At the Corner.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4640, 17 November 1883, Page 2

At the Corner.

" Homo sum, Tiii.nane nihil a me alienum puto. I hear that it has oozrd onfc that the wily " Majah" was somewhat sold when Mr Mitchelson accepted the proffered portfolio; that it was not anticipated he would take it; and, that your tele» gram anent;Qaptn.:Morris being the new Minister was not very far from the desire of fthe Cabinet. Various reasons are assigned 'for the peculiar way the thing was done ; some put it that the Bank of New Zealand had " a finger in the pie," and wanted ;the; member for Marsden in the billet,-and of course the Bank interest was paramount; others have it that the offer to Mr M was made to placate Mr Dargaviiie ; while many believe as I state that the Treasurer was rather nonplussed when the portfolio was accepted, as he had the Tauranga member "in his eye" for it. The information furnished by you as to the modus operandh in dealing with the amalgam coming from the Waiorongomai crushing was somewhat surprising to the uninitiated; why such a proceeding should have been adopted it is difficult to say. We Corner loungers notice some coldness in dealing with TeArohascock since you let the " cold water " cat out of the. bag. It was noticed that an Auckland broker thought it worlh his while to spend a day or two amongst us, and a very large number of Te Aroha shares left his hands during his stay. That peculiar body, the -Hospital ICommitte'e, have been following the '" queer lead they started on. Of course, toeir's is somewhat a payneful oase, as hospital connections generally ate. Their election —by the subscribers—was a peculiar affair, but that could not be altered. The members, as a whole, seem to be possessed of strange notions of propriety. The first little idea those elected by the.subscribershad was aj very natural one. They— jf course, seized with a very laudable spirit of gratitude—•Wished':.'to ': reward the cause of their occupying their seats, and carried a resolution, which was oleariy ultra vires, , Cerfc.;in officers were appointed by them for twelve months, and before the expiration of.-that time, or any resignation being sent in by one df them— ■ in fact before a vacancy occurred in any of the offices, they permanently • appointed those officers, without even calling for applications for the positions.: The next best thing those sapient men can do is to. make their own seats permanent, and save the trouble,of their annual election. :.-.- ■ Something, should be done in ihe mat* ter of providing baths for the peopje. It seems that the idea won't " wash '' with the Borough Council, even if they received all the "soft-soap" imaginable. A site in the corner of the Waio-Karaka Flat, near the Queen of Beauty mine, could be easily procured, thelarge'qu'autity of water now running to waste could-be utilised almost without'expense, and a' swimming bath 100 ft. long by 40ft. wide, and ranging in depth from 2ft. at one end to Bft. at the other, could easily be. constructed for less than £300. This, jtrmust be remembered, includes fencing in dressing boxes, &c. If the Council will not do it, sorely the people could form a company of 500 or 60D shares of 10s each. The affair would pay well enough, as such things do in other places. .. A '• little bird " has whispered to me that a certain Waiotahi company has been driving eastward, jt has been add..d, with th.c view of endeavoring to ascertain .What their reef, which . runs . into an adjoining piece of ground shortly to be sold, is like in that direction j and tttiraWe dictu what they - saw

has scared them, for it is farther added that they slabbed it up again; and still more strange, they appear to have thought that a certain newspaper man would be ;? scared to death, for they did not care that he should go down their mine, while they ,* were engaged in this eastward operation; and another whisper was that the_ legal manager said the Company was going to drive eastward, but nothing would be said about it.

Now that summer is approaching, the Borough Council will, it is to be hoped, see to the drains being kept clean, and fevers kept in check. While on fevers, an amusing story is in circulation. A certain medico in a town in the Auckland Provincial District, deemed it advisable in the interests of the people's health to destroy all the properly in a house in which fever of some kind had been. He commenced i by having a tin of kerosene emptied out ' in the garden for fear the oil might carry infection-—perhaps by the flames from tne lamp,—and he carefully had a quan* tity of oranges and apples thrown out in the street, where they were eagerly taken possession of, and speedily devoured, bj the . neighboring children. The local body had to recoup the owner of the goods destroyed, and thus was infection prevented. Of course, the kerosene was more likely to carry the poisonous germi than was the fruit. ■ : ______ Nemo. -