The Waikato Argus GEORGE EOGECUMBE, Proprietor. SATURDAY, MAY 21, I898.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 291, 21 May 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EOGECUMBE, Proprietor. SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1898.

The prolonged life of Mr W. E. Gladstone has been so long on the line which marks the boundary between this world and the next, that the announcement of his death will cause no surprise to our readers when they take up our paper this morning. Of necessity when a man's political life extends over half a century, there are few who will not disagree with his actions during some stages of that career, but now that he is lying dead and unburied the natural generosity inherent in all but the very worst sampled of humanity will lead to his errors being overlooked for the time and the great and laudable actions of his life borne in mind. This will be the more so as it is impossible not to recognise that many of his errors were caused by allowing high ideals, mistaken perhaps, to warp his judgment as a politician and a statesman. He forgot at times that statesmen are the trustees of the honour and material prosperity of the nation they serve, and that their primary duty is to maintain both at the highest possible level. He more than once during his career allowed the attempt to attain to an impossible ideal upon a particular question, to make him oblivious of his duties to the State in other respects. That he has clone so adds perhaps to the esteem which is his-due as a man, but it as certainly detracts from that which can be accorded him as a statesman. The list of liberal and beneficial measures that he has been instrumental in placing on the Statute book is a long one,, longer than that which any previous Statesman can be credited with. He was a Liberal of whom all who claim the title today, or will do so in the future must remember with gratitude. If we review the great measures he has passed it will be impossible to put the finger upon one which conferred special privileges on a class. On the contrary in every case the tendency has been to take privileges from those who enjoyed them to the detriment of others. This, Mr Gladstone's career proclaims to be true liberalism, and indicates the class of men who are entitled to claim enrolment under the great banner. There is no more justifiable hope, than, that those who claim to belong to the party which Mr Gladstone lias adorned and led, than that they will adopt the doctrine and humbly follow in the footsteps of the great leader who has passed away. The nation is mourning the loss of one of its greatest sons, unequalled in intellect and unblemished in character. Thare is no dark episode in his private life ; he has been guided throughout his career by the dictates of religion; he has not been ashamed to hold the faith and act up to it, and those who most severely condemn some of his actions during his long and great political career will accord to him that in his errors he was sincere, and honestly believed that he was morally in the right.

The old settlers' annual reunion will be held at Mr Lewis' Hotel, To Awamutu, on Tuesday next. The quarterly meeting of the Raglan County Council will be held at Raglan on Wednesday next. Pastor Steed's address for tomorrow evening will be : " Glory : The present compared wieh the future." We understand that Mr Avery, of Paeroa, is the successful tenderer for painting the National Hotel, Cambridge. As will bo seen from our commercial intelligence, the price of bonedust has been raised from £6 15s to £7 per ton. The Piako County Council notify that the Waimakariri, Waihou and Orakau Bridges are unsafe for heavy traffic. The handicaps for the Taupiri Athletic Meeting, which is to take place on the Queen's Birthday, will be found advertised on our third page. A list of preachers who will conduct the various services in the Hamilton Te Awamutu circuit to-morrow will be found on our third page. Business at the Magistrate's Court, Hamilton, yesterday, was confined to a few undefended debt oases, which wore dealt with iu the usual manner. The full programme for the concert to be given on Tuesday evening in aid of St. Peter's Sunday school, Hamilton, appears in this issue. It should ensure a bumper house. An Australian exchange says : " A modern judicial magistrate's letter : to j murphey thairs 5 kouse of' yors runnin in mi padik and if lhay aint tuk out bi fridy ime goin to set the lor goin agen yer ime on the bensh now an ile maik it warm for yu m m j.p." This probably will apply to many cases in this colony. The annual prize firing competitions for the Waikato Mounted Infantry will be held at the Range on Tuesday, 24th May, and we understand that a largo number of men will compote. Iu addition to the prizes, a cup and gold medal, giverr by Mr G. J. Mann, ,/a number of valuable prizes have bee'n presented by others. The competition will commence at 9 a.m. We draw our readers' attention to the school concert to be held in Kihikihi on Thursday next, the 26th inst. The children will contribute songs, recitations, dialogues and a short play called " The Flower Fairies." A crowded house is anticipated, as the programme i 3 a good one. The concert will be followed by the usual dance, for which great preparations have been made by the ladies. Tii6 Rev. Walter Smith is to be inducted to the charge of Waikato West Presbyterian Church, on Wednesday, June Ist. The service is to be in the Te Awamutu Church, at 4 o'clock. Rev. Mr Milne, of St. Andrew's, Aucklaud, Rev. Mr Scott, of Cambridge, and other ministers are to be present. In the even ing a soiree will be held in the Public Hall, at 6.30 p.m., for the purpose of introducting and welcoming the new minister. Given a fine evening, a large attendance from surrounding district is expected. In the course of a discussion at the Hutt County Council (reports the " Post ") it was stated that in some parts of the Wellington provincial district it was almost impossible, owing to the ravages of small birds, to grow any oats. One councillor mentioned that he once supplied a neighbour with some poisoned wfieat, with the result that all the small birds were destroyed. The next year there were no feathered visitors, but all his neighbour's oats were eaten by the catorpilliu s, and the neighbour said he was being justly punished for having killed the birds. Complaints have reached us from more than one quarter as to the misconduct of boys at the Hamilton Yards on sale days. It appears that a number of them ar2 in die habit of turning up there armed with sticks aud whips, with wliich they torment the animals in the pens. If they find an animal which is at all wild, they immediately start to enrage it ; this of course makes the animals very wild, and they become a source of danger to the public when they are subsequently driven through the streets. It appears to us that the police or some other authority should prevent these boys from coming into the saleyards ; they are a nuisance to those who have business to transact. It would be well if a few of these youngsters were brought btfore the Magistrate and punished for cruelty to animals. Summary application of a stock whip to the proper place would no doubt be the best remedy, but nobody cares to do this, as it would be likely to lead to trouble with their parents.