FIRST EDITION. The Ensing. GORE : TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1895.
Mataura Ensign , Issue 73, 17 December 1895, Page 2
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FIRST EDITION. The Ensing. GORE : TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1895.
NEWS AND NOTES. Consultations being to the New Zealander forbidden fruit, he naturally goes to as great pains to and the MOEAL purchase a ticket in is — ? them, as the man in Clutha does to hunt np a stimulant. . Further, for the same reason, he finds great pleasure in reading anything concerning consultations ; and, his desires being known to the all-wise editor's of papers who provide him with literary pabulum, nothing, or hardly anything, that oan legally be printed about tbe monster consultations "on the other side," is allowed to escape. Hence it is scarcely a matter of surprise that prominent among the items in a telegraphic summary of Anstralian news should appear in yesterday's Dunedia morning daily the following : — " The winner of tho big prize of L 6750 in Tattersall's No. 1. consultation on the Queensland Cup is a Newcastle district coal miner. The case is surrounded by romantic circumstances. The man, who has a crippled son, had scraped together Ll with the intention of consulting a specialist regarding the lad. He tried to induce several mates to join him in sending for tickets for the sweep, but all excused themselves. He then r suggested to his wife that as a last chance they should venture tho pound put aside for lhe boy. The wife said: 'Send for the ticket. Mayhap God will send us summat for the little fellow.' The miner laid the owner L2OOO (0 nothing, and the jockey LSOO loL20." This Newcastle miner, with his wife and crippled boy, make together a very happy combination — one that is seen to bo, indeed, quite irresistible. There is great natural power in tho poor cripple -to begin with — fit subject as he is fir a* stroke of luck. Next we have tbe "scraping together" of Ll — no easily got pound, mark you, but "scraped together." And why thus carefully accumulated ? To rashly speculate with? To heedlessly " blue'? To dissipate in the reckless vermilioa-painting of things in general P Certainly not — ." scraped together with the intention of consulting a specialist regarding the lad." Good, worthy object But the^miner, prudent maD, evidently hesitated to put all his eggs in ono basket, orin other wordr, sink all his capital in oue specialist. He would like to venture, say a half, in a speculation which might bring in many sovereigns, wherewith doubtless to procure the advice of many specialists. But he found no other venturesome spirits, and it became a question of choosing between one specialist in the hand and several thousand in the bush. At this critical moment the mother comes in, and in accents fervent, though language unrefined, settles the good man's doubt by remarking, " Send for tho ticket. Mayhap God will send us summat for the little fellow." The trust in the Higher Power here evinced is vory touching, and one feels that never has a consultation been approached on stronger grounds or with more reverend feeling. However, the miner — most prudent iuan — is determined that no effort of his shall be wonting to ensure success, aud specialists. Having drawn a horse, ho does not at once part with his ticket for a sum which would command the services oi only a few hundred Ll specialists. No, he feels that his cause is just, and, leaving his wife (o continue lo pray, he wisely proceeds to lay the owner L2OOO to nothing and the jockey LSOO to 1,20. Naturally, he won the big prize. A case so strong surely never before went to judge or jury, human or divine. And the moral is ? Well, we leave it to our doctors of divinity to expound. We imagine that the case is one which gives them, an opening. The proposal that the business people of Gore should closo their premises at 9 p.m. on Saturdays, like many early closing^ another excellent institution established in our midst, has fallen to tho ground during the jSrst few weeks of its trial. This is no more than we expected. There was a want of unanimity ,o£ tho class most interested in the scheme, which damned it at ite very inception. The wholo project was a most reasonable one, and it is -deeply lo be regretted that it has been a failure, but it is not human to suppose that th 6 butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, who had promised to adhere to the resolution regarding early Saturday night closing, would continue doiug so while those in the samo line of business as themselves, for some oocult reason, declined to fall in with the proposition, keeping open two or three hours later than they themselves did, and reaping no small monetary advantsge by, so doing. It is absurd to expect such an' adhesion to a commercial principle jn these times of cut-throat competition in every slepai'tnient of trado aad industry. No doubt our local bijisiu*Bs people are beginning to realise that they arj* not masters of tho situation, Jt is the genojral pablie who are the masters, and the shop.-teepera the servants, and until the latter can educate their patrons up to a realisation of the fact that lato Saturday night shopping is an altogether unneces sary and pernicious custom, or, failing this, take united action themselves and force the truth of their contentions upon those for whoso needs they catef, the slightest change or reform oan never be looked for. The matter of earlg closing resolves itself into not only a question of saving of lighting expenses to employers, and physical eneray to employees, but a check to the growth of larrikinism and •kindred vices?, becoming at once a question of moral and social importance. On these and other grounds the project has, from the first, met with the undivided support and sympathy of all right thinking persons.
