RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 342, 4 March 1911, Page 3

RANDOM REMARKS.

"Always a sport: always a gentleman." Liberal and uncompromising truth exudes from the well-worn saying, statement and deduction being interpreted in their widest and deepest sense. Be it known, however, that he may be a sport of the highest calibre who has never seen a race meet • ing, donned a spiked shoe, or indulged in any of the various branches of athletics commonly assigned to the world of sport He who always "plays the game" in life is surely the gaudiest sport of them all. In the words of poet and sport, Adam Lindsay Gordon Life is mostly froth and bubble; Two things stand like stone: Kindness in another's trouble: Courage in your own. The spirit of the true sport is here displayed. The attributes of generosity and courage which dignify manhood are indispenasble alike to sport and gentleman. To our people the world over sport has ever appealed, and the man who has been disciplined to cheerfully and generously take a licking at his favourite game, after trying his best to win, is invariably "not a bad sort." That is the sort of training sport should be responsible for. and that sort of education has moulded the British race, and is welding the chains of Empire. The warfare ol amateur and professional will constantly be waged. Ethically the amateur is right beyond argument. But what matter it. After all the prize is nothing: the game: the game's the thing.

Judging from current chat in Te Kuiti there is only one game worth dignifying by the name of sport. The game of bowls has taken the town by storm, if anything quite so violent can be associated with the fascinating pastime. To the uninitiated the game apparently consists of trundling a wooden sphere along the ground, with the object of placing it as near as possible to a small, white ball called "the jack.' : This bald description, I am assured, does not begin to do justice to a great game. Deep and intricate problems arise during the course of the game, requiring earnest and concentrated thought, combined with the most delicate manipulation and finesse on the part of the players, while the steadiness of nerve, and metriculous precision are indispensable. The bald description is a personal impression. A deeper insight was sought to be conveyed to me by an enthusiast, but I have miserably failed to do justice to his eloquence. The enthusiast at the game, I am told, is to be identified by the weirdnes3 of his contortions after dispatching a bowl on its journey to the jack, and by the frequency of his adjournments to the pavilion. The pavilion is a most popular instituion at a bowling green, that being the place, the enthusiast says, the players go to study the scores. Some players are mighty keen on results. Also lam assailed by a horrid suspicion that my informant did not endeavour to make himself clear on some of the liner points. He also told rric the green was to be used 8 as a football ground in winter.

Many conflicting rumuors are circulating through the local political atmosphere at present regarding the intentions of parties at the forthcoming general election. The possibility of Taumarunui electorate being partitioned subsequent to the census to be taken this year adds a blissful uncertainty to the situation, but the average elector is probably not losing any sleep over U. "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" in politics as in other branches of industry. For the political calling has developed into an industry, and to him who is most persistent and assiduous in procuring for his people their own, and somebody else's, share oi the loaves and fishes is the most successful politician. Excuses can bs offered for such a development in a new country like ours, and doubtless Time will see the evolution of our members from the parochial to the national. Compared with other contituencies Taumarunui can hardly be called parochial. Many hundreds of square miles are embraced in the boundaries of our electorate, and the member who can tour the district and make himself acquainted with the requirements of the various localities, and enjoy the experience, deserves to be rewarded by being elected for life. Still there is always competition for the job. Verily, man is a complex creature.

According to a recent news item, there is to be a monster re-union of women workers in Auckland very shortly, and Mr Jennings, M.P., has been specially invited to attend. The bare announcement made no reference to the possibility of Mrs Jennings being present, but even a politician's better half has some rights which it is not well to ignore. Joking apart, however, it is fitting that Mr Jennings should receive special notice at the hands of Auckland's women workers. Twenty years ago the lot of factory workers, even in the cities of our budding dominion, was susceptible of immense improvement, Mr Jennings ardently adopted the role of organiser in a great movement, and to his efforts may be attributed the betterment in conditions under which the great and growing army of women workers in our cities earn their daily bread. The satisfaction due to a knowledge that one has done one's best for the good of humanity is freqently the only reward obtained by the philanthropist. In the present instance there is evidently a grateful memory at work to give honour where honour is due. Exactly in what form the grateful sentiments of the multitude of women workers will be given shape it is diilicull to predict. Still, there i 3 much to be said in favour of a modest man being adequately guarded under conditions which may ensue.

Te Kuiti has arrived: it has got, there; it is bringing home tne bacon, and will sure win out. This is almost as far as my acquaintance with the vernacular extends, otherwise the acquiring of a twenty-seven thousand loan is deserving of much more adornment in the way of admiring epithet. A retrospective glance through a period of five years or kg in the history of Te Kuiti is something of a revelation to the old inhabitants. It is useless endeavouring to convey an idea to a new coiner of the Te Kuiti of live years ago. He might endeavour to imagine it, but it had to be seen to be understood. However, not the past, —of blessed memory- but the present, and that which is to come, has interest for us. Mot every borough of such recent birth that has such courage, or such confidence in its destiny as to seek to take its place in the forefront at one leap. But not every borough is biessed with such a farseeing and capable public Boddie.

For many year 3 I was under the impression that, in a free and enlightened country, a public meeting was the only right and pioper channel whereby to ventilate any questions of public interest. Several years' experience of public meetings brought home the fact that such gatherings usually served the purpose of providing an opportunity for certain persons to air their eloquence. Subsequently the idea of select committees possessed me, and I pointed with pride to work accomplished by such bodies. Committees, however, have obvious drawbacks from the public point of view, for therewith the clique is apt to be developed, or the work left to the enthusiast. For the enthusiast; the fanatic; the man of one idea there is much to be said, granted the idea happens to be the correct one. History points to the fact that all great works have been chiefly due to the enthusiast. Unfortunately the enthusiast develops. He becomes the autocrat, or takes to drink. In any case his doom is sounded, and a long suffering public is thrown upon its own resource. It has taken a long time to work up to the point, but surely the alternative is obvious. What is left to serve the public for the free and untrammelled expression of its joint and collective opinion but the press? Native modesty forbids further elaborations, save to express the hope that a distraught editor will not repent having preserved these remarks from the doom of all useless copy; limbo of spring poetry and possible libel suits, the W.F.B.