NEW PLYMOUTH

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 70, 14 January 1882, Page 282

NEW PLYMOUTH

— I hear a member of the Borough Police is to be called " over the coals " for betting in the streets on Sunday while in uniform. A nice state of things, truly. — The High School is finished, rears its stately head with a style not familiar with New Plymouth. It will shortly be opened as a public school, and will cease to be used as, during the last few weeks, a spying place for a tout, who has not the manliness to watch Noi,'manby, Larry, Catch-'eni and Co. do their gallops openly, but needs must slink up to the High School, where a fine sight of the racecourse is obtained. — So we are to have a new public hall, I hear, shortly. As usual, the town is divided in opinion — some (the East-Enders) clinging to the old site, . and the West-Enders to a site in a gully at their end of the town. It is proposed to name the East End Hall the Albert Hall, no reason for \vhich. is given. I trust one will go up quickly, and would suggest it being opened with the (esthetic play of the " Kurnle." —-One of our local " S2?orting " proj>hets a short time since took upon hiniself to criticise the action of Mr Paul and Committee of the Jockey Club for not arranging a Hack Eace for the races in March. He says : — " There is just one fault I have to find with the otherwise really excellent programme of the Taranaki Jockey Club for '82 — that is, the omission of a hack flat race. I am sorry to observe this deficiency, for the reason that there are many good hacks in the district to enter as competitors." As this individual is so well known for his conceit, I suppose he means a race for literary hacks, and fancies he has ability enough, to win it. Tlie High Scliool Trill, Trlien open, be available for this quasi mill-owner to improve his grammar at. —During the past few weeks we have had several cases of diptheria in town and country, and showing signs of a rapid spread. All the schools in the district were closed, and the doctors prepared to reap a rich harvest. A gentleman of the medical profession, well-known for his philanthropy, inserted a letter in our papers, giving a cheap, easily obtainable, and efficacious remedy, to siut the class among whom, the epidemic was chiefly raging — the country people, far removed from medical assistance. Thereupon two of this gentleman's confreres, two clays after, inserted a protest, commencing : — "We, as members of the Grand Association of Physicians of New Plymouth, object to advice being given free ;" and, further on, condemned Dr G.s theory as an exploded one. The latter gentleman treated them with wellmerited contempt, and in his letter of a later date, reduced his opponents to pulp. — When Eakiora, some six months ago, was , tried for sheeji-stealing here, a punishment of three months' imprisonment was inflicted. A similar case has recently occurred. In the affair under notice, it Avas indeed a " noble" sight to see several Waitara people, who for services rendered to the district are entitled to append J.P. after their names, take a seat on -the Bench, and cause the betting among several outsiders to suddenly veer round from 5 to 1 on the prisoner's having twelve months, to 10 to 1 on an acquittal, which, of course, took place. I think Judge Eawson was quite competent to try the case single-handed, and I fancied I could discern a look of disgust on his face when the Waitara contingent of J.P.'s— a fair sample of Pharoah's fat and lean kine — took their seats, and eventually discharged the prisoners. No further comment is required.