Our Stratford Page

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 211, 5 March 1912, Page 3

Our Stratford Page

I Monday.

* From Our Resident Reporter, * V * * Office: No. 3, York Chambers, Stratford. * * * ************* '******************

lean against the clerk's desk when addressing the court; nor, having so far approached the bench in this way, to talk in undertone, so that others may not hear all that is going on; or to get up under the edge of the witness box to cross-examine in an undertone. It is bad form to mutter. It delays the court, too. Business can be done far more expeditiously in court if the forms are respected. Perhaps these remarks will find readers in various towns, and in various towns they may bear fruit, so that the "friends" in the legal profession will not be inclined to take advantage of the kindness and absence of strictness on the part of the gentlemen occupying the I bench. IMPROVED SAVINGS BANK FACILITIES. Commencing next Saturday, the post office savings bank at Stratford will be opened every Saturday evening between the hours of 7 and 8 o'clock for the re- : ceipt of deposits only. The money order and savings bank branches will hereafter observe the Thursday half-holiday. Business men are silently praying that some day the private banking concerns will ! also adopt this commonsense course and I close down when the shops are closed, ] ' re-opening at hours which would be of value to men in business and to the community at large. ] _____ i MR. McCLUGGAGE TO BE ENTERTAINED. The Liberals of Stratford electorate have decided to entertain Mr. Joseph McCluggage, the Liberal candidate at the recent general election, at a complimentary social in the Stratford Town Hall on Easter Monday night. A presentation will also be made to him. , I ,It is probable that some leading lights ( of the Liberal forces will be present, and ) some interesting speeches should be: made concerning the party, its progress and prospects, which, by the way, seem to be eminently satisfactory to most of the Liberals with whom I have come in contact. THE POLITICAL SITUATION. Chatting with a gentleman who keeps { in pretty close touch with politics, I was assured that he had every reason to believe that, contrary to the predictions of the Opposition, there will be no dissension in the Government ranks due to the formation of a Cabinet. Most of the present Ministers have volunteered to stand down. Among other matters of policy, it is generally believed that the Roads Department will be re-established separate from the Public Works Department, amalgamation of the two not having proved* as satisfactory in practice as it looked in theory. THE DELIGHTS OF PAKATOA. _ At the Magistrate's Court this morning Mr. C. D. Sole, J.P., fined Adam McKeown and William O'Brien 10s each and costs for drunkenness at Douglas. As both men have been previously convicted, the Bench remarked that if they were brought before the court again they might have an opportunity of testing the delights <of Pakatoa reformatory for inebriates.

I HUNT CLUB MEETING. There was some misunderstanding about the meeting last Tuesday night in reference to forming branches of the Aorth Taranaki Hunt Club in the Stratford district. Mr. A. Cliff, the huntsman, said that he had no idea that the meeting had .been called for that date, particularly as the secretary. Mr. Arthur Humphries, was going to Trentham just then. He hopes to call a meeting in the course of a week or so and have a branch formed, because it would soon be time to map out the programme for the season. Mr. Cliff also informs me that several members of the Hunt Club will probably compete in the. leaping events at the Stratford A. and p. gymkhana on Easter Monday. ' ; THE DOUBLE EVENT." This magnificent cinematographic triumph proved an immense attraction to-night. The picture was wonderfully well shown and promises to draw to-mor-row (Tuesday) night the largest picture audience that Stratford has ever seen Enterprise such a? Madame Bernard's i« bound to be amply, rewarded. GENERAL NEWS. Archbishop Redwood, who has been spending a week in Taranaki as the guest' of the Rev. Father O'Shea, of Kaponga, after spending a few hours in Stratford ! eft „ T T,. this aft ernoon's train en route to Wellington. _ A resident of over thirtv vears standing in the person of Mrs. Wm. Kelly 0 f East road, passed away to her last rest, on Sunday, n t the ripe age of seventy'l years. Mrs. Kelly was ; » daughter of the late Mr. Benjamin Kine, pianoforte maker, of London., and came to Stratford when it was little more than a bush elearing. She is survived by her husband.

I OUR WATER SUPPLY.

It was probably the question of finance which influenced the borough council a few years ago to supply the town with unfiltered water. Have the finances of the borough so much improved as to make it possible to remedy matters now ? There is, of course, no fund set apart for the maintenance or improvement of the water supply, more's the pity. Latterly the water run from the household taps has been muddy. Instead of the clear, sparkling jet that is recognised to be a boon to mankind we fill our kettles with a brownish liquid which would. doubtless call down tears of thankfulness < from the parched wanderer in the Australian, desert—of whom you wrote bo touchingly during the past week—but which in this rain-blessed country of ours> has the effect of calling down anathema upon the heads of responsible people. There's no half-way business about it. .It isn't that the water is merely a little discolored. It's dirty, so dirty that a steaming bath looks no longer tempting. But those health-giving baths at Eotorua aje muddy, aren't they? So perhaps our muddy baths are health-giving too. That's logic, of a kind. Borough councils are not always logical, but perhaps the logic t in this has presented itseJf to an illogical council, hence the dirty water. Seriously, though, isn't it about time that the town water supply was improved by the installation of niters. The water is at present drawn from the Patea river direct into the mains, dirt and all. Some of the dirt settles in the tunnel. -A great quantity has settled there, until, so I'm told, there's room for no more sediment. So when the river is high, and therefore muddy, we get the muddy water down here, undiluted. The matter is one that demands the close and immediate attention of the borough council, even to the 1 exclusion of loose pebbles on the streets and quarrels about anything or nothing in particular. Some years ago, when it i was reported that a lifebelt and combings ; from a missing steamer had been washed ashore on the east coast of this island a lady ejaculated, "0, the poor sailors!" A friend assured her that "sailors got quite used to it, jou know!" Evidently Stratford people are used to drinking dirty water, and they don't bother the borough council or ask its members to bother themselves about providing the town with an up-to-date water supply. No medical man would recommend a patient to drink water in a dairying district direct from the river. Our borough | council isn't a medical man, of course, and it doesn't recommend us to drink the water, but it does boast that it has installed a water supply, and this turbid stuff is the only water it supplies from time to time. In view of the forthcoming mayoral election, perhaps one of Cr Sangster's "budding mayors" will giv« the matter his serious attention.

THE DIGNITY OF THE LAW. The casual visitor to the Supreme Court is struck by the great respect tendered to His Honor and the officers of the court by counsel. No one would dream of calling the Judge Mr Edwards, or anything of the kind. He is there at the_ representative of the great British judicial system, to preside over the most liberal court in the world, to administer the laws which the people's representatives have made, and which have been brought into operation by the formal act of the representatives of His Majesty in this Dominion. The learned gentlemen at the bar are, as a rule, most respectful to each other, calling one another "my learned friend," or "my friend," even though they may not respect one another a bit, and are fighting one against t;hc.' otfiet. So in the Magistrate's Court as a rule, the litigants and the auditors are sensible of a feeling of respect and veneration for the peace and for the presiding magistrate. Counsel endeavor, as far as possible, to make men feel that this hall of justice is a solemn place, that the conduct of a case is a serious duty, and the court an institution that must be treated with the utmost respect, and all its forms and formalities must be complied with. Most legal men will tell you that it is absolutely necessary that this should be so. The layman must be impressed with the fact that he is in the "presence." Hence it is strange to find that some legal gentlemen do not comport themselves in court with that dignity which may reasonably be expected of them. And when they take up this attitude they rob the court, in the eyes of the general public, of its sense 'of dignity. It is not dignified for legal gentlemen to bicker amoug themselves at the counsel table; nor to go on talking to one another when the magistrate is speaking, nor to leave their appointed seats at the counsel table and