TEMUKA MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 117, 29 January 1879, Page 2

TEMUKA MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE

The following report of the Committee for the past year was rear! at the annual meeting held on Friday last. Gentlemen, — Your Committee at the olose of their year of office have the pleasure of submitting to you their annual report and balance-sheet, which they trust will be found satisfactory. The balance in band at the close of the proceeding year was £ll Ids -Id, to which may be added, £ s d For subscriptions ... ... 52 7 3 „ Government Grant ... 29 13 9 „ Hire of flags ... ... 10 0 ~ Sale of waste papers, &c. 3 6 0 ~ Sale of catalogues ... 1 3 0 ~ Overpayment of Treasurer 13 2 . £99 8 6 The expenses may be summarized as follows ; . .-■■■- ’ £ s d Messrs Steel and Jones, for home papers, magazines, and books, &e. ... 34 1 11 This includes payment for 20 vols, obtained at close of 1877. Insurance ... ' .... ... 5 10 0 Colonial papers ... ■ ... 6 7 0 Clinch and Lloyd ... ... 1 16 2

£ a d Advertisements ... ... 1 13 0 Librarian’s salary (including lighting and fuel) ...'22 3 9 Tombs and Davis,' for bookbinding ... ... ... 3 0 J. Mendelson ... ... ... I 1 A. Wilson ... ... ... L 2 0 Sundries ... ... ... 3 0 2 By balance now in bank" ... 18 16 3 L 99 8 6 Your committee desire to draw attention to the reduced expenditure in regard to care taking and lighting, which is for the past year but L 22 3s 9d as compared with L 32 3s in the preceeding twelve months. In spite, however, of this saving, it is manifest that the Institute was not last year self-supporting, for had it not been for the Government grant of L 29 12 9 a Dr. balance would have been shown on 31st Dec. last. As no well founded hope can bo entertained of a similar grant this year, it behoves all having the interest of the Institute at heart to endeavour to induce new members to join. The number on the books of the Institute at close of 1878 was, Quarterly Members ... ... 8 Half-yearly „ ... ... ... 27 Annual ~ ... ... ... 25 Total ... ... ... ... 60 against 53 at the close of the previous year. At a special general meeting held on the 30th July 1878, it was resolved by 24 votes to 7 to try to open the reading rooms_of the Institute on Sundays from 2 p.m. to m) p.m., and to this your committee attribute! the increase *in the roll of numbers; an liner ease that, however, yet falls short of the heeds of the Institute.

Mr F Mead, who was in charge as Librarian at the close of 1877, having to leave the district, your committee called for tenders for the office, and Mr George Bolton was elected to the post, for which there were seven candidates. With a view of reducing expenditure' your committee have ordered the discontinuance from the Ist inst of three magazines, viz, ‘ Temple Bar,’ * Leisure Hour,’ and 1 London Society,’ and they have to announce the sale, at half-cost, of the ‘ Field,’ ‘Australasian ’ and ‘ Otago Witness,’ the first two to Mr Thornhill Cooper, and the latter to Mr Fildes, and your committee express a desire to see these examples followed, and suggest that tenders be ’nvited on similar terms from members and the public for other papers. Your committee initiated the plan of binding the smaller periodicals, and have -lately placed on the shelves 9 volumes of Chambers’ Journal, Leisure Hour, Cornhill, and Punch, and the ready circulation these volumes have obtained prove the wisdom of the course. Several other volumes are now ready for binding, and your committee desire to recommend this matter to the notice of their successors. Your committee have had long in view the desirability of effecting a temporary exchange of books with other Institutes, and three months back addressed the Institute at c Geraldine, offering to exchange books with them, but, although led to believe that such a proposal would meet with approval there, wo are at present without- a reply. Such a course would place both Institutes in the possession of a considerable quantity of new reading matter, and the retiring committee beg to submit, this question to the favourable notice of the incoming one. Y r our committee regret much that the funds at their command have not, during their year of office, permit ted the purchase of any new works, and that a lack of interest in many quarters whence support might •be looked for, prejudices the advancement of tlio Institute. The remedy for this lies in the hands of members, who should one and all endeavour to induce an exteneed membership, and thus increase the income of the Institute. Dr Raynor, referring to the passage law the report whi h attributed an increase irJ®* the member-hip to the opening of th fe. reading rooms mi Sundays said be was Xpleasml that the committee expressed such an opinion, as it showed that those who voted for that opening were correct in their surmise that it would have the etf ct of im-reasing the membership. Mr Fiides remarked that it was as yet premature to congratulate the members on the change, as it remained to be seen how many- annual sobs libers would withdraw in consequence thereof. The balance-sheet hiving been road, tills and the committee’s report were unanimously’ adopted, on the motion of Dr R i.viier, seconded hv Mr Franks.

Sir Franks requested an expression of opinion as to the right of ladies and young people, 'members of families of which one member is a subscriber, to make use of the reading-room. Mr Mendelson printed out that according to the rules none but actual members had a right to use the rooms.

It was stated that this subject had been frequently discussed by the late committee, and that they had decided that, although it was against the strict rule, to make no objection to the other members of a subscriber’s family using the rooms. A vote of thanks to the retiring officers i and committee was then passed, and the - election of officers and committeemen,for the current year proceeded with. Mr Fildes re-elected President, a ltd Dr Gumming was elected VicePresident ; Mr Mendelson and Dr Hayes were re-elected treasurer and secretary respectively ; Messrs Storey, Warding, Gray, Clinton, Campbell, Franks, Mar- , tin, G. P. Wood, Mason, and M'Farlane were elected to form a committee. A vote of thanks to tne chair terrai- , nated the meeting. The newly-elected committee then met and adopted the second Friday in each month as their night of meeting.

Boman Catholic school of the district, and also , attended the Roman Catholic ChapeL ’ Hb immediately m ule application for her return home, which was refused-, as were also several other applications of a similar na'ure, the woman refusing) to. give the child up. Under these circumstances application had to be made to the Court, and his Honor yesterday made an order granting a rule nisi calling on the woman to show cause why she should not he ordered to give up the child to her father. Truly the New Zealand rivers are most unmanageable. The late rainfall lias so affected the Waitaki river that it has assumed quite a different appearance. Instead of three main streams, there are only two—one on each bank—(he of the river bed being comparatively dry. This fantastic manoeuvring of the Waitaki makes it a little awkward for the bridge. There is not a structure of a similar character in the Colonies better put together ; but it must have something to rest-upon. Of course, the greatest strength was given to those parts of the bridge that had to suffer the greatest strain. Th ©Cylinders were well bedded where the river ran with the greatest force, and now they are better bedded than ever, because shingle has silted up, turned the stream into a new channel, and protected the cylinders by piling itself against them, now that they do not require protection. The cylinders that have just been subjected to a visitation of deeper water than was bargained for, have fared badly. : Their foundations were washed.- away, and the whole structure jeopardised. _ In order to prevent any permament and serious injury occurring, large blocks of ston**, have been piled around the cylinders and piles, and the bridge has been made perfectly secure through the‘?fmely and intelligent attention of the engineer who has charge of such matters.—Oamaru ‘Mail.’

A Forest Monarch. —The following are the dimensions given of one of the Sequoias felled some time ago. At 'five feet from the ground its diameter was 29ft 2in ; at eighteen feet, 14ft 6in ; at one hundred feet. 14ft ; and at two hundred feet, sft Gin. The trunk continued straight for another one hundred feet, but diameters are not given. The trunk was perfectly solid. Supposing the bark averaged a foot in tidckness for the first one hundred feet, and six inches for the second one hundred feet, and neglecting the third hundred altogether, though really a very good tree as trees grow here, let us see what such a tree would contain. Taking the measurements given, and deducting the bark, the first log would contain nearly 50,000 snperfiicial feet ; the next, eighty-two feet long, about 116,000 ; and the third, one hundred feet long, about 72,000; total, about 238,000 feet. This would keep an ordinary bushmill going in full swing for a couple of months at least. In inch boards it won d about floor a six-acre lot. If split, instead of sawn, our bus’.me i and carters would have little difficulty in making two hundred cords of firewood out of the tree. .Some specimens of Sequoia are estimated to be at least three thousand years old. Thev were saplings when Sampson was s aying the Phibotim s, or when Paris ran .way v,*:th H roi The - “ Fourth Estate” Re droved. — Then there is th newspaper press, that huge engine for ke ping <■ i- ussi-m at a low level, and makuig the political tost final To take the tax off knowledge was to place a heavy tax ou broad and independent o-'odon. The mull indication of journals. “ de i ■ eri g braw ing judgments unashamed on all things all dav long,” lias done much to dead n toe s- all sto k of individuality in puhbc verdicts, and to make vulgar ways of looking at things, and vulgar wavs of speaking of them, stronger and stronger, by formulating and repeating and stereotyping them incessantly from morning until afternoon, and from year’s end to year's end. For a newspaper must live, find to live it must please, and its comhu-tors, suppose, perhaps not altogether rightly, that it cm only please by being cheerful towards prejudices, and chilly towards general theories, and loftily disdainful to men of a principle. Their one cry to the advocate of an improvement is some sagacious silliness about recognizing the limits of the pnvtii- hi-- in no'it os, and seeing the necessity of adapting theories to facts. As if the Let of taki.-g a broader and wiser view than the vulgar- crowd, disqualify a man from knowing vhat that view of the vulgar crowd happens to be, and from estimating it at a proper value for prmlical purposes. Why are the men wln> de-pair of improvement to be the only persons endowed with the gift of discerning the practicnb’e 1 It is, however, on’y too easy to understand why the journal existing for a day should limit its view to the possibilities of a day, and how, being closely affected by the particular, it should turn its back on all that is general. And it is easv, too, to understand tW* reaction of this intellectual timorousness upon the minds of ordinary readers, who have too little natural force, and too little cultivation to be able to resist the narrowing and deadly effect of the daily iteration of short-s'ghted commonplaces.—John Mofley. Sabbath Observance in Dunedin. — Opinions as to Sabbath observance vary not only in the communitv but also in the Church, as an instance forcibly exempli-

fied th' other day. For some time past, the- choir-master and incumbent of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, have held

opposite views in regard to choir practices on Sundays. The petty feud which resulted therefrom reached its culmination at, the annual meeting of parishioners. The Rev. Mr B png firm'y r fused the use of the church on Sundays for choir practices, and the choir accordingly rented a room and practised on Sundays. At the rnei ting alluded to, choirmaster told a piteous tale of the hard lot of the choir in being obliged to pay out of their own pockets money in order that they might be enabled to discharge as eili ienfly as possible thm'r gratuitous and voluntary services. With the aid of a few sophisms, the master of the choir secured many sympathisers, but his endeavour to alter the state of affairs was rendered abortive by the clergyman’s declaration that he held strong convictions on the subject, and that no man living should move him « from thir;m. The church was at the service of the choir during any week evening. but on the Sundays they should not and would not practice there. The parishioners compromised matters bv respec'ing the minister’s con vie'ions, and by paying, the incurred by the choir in conducing their Sunday oracCorrespondent ‘ Aslilujitou Mail 1

A Free-Trader .—Mr Forster, in a speech at Bradford, expressed his conviction that means would be found for the recovery of trade He regretted that protection was cntending in America, but still more so that it had extended to the British Colonies. He eulogised the example of Sydney, and condemned reciprocity and two-sided protection. He said he felt assured that the English Government, no matter by which paity it was administexed, would be resolute in favour of free trade.