THE EDITOR'S DRAWER.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 69, 23 March 1887, Page 3

THE EDITOR'S DRAWER.

Condensed Correspondence

The Threatened Russian Invasion.— Thus saith T. B. Hannaford : " You have a paragraph anent Russian ck signs in theevent of war under the heading of ' Astounding Revelations.' Why astounding? Havo wo not voluntarily paved the way ourselves for such an eventuality as a Kuseian raid on these islands, provincial districts in goneral, and Auckland in particular? I say wo have. Have we not, when occasions came round, ran about like roaat porkora with knives and forks stuck in our backs grunting out ' Eat us ! eat uts V I again Bay that over and over again we have ! Is it very astounding that tho hungry Muscovite or other hostile power will, at tho fitting moment, grant our prayer and gobblo us

up!"

Fire Brigade. — "An Old Fireman" recently from America, after witnessing the operations of our 81-igatle at tho last Queen-street fire, thinks it would pay to send some experienced man to America to take lessons in tho system in vogue there. Ho is also of opinion that " Ono chomical engine would do more than all thoir water, with far less cost to property."

The Borough or Devontort Water BurPLY.— "Eatepayor" observes : — "Tho position the Mayor and members of the Borough find themselves in, oftor a considerable expenditure of moaoy in their vain efforts to find the aqua pure, would be exceedingly ludicrous to tho burgesses nnd others were it not so painful. These gentle men, carried away by thoir own conceit, nnd in enite ot repeated warnings that thoy would not meat with success in the direction which thoy were bent upon following, carriod out thoir scheme, and it has ended by tapping tho Wtiitemnta, und, last, but by no menus least, throwing: away tho last rags of confidence in which tho ratepayers clothed them. Tho more loss of money, £75, now gone, would not matter much to tho borough if tho locs wero to stop at that sum, but in their detiro to cover their first defeat they wish now, and it eeotns will recklessly pledge the borough to an oxpondituro that it would be unwise to do had it been three times tho population. No person doubts tho benefit of a good water supply, but it must bo obtniued for such v sum as v.'ill not press unduly upon tho ratepayers ; otherwise it will bo a blessing to the few aud a ciu'PO to the many. The matter also presents itself in another form to mo. That is, a water Bupply without a drainage scheme would bo worse than useless. One need only go through some of tho streets in Auckland to eeeand smell for themselves thefefiect of a water supply without a proper aystom of drainage. 1 observe the Councillors have resolved to instruct the Engineer to propound a water scheme from Lake Takapuna at a limitad expenditure of £10,000. The nucleus only of a proper drainago scheme will cost a like amount, nnd there can be no doubt, looking forward to a great reduction in the valuation of property after next year, the Government not being likely to have the privilege of stealing a march upon us again for three years, at such a high valuation there can be no question of the inability of the present population, and I fear for some years to come, to bear such a burden." "Ratepayer" concludes by protesting against" tho Mayor's action in decling to comply with the petition in favour of calling a public meeting, and he urges that a poll should bo taken before any expenditure is incurred on account of water supply.

AccKLiN'D Water Supply.- "Salus" remarks : "Murder will out ! Having watched carefully from timo to time the action of our City Councillors with regard to the quality of the water being delivered to consumers, I have at last discovered lhe causes of the trouble. I have noted that tho reservoirs have been cleaned out, and a certain amount of sediment discovered, and all the animalcule generated by tho iron roof 3 increasing the normal temperature of tho water, and so giving forth life, having boon run off, tho above being one of the causes. The other appears to ma to be now admitted in the Engineer's last report. He states that as nearly as he could tell, loth of our water supply was being pumped from the ponds at the Western Springs and tbo remaiofng 4 sths beiDg taken direct from the springs, Ponds ! what ponds ? does be mean the large open sheets of water exposed to the sun's rays, and surrounding turface drainage adjoining the spring?, coveie 1 ■with vegetation and confervie ? No wonder there are co many ca?es of typhoid, after this admission. What in the naino of all that is wonderful can tho Councillois bo thinking of, or do they think at nil, to permit such a system, and how can tho Engineer have the conscience to take leave to say that ths water, from his personal knowledge, is as good and as pure as can be for all purposes ? Does ho judge with hi? naked eye, or is such a statement made after careful microscopic examination ? I fear not the latter. The Engineer admits that for six weeks men have been employed removing vogetoblo and other inorganic matter from theso ponds and adding to tho thickness of the bids of gravel forming the filtering madia betwean the ponda and the springs from which our supply ia pumped. Fancy the Eup'.us water in cold and wot eoasons being allowed to overflow Lorn tho springs into these storage ponds, to stagnate nrd give forth life, and then when there is an extra demand to be permitted to return through a rough shingle bed for our consumption. The idea is monstrous Pull the whole affair down to its very foundations, and supplement the springs by a simple process weli known to anyone who has the slightest knowledge of such matters, and so receive and deliver it to consumers in its natural pure state and normal temperature, and I believe that much of the sickness and death in our midst will cease."

A Bio Schame. —"Pat Murphy " delivers himself of tho following :-"Misthur Editur, I see bytha papers thatMisthur Juliasa Vogalass baa another schame to make money in buying all the telegraph cables in tha world, aDd making a prophit out of a ehillirg a word. Now, cur, 1 can juet put him up to a grander schame than that same. If he goes home to the Ould Country and forms a company, inehuro the North Island say for £10,000,000, then comes bacK agin and takes the names of all the people in the Island and fends them to Otago, and Canterbury, then ha must stop the mouths of all the crathurs—l main White Island, Terawera and Tongerrero, &.0., and according to my calculations their will be bottled up in the earth at the end of two years fourteen billions horse power of stame which will bust up th 9 whole of the North Island. Then you see Misthur Juliass will of done all he could for tha country, and get the Insurance in London and come back and whack it out to all the late North Islanders. Then half the national debt will be wiped out at one swoop and we can then pension off Misthur Juliasa Vogalaea and live in paco and prosperity."

The Globe Headers. —"A Mother writes:—" Like the majority of your readers I have watched with interest the discussion respecting the Globe Eeadere, and Mr Kobertson's laßt remark, "Bother the public ; what have they got to do with it ? has provoked me to do -what I felt de-irous of doing from the first—tven from the time Kurcpolstilchen entered my house, the price of that instructive book being a matter of surprise to us all. Now, sir, I think the pnblic who feel the s-hoe pinch have a right to speak, and-they have something to do with it practically. As one who lives in a free land, I intend to have my say, knowing that I am at the same time writing the opinion of many other parents. I now taae up a few points :—(1) It is said there is no valid reason against them. I reply, the objections of parents and also of the good and able men who havecxprossed themselves against them are sufficiently valid. (2) They are admittedly minus in regard to moral lessons. Some paople are so awfully afraid of beinc named " goody-goody " that they go the length of cowardice in this respect. If truth, honesty, courage, and kindness are beneficial and right, why be afraid to inculcate them ? 1' we shut these things out of our youthful literature will they be learnt at home? Not always. How then are we to instil these things ? Take a parent's word for it,; children judge these thing 3 as keenly a* we do, and 1 have seen children put good books and Nelson's Eoyal Koaders undar their pillo^v because *hey appreciated them. (.") .The Globe Ue^iuiG are «tol!cd mv iou:o ,ss• embracing a wide field of literature, 1 have heard a proverb of 'Go farther and fare worao.' Gould we not h.ivo a few circus bills and a few ea^y nuttings from heathen mythology to improve our youth ? (4) It occurs to me that our Stats education is compulsory, right, and good in the main, but U followed by compulsory books, contrary to the wishes of -the ma}°l} tJ'' i develops Into tyranny. It is not the en-

forcement of public opinion and of i'ifjrit, but of might. If this ifle Sohtinues, we Bhall havo a feVv other things that people do not like, and they will tombine in this, as in other things, against unwise control. (5) These books are extolled as imaginative. May I refer to an old-fashioned book not yet out of date, which says that the imagination of man's heart i 9 evil from his youth ; and in the 10th chap, of Corinthians we havo something about casting down imagination!;; whoroforo I % opine that that argument is fallacious. (6) Tjj»Bt, and to somo not loast, tho cash part of the question. Cannot tho change to bettor booksbopromioedir.good faith, and tho present stock sold at coat price ? If Kelson's Rcyal Headers were restored, many fftmilios and many secondhand book stalls could produce some to help to meet the tax on parents. There are many of theao lying by which could be given to poor children. Finally, let me ask why should all suffer to savo the pockots of thoso who havo made a mistake ? Why should tho«e who purchaEed bo exempt from the usual run in such case 3 ? Wo outsiders have a misgiving that there is aomo commission wire pulling that affects it all."

About Henry Ward Bkecuer. — " W. 8.5." remarks : " The ' Herald,' in a very brief notice of Henry Ward Beechor, deemed it proper to lug in tho morallypainful caso of hia trial about 14 years ago tor alleged intimacy with a woman. This, I thought, that writer mi^ht well have omitted in so short a notice. Of course in a biography ie must como in, where, for tho ignorant vulgar, it will ba hke a needle in n haystack. I shrewdly suspected a b.-.d bias. It was quite understood that at Court there was porfect acquittal; but that wiiter now cays, 'No, it camo to nothing, through tho disagreement of jury.' However, tho best trial was at a large special church meeting where and when he was unanimously exonerated, and tho woman was soon after expelled from membership. But oven had ho been guilty Satan must not bo pormitted to deprive the peoplo of splendid talents ; ho mostly shouts high. Why, Peter actually and po-itively proached, and very euccessfully, after worse. Herein I often eco a mistake among the prudish moderns. Most likely n. peculiar feminine disorder twisted the intellect of that young lady. Several strikingly similar caaea have hap poncd hero — innocent, steady husbands havo been mado miserable and forced to leavo the placo through tho wife's most extaordlnnry jealousy and outrageous accusations. Beecher was truly a groat man, Latoly I happened to volunteer tho judgment that tho greatest three men of mind of tnodorn time were Gladstone, Bismarck, and Eeochor. In physique, likonosa between last two named. I sco his rental of pews for thus year is £o.i)G5, an increase on last yoar. He vindicated auction by com mon sooso ; impossible to preach to 25,000 regular hearers. Somo hnva theught that Boecher, though independently haukoring after originality and popularly advocating a so-called liberal theology, became wise übove that which ia written by divine in spiration. We are continually being proviJoPtially warned to ' Cease from man I' and not trust oven in the most princely of men. Lord, what is man? Wherein is ho to bo accounted of ?"

Sanitaky Defects.—" J.H."obcerves :— " As the sanitary condition of the city appears anything but perfect, judging by the amount of typhoid fever in our midst, allow ma, through the medium of your columns, to point out an important matter that appears to have been entirely overlooked, and requires the immediate attention of our City Fathers. For the last two years I have lived in Ponsonby, and during that timo my ne'ghbour has used a closet that is placed within two yards of my back door, I have complained to the Sanitary Inspector to have the nuisance removed, but he informs me that unless the box leaks or overflows he is entirely powerless in tho mutter, to doubt thoro are scores of pcoplo in tho same position as myself. Is it not strange that tho laws to compel back yards to bo kept clean do not include fho placing of closets co that they mny not boa nuisance to the neighbourhood? No wonder wo require now fever wr.pds when such a stato of things ia allowed to exist, Lot our City Futhers take this matter in hand, and pa=s a bylaw giving power to tho Sanitary Inspector to examine any yard when a complaint has boon made, and fix upon tho most suitable site for those necessary outhouses. When owners of property build without taking into consideration tho Decessary spaco required for outhouses without creating a nuisance to scrao one, by all means let thorn suffer themselves, and not thoir neighbours, who would prefer to lire under more favourable sanitary conditions."