CASUAL NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 46, 13 February 1908, Page 4

CASUAL NOTES.

I'lly Uni'iii, "i.

in a little .town iiov.li south the out? bfg Jay of the year is the date of the ! annual regalia. Aud every year, jint Ivtore that event. Hie borough workmen are aet to work to clean up the road*. !??tpatiis, ami -ide-c k, anneU. »o that the visitor* to town would lake away a favourable idea of the town. US quiaa recognised thing. In Xeu Plymouth, however, with a big national hand contest nnuing along, it i- ueee**aiy to have a big iUm-ii-moii at the Council table liefore tliv authority i> given to "titivate" the way-, aud by-way-. Councillor Mill* is 10 be commended for bringing the matter forward n* lie did on Monday, aud it i* to lie hoped that the stalF will get lh»* town nicely cleaned up before the vi*itor- to tlie band content arrive. Many of our *treeU are a credit to the town—but. there are other*! The old ilea thai the children of the city are the only ' smart" ynung-ter* in existence wu*t Im» buried along with a lot of other cherished tradition-*. The other day, at a sea*ide resort, several hundred people from an inland town an I district had their annual outing. The civic father* of the watering-place allowed the vi-iting children the free iw iof the baths. A charge of a penny wis ! made for trunk-, but as taught by pa*t experience, the custodian collected a deposit with each pair of trunk* issued. Sixpence a pair was charged for the garments, and upon their being returned fivepence was refunded. Some biai'ty boys, who should develop into sharp speculators, made the round of the bath* and picked up trunk* lying about, and, taking them to the custodian, secured their fivepence a pair"! As a result t he latter has now four or live pair* of bathing trunks that were never issued by him, and which he had never previon-Jy seen. And the youngsters no doubt h.. a good time with the liveppiice*.

The borough council has tiled proper stands for the cabs and espresso, but it has remained for the police to establish a go-cart and pcrambuhiior stand. By vigorous onslaught aliout twenty out of two hundred women wuo wheel their offspring through crowded Devon Si reel on Saturday nights have been forced out of the centre current into the comparatively still water of the side-treet. And these shin-bruisers come to a stand-till on the Brougham Street footpath, between Messrs. Amburys corner mil Messrs. Clarke Bros.' saloon. With an army of go-carts on the path, a Salvation Army of throat* and bra-s in-:la-ments on the roadway, and the u-u ,1 armv of music ! ?> lovers standing about, it's a difficult matter to negotiate a passage along that part of the footpath. The constables will be doing the rest of the public an immense service if they divert still more oi the Saturday night gfreart traffic to the cross-streets and leave Devon Street for other wheel traffic and tlie pedestrians. Then a little education in the proper method oi wing the footpath- might he imparted.

"Curfew.—Tlie ringing of a Ml or Mis at night a- a signal to the inhabit, ants to rake up their tires and retire to rest. This practice originated iu England from an order of William the Conqueror, who directed that at the ringing of the bell at eight o'clock al! fire- and light- should bo extinguished. His motive was to prevent the assembling of the Anglo-Saxons under cloud of night to conspire again-t hi- authority. The law was repealed by Henry 1. iu lit*l but tile practice of ringing the bell at a icrtaiu liotir of the evening continued, and i- -till prevalent in msny cases."

I hue taken the above definition of "curfew" from an old ene.Ve!o|K'dia. and I publish it merely because ( would rather give the Information unaske I tiiiin have to do it in answer to half a hundred queries in the next few week-. The curfew is truly an ancient custom. It was the fashion nine or ten centuries back. But the lady charged with the invention of fashions has lieen tillable lo keep up with the demand, and, like the pan-on with his sermon*, we are nowgoing over the old ones once more. \t the present rate of progression, or ictrogression, a very lew years remain lo lie bridged before we hear " the ringing of the village belt when the evening sun is low." Exhausted Nature ha* long since decreed that the hired servant'labour- shall cease at five or six o'clo 1; in the evening—the "general" servant exception being merely to prove the rule. There are other exceptions. (In the ships that -ail the sea there are night watches: and the march of civilisation ha- brought aliout tiie employment of newspaper "men. wgni watchmen, lighting staffs, night portciv. and so on. And we- turn night into day. And nun still love darkness rather than light, ami others meet under cover of night to eon. spire and rebel against authority. But tile curfew should soon lie heard.

In the yearn that haw gone, tin " shanties" kept open dining the whole of the night, and drinking. gambling, and murdering went on from du-k to dawn. Xon we have modern bote's. who-e curfew -oun'|s al ten o'clock. Card-playing and gambling in these plates are prohibited, anil murders are not nearly a* common as on the goldfields where the only limit to the hours of revel was the limit of the purse or the limit of human endurance. .When shop-keeping "was first started, and the shopkeepers resided on the preinis-s. closing-Trine was bed-lime. So long as the family was up. a lliekering candle on the counter announced that the proprietor or proprietress was at band to supply the want* of customers. Then came the growth of towns, the growth f tra.le. the accumulation of stock- and the need for room, the erection of buildings that shut out the sun and the view—and the shopkeeper lived off the premise*. Still the shop was kept open to all hours.

Then came the organisation of the worker-, and the workers were allowed to go homo at a fixed hour, By degrees thi- hour has lieen brought back, until now the -hop a*-i-tant is free to leave his work at nine o'clock. And the man whose business j- a large .»ne must close when hi* assistant* have gone.

But the busine'— man living mi the premj-es i- not yet extinct, lie still exists. As he employ, no labour be i* not alfected by the law which allows tic .isri-unfT to knock oil at nine o'clock. And when the big -ho|- are clo-ed his Inirv.-t begin-. At tell o'clock on ordinary week nights, and at midnight on .Saturdays, he may -till go on doing business. And that ehoe pinches 'he other man. Then cine- a petition li\ing the hour of elo-ing. and if the pctition i- acced.d to we have a uniform hour ..I clo-ing.

Public opinion-for alt t fill thi- lax is but a retleetion of piulic opinion— ie in luvor of early closing. Early retiring should follow as a matter of course, but it doesn't, and we ui.iv expect eo.u-pul-oiy ten ...lock bedtime -ooii. with a curfew liell to warn us of the hour, Hut. before that conic* about there will 1" even earlier clo-ing of the hotel-.

■ liii-iiie-s men are not tin.minimi- bt | tli-ir d.-ir< for early closing. \\'hi!-t j the old proverb i* -tii; true that "tic i early bird catehc- the worm." it ilegally true that the night-owl catches the mouse. 'file man who-c shop open at ten o'clock catches the peoples wli--~<- -hopping was incoinpleted or n it la.-kled at the earlier specflied closing hour. " Small goods'' businesses do mo-t of their trade at night, and lli.-ir l«-t hour* are the last tour of the week. Tint the small shopkeeper is in the minority, and the majority rules. Labour is n<-t going to be sati«licd eve,, with the nine o'clock closing, liive an iii"h. and a yard i* a-k-d for. ft is not i fnature to be -ati-fied. The trend of the ljiln.nr legislation to-day seems to portend that in the near future bu-in.-s liou-e* will not be o|ieiied at all in IV evening, and curfew will ring at d'cloek.