed till Thursday next at 8 p.m., when it is to be hoped that in the best interests, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, this vexed and involved question of “right” will be referred to those who can give us an authoritative answer. That New Zealanders should be trespassers when watering their stock or when meandering along the margins of our rivers in pursuit of fun, fish, or fowl, seems monstrous. Yet my costly Australian experience induces caution and prompts me to say that it is quite possible- that the people' have in this, as in other cases, thoughtlessly parted with their birthright. Starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday it rained copiously for sixteen hours, and, if the frosts permit, the grass, turnips, rape, etc., in this district will suitably respond. A news item that interests me, and possibly others who try to follow tile 1 lead of those honest seekers after truth, is that Mrs Annie Besaut is expected -in Wellington •on the Ist of July. She has changed her views upon the population restriction question since she and the dead “militant soldier,” Charles Bradlaugh, continued the prohibited publication of “The Fruits of Philosophy, ’ ’ which led up to the celebrated and long continued “Knowlton Trial.” After six years fight her final defence was such a masterpiece of marshalled evidence, reason and eloquence, that the then Lord Chief Justice of England declared it to be (lam quoting from memory) the finest effort he had listened to during the whole course of his judicial career. It is more .than a decade since this remarkable woman visited New Zealand, but sthose who then heard her and are .still living will not, I think, miss .this opportunity of again listening ■to one of the most studious and eloquent of her sex. Well, do I remember, a friend of mine, who is now one of the managers of a great financial institution, telling me upon his return from Dunedin, about a wonderful woman he had there heard lecturing. He then knew nothing of her history, but declared he was suprassed and charmed, though he did not understand her subject, and its treatment was above and beyond him. He, like myself I hope, has growm wiser with the passing years and with me may have learned that there are more perplexing and profitable problems for •us to solve than “how to make money and protect the hoard.” An authority (I have not time to look np his name) says that the Wright Brothers can now fly whenever and wherever they please, and they are.prepared to sell their secret for a million dollars. Thus the “wish I were a bird that I might fly to thee,” can now be gratified at the above price. Unfortunately there are no snch flies about the most of us; they hang on to tiie millionaires. However, it is consolatory to learn from the “wright” source that “the time will come when people will fly with old shingles. ” Now most of us have wished to be furnished with a more feathery outfit. Still it is gratifying for me to know that I ihave enough [of the other material •on an old;piggery to fit me out when 1 learn how its done. I shall then, perhaps, be able to send yon something readable under the gheadiug “Round the World on Wooden Wings.” In the last “Life” I notice the design for the new County Hall, London. It is the work of a young and 'comparatively unknown architect by the name of Knott, who will receive over £30,000 in fees. Not |so had for a youngster, hey? and his success should encourage our technical students and remind them of the fact that every man is the architect of his own fortune.

This was dug up at exam. “Anatomy is the human body, which consists of three parts, the head, the chest, and the stummick. The head contains the eyes, and brains, if any. The chest contains the lungs and a piece of the liver. The stummiok is devoted to the bowels, of which there are five, A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes W and Y.” What boy, after eating green gooseberries, could not identify everyone of those “bowels?”