The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1887. AMUSEMENTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2559, 28 March 1887, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1887. AMUSEMENTS.

I _» —_■ : 1 A COB3KSPOSDBKT iii .our last issue i j referred to the popular amusements : and the price paid for them. These j a'miPGiiieiits perhaps can only be i 6:vly callid: 1 ! queitioii w ifl'.i they are ' tabu in excess, and vrheu we pay more for them than we can afford. Popular amusements such as concerts, dramatic performances, and even a j danco or a circus are within certain ■ limit-!, w! olaaome *ndonjoyible. An ; ■ eivertaimnent which interests people! is looked forward io with pleasure, [ and after it is past, remembered and talked over with a certain amount of gratification. Mental, physical, and even moral health is stimulated by occasional entertainments varying the monotony of existence, and a community which is incapable of being amneed must be a very sad one. As a rule our public entertainments are fairly free'from any vicious tendencies, and perhaps the worst thing that can be said against tkarn is that they take a little too much of the ready money from the town, We fear that those who went to see the King of Salesmen last week paid very dearly" for their fun, but probably this case was an exceptional one in whioh a clever mountebank got a long way the best of the public. No doubt it frequently happens that a head of family is induced to spend a fow shillings at some entertainment or other, ana at the end of the month when his baker, his butcher, or his landlord's .bill comes in ho is just that amount, short and be pays for his .pleasure by going into debt. Tradesmen 'do complain that men who owe debts, and cannot meet their Httle bills, do find; money for popular entertainments and when they hear of a "good house" they groan at the idea of so many pounds, shillings and pence going out of the place. Entertainments have the whip hand of them as the promoters of the former take cash only and the latter gives credit, In a competition for money between promoters of'entertainments and tradesmen the side that gives no credit necessarily get the be3t of it, If, howover, credit ina town like Masterton was more restricted, people would only.be' able to spend on their amusements their own money instead of, as is frequently "the case, paying money which ought to go to their creditors, fl.'hj credit system which prevails in Masterton to a large extent is bad for the tradesmen hut ■it is worse for his customers. Tho tradesmen jn giving credit takes a 'risk with his eyes open and if his e;ka profit? dp ,ppyer thjs risk he

hiw liiniKclf to blame, but the poorcus" tomor who takos the credit" is often -in; a most undesirable He earns, possibly, thirty or forty shillings a week, and at the end of each month •finds jiimsolf a pound or so short of the money necessary to liquidate the various'bills' sent in-to him. Month after month the deficit gets a trifle larger, till .at last he beoomos a hopeless insolvent, ia in debt all round, and cannot by any means, free himsolf from the chains that bind hini, ' Thrift and prosperity have become Impossible to him, and ,his. normal condition is to be hunted forffion'eywMchhecannot'pdsßiblypay. The men,who give; him'oredit suffer through him, but his own trouble is, : far-heavier. - It would be an absolute kindness to men of small means, men without capital, depending on wages; to deprive them of the oredit thejj now so readily obtain. The real gore is not 'that amuiementsjakeisway so much money out of thsjowh as. that trader! aUpwthejprpmoters of amusemanta to tftkp .rcidy. money whwh th»y ought taiclywito seem.