NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2241, 19 February 1921, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES

A well-known Wanganui farmer, in referring to .the tiglitening-up by financial institutions*, stated to a Herald reporter that he had heard of instances in that district that, if published, would startle the public, and this relentless' pressure was at the present causing many farmers to reduce their permanent hands. At the time of the interview he held in his possession a checpte from a farmer for a paltry few pounds that had been returned from the bank. The assets of the’ drawer of the cheque, if realised on, would aggregate thousands. On the other

hand, the farmer stated that some of the favoured ones could get all the accommodation they required from the financial institutions. Only recently one of these went to his bank and asked whether he could get £50,000, as he was about to take an extended holiday. He was assured that the amount would be forthcoming without a murmur. Tho money will no doubt be taken to London and invested, and the wealthy one will clear the, expenses of his holiday over and over again. The Rev. William Paxton, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, preaching at Bradford, England, took Mrs Asquith’s memoirs into the pulpit, and described them as the greatest contribution to English literature in the _ last fifty years a book that would live long after the penny-a-line critics of it were dead. It was the only true picture of the social life of the country during the war, and its imprudences might bo dismissed with a laugh, because of the golden passages it contained, which had beeji disregarded in (lie newspaper reviews.

Lecturing to a'working class audience in Wellington on Sunday on “Modern Tendencies,” Professor T. A. Hunter said: Three courses were open to us. First, to ref oral our institutions. This was often a difficult task, but with labour and courage some of these institutions might yet be made to look forward and serve human interests. Second, to build up, outside the institution, another that would gradually take the place of the effete and worthies* one. This also was a task worth while. Third, to smash the institution and see what happened. This, lion and see what happened. This last was a most dangerous policy; history afforded many illustrations of the evils that follow in the train of the application of this method. Tt was true that revolutions had produced benefits in the past, but they had also produced serious evils. They had been forced on a people whose patience had been exhausted by the cupidity and stupidity of its rulers. But while revolutions might come no one in his senses would advocate them as a method of social reform. Lhe\ veto too wasteful and too doubtful. Tho forces once set loose were difficult to direct. On the other hand, we ought to realise that there were critical times in the lives of: peoples, when small causes may produce tremendous effects: I here could be no doubt that the world was ripe for radical reconstruction of social relations, and of the Institutions in which these were embodied. Not to use every endeavour to bring about the change by less wasteful methods than those of force would be a reflection on the intelligence of our people.

Why bother making cakes when there is such a good assortment at Perreau’s ? *