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Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3084, 21 April 1892, Page 2

Saturday next being St. George's day, the banks in Waikato will be closed.

The Cambridge and Paterangi Cricket Clubs meet on Saturday, 30th inst. at Cambridge to play off the match which should have been phyod on March 12th.

Mr Jno. jMcNicol will hold a clearing sale of furniture and effocls, and live and dead stock at the Whatawhata Hotel, to-day, commencing at half-past twelve sharp. There was quite a large attendance at the Court House, Hamilton, during the whole of yesterday, great interest being taken in the charge against Ne.ilson in connection with the recent burglary at Mr Davey's. On Saturday night a billiard match 300 up for £5 a-side will bo played at the Waikato Hotel, between Messrs A. Campbell and W. Odium. Considerable interest is being Uken in the match and outside the wager considerable betting is taking place.

In connection with the South Auckland Racing Club's Autumn Meeting to be held at Glaudelands on Saturday next 23rd inst., a train will leave Auckland at 7 a.m. for Hamilton Bast, arriving in time for the first race and returning at 0 p.m. The 2.25 p.m. train trom Frankton Junction to Te Awamutu will not run, but a train will leave for Te Awamutu at G.lo pm. Further particulars may be obtained from the posters in the various railway station. Great anticipations are entertained by the Salvationists for a successful tour of tho Lassies' Brass, String and Vocal Band 3 (combined), which is to visit Waikato this week, holding musical evenings at Huntly to-night; Oddfellows Hall, Hamilton East, to-moirow night; Cambridge, Saturday night and all day on Sunday, and at Hamilton West on Monday night. According to the Southern papers, the band has had a very successful tour in the South Island, and it has also been well received in the North Island at the townships visited by them. While the lassies were at Nelson, Bishop Suter, of the Church of England, appreciated the band to such an extent that ha invited them to his residence to play, which invitation the members accepted, to the intense gratification of His Lordship's household. The Hand is comoosed of eleven lassies, under the charge of Ensign Wilson, and play no less than twenty-four different instruments. Such a novelty is not to be seen and heard every day in the Waikato, so that they are sure'to draw good crowds.

The School Inspectors of Otago, in a joint report to the Dapartment. say that the difference between passes and failures at the school examinations is ""reatlv exaggerated in popular estimation. The majority of those who fail are in point of proficiency but little below those who barely pass. It is one of the evils of the standard-pass system that it creates a momentous distinction where there is very little real difference. In a series of papers nr answers of nicely-trraduated merit the examiners have to draw a line between those that pass and thmre that tail. Those just above the line and those just below it are really of nearly equal merit, but as soon as the verdict of pass or fail is pronounced this is wholly forgotten. The boy who answers fairly and passes becomes a sort of hero; the one who is perhaps, f> or 10 per cent, below him fails, and is thought to have learned next to nothing. To suppose this, however, is a very great mistake, for the difference in ascertained requirements between the two is very often no more than 5 to 10 par cent., and in actual acquirements may be nil. Those who know the real state of the case can have no doubt that many of the pupils of our schools who do not pass have yet received a very fair education—an education quite equal to that gained not so many years ago by the average pupils of this district."

Ministers have (the Wellington Press thinks) a grim sense of humour. This is Easter week, the week of penance and piayer, when every good man is exhorted, with travail and sorrow, to reflect upon his past errors, to throw off all thought of the world, the flesh, and the other things to, confess and repent. It is also the week in which he has to make returns as to income-tax. We have been trying to keep the season in the proper spirit. Wo have attended Mr Grubb's setvices and have derived much profit from that excellent gentleman's manly and persuasive discourse ; but we have also been compelled by a pitiless. Government to study assiduously our income-tax form, with the assistance of a legal friend and a plentiful use of wet towel and midnight oil —aud we regret to state that our last state is much worse than the first. At an afternoon service we have resolved to give up all hasty exclamations of surprise or annoyance, to remember that even our political enemies all had mothers once, and to take unto ourselves in future nothing but peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith ? but in the evanine, when inwardly communing over our income-tax form, we blush to confess that we have broken theiie resolutions in a manner that we never remember to have occurred before. We humbly submit that the duty of searching both conscience and ledger at the same time is more than any citizen should be called upon to perform.

Speaking 1 of the altered condition of the agricultural labourer at Home, Colonel Gorton, who has just returned, ami has been interviewed by the Post, says:-"I must say 1 was particularly struck, while in England, with the greatly improved condition within the la.it thirty years, of tho labouring classes in the agricultural counties. Tho cottages are in much better order, the rentu are lower, and the wages are higher ; yet now, iu spite of all this improvement, political agitators are going through tho counties trying to make these people dissatisfied with thenlot. I was speaking at a ' Harvest Hume ' io Suffolk, when a little event occurred which show.*, however, the difference even now between the life of an agricultural labourer here and there. After describing life in New Zealand, I asked my hearers one question, which I was very anxious they should answer. It was whether anyone in that room had heard of tho attempt on the lite of the Emperor of Austria, by the placing of a bomb under a bridge, which had taken place four days previously. I was not surprised to hear that even the more educated chws present had not even heard of the occurrence. I then told them that I would guarantee that in New Zealand, 15,000 miles away, from north to south, two-thirds of the population had full knowledge of the fact a. few hours after the disc-ivory, and that the labourers working in the bush discussed the affair over uhoir pipes the same evening, and that probably those same men knew far more of what >vas going on in Kngland than they in England knew themselves. This seemed to strike my nudirmco more than anything said thai owning—and }vf how true it was !

Mr W. M. Douglas, of Bruntwood, lost a stack of oats by fire on Tuesday evening. It is presumed the fire was eau-od by a spark Irrun an engine that hud been :it work clutfF-cuttinc during the day, but if it was, the fire must have smouldered for a long time, as it did not burst into Haines for four hours after the engine had been stopped and the lire extinguished. The stuck was estimated to contain 20 tons, and, together with five other*, was insured with the South British for £100.

The Cambridge Wesleyans gave a welcome to their new minister, the Rev. T. K. Simmonds, the other evening. They held a very sooiahlp meeting in St. Paul's schoolroom, over which Mr R. Reynolds presided and on behalf of the congregation heartily welcomed Mr Simmonds to Cambridge. Several others also said a few words of kindly greeting, and then Mr Simmonds briefly replied. Songs, recitations, and instrumental selections were given and the meeting concluded with a coffee supper supplied by the ladies. Of the quality of the comestibles it is unnecessary tj speak, and as to quantity there was sufficient for a " tea fight."

Mr T. H. White, architect, made a final inspection of thi additional ward* erected at the Waikato Hospital on Tuesday and expressed himself as mora than satisfied sis to the manner in which the work had been carried jut by Mr Elliott, the contractor, it comparing favourably with that i" the other parts of the building. The additions consist of three wards and a dining room. Two of the wards are 26 feet square and will accommodate six patients each, while the third ward which is for cases requiring isolation is T shaped 20 feet by 10 feet wide, The new dining room is 32 feet by 1G feet and is high and airy, the whole of the additions being well ventilated and lighted.

The Taranaki Herald says : — Parihaka has been purged of all that was I bad, and even the sanitary arrangements are much improved. Since the time when the Hon. John Bryce made a raid on Parihaka, and cleared the vagabondage from the village, and compelled Te Whiti and Tohu to see something of civilised life, all has been altered. The small unhealthy whares are being replaced by well-built houses ; the land has been drained, and refuse, which in former days was allowed to putrefy, is now buriod—so the place is clean and healthy. The fea-ts of former days, which eonsisted of " lilinee," dried shark, and other rather " high " food, is now replaced by baked and boiled meats, pies, puddings, blanc-manges, jellies, and other European delicacies. The natives used to eat their food squatting on the ground, from large round dishes, into which each put his or her hand to take food. That is likewiso changed, a large dining hall has now been built, and the tables at which the natives sit to partake of thoir food are all laid out in regular " pakeha " fashion, even to glassware and table napkins. Some of the older Maoris, however, still prefer the old kinds of food, and to suit their tastes a quantity of mutton birds have been obtained from the Chatham Islands. Parihaka of the present day is different from what it was 25 years ago, and this shows more than anything how the native race are assimilating themselves to the habits of their Euglish neighbours.

The fact that during the past financial year a sum of £1,025,174 was collected in New Zealand through the Customs, is evidence of two things. Firstly, it shows that, despite the policy of the Government, the colony is prosperous, otherwise it could not afford to pay such a large amount for dutiable goods. Secondly, it shows that the Protective duties must be enormously heavy, for the total population of New Zealand is only a little over 000,000 souls, including men, women, and children, hence the contributions to Customs per head of population amount to nearly £3. Taking the average of family at five, the sum which each wage-earner or head of a family has to pay annually is about fourteen pounds or five shillings a week. Do the toilers, whose average earnings all round do not amount to more than 303 a week, understand the price they pay for the luxury of an ultra-Protectionist "Liberal" Government? If every working man, when he received his week's wages on Saturday, had to hand over to the tax-collector ss, would he be so enamoured of the blessings of "Liberalism" and Protection? Taking another view of the question. How can the Sinrie-taxers, who hold that all Customs duties should be swept away by the board, support a Ministry who not only take sixteen hundred thousand pound' a year through the Customs from a population which, all told is less than that of a second-rate English city, but express their I ardent desire to increase the Customs duties? .^___