STRATFORD DAY BY DAY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 199, 1 December 1910, Page 8

STRATFORD DAY BY DAY

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, Last Night.

At the inquest at Whangamomona yesterday, before Mr. J. Sexton, J.P., acting-coroner, and a jury of whom Mr. J. Reedy was foreman, concerning the death of H. Y. Pearson, the evidence showed that the deceased suddeily dropped dead while working. An extract from his diary showed that the deceased, who was 58 years of age, was aware that he was suffering from heart disease. A verdict of death from heart failure was returned. It is stated that on account of the lack of funds the Borough Council are deferring proceeding with' concrete kerbirig and channelling until after the end of the financial year. And yet, probably at the next election, the old, old promise will be made to ratepayers of doing imjprovements of this nature out of revenue.

Subsequent to the selection by the committee of Mr. A. G. Johnston as assistant at the High School in the place of Mr. Heatley, the former telegraphed that he had been offered an increase in salary, and had decided to remain where he is. The Stratford school committee have not yet decided as to what course they will ask the Board to take. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. have let a contract for the erecting Of saleyards on their recently acquired section adjoining the other yards. The yards are to be built (A Australian hardwood, and will be concreted. It is expected that they will be ready early in January. Mr. P. J. Sheridan, who succeeds Mr. S. T. Evatt as manager of the abbatoirs, took up his duties to-day. v 1 The report of the Hine enquiry leaves things very much as they were. To that section of the public for whom the Government can do no wrong it means the whitewashing of the Government of the charges of Tammanyism and the failure 'of 'Mr. Hine to produce the sensations that he had promised. To those who hold that the Government can do nothing right, the report is heraVled as proof conclusive of what they have been telling the country for months, and nothing more should be needed to show 'the electors the necessity, in the counjtry's interests, of course, of ejecting the ■ present occupants from the Ministerial I benches, and sending in their place the Opposition. But fortunately there are a •great many who do not take their poli- ■ tics so seriously, or who are not so attached to either party as to .regard the Government of the day as perfection or the antithesis, according to the views they have espoused. These will probably recognise that the whole enquiry has been a move in party politics, and the taxpayer pays the bill. When the state ,of affairs with which Tammanyism is associated in the United States is thought over and a comparison made with what has been going on here, the only conclusion to be arrived at is that a molehill ha 9 been magnified into a mountain. It does not say that some of the incidents which have been disclosed do not reveal a sordid aspect of public life far away from the ideals, but they are not "graft" las associated with Tammany Hall. Such things as shown in the evidence have happened in the past and will happen in the future, unless human nature changes a great deal. There are two great reasons which induce men to go Into politics—ambition and business: and frequently it happens that the former cause is the more, expensive to the country. It does not foHow because a man goes into the political fray from a mbnetary reason, that it implies that lie is going to have dealings with the Government or use his official position to get business which otherwise would go past him. He may do nothing of the kind, but. yet advance his business career. A lawyer may have no fame in the electorate whieli returns him, but liis speeches in Parliament direct attention to his abilities, and ho becomes known, or, in other words, advertises himself. Returning froiji generalities, the Hine enquiry has done good, not from any party reason, but because it shows that "graft" has not obtained a hold in this country, and that any tendency in this direction will meet with speedy denunciation..