ON THE PITCH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XV, Issue 3422, 29 October 1894, Page 2

ON THE PITCH.

By The Barber. So the Show is to be held this year as the races were—on the dry I I have some indistinct sort of recollection of a list of forty or so promised guineas that Mr Leadley had m his pocket one year when the teetotg. tried the moral suasion principle, and did not succeed—the potency of the attraction of the wee drop was too strong. Evan the promise of forty new subscribers waa not sufficient ' bribe to induce the Society to forego the 1 pleasure of a beer m the open. Now that a teeto'al Committee shuts up the booths i willy nilly, what will those forty patriots 'do ?■ Will they rush after Mr Simpson with their guineas of membership, as magnanimous men would who have just scored a great victory, or will they remain as they have been —on the other side, and keep their guineas? ]Sow is the time for them to play the part of true men and toe the mark on the question of membership. They have a chance to score now far better than would have been given them by the Society accepting their offer at the time they made it. There were foolish speeches made about leaving the ranks of the Society if the booths were surrendered* The booths have not been surrendered—they have been cleared out by law: so that the threats as to resigning cannot be put m force. What kept the forty outside the ranks of the Association ? It was the drinking booths, they said. The drinking booths are not m evidence this year. Where are the forty 1 They ought now to come m and score, all off their bat, golden opinions from all sorts of people. If they don't come m now what will be said—simply that they never meant it. The way of the world, sir !

I don't know any more public-spirited man m Ashburton than Mr David Thomas. He Is a many-sided man i 8 Mi David, bub nono of his sides face a gloomy aspect. He looks ever at the bright side of things, and sunshine ia as necessary to him as the air of heaven. If his were an environment of gloom, and nag, and growl, with but little of the sweetness of life thrown in,—somebody would be killed very soon, but Mr Thomas would get out of thit atmosphere somehow. Ha helps cricket and football; he helped racing as long a3 he could; he takes his share of work with the A. and P.; he does not shirk his public duty as a citizen, has been Mayor and may be again, and is nowa Coun • cillor. Football and cricket are getting too fast and violent for him, as they are for some more of us, though I hardly fancy David's head ever had the lop-sided cant that would have cansed him to favor footb&ll. He has no gladitorial ambition and believes m whole limbs. The Swimming Club has been none the worse for his countenance either, and he was a good man m the teams whose labors for the last ten years have made our Domain what it is—one of the finest public parks m the colony. And now the bowlers have got him. I don't know that he was ever more than " fair to-middling " m any of the sports he followed. His life has been always too busy to admit of sufficient practice to take first place. Besides he played for amusement, so that he might be all the better fitted for his work. The field and the track were never his church, only his relaxation ground—never his thoughts by day and his dreams by night, as the racecourse is to the man who has the racing disease acutely. And now he has hoisted the bowling club on his back, and thanks to his enthusiasm this grand game will be played m Ashburton under all the advantages under which the game can can possibly .be played. The square is as flat £s a billiard table, and there is room on it for fifty rinks if need be—were the club strong enough m funds to maintain it all as a green. 1 sincerely hope it will be. He has personally superintended the laying off of the green, the sinking of the trenches, the liming of the sward, ita watering, and rolling, and top dressing. He has taken a few of the ''old young 'uua "m htnd, and is teaching them the science of the game, and under his kindly care bowling has caught on hugely. It is especially the game of old men and men of middle age, and is as pleasant a way of taking much needed exeroise by business men as ever was invented I hear a formal opening talked of —sides to be "skipped" by the Chairman of the County Council and the Mayor of the Borough. A few games would do both of them a lot of good. The fixing up of this green is the best thing Mr Thomas has done for a long time. May his shadow never grow less.

I notice the girla are to have an opportunity of showing what they can do m the matter of bread and scone baking at the Show this year attain. Competitions for bread raised with Brooke's baking powder and Zander's German yeast are advertised, as well as the Society's prizes for homemade bread, and the millers' special priaes. It was m 1892, I think, that the big display took place, and a revelation was made to many good ladies m this town as to what the possibilities were of a home oven. The entries covered two pages and a half of the catalogue, and the exhibition was the finest m the Show. Few of the Ashburton ladies, who get i their bread from the bakers, had the least idea that bread like what was shown th*t day could come f com the ordinary oveo of a farmhouse kitchen; and, brought under their eyes m this way, they realised that there was a duty forming a part of the weekly round m farm life that th,e baker discharged for people m town, but which cqunbry people had to do for themselves— the baking of bread, And since that show, I am m a position to assure you, many of (he town housewives and daughters have acquired the art of baking home-made bread. The referee, if my memory is reliable, was on that occasion, Mr P. Hanrahan— % wise selection, foir though the produce and other merchants who sampled the bread may bo good enough judges as laymen, it wants a man with special skill to unearth the good points, Yefc the judging was so good that Mr Hanrahan ratified every award.