South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2340, 16 September 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1880.

Ix another column “ a visitor ” calls attention to a widely prevailing and most expensive nuisance. He aptly designates Timaru “the town of shingle. ’ There are few citizens but will keenly appreciate his suggestive reference to the abundance of shoe-leather for sale> and the shingle that almost everywhere obstructs our streets and footpaths. We do not suppose that there is any corrupt business connection between the distributors of shingle and the retailers of boots and shoes, but their conduct of late leaves them open to suspicion. Shingle is undoubtedly a useful article when combined with cement, and in winter it is serviceable for mixing with road mortar, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and shingle in the raw is an abomination. Of late the prodigal expenditure of shingle on streets and footpaths has rendered travelling ox'peusive and unpleasantUnfortunate horses have to plough their way with vehicles heavy and light through a sea of shingle, while pedestrians, besides having to renew their soles every five or six week have to do penance, at the risk of their ancles, to their municipal representatives, 11; the latter would only devote some of the attention bestowed on milkmen and collarless dogs, on the state of the roads and footpaths, they would confer a blessing on the community. It is difficult to conceive how a body of well meaning magnates can allow traffic to be impeded, and life made burdensome by an ingenious instrument of torture. IE they liavc any special grudge against the burgesses who elected them, they should bo candid. To torture ratepayers and their domestic animals with raw shingle is ungracious. Possibly it might be pleaded in their behalf, that (hey were unaware of the bad qualities of shingle ; and that they have merely been experimenting. But have they ever walked along the beach ? If they have they must bo aware that their progress on the shingle was slow and laborous, and this should have deterred them from bringing the beach to the doorsteps of every ratepayer. Apart from the unpleasantness of travelling, the cost of living in Timaru lias been terribly increased through tliis municipal plague of screened shingle. Wc have no hesitation in saying that the extra expense which ratepayers will be put to for shoo leather alone, through.this extravagant display of shingle will treble the amount of the rates contributed. More than that wc venture to assert that the cost to each individual of this shingle would go far to make the footpaths of the borough comfortable with asphalte. If the Borough Council are conscious of the blunder they have made, wc trust they will do what they can to redeem their error, by employing scavengers to sweep the shingle off Lhcfootpaths,or by adding sufficient clay or concrete to bind the shingle together. Failing that the sooner the aggrieved citizens of “the town of shingle” hold un indignation meeting the bettor.

Svdxkv society is evidently a strange composition. It abounds in lights and shades in violent contrast, it exhibits the extremes which meet and embrace each other. In New Zealand we have a tolerably lively mixture of the “unco good ” ami the terribly bad—Dunedin, for instance, with its First Church cheek by jowl with a congregation of unpunished murderers, cut-throats, and swindlers of the must accomplished type. Still wc preserve a show of consistency, whereas in Sydney consistency is thrown to the winds. In no part of the southern hemisphere lias the stage been prostituted as it has been in Sydney. Performances, remarkable for their vulgarity, or bordering so closely on the lewd and indecent that they would not he tolerated in other colonies, have nut only been allowed, but have drawn crowded houses in Sydney. Little Nell with her vulgar songs and mimicry, the Loftus Blondes, and the indecent dregs of Continental ami American drinking saloons have rapidly recruited their fortunes in Sydney. The capital of New Fouth Wales is, in fact, the only depot into which the olfal of the stage can bo shot with impunity and a certainty of success. Female loveliness lias only to consent to bo unwomanly, and its future is made in Sydney. Strange to say the'patrons of indecency have drawn the lino at science. A government that has winked at revolting public exhibitions of lowdness on Saturday nights, has declared that there shall be no scientific discourses on Sunday. Professor Proctor, the eminent astonomcr, endeavored to elevate the Sydney stage on the only evening available for its rcgcncralion, but Sir 11. Parkes, as the representative of the Government, and wc presume of Sydney refinement, prohibited the performance. The action of (ho New South Wales Premier might be of small consequence, but it is stated to have the approval of all the Protestant Churches. If so the Protestants of Sydney must be a peculiar people. They have revived in their midst the days of Gallileo, when science was persecuted with insane Adruleuce. The Professor’s lecture might have emptied the pews, but it would have improved the congregations. It would have taught. them something more than traditional philosophy, and it was designed to turn the perverted and degraded intellect in a useful direction. The action of the Protestants of Sydney is evidently the outcome of a fanaticism which hates and despises the light of science, and which, would shut out the moon, sun, and stars, if it could, on special occasions. Fortunately for the world this kind of bigotry and fanaticism is rapidly dying out, and in nearly every place but Sydney science and religion arc fraternising.

It is evident that the young Member for Invercargill—Mr Bain—is by no means tired of politics. He lias just voted the half of his honorarium to the Invercargill charities. This is a tolerably

clear proof that Mr Bain is not disgusted with the political arena. Remote though Well inn-ton may be from his southern home, he intends to go back again. If he did not he would hardly vote away, as he has done, the half of his Parliamentary refresher. Mr Bain is a genuine type of the new order of liberal conservatives. If he is not so liberal in his views on public questions as the previous member for Invercargill, he is liberal with his honorarium, lie has given his liberality a practical shape, and there are other members who might do worse than follow” his example. But Mr Bain is a liberal-conservative. He has not pitched away his money wildly on the waters but lie has spread it carefully on his own little cabbage garden—lnvercargill. Wo arc not imputing bad motives w'hcn we submit that the canny member has done so in the hope that the treasury seed may take root and produce votes at the next general election. It is said that some people Do good by stealth, And blush to find it fame,

and Mr Rain is one of that class. Mr Bain has an eye to tiic charities and perhaps another to the next general election. Frank Buckland, die eminent naturalist, says that eels have a heart in their tails that enables them to play up to the last extremity; but Mr Bain, M. 11.15., lias his heart in his breeches pocket, lie knows how and when to distribute the political plum pudding, and it seems almost a pity that his honorarium cannot be multiplied so that his liberality might bo extended beyond hospitals and benevolent institutions.