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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8222, 5 April 1890, Page 5

Wirth's Circus did a splendid business in the Wairarapa. Their week's trip must have been worth over a thousand pounds. In Greytown they had the largest house they have had in Mew Zealand. It is wonderful how people who would not pay a shilling to see a fi rat-class entertainment will flock and pay half-a-crown to sit on hard boards in a draughty tent to see the same old thing, for there is nothing new in the performance. The owners of the show seem to be a queer compound of liberality and meanness. In Wellington they gave over £40 to the Free Library Fund ; in Master ton, after getting the school committee to give the youngsters a holiday, they refused to let several of the scholars go in at the price advertised, viz., one shilling, on the grounds that they were too big. The poor youngsters either had to pay 2s 6d as adults or not go in. If the manager of a dramatic entertainment had acted thus what a howl would have been raised.[Masterton Correspondent.]

Mr. T. W. Glover, of the New Zealand Alliance, paid us a visit on Monday, March 24, and gave us his first lecture in the neighbourhood in the public schoolroom. _ .'1 he audience was not numerous, but this did not prevent the lecturer from speaking very earnestly on his subject. For about an hour and a quarter he held the attention of those present, mostly young people, who, perhaps, had never listened so long to any speaker before. He followed the chairman's remarks as to the local circumstances connected with Waimate. As we have no hotel in the settlement, and a case of drunkenness is unknown, people are apt to think that there is no need for temperance reform. We are thankful to know that within the last thirty years the drink bill of the colony has gone down from about £10 per head of the population to about £3 per head. We are also thankful to know that the young colonial does not incline towards drunkenness. In the year 1888, out of 1270 different persons charged with drunkenness, only about GO of the offenders were natives of the colony ; but whilst wo rejoice at this, we must still remember that we have not yet had time to form a thoroughly reliable judgment. Even supposing this to be all that we hope to Bee it, still Waimate, with its old and good associations, as the very first inland settlement in New Zealand, should be to the fore in helping to crush out what yet remains of the drink curse. The thanks of the meeting were tendered to the lecturer. — [Waimate North Correspondent.]