Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, 5 April 1909, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

A\Ji are not only a peculiar people, who make ourselves heard unto London, but we have the world's greatest ever with us. Julius Cavsar still jives on a farm up North, and Abraham Lincoln, a farmer, has just become a bankrupt in the Hawko's Bay ! district. It would appear as if every dog, tho merry widow, and even the downtrodden "drunk" is to have his day. One lias a tax, the other has a waltz j and a hat, and Amsterdam philanthropists have formed a society with the object of looking after persons who are found intoxicated in the streets. As tho society is self-sup-porting, the following charges will be ma lie : — s. d. Conveyance Home by an attendant with little ceremony... 0 7J Ditto, with gentleness ... 1 0 Conveyance in portable chair I 0 Ditto in wheel-barrow ... I 10 Cushions supplied, extra ... 2 0 We aro particularly impressed by ■those dittos — ''Ditto, with gentleness, Is." ''Ditto, in a wheel-barrow, Is Gd." Prohibition will never be carried in Amsterdam with all those "dittos," following naps on schnapps. AMi men of means ai - e not pessimistic regarding the times we live in. Mr i Charles M. Schwab, one of thet most prominent of; America's m magnates, when in London the otlier day ar- ' ranging for a great Anglo-American combine- in - the steel industry, was asked what he thought of the outlook His reply is cheering, for thus quoth he: "American business cannot be said to be booming, but it is growing brisker each month, and I think there are good times ahead. We have had a very bad year, and a half, but there is one thing which all American manufacturers feel suit — tli at while we may have a bad year and bad periods, the tendency of American manufactures is always upward. The production of steel has risen in the last twenty-seven years from a million tons annually to twenty-five millions, and the steel business is the barometer of the United States trade." Great regret will be felt amongst teachers at the untimely death of Mr R. P. Clarkson, Director of Technical Education for the Hawke's Bay District. Mr Clarkson was educated at Christcliurch, and was first engaged in this district as assistant master at the College street school, where lie did excellent work, although it was thought by some that he was too strict a disciplinarian. From there he was promoted to the headmastership of the Normanby school, a position he resigned' to take the appointment in Napier last year, which he held till his death on Saturday. During his term at Normanby, Mr Clarkson took his degree, and was secretary of the Teachers' Institute. He was a great athlete, and an energetic educationist.