Here and There.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 260, 2 December 1903, Page 4

Here and There.

WHAT A LIBRARY MAY DO. There are multitudes of people who have but lately begun to read books and who but lor much that the more discriminating would reefcon devoid oi literary merit, might be forever barred from the enjoyment of the library. It is the romantic attraction of tile fiitqs!, novel that often awakens an interest'in Ixioks, ajjii if it seem to cease there and take the reader only by slow and painful processes to a classical work of literature, to a really great piece of fiction, to poetry, history or the essay, some will certainly pass over the line in safety. Even those who wilt advance no further will have t'pund m.Qrg good in poor novels—if Wt> espept a le\y arp bad and whieli will not "be added to the lists of any properly conducted library—than will have como - into their sordid lives from most other sources. Undeniably, the free library's mission if} to encourage the leading habit among all classy pf the people—to direct that reading where it can, but always to make and hold the public with books which will satisfy the crude as well as the higher taste, in the I nope of permanently widening the culture circle. The library which will honestly strive alcmg these lines will make itself one of the most useful ftjwi potent factors in public education, 'J'gJggrsjJii.

THE TRAGEDY OF A YE All. From early July (says the London Pfll'y Mail), the story of the year has been ljtUe more than a record oi "record" rains, with Intervals qf tempestuous gales. There is no corner of the kingdom where 1903 lias not blazed its mark on jagged stumps of fallen timber. There is no Stretch gf coast where 1903 has hot rendered up its iwavy tpll gf dead. A year which has brought neither apple, plum, nor pear for man, and scarcely even any hawthorn berries foi the birds in winter—for no malice Pf (Instruction seems too petty for a cruel wind ; a year which alike on moor and broad partridge acres and in covert has sent the sportsman disappointed home—for in sport ""light hearts go only with heavy'begs ; a year which by hunters of smaller game, the injjn g! scipnce, and the boys who "sugar" trees for moths >WJ»e J.hp woodlands with gauze nets in search of giddy butterflies, will be rememlberpd long jtis the blanks est of a series of blank sumnjers ; a year which to the gardener has been a long series »/ shattering breakages of hopes ; a year of dust )!> the eyes when it was fine and mud splashed on the face when it—more offeij l —was foul ; a year of wet feet and colds in the head, of hats rolling in the mud and mfrpkjntoshes wrapped round one like wet rags, of falling tiles and falling barometers, windy, cokl, and—as Mr Mamfcalini would it —a "denmition moist unpleasant yeflr"-—such has been 1903 to date.

PUBLICITY OF LIFE. The vast majority of daily papers are conducted with a full senae of responsibility, and with a just respect for the rights of all. It is important to remember what is really private and what is not. In our political and social organism we are not Robinson Crusoes. We do not live on an island by ourselves, where we are monarch of all we survey. We ?,' e , U P . a Part of our individual freedom for the sake of the advantages of community. We have to surrender something of our own independence and autonomy in consideration of the general good'. What would be private If wo stood a ni?hH lUy not - bB P ,ivate as parts 0 f a public organisation. Whether we vote once or a dozen times, whether we defy the recognised cade of publie morality, whether we "promote" oui own interests by misleading our friends all this concerns our neiXbouis as well as ourselves. There is too much reason to fear that the mere force of authority, in state and m church, is ■decaying. Crafty device evades the l aw . Easy - goml virtue silences" the creed. But tZ tral l^ C t ° f Publicity which penetiates the dark corners and reveals every wrinkle is a great secnWt, Abused it may be, an-d intrusive someunies without warrant, but its P otcction far outweighs its evils - S '" ith ' " Good IIOM ELE S S STA TUE S

■S&SKrsS We loinjd temporary « wooden pedestals i„ the Engl" s Parade ground at Chatham.