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Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2272, 18 August 1908, Page 2

This evening tile llev. Thos. Fee, lio-iicense .advocate, will deliver an address at Te Karaka. The annual congregational meeting of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church will he held to-night, tea being served in the Schoolroom .at 6 o’clock. The public meeting will be at 8 o’clock. Factory butter is selling in Timaru at present at Is 5d and Is 6d per lb, and it is not expected that any further advance in price will take place. A Timaru firm has just made •a purchase of butter from a North Island factory at a higher price than it ever paid before, and the vendors, in accepting the order, said it was tho highest price they had received.

The ;iinitial meet in}' of Hie Gisborne Pernmnent Lund. Building and Mutual Investment iSocioty was hold bust evening. The bulan'ce-sheet; and directors’ report wore adopted, and Mohrs Townley, W. 11. Ghrisp, and ,1. 11. Evans wero oleetod directors. Mr. John "Warren was oleetod as .shareholders’ auditor. The mooting then closed with a vote of thanks to tiie chairman. —At a subsequentmooting of the directors, Air. Townley was re-elected chairman, and Air. Andrew Gruluun was appointed as directors’ auditor.

The Y.AI.C.A Literary and Debating Society met in the Baptist Tabernacle last evening, when the subject under debate was "Should Trial by J ury be Abolished P” Air. B. Grubb spoke in the affirmative, and Air. C. Tnttorslicld in t-lio negative, and upon a vote of those present being taken, Air. Tattersfield was declared the winner. Those who spoke to tho subject were Messrs If. S. Malcolm, Foster, Dimstan, Brownlee, A'nrdloy, Dawson, Ingram, Downs, and Saunders. The employers are undoubtedly masters of the position with regard to tho bakers’ strike (states tho “Now Zealand Times’’). They have now a full complement of men, and have had to refuse overtures from competent men for employment. So far as tho masters are concernedtlie strike is dead .and buried—but not forgotten. A fact of some significance is that some of tho bakers are now turning out more broad '.villi fewer hands than before tlie strike. Aleamvhilo the demand for broad continues, but it is .always mot with an adequate supply.

Signs of growing independence on the part of some Presbyterian Churches arc rather perturbing to tho heads of tho denomination, (says the “New Zealand Times”). At the meeting of the Wellington. Presbytery on Tuesday the Itov. J. Kennedy Elliott deplored the decline of authority in this respect. “Some of our churches,” lie complained, “seem to be drifting into a sort of Congregationalism. They are not bowing gracefully to the Presbytery as loyal Presbyterians ought to do, and do not seem to recognise sufficiently the authority of the governing body. 1 ’ They had their remedy, he added, if they had felt very grieved, hut he really would like to se-o a greater spirit of loyalty prevailing. The very handsome, banner generously donated by liis Worship the Mayor (Air. W. D. Lysnar) for tho Thursday football competition, is now completed, and is on view in Afr. 0. Morse’s shop in Gladstone Road. Tho banner is a very line one, o, a rich marone glace silk trimmed round the edges with gold cord, and with gold fringe, on the bottom. The lettering is embroidered in gold silk, and is very tastefully done. The 1) inner, which is the work of Alessrs Hallonstein Bros., Ltd., has been turned out in a most creditable manner, and is certainly tho most handsonio trophy that has yet been offered in Poverty Bay.

The plain and fancy dress hall which will be held hv the Poverty Bay Rowing Chib on Thursday evening promises to be a groat success. 'Tilie secretary reports that nearly two hundred ladies and gentlemen will be present in fancy costume, and ae ,-.i largo number of poster costumes will be included tho sght will be an imposing one. A full list of costumes will be published in the “Times” on tho following morning, and for this purpose the dressing room attendants will have special cards for the use of those attending the ball, on which they will he asked to write their names and the characters they represent. Those cards will bo collected at 9 o’clock by tho reporter. The “Mataur-a Ensign” reports that Air. AV. E. Gladstone, of tho Health Department mot with a revolting case on Tuesday in the course of the systematic inspection of dwellings ho is making in Gore. A house in Ashton street he found tenanted by a casual laborer, who spends most of his earnings in drink. The furnishing was of tho poorest, the condition of tho rooms and the bedding indescribably filthy, the children, of whom there are six, miserably clad, and the mother in a- delicate state of health and apparently unable to copo with the work necessary to keep tho place in docent order. The matter was rejxirted to the Alayor. and tho “Ensign” understands that the recently organised Clothing Club is .taking action, and that the local members of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board have also been informed of the case.

One oflect in the big fall in tho price of wool has been (says the “Christchurch Press”) a marked fall-ing-off in the demand for motor-cars in the country. The motor-car has gone a long way towards making country life attractive to runholders and their families, whose sphere of social life was necessarily restricted by the endurance of the horse and the railway timetable;, but the advent of the automobile, apart from the pleasure of motoring, made it possible to take a visiting radius of 50 or GO miles with tho same ease and greater comfort than a ten-milo journey in a trap or on horseback. One city ag-un for motor-cars who was consulted stated that country business was certainly slack at the present time, and sales ■.wore not nearly so frequent as tin y assuredly would have been had the price of wool kept up. A touching incident occurred at a dinner given by the local Non-com-missioned Officers’ Club in honor of the visit of the British and American sailors at the Drill liall last week. The gathering was just about to disperse, when Chief Turret-Cap-tain Aliller, of the TJ.iS.S. Vermont, roso and said : “Alen, there is but one toast more —a toast which is not on the list —that of ‘Our Mothers.’ ” The words seemed to Jiavo a magical effect, and as the proposer repeated the lines “God bless our. mothers, wheresoe’er they be, tlie women who gave, their sons to fight upon tho sea,” one could have heard a pin drop, and the silence did not cease until the 500 men present had placed their glasses on the -table. Then many handkerchiefs were produced, and it was evident that tlio proposer of tho toast had touched a tender chord.

During his 'recent visit to AVolllington tho Alayor (Mr .AY. D. Lysnar) took the opportunity to see Mr. Jickell, who had been engaged to report on a drainage system for Gisborne. Mr. Jickell stated that the scheme was a very difficult one to work out, iis tho levels of the town principally, and a small portion of the suburbs, were very awkward, not allowing sufficient fall for gravitation, hut lie hoped to have a report ready within tho next week or fortnight. Ho would bo able, lrn said, to provide for natural gravitation for nearly tho whole of the main sewerage of Ivaiti and AVhataupoko. hut tho drainage for Gisborne would havo to be elevated by pumping, s<> as to make a thoroughly successful work. However, he was providing for tile sewerage to bo pumped by tho power obtainable from the surplus water in connection with the Tc Arai supply. Provision, though, would' have to bo made for a stand-by power in case of the water at any time failing. Both Air. Jickell and Dr. Mason are against any scheme of passing the drainage into the river. Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, the attendance at the hockey match was in no way diminished,' and among those players who .deserve special mention are the one who buy asbestos hot plate holders for foiirpence each at Parnell’s popular Saturday sales, 22nd inst. only.

Tim Waikato Minora’ Union t ace adopted tlm following resolution re tile pro]iosed Arbitration Act nino'clmonts:—“That" alter carefully perusinjr the Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment Act, ISJOB, this Uni. in lakes Ibis opportunity of expressing' their disgust with such a desjiotic and tyrannical measure. Tho cl a uses dealing with councils of eoneilation a’c, we think, worthy of considerat on, lut the clauses dealing with strikes, freedom of speech, and Ireedon of tho Press are despotic and tyranui3.il and absolutely intolerable, to a people with a spai'k of democratic spirit hit withing them. Were the Logoi at're to adopt some method of refer md'im in appointing tho President of ’he Court, and adopt some method of maintaining the purchasing power of the minimum wage during the currency of an award, and with some security of tenure ol' out employment, then wo could depend on ail impartial judgment and the living we expect during the currency of an award. Under such conditions, men going on strike, instead of receiving sympathy and support from their fellow-unionists, would receive contempt and reproach.”

On being asked by an “Otami Daily Times” reporter what lie thought of the suggestion, that Mr. D. M’Laren, of Wellington, should go down to Dunedin to opposo the Lion. J. A. Millar for the Dunedin West scat. Mr. Barclay M.P., replied that he, regarded the proposal as too ridiculous for words. Mr. M’Laren ho regarded as a very good man indeed, but it would be ililficult to find anything moro insulting to tho City of .Dunedin than to suggest that if Mr. Millar was to be opposed nobody could be found in Dunedin who was fit to stand as a candidate, and that the Dunedin electors should have to send to Wellington for what they were unable to produce themselves. Dunedin would have to come down to a very low state indeed before that would happen. ‘‘All the same,” said Mr. Barclay, “so far as I ain concerned, I do not approve of several things that have been done in tho Labor Department, and I shall feeU it my duty to strenuously oppose several of the provisions of the now Arbitration Bill.”

The Hon. Dr. Findlay, in his advocacy of a “needs wage” finds no supporter in the Hon. J. Anstey, who told a “Timaru Herald” representative that he had asked for, hut had not got a definition of that term. A “needs wage,” as -a standard, said Mr. Anstey, was an impossibility, because it must vary with every family, his need increases with every new cradleful, and with every rise in the price of bread and boots. The labor men in both Houses, again, were opposed to the “exertion wage” saying- that it would be used as a “driving” or “pacemaking” device. Mr. Anstey, however, looking over the world at large, and throughout history, could sec no instance of a people miking progress without tho incentive provided by reward for individual effort. It was too plainly .an element of human nature to bo denied. 'I hero must be room provided for ’he play of a reasonable amount of human selfishness, and it was this principle, applied with justice, that ensured progress for- the individual and for tho community.

A New Zealand correspondent writes to the “Scotsman,” enclosing an articlo from a New Zealand paper, witli the observation:—“lt is a type of what is frequently served up here for ‘colonial consumption only.’ ” He adds: “What usually strikes a Homo anan first on arriving in New Zealand is the colossal conceit of the average young Maorilander, together with his appalling ignorance of anything outside his own immediate circle. ‘New Zealand saved the Empire in the Boer war,’ is an article of faitli here, and the belief that this country stands between. Britain and starvation is equally accepted. Such articles as the enclosed cannot but help to retard that tightening of the bonds of Empire which is so greatly to bo desired, and so can hardly be too strongly condemned.” The “Scotsman” culls a few of the main characteristic features for the article referred to, “for the edification and, it may be, enlightenment of our less blessed compatriots, who have tho misfortune to have neglected the completion of their education by a sojourn in New Zealand.”