TINUI LIBRARY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 295, 21 October 1879, Page 2

TINUI LIBRARY.

To ike Editor of the Waiharapa Daily. Sir—ln your issue of the 4th instant I notice that some malicious individual lias had the improbity to impute that our Tenui and Cashpoint Library is conduc'ed in a loose kind of way. This accusation is felt to be beneath contempt by all concerned. " Paul Pry" further expresses surprise at the munificent honorarium of £lO per annum given to the Librarian, and also imputes negligence to this gentleman who has undertaken the responsibility of conducting this boon to the district. These imputations, of course, merely exist in Paul Pry's spiteful and conceited brain. This individual of Darwin celebrity further exaggerates in informing the public that books are kept in two places. Some (he says) at the Telegraph Office (and he should have said the Library at the Public Hall). This is a most dire piece of spite. If the Postmaster is generous enough to facilitate this in any way after office hours—which one in a previous letter termed a great boon to this small community—surely it is bad taste on the part of this questionable gentleman, " Paul Pry," with all his fears for the veracity of them is doubtful indeed. At any rato, of csurse, this sentence speaks volumes in favor of who poor "Paul" is, and Tenui and Castlepoint's wonderful Library has a patronage of, he says, a great number living at distances of six and seven miles. Is this the distance of "P. P.V residence. I think there are about 37 subscribers to this institution, for I shall ascertain next Library night,

for of course rules will have to be adhered to, I would conclude by advising " Paul Pry" to be truthful and, not malicious. Had it been so, criticism^when required, would tend to produce beneficial effects: not; without.— lam, &c, A Subscriber. MASTERTON CEMETERY. ■» To the Editor of the Wairarapa Daily.

Sir,—Having a short time since read a long piece in your paper informing the public as to certain rules and' regulations that were to be carried out by the Trustees of the Masterton Cemetery, and, I think, of some alterations intended to be made, and believing, as I do, that many of the regulations now acted out are of a msot oppressive and tyrannical character, I would beg to suggest that the people here should take up this question, and instead of allowing any longer the management of the Cemetery to be carried on (as I believe it is) under an Act entititled " The Masterton and Greytown Cemeteries Act," substitute in its room an Act which refers to and may he brought to bear in any cemetery, when the people ask the Governor to bring it into force. The Act to which I allude is that passed in December, 1877, and made available to the public, January Ist, 1878. This Act gives to the various denominations certain powers, and also to the public generally, which' but few persons are aware of. I have the Act, and I have lent it to two or three Ministers and to other persons, and I am still most willing to afford the loan of it to anyone who might desire to become acquainted with its provisions, provided duo care be taken of it, as I consider it important tnat in this respect, whatever powers are allowed the people they should use and maintain as their legitimate rights. To my mind, the time has come when this department should be under better management, and the public made better acquainted from time to time of what is ('one, and of what laws .ire in existence for its good and efficient government. I have, &c, T. W. Shute. P.S. I hold, sir, that each denomination should avail themselves of the benefit of the Act I havo made mention of. ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH. ■<s ' To the Editor of the Wairarapa Daily. Sir—l must join issue with your correspondent, " A Parishioner;" as on the one hand I do not consider the correspondence he mentions to have been by any means conclusive, and on the other I do not think the letter of " Another Churchman" can fairly be said to be I either an attack on or a sneer at the clergyman and the services in St, Matthew's Church.

The Parochial District is not at all in a satisfactory financial condition, for it is evident from the balance-sheet that it is not able to pay its way, much loss to pay off any portion of the debt on church and Parsonage without extraneous assistance ; and unless the offertories increase and subscriptions come in more freely, the district must rapidly drift more deeply into debt.

Under the circumstances mentioned by " Another Churchman," I do not think it was to the credit of the "parson and churchwardens here to have taken the lead in the free seat system in the Wairarapa." The abstract principle o f having the House of God free to all is generally admitted ; but in practice there are certain conditions necessary to its success, and those conditions do not exist here. What has been done by the step is to place die district in the position of a man who liberally heads subscription lists but omits to pay his baker and butcher's bills. Free sittings have been provided for many who " totally neglect the duty of contributing to the offertory" (see annual report, 1879), while the district is unable to meet its current expenditure. I think, further, that" A Parishioner" does not strike at the root of the matter when he attributes " the small congregations and consequent diminution in flic funds of St. Matthew's Church " to " the gross neglect of public worship shown here . . . by nominal members nf the English Church." Ido not suppose the members of the church in this district are worse than those elsewhere, and I have no doubt some of those who absent themselves and families from the church feel keenly the combination of circumstances which (rightly or wrongly) led them to adopt such a course; but it must be patent to any observer who looks below the surface that there is a condition of things here which cannot be explained by the mere fact of the seats having been made free.—lam, Ac, Parishioner No. 2.