LOOKING BACK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 79, 15 January 1936, Page 4

LOOKING BACK.

FIFTY YEARS SYNE. .1 (From the "Guardian, ,r Jan. 15, 1886). Races in Ashburton.—A meeting of promoters of the Ashburton iSummer Race Meeting, to receive and consider the programme prepared by the committee appointed in that behalf at a previous meeting, took place last evening in Quill's Hotel. Some thirteen gentlemen put in an anper,rancej and Mr S. Saunders was voted to the chair. It was mentioned by Mr K. B. Moss that it had been suggested outside that a club should be formed, but the chairman said that he thought it would be hardly fair to do this without notice being given, and suggested that the meeting should now proceed with the special business for wnich it had been called. Later on a notice of motion could be given, if so desired, with a view to the question of the formation of a club being dealt with at a future meeting. The Panama Canal.—M. Rodriques, who accompanied M. De Lesseps to Panama, has published a, book in New York containing damaging criticisms regarding the canal. He declares that the scheme has already sunk twenty* millions sterling, and that it is doomed to inevitable failure. The "Economiste Francaise" warns its countrymen that the whole concern is on the verge of probable bankruptcy, and that the collapse will be the most terrible of the nineteenth century. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO. (From the "Guardian," Jan. 15, 1911). Scholarship Examinations.—ln the list of successful candidates in the Education Department's scholarship examinations published on Friday, the name of Harriette M. Porter, of the Hampstead School, heads the list of North Canterbury candidates, with 610 marks ; the next on the list received 583 marks. Sharks at Rakaia.—While fishing with a deep-sea line at the mouth of the Rakaia on Wednesday, the Rev. P. J. Cocks, of Christehurch, landed three sharks in about half an hour, varying in size from four to six feet. It is stated by fishermen that sharks are very plentiful at the mouth of the Rakaia. An American View.—Using the heading "No Strikes in New Zealand," the San Francisco "Bulletin" of a recent date contains the following article by Colonel Singer: "No paupers, child labourers, corner saloons, all-night Turkish baths, trusts, labour strikes, tenements or slums, private employment offices, politics in schools or courts, cells in gaols, except for murderers, not stupid suit for convicts, chain gang, women's clubs, no trains or trams or theatres running on Sundays. That's New Zealand, according to the Rev. C. Augustus Turner, who addressed the Women's Civic Club in the , Phel'an Buildings, recently."