ASHBURTON NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 8690, 14 January 1889, Page 6

ASHBURTON NOTES.

[took CUE OWN CORRESPONDENT.] THE SEASON. Now that the holidays are all over, we have buckled down again to the everyday humdrum of life. Thanks to superb weather at a time when we wanted it, our crops are in splendid condition, andfarmers are making every preparation for harvest. THE HARVESTER SEASON. The place is flooded with literature of all aorta detailing the points of excellence of, and the " points ’’ scored in competitions by, the various harvester candidates for public favour. Those reapers and binders are a terrible trial to any man unfortunate enough to he a newspaper reporter. He has to encounter the most genial and obliging of men in agents and experts, gentlemen all as immaculate as George Washington when their respective machines are under discussion, and you have to say kind things atont them. Of course, and as is well known, there Is plenty of scope for saying kind things about each and all of the machines, for harvesters have now reached a point so near perfection that it is difficult to say how soon absolute perfection is to be reached. But then there are points in construction and in working on which the machines differ, and if the unfortunate reporter’s dull brain happens to he built with a twist that would inftHria him to the particular construction or,, working of any one machine or machines, while he does not think the same of some others—oh, then, isn’t there ato do; if by any chance a single line gets into his paper that can at all be thought to ho indicative of a bias, however little, in favour of any one machine in particular, then- he gets fits from his friends the experts-and agents, and when night should come to halm his weary breast, he finds, instead of a restful sleep, a fearful nightmare, in which Massey, M'Cormick’s, AllSteel Lowdowns, Buckeye Single-aprons, gnd all sorts of horrifying mixtures of all the different machines in the world roll over his unfortunate head. A demon in blue dungaree sits upon his breast, and tries to smother him with a hadiy-tied sheaf j another gets upon his forehead, and binds up his little crop of hair with a simplex knotter, and just when half -a - dozen of them have torn Tiim away to learn all about tension, and draught, and bundle-carrying, and lowdown, and elevator, and single apron, he awakes and wonders in the name of fortune what all those good men and true mean by haunting him in this way and disturbing his peace of mind. A asked me which of all the machines in the market the newspapers considered the-best. Did you ever hear of such a question being put to a newspaper man before ? Well, I told him the best machine for the farmer was the one that suited him best, the best machine for a newspaper could be ascertained by putting a foot-rule down the advertising column. three-halfpence a-head. . We had his Lordship up at a confirmation service some time ago. In the evening the good old man preached to a large congregation —some 450 or so. It was a sort of complimentary attendance, as by far the larger portion of the congregation were not of the Episcopalian persuasion. When the collection was counted up and the census of the pews taken it was found the crowd had not contributed more than Lkl per head. I reckon there were a good few sordid souls in the sacred pile that evening who were not worth the saving. Yet they crowded into the Risk show and paid their money to hear the slave songs. A number of them went down to Christchurch to the Rink and heard the «Messiah.” I think it was Cowper who, speaking of a musical celebration, said—--11 Ten thousand sit, Patiently present at a sacred song, Commemoration-mad; content to hear (Ob, wonderful effect of music’s power 1) Messiah's eulogy, for Haudel'o sake.” In any case the “ gate money ” was surely more t-hn-n “ three-ha’pence a nob.” SCHOLASTIC DRY ROT. It there is any school in the Colony into . which dry rot bias penetrated, it is into the one in Ashburton. I don’t mean the building, but the situation of headmaster, for nobody seems able to hold it. When I came to Ashburton ten years ago, one master had just been superannuated, and another was being appointed. He came with high testimonials and a splendid record, but the place soon proved too many for him, and after about three years in harness he was allowed to resign after being pretty well worried to death. Another came with papers behind him that were quite as high as his predecessor’s. He, too, got into hot water with some of the good citizens of the “Hub,” and soon fifche came when he found it advisable to “pass in his checks” and make tracks for other parts. This, however, he did with honours added from the Board, Then we got another gentleman, equally high in attainments. Things went on well enough for a while, but he, too, has now reached the time when head-masters have to resign from Ashburton School and depart. I wonder who the next man will be plucky enough to tackle the position and put in the average time of two years and a halffour masters in ten years figures something like that. MUNICIPAL. The election of Mr David Thomas to the Mayoralty left a vacant seat on the Borough Council. Bor this vacancy Mr Alfred Harrison, the Mayor of the previous year, and Mr Rudolph Priedlander, another ex - Mayor, entered the lists. Mr Rudolph Friedlander won-the election bands down, and as he is ore of the swimming bath champions we will doubtless hear of this movement again on foot. We have two nice ornamental sheets of water in the Domain. One stretches from the corner at the railway to the dam below the cricket ground, and the other from the dam right round three sides of the cricket ground. These stretches flow through the pleasure grounds of the town, beautiful plantations that are greatly used by the citizens. It is palpable to any right thinking man that bathing ought not to be Allowed in either of these stretches, and it is to be hoped it never will, although I notice that several youths do steal a dip in them even now. If a swimming bath is to be erected, let it be built higher up the stream, in the gully nature designed for it, and where, by very little labour, a body of water could be secured 100£t long by Bft deep at its greatest depth, shoaling away to l£t. The cost of enclosing this need not be great either.’ Yet why the bath should not be prepared -in- the river bed, I cannot see. , MORE BOW.

The dog fiend has not been at work in Ashburton for some time, and as a consequence there is a slight preponderance of useless mongrels in the place. A meal seasoned with strychine would just feed some of them in the proper way, for their dead bodies would be far .more useful as manure than the dogs living will ever be for anything else. Then they make nitfht 00 hideous with tneir howling, and' one brute begins religiously at one o’clock every morning to bay out a solo, which might safely be called •' Farewell to Sleep." I would buy that doz’s skin from anybody who had it to sell. inTai ue have one permanent brass band, but we haven’t heard much of it of late; and the band that blares! out" thingamy ’’ tones in the evening with banners borne before them; and we are about to have another hand! Can anyone toll me what we have done to deserve all this joy ? the hospital.

What seems to me to be a yeryreasonBoard bv Drs Tweed and Leahy. We hove only three medical men practising in the County, and one of them—Dr Trevor -an old and much esteemed practitioner, is the medical officer appointed by the Board, to attend the Hospital. Nobody has any fault to hod with Dr Trevor, he has the confidence of everybody. But still people who can : »fflfflcd-to p»y,-like-to .b 9 atteado4 t>y

own medical man. We have large numbers of fairly well-to-do people, both married and single, in this County who, while perfectly able to pay for medical attendance and efficient nursing, have to be content in illness with not always satisfactory but decidedly expensive private lodgings. They would gladly use the hospital and pay for its use, but they would then be deprived of the services of their own medical man. The liberty of using the hospital in such cases is what the two Doctors ask for—a request, I fancy, I would grant at once, unless there is some reason not yet advanced against it that contains an insuperable objection.