FOUR-FOOTED RULERS OF WHANGAREI BOROUGH

Northern Advocate, 23 July 1938, Page 11

FOUR-FOOTED RULERS OF WHANGAREI BOROUGH

Brieflets

A PLACE FOR DOGS. Someone some time ago wrote to you about dogs in public places. I love animals as much as anyone does, I suppose, but I’m getting pretty sick of the things that go on round Whangarei. Bogs seem to rule this town. Such a thing was all right in the onehorse days, but we are a corporate and modern borough now, and should have decent up-to-date restrictions in these matters. Dogs are all right in their place, and that place is not the streets. Other towns make strict regulations prohibiting dogs from certain business areas, and confining them to leashes in other parts of the community. Every stray dog in Whangarei should be put in a lethal chamber for the sake of public health and safety.—“ Bow-wow.” ★ mother love. A few days ago I noticed a harrier hawk swoop dc-wn and pick up a sleeping lamb. He had raised ft a couple of feet from the ground when the mother ewe charged, up and made him drop it. I also recently saw three magpies fiercely attacking a hawk that had ventured too near their sanctuary. The manner in which they gave chase made one think of the way the witches sallied out from Auld Alloway Kirk to chase poor Tam o’ Shanter and his grey mare Meg!—“Jay Gee Dee.” it TEN YEARS BEHIND. Ten years ago most of the southern parts of New Zealand were fully reticulated with electricity. Now the North is going in for it. Ten years takes a lot of making up, and I feel sure I express a common hope that this Northland of ours will go ahead and not stick so far behind in other things as it has in electricity.—“ Light.” ★ LET THE FAILURES STAND DOWN. Since the war ended and we settled down to what we thought would be routine prosperity and peace, we have had nothing but worry for our future. We have seen happen in New Zealand seme strange things, and at the present moment we face a future that might not be as bright as we would like. All of us know that we have only partly developed this Dominion, yet we shrink from tackling a big immigration scheme. Under the circumstances, if we could forget our prejudices for a ti'me, what option is there for us but to allow others to make an attempt to succeed in a cdlony where we have failed to assert ourselves to any appreciable extent? If Britishers cannot make this country what it should be, then they have no right to be in it.—“lnternational.” ★ TREELESS AREAS AGAIN SUFFER, A portion of the picturesque Manawatu Gorge, one of the finest main 1 road scenes in New Zealand, is reported to be slipping across the road. The portion in question happens to be a part covered mainly in broom and light scrub, with very few growing trees such as characterises the rest of the gorge. It seems that here, too, we are to have instances of man’s feebleness in controlling treeless areas from slipping. Slips have occurred at various times on the forested parts, but they have been on steep portions undermined by road construction. This part is an easy slope and could easily be held with trees. Again the cry goes up for trees.—“ Forest.”

VANDALISM DEPLORED. For sheer impertinence. "ie taxing of posts from the Ruakaka Domain crossing takes a lot cf beating. The A.A. goes to the trouole of helping motorists and others to popularise a very pretty Northland beach. Then people have to go and deliberately thwart their efforts. If there is any crime deserving c-f severe punishment I think this is the one. —“Camper.” ★ ARE KINGFISHERS REALLY CANNIBALISTIC? « I really can’t believe the story about the kingfisher eating fantails. Perhaps if the fisher was very hungry—and a lot of birds have difficulty in securing sufficient food in the winter—he might pick up a dead “fanny” and eat it, but as for deliberately killing it, well, that goes a bit against, my powers of belief. I have seen sparrows kill a hawk when it attacked their young, but this informant of yours seems to be a bit imaginative when saying the friendly kingfisher would eat fantails.—“ Bird Life.”

JOYS OF LAW BREAKING. It 4s all right to be sympathetic towards motorists who disobey the law. But they deserve little or no sympathy. They know the law as it applies to them, and it is their own fault if they are found without certificates of fitness or drivers’ licenses. Perhaps, however, there is a something in man which makes him rejoice to be risking his purse and reputation against the laws of the land. When we were yoimg we knew it was illegal to ride our bicycles at night without lights, and for that same reason we rode them unlighted. Likewise riding on the footpath, and raiding orchards (the one exempted form of theft). Perhaps that trait characterises the motorists’ code today.— “M.P.H.” ★ CONSIDER THE FARMER. Who wouldn’t be a dairy farmer? was the question which went through several minds on reading how much they were to receive by way of monthly and annual payout.* Yesterday saw the usual crowd of people in town, spending ’freely what they had just cashed at the banks. Perhaps we who live in the towns are net sufficiently sympathetic to country people, and when we see so many spending a great portion of their receipts in drink and other indulgences we are inclined to turn up our noses. If wo worked as farmers do, however, most of us would freely give them the little pleasures they get once a month. We can get them whenever we choose after 5 p.m. each day.—“ Luxury.” ★ GETTING ON WITH THE JOB. When the most urgent problem facing Whangarei is the prevention of flooding, it is surprising that borough councillors cannot agree on the procedure to cope with same. Vl must have cost us a lot to have the previous engineer’s report brought forward, and it is now going to cost us a lot more. Maybe the lending department of the powers-that-be will be running dry by the time we decide how to protect our town from floods.—“ Down Town.”