MASTERTON HIGHWAY BOARD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1193, 30 September 1882, Page 2

MASTERTON HIGHWAY BOARD.

The -Mastfr tdri'.Highway Board met' this jnprning.''.'Present—Messrs ■ Buchanan (ohairinan),;'Meredith, =Dagg, i and Bee;|,j;,;!;V'r' '' ;•',■■ The minutes bf^the;;'prßvioni r 'rneeting wWreaid and confirmed.,; ■: ' U A'tele'srani from Mr Cumber, lain, stating.'tliat he wbuldibe iimble to ing., ;.: j „> j j . ~ VAlett'er m read'lnn Mr •■!,' Bnokwi

"gaifcoreiug m oiaira. ior- ; .■atibn :joMs'm|e"coritraoti j and stating 1 t 'l r( & l m a^on °^^??*'^^ ThejenffflebMatpd that i inistakoliad' statement previously made,'i'ndJpfcfYklance of thirty pounds; was dueTrTtSe applioant.H; V h;P;\ •TheChairniaii that a. com. mitteeibeappoinled tCa'dJ9Bi>|i'e claim.; >. It was decided that the' Ohairpian and Mr W.;fl; Beethain act 'as'.«i cpnimittee Jto; aettle with Mr Mr Macquarna staling that- he. would: attend tHe'ineetiug'pf" theßoard.r "" ; y v;- rt r: • ;• The\Oastleppint Highway/Board wrote applying for permission to exp'ond £46 in mlkiitgf a? side -cutting 'on 1 the? tippet Taueru road, and staling .that Mr Juiiies Miller would wait upon the Board and explain tho character of the work-pro-posed. ; : , ; W..andE..SutherlandandD,.Cameron apbliedfnr a sum of to repair a por-• itioli iff the l'oltibet'^etiiiPahauaMd'the. The Chairman stated that he had no doubt that the claim ms a juat one but it was rather-indefinite in not indicating;, wlie^jthe.moneyjas;tojie oxpended as the applicants desired it lo he disfribttecr over two lines. >■-; V.. ' iv-.. • Mr Meredith thought that people in outlying districts tiught to be helped as ocivw'wwi.Vrj .tfeAij". vj.'fc,'.«il severely for want.ofaliiileftsiistance, J:' Tho Chairman Buggestod passing tbo amount subject to a proper agreement as to how the money should be divided. The proposal, of the Chairman was agreed to. A letter from 6. and E. Chamberlain was read, giving permission to remove gravel from the Upper Plain pit, but stating that the consent of native owners was alao necefsary. The Engineer expressed an opinion that ike gravel pit was on Messrs Cham berlain's freehold property. A Metier was md from Mr R. S. Hawkins, Btaiinu he was glad the Board hid instructed Mr Bremner to report on .the slip, and felt sure that the Board would not close bo important a road on ■the : settler;. He complained that settlers bad been thwarted and annoyed in their eff iris to keep the foact open. He corrected a statement made at the last meeting that he was not.a ratepayer; as part owner of Glendiihald, ho was:a ratepayer. Mr W, H. Beet hum said that the Gastlepoint Board had absorbed the Bowlands rates fur years and years and'not apetit them for the benefit of Boh lands; the Masterton Board on, the other hand, had been moro than liberal towards this part of the district. . ; < A letter; was' received -li'om the Featherston Highway Board, en'olosing a cheque for cost of Gladstone Pahaua survey, and complainiiig that the charge made was excessive.

J.'&H Holmes wrote, complaining of the bad state of the Matuhiiviline of road and offering £2O towards the cost of metalling it, and proposing to wail with other parties on the Board at its present meeting.

A letter was read frumthe County East Council, s'atinfr that they had agreed to expend £4O on the Tiraumea-Alfredton road and £3O on the continuation of the Blairlosie-Alfredton road, as proposed by the Highway Board. A question was raised as to where the money was to como from, the Board's sliaro of the County subsidy having already been'received and appropriated. In the first instance the Board proposed to distribute £BOO, but it had actually handed over 1600, and the £2OO balance had uqne in other expenses to a considerable extent. The Chairman said the.Cnuncilhad pnt.the Board in a hole, The Board had based its expenditure on. the basis of an LBOO subsidy being distributed, and now that amount was not available, Mv G. Bcetham, Chairman of tlw Wairarapa County Eaßt,.who was present, said the Board had got its proportion of the subsidy which was absolutely, available, The Baavd ought to havo boon informed by the Conncil that the L2OO balance was no longer available for distribution. It was.resolved that as the sum expected from Comity East'had been reduced, the amounts voted to Flat Point, Taueru, Bliiirlogie, and Tiraumea be reduced pro rata,

Mr 6. Boetham inquired whether the Bnard would assist in cutting timber to improve the Upper Taueru road continuation, as a part of a scheme for works under the Roads Construction Act. Mr W.'H. Beethnm mi no funds were available for the purpose.

The Chairman pointed out that if the hush along the line were cleared a second growth might have to be dealt with. Mr Hutchison's letter was again read, threatening proceedings on behalf of W. Morison and others if the enornaohments on the old line of road at Manaia were not removed.

The Chairman said there was no public injury or inconvenience as far as he knew. Their engineer had distinctly stated that ample accommodation for the present traffic existed, The only ques tinn was whether it was not better to get rid'of the nuisance of being, continually worried 1 , on the matter by ordering the fence to he moved. Mr Meredith agreed, but did not like being bullied into it. Mr"\V. H. Beetham said the road was a very unimportant road, and it would be unjust to put the owner to an expense of LlO in moving the fence line. Mrßagg thought the Board would be pnt to legal expenses if they defended the case.

Mr W. H, Beetham understood that the. complainant had: another fence encroaehine four feet on .the road, and if they made Mr Donald move his fence they should make Mr Morison do the same.

Mr Meredith did not think that the Board shonid take sides in the dispute between neighbors but deal impartially with the application. The Chairman said an application might be madfcto the Board! to compel a man lo move a fence which only encroached six inches, A very large question would be opened op if they, where there was no pnblic inconvenience, undertook to m»ke orders for moving fences. Mr W. H. Beetham said it would he hntler to let the ience stop till it was rotten, and then put a : new one on the correct lino,

Mr Dazg understood that there was a proposal to open the line beyond the river to hiake It useful for through Inflic, Mr Boetham said If that were dnne'they would at once have the fence moved. At present he moved that the Board decline to interfere. , Mr seoniided the motion as a principle was involved besides the mere question of expediency. Mr Dm moved as an amendment, and to. Moure, peaceand 'remove the onn.se.qf oomnlainf," that'arriple notice hugiven to Mr Donald to, remove the fence." The amendment not being seconded the original motion was carried, . {Left Sitting.]

CARTERTON TOWN BOARD. 0 The poll wis taken at the Institute, Carterton," yesterday, with (he following result:- \ ' Archibald Campbell, ~. 19 Rbbt, man, fa, ~r 18

■of Tsmpenince nuttertathltfcoluhui,atwWfJSff ! ;3:/f!,' y A-;<. SE^MON<i|iS^i By the Bev Frederick: -Wk Pamr^D;D.i|ii F4B.rCanon^TOtminß^iv'a^;CK»p§:f| ! laimiuOrdinary'totheQueen?^ .■;;;'^|kS| p. "'■/ A :."..v : '- : (mstwokd.:)'''^'.-.''..'■ j-'-^%r'i3 ; r : i| [';■•• :do:not I thii-Mwnl assails only thf' \m§%) : Many a. poet, ■; ■■Wm.if '4 man of fine ability, niany a 'Kasbeenijslain by it..; T6WP!? n icpn«',. v ; | - dying6f it'asafool 'dieth^b'etfrehis ; tlpae.,' - :: : The most| splendid gejius did-,not; wei:r;i Robert Burns. The %mi refinedi and beautiful character did!not savo Charles ■'.;■ Lamb, or hartley Cojeridge. Patriotism" "' and eloquence Bolingbroke,r It shortened itlje •;- life of "p u iT*~l teney j it clouded the Carterel. \T&w but the;'y 0im |,; ■;' Charles Stuar|; the 'young hero ?<>-rwallaOT - andsohandsorne, who|drew his sw* r j 0 u ;'; the morning o{ flung awu e a scabbard: -■','•• ■'■.s; .. r . M ■■ " Chailie, Charlie; wha'faidnadee for tbl, 1 ' ■"TVha'wad na dee fgr thejonny Prince 01)0', jp ■ M ' . That is but one of th| many songs l w hicb M show how he boyed the heart, of the : %cotcb^cP^ as theheoitof PP v himself, he had yM amid the carnage of 0 he would have left behind him for " ever a name bright with the halo, of passion- '" ate affection and fascinating romance. But, iunhappily for hiiriself, |e lived; he livedj like many another, toi'defile his soil with stains; Jje lived forty-two years, first to grow fond.of drjnk, then to become an habitual drunkardffirst drawn by its insidious seductions, Ithen driven by its serpent scourge, then;dragged'by its remorseless violeiicel-solkt the young hero of romance a heartless lover, and a brutal husband, arid passed to his unpitied end as a drunkard—a coarse, peevish, ungenerous, Buipicio§t,?;cruel man. And now do you not Bee the force of Father Mathew's words, " Through drink I have seen the starslof heaven fall, and the cedars ef low," And oh, the misery of it, as weii'as the pity of it I Po you think that %;; unhappy victims of drink have no conscience? Do you think that the a drunkard, when ho faces it in his sober moments, does not scourge him as w'ith whips of steel? is long as that conscience remains unstupefied, it unites him withjthe sore agonies of its unpalliated reproach,; and; when his conscience has become seared with drink as with a hot iron, when he has become Satan'i' besotted and despairing viotim. it is of such materials that the murderer, the felon, and the suicide are made. The Temperance appeal is founded on broad facts, and on narrow facts, I have toldyoii some broijd facts;' here is a narrow faot,' one of those,tWhich,. in some form or '■ other, day by dajf, and';hour by hour, are . demonstrating the* deadliness of this evi], which is rioting in the midst of us. A few )■ years ago the body of 'a poor youth utJ found in the Mersey, w(tha paper in his , pocket, on which iwas written the words:. -." This is the c|l of a wasted life. Df not ask my ntme, I Let me rot I It is drink that has done it."4 NowPmark the sequel. The Coroner of Liverpool sat on that inquest, and nfter itfhe received no less than 200 letters--thinl| of $ lettera froW fathers and mothers!—asking if there were any signs by which the body could /be identified, since they had boys who nad thus gone astray, ;and the now drowned • corpse might be all that was left to then) of an erring son, Somebody's bod I si|me father had once been proud of that pn; Borne mother had loved'him with all/ the' tenderness of a mother's:love. Somebody's son I Suppose had J been your {son! Would you nave bfen so'indifferent jx> the cause of Temperance !.■;'Would youi have been bo disdainful of Temperance fanatics? Would you have been so eager-to/support the glaringly ruinous multip'iciity of legiliscdtemptations in?these our/streets! Would you have | been so Scrfipturalry righteous in your* comfortable i that rum and gin are good creature/s of God, A if it had life, the ; fifop of your age, the star of your horns; who had thua'.fallcn a victim to this overdqwjug scourge',! •. which always ppev«|li; where the tempts, tions to drink remain'pcWckedbe awful for men, is not theif"influence'pn : Voiiic» yet more deplorable f Is any exaggeration needed in the face of ithe bare fact that in 1879 the number ofiwomen arrested for drunkenness in the -London district alone' was 15,600? A drunjeen man, a man who has for the time obliterated that stamp of God's image on hirjcV which alone distinguishes him from -the beasts, is sad enough; but when we consider what God made women,, all that\ they are, all that they ought to be-hoW queenly, how ten- • der, how gracious, made of finer fibre than men, and with tenderer consciences—the thought of almost 16,1:00 women, or what had once been those gracious things, in one Christian city alono, degraded by drunkenness— ■' Umuotherly mothers and uuwom&nly Women that near turp motherhood to lhatoe Wominlineu to loathing;.; ' ' the very though} of it is Enough to fill with horror/ $&/«*'fqken 1 , f'hjiitj of the lot of these your sisters, Thing iif the wives of drunkards i beooming them.' selves drunkards; and then how the hoirte, :... or what should have been the home, fori will not to desecrate' that saored word, becomes like a dungeon of evil spirits. And if you cannot pity, as I an) sure our dear Lord pities with an infinite and trembling pity, these who Decamp the shannd victims of the Sin, will you not pity those who, being themselves innocent, are the trembling sufferers from it! 0, the young wives, the young mothers, awaiting in terrified agony, the drunken return of savage unmanly husbands at midnight, when the gin palaces iare closed, when they know not what brutal hands may strike, what brutal feet my kick them, when >■. i "The vitriol nudnera flushes lip'fo tin rufflin'ii -i brain, • ■' [ -"' "' Till the filthy by-.Une rlcga to the yells of tha trampled fj/e.' l v" '" "■.-..■ Alas I human nature ca,n o!o, an d human' ' ' nature can endure, what 1 human linj scarcely dare to tell, You do not like" to' hear Buch things. Do you ndlthink that I • loathe to speak of them! But' : wonld it not be a criminal neglectj a detestable hypocrisv, for you and me to hide our facfs from theso largely preventible evilq, and; crimes, and' " ■ horrors, simply because we are too refined, I ;orsooth, to have our lips profaned orW ears assailed with the allusion the cold records of daily justice will at least give yon an inkling of their liideousness They will tell you week by week, day by day, of women deserted, struck, fejled to the ground, wounded, set in flames by drunken husbands: of • mothers, "aye, even aged mothers, in their sickness, and t|ejr help- • nessness, beaten bv drunken sons. Ah God 1 1 cannot' tell you part of ' what is going on, daily going on, in* this our England, in this our capital city, while all tho efforts of the Church, all the apWals of religion, all the good worlc which Goti bids '-, us to do for others, all '•* "which man wa'| ' created, all for which 6hri?t; "■ only in individual sonls, but in whole {lreati ;! ; ' whole districts, whole r 'gionsVdefeatM and' ■ ' .-innulled by a dead product which hflg th» ' > fatal property of creating » mad craving for ' ■ itself ;«4y a.dead, ohemical product 7Stor.i; if ". ions over huma^als.^lilclrmaltera, slaves, imbriites tens of thousands kind, by laying vh'and of fire upon of their vilest ap'petitej; But, if instcadH pillowing your delicacy on fine pleasing your nidifference By grams, you are manly chough to wish <osee i>k| facts as they are, visit (if you dare) Bt'reets W riot abow shot off the Abbey, and the stately "f ; Palace where you matythe nation's laws ;«L ?■ visit these streets, in whioh policemen rarely show themselves,' what - constantly see, women.aye, and even young women,' de-lumihised 'almost out of Vail,: '• i semblance of humanity (by drink, fighting's' i eachother;t«aring'andbeating eaohother, \s Bcreamingateach languagifwhich , V would he abhorrent in the loa'thlieiit l jmen, ■ hut whioh, heard from t.he'lips of wonjeii, wejl m'gh mik»| the blood curdle and; tnia;

I some" 1 mi , life Bp^nkri^ii^6comct%ittl 8 &^;•■; ;■ '.•; iu^frioa/:<vith .":!. realms»n;JSfef xM&*'' cmo home>tliaumytingle vrcfk jfChfisJ :•> •• '•>» Epglandy aiiMhWtiah lifado i/held' , ■■• - pll;thpße-»s^:-«fiiorig ; -Bi»Vi p wlifi-:;v.v-ffdfshipped'.'fetifllc,) .nik. devils-1 'Why ?■ '^"^^^'P>W ,; F»)iieiihi4 only- • Not' thebalf ikjfHUli the J,;(|f- exe? Ml f be, told you., I flater follow it from fee initial ... Btogeß into the u! jigonica of ttfo iiiiiniiary ■'•■•■ t » Bh 9 s Pit«>intoll l eGloomfi(iison;into the barrejksylum;. to the black liver at whtn fyera is a splash 1 mid a wibl cry, and some sofil, amiscrabMoul, meant fof all things 'sweefand holy anfl 'beautiful, .' ■' . disappointed, unauel'd, rushes ijtolhe awful ....., ; presence of itß.Gi., This is wha) drink does, is lit this moment doinir, W .thousands of ■women, of Kngl[?h women, '.of Ghiisiiim ; .women, living bwfiwso of it i.f.s .( iuuoi,- • c'eivaUlo uon, dying iocui.a.! of it '"'' deaths of uhutt'rfinla shame. S ■ ' '■■ 7. And oh, lnylriends, if you will leave all the (JQ.J.pOO drunkards—tlria most miterable army constant y recruite| by those who nowavc bright anil young, b(St who, if unwill, in thdiir turn, snjonldor in this flame, which thus sets on firo the '• awheel df-bnfiig. and. is sot on-iire of hell—if : ' neither by effort, ii..r'ups&fflple, nor by he'ping'those who 'have* the woTirtr hand, nor by insistingj- on, furthering the legislation which is so imperatively needed—will you Wcavol ito 'rescue them from their fate:— if, you villi not fa,, erai the Netted Sundayf for them free from the maddening sptU—mW you not think of the children ?-of all that the children suffer because of drink—the children for whom Christ died, the children whose rosy, innocent faces !; ■ should be the brightest flowers on English so ; l—the children of whom the Lord told us that their angels do behold the Face of our Father in Heaven? Are'; you deaf to their = agony, callous to their j destruction! We , read in Scrip Hire the lior'ror and indignation of the Almighty, uttered by the burning lips :of the Prpnliefs,. -jipaiiisit those who in old days passed their children through the fire, to Moloch, in the valley' of the children of Hinnom. But here ajfain the pitiless daily records of justice provij, as a dreadful fact, , that hundreds, uay, {thousands, of little English children nre, ;year by year, passed through fires as deadly to. the Demon of Drink ;-nay, deadl : of, because they are fires which not only Igonise the body but also taint' the soul,* Go into our lowest streets and see what;? condition of dirt and sqnalor, of cruelty and corruption of physical and moral leprqsyv-lcft a 1 day to beg, to steal, to of them are abandoned. In a street in Westminster, out of six boys under twelve, in a religious class, it was found thaV five had already boen i locked up for larceny'. Yes, it is from there materials that the thief, and the felon, and tho, harlot are made.! Our • pleasant vices, our Epicurean nf gleet, is made tho whip wherewith to scouVgej ua, and life becomes more, intolerable f and less safe to nations which shut their oyes to facts, and* brazen their hearts agaiiist duty. It was i/a street hard by that, ago/two little children hid themselves in/neighbor's chimney from the threats anTteor of a drunken father and a drunken mother, It

was'but yesterday:'that, I cut out of an evening paper -the record of fair cases in succession of infants under two years old in a single Eng|isli\'town killed by being overlaid by mothers' who went'to rest stupefied with drink. "h\A we polite, refined, comfortable persons have no other. coinmeht to irake; on jthe these things, which are daily delug'ng jwith infamy, the skirts of iho robe of*our;civilisation, except that "Temperance refounoi'B use such intemperate language,'' and that "Drink is a good creature of God" 1 Have you'ever!'.seen a rough working man,, honest and (sober, met at the'station by wile and child, transfigured and beautified by a jioly tenderness as he lifts the little one in his .arms and presses it to his cheek ? Yes, the; joy of parents over the young children whom God has given them may be.tbe.piivcsl, the holiest, the most in-n;-cent, of all jpys. T. know of only one Hung which can utterly quench it, which cm ljiftjig a pii;like a brute to tp his own little qn.es. Lift a, brute? Wqrse than a hv'ufG j and t)ic wolf will cherish their cubs; the lioness''fondles and'feeds her young; the very tigress, to saye her whelps) will leap with bare breast and unarmed claws, upon the hunter's steel. But the drunken mother "will let her little one slip and fall upon tho'pavement out of her shameful ha-dsjand the'drunken father will slarye'and 1 cat and cripple them, and after leaving on their immortal souls the taint of his sip as a legacy of indescribable awfulness, will lead their feet into the paths of his own death and shame. Oli fathers, oh mothers, you>hp are true men and women, true who have a heart to feel and eyes to weep—vou who fear god, you who would wa'k in"the steps of your Saviour Christ-whcn you go home, when you gaze on the sweet innocent faces of the dearvlittlc children, the little boys and little maidens whom God has given you, register a vow in Heaven that you will not', with' coM'stos ana I 'pallous %iVlU'»pl<i ypyir he(p and your influence ,'fron] tha| cause pf Tejnperance -Temperance furthered individually, socially, politically, for Christ's sake and the Ppspel'sj which may save English children as well as and English women, which may save London', may save England, may save the world from being, among its many miseries, made more miserable, needlessly miserable, preyontibly miserable by falling victims to this nrster curse of Satan. " Curse ye Meroz, said the angol of theL-rd j cum ye bitterly: the inhabitants thereof, because they come''not to the help of the Lord against the mighty." So spake the grand prophetess oj old. We will not echo her words; wewijjnot catch the fierceness of her tone j we will not curse. But we can see with her that the indifferent, the Ifcodicnn, the half-and-half, often oppose to nsedful reformation a heavier obstacle, by of their opposition, than dp the fflvs. antagonists,.*...'.' ,- '', And we ]iqpe that this wprje of pglftljll sobpr, pf transforming her from the helot of natibhs.'of tearing away'the ?one of rtniukenness .wherewith she has helped to girdle the world, is being, will be accomplished. If not, let-England look to it for evil is before her! But, if so, will you be of those who hinder the progress of reform by your active opposition ? or of those who encumber its path with the sluggishness of indifference? Or, when your hour comes to pssj away-aniid'-th'e many sorrows wo encountor, and. the niany sins into which we fall-will you have the gladness of being able to remember, that, in one holy and unselfish cause,:you used your strength ami your opportunities-wore it only such an opportunity as that now given you-tohelp those who have" lifted their strong arms to bring heaven a little nearer to our earth"? - •