CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 80, 2 March 1935, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”) “How often,” writes a novelist), “does man regard his wife as a treasure, while she regards him as a treasury’d’ » » . * The minister was leaving the parish. A farewell meeting of the congregation was held, and ho was pre--1 sented with a suitable token of their affection and esteem. Unfortunately, the 'office-bearer who made the presentation said: “We havo much pleasure in giving you a wee bit of momentum!” “Mv boy,” said the magnate to his son, “there are two things which are vitally necessary if you are to succeed in business.” “What are they, dad?’^ “Honesty and sagacity.” “What is honesty?” “Always —no matter what happens or how adversely it may affect yol l always keep your word once you have given it.” “And Sagacity?” “Never give it.” * » » • » The most dilapidated and therefore the most insanitary building in this city is an old school crowded with 3’oung lives —yet in all their appeals, the local authorities -fail to recognise the potency of romance on every side as an appeal to the hard “board” under which the treasury keys are hidden. Their next application should be prefaced in terms such as this:—“Th® blind pathway awaiting access to the new building is actually ‘Oxford’ St. The road frontage is ‘College’ St. The ancient Nikau grove on that very spot was the sleeping place of the Maori dream maid Moemoea. The deep dell nearby, now being made into a lovely terraced garden, was once the home of Hine Kakara, the scented ladv.” ■». • * * A local resident, who is given naturally to a rather mournful view of things in general, was moved to state (his income tax demand had arrived that day) that despite free, universal and compulsory education, at terrific cost to the taxpayer, “horse sense” was rarer to day than ever before. This cheerful thought brough back to his mind a genuinely literal interpretation of “horse sense,” witnessed recently at Tauranga. He was interested to note a horse, quite unattended, trot smartly across some undulating country toward a herd of cows which it proceeded to round up and drive in for milking. The equine farm-hand knew its job well, and lost no time in bringing in the milkers which, in the words of the ancient sage, “stood not upon the order of their going,” the horse allowing no loitering on tlie way. Enquiries brought forth the explanation that the animal had been used at this work for a lengthy period by a youth, and eventually it commenced executing the job of its own volition. Perhaps readers can furnish other novel methods of bringing in the cows. *#■*** The cricket match recently playecT between members of the Terrace End School Committee and the school’s first eleven, which is likely to become an annual event, should help to foster the interest of the boys in this splendid summer game. It is worthy of emulation bv the committeemen of other schools' It is a truism that many promising players are lost to cricket when their school days are over, and only the maintenance of interest will assist the code locally. The hoys are fortunate in that their masters take a great interest in coaching them, and it may he recalled that one of the best coaches a local school . had was the late Mr Charles Warden, for many years first assistant at the old Campbell Street School, and later headmaster at the Queen’s Park. Wanganui. Mr Warden had definite ideas on training boys to play accurate bowling. No one was allowed a bat at practice; instead lie was given a pick handle. Apart from the reduced cost in material, it was a valuable means of training the eye to whatever bowling was delivered. Proficiency in the use of the pick handle meant proficiency with the bat. a quick eye, and the absence of hesitancy which often mars a stroke or is fatal to a batsman. The training of boys on similar lines might well be undertaken in all the primary schools to-day. Its value was to he found in the splendid cricket team Campbell Street had in those days at the beginning of the century. ***** So keen is the growing interest in the centenary celebrations of tlie landing of the first Methodist missionaries, Rev. W. Cross and Rev. D. Cargill, in Fiji, which will begin in October next, that already there is talk* of special steamers being run from Australia and New Zealand for those who wish to witness tlie programme, which will he of outstanding importance in the history' of the church. The work begun by Cross and Cargill, the massacre of those who followed them, and the present-day activities of tlie 27 missionaries (apart from native taechers, all trained in the mission stations at Fiji), will be commemorated by services, the unveiling of tablets, and the opening of a new Cross and Cargill memorial church. In this memorial church solemn reverence will be paid to tlie two men who, on October 12, 1835, landed amid a cruel, barbaric people to sow the seeds of Christianity. The history of tneir hardships will be told, together with the story of the savage killing of thenconverts', and the impassioned appeal by Rev. James AA'atkin that touched th hearts of Christian workers in England. Among the volunteers who responded to the appeal were a Lincolnshire ploughboy, John Hunt; tlie son of a Yorkshire farmer, Janies Calvert, and others, whose names will always be associated with the early missionary work of Fiji. They and others who followed them carried on, undaunted by the threats of murder, and living for a time in huts only a few yards from the ovens of the cannibals. The missionary history of Fiji tells of the revolting sights they witnesed, sights made more hideous by the yells of blood-maddened savages, and 'of the way Hunt and others were seized and threatened by the cannibals. Still they laboured on, refusing a free passage away from Fiji offered them by Commodore AA 7 illces, of the United States exploring expedition. Cross died in 1842 and Cargill a year later. After 17' years’ missionary work, James Calvert returned to England. Visitors to the centenary celebrations may visit the iron-railed grave on the top of the hill at A 7 iwa, which bears the simple inscription, “John Hunt, Oct. 4, IS4B. Aged 36.” Perhaps the most touching part of tlie centenary celebrations will he the unveiling of a tablet by Miss Baker, a prominent mission worker at the La Perouso aborigines’ camp, erected to the memory of her father, Rev. Thomas Baker, the first white missionary to lose his life in Fiji. In 1865 was appointed missionary to tlie j interior, with headquarters at DavuiI leva, but, with seven other native j mission helpers, ho was killed at the | order of a native mountain chief. The son of Mr Baker’s murderer later bcI came a (Christian and a local preacher.