THE CRITIC.

NZ Truth, Issue 276, 8 October 1910, Page 1

THE CRITIC.

Who can undaunted brave the Critic's rage? Or note unmoved his mention mth c Critic's page? Parade his error m the public eye ? And Mother Grundy "s rage defy ? The heavy fining of first offending drunks, .at Hastings has made more than one patriotic. citizen m the town buck. "Critic" has been asked if Joe Ward wants more revenue, or is it that there are yahoos oh the bench. It's both. * • * Raetihi Presbyterian Church is or-gaaisi-ng a general cadge m that wild and wooly district, and every indiridusd there has been circularised. "Critic" is asked by one irate resident if "this is an orgamis-ed attempt to capture the stray few shillings we can't invest now that the crusade has shut out the bookie." '.'Critic" doesn't know, but the Presbyterian is never particular. > ", * 5 What with the ragging,' bullying, etc., that goes on m our, Government workshops, "Critic" now learns that apprentices at Petone works are being victimised by a sharp, individual employed m the sheds. This g-ent. lays the odds, and, when struck he either cannot or will not pay. As his victims are apprentices, it might not be a bad idea if inquiries were ! instituted and the rotter and welsher weeded out. This is something for the "book" advocate, the Hon. J. Millar, to chew over. .. a « There must be something radically wrong with the management of the fTisborne railway construction works. Local men seeking employment are overlooked, while men sent up from Wellington are put on promptly. One worker, writing to this paper, says the system is rotten: Equally rotten, too, it is stated, is the lot of workers on the works at Catlins. Men sign on to excavate clay at Is per yard. Some of the workers do as much as 20 yards per day, but on pay day draw wages equalling 4s 6d to 5s a day. Where tin© balance goes to is not stated by the man with the grievance. At Houipapa the workers arc worried by wowsers who object to wood-chopping contests, but the snufflers have nothing to urge against the cruel treatment of poor horses employed on the works. Yes, there is no doubt about it. New Zealand is a w utivei: a- welJ, puradiso.

I An Opotoki editor calls himself; names : "Rumor has it that another baker contemplates commencing business m Opotiki. What a truly extraordinary reputation this township is acquiring. It only requires another imbecile to come along and start another rag to make our happiness complete." Apparently Opotiki is content with one imbecile at present. Master ton,' according to a local rag, possesses a -farmer who is exceedingly conscientious... . He went to a dairy sale recently, bid £3 for a cow, was the only bidder, and ran "himself up m half-crown bids to £3 10s before he would allow the "beast to be knocked down to him. And the "backbone" kicks when farm-hands ask for a living wage. He might be conscientious, but he's a goat. . -. « H W Following on the Increase m the price of whisky m the Ma land, "Critic" learns that for 1909 there ■s » ilecrearc of 15, 285 m the convictions for drunkenness, the figures being— l9oß, 187,803;. 1909, 169,518. The decrease works out, England 4.74 per cent., Scotland 19, Scottish towns 27, Ireland 8. Here is a tip for the Prohibitionists of the Dominion. Increase the price of liquor and there will be a diminution oi drunkenness. • • • Somebody got a good hold of the collective limb of the Napier Borough Council. Some joker presented the Council with a "nianfish" which , had the head of a human and the body of a fish. The head, however, was found to be a papier maohe, and so another "missing link" was lost to science. Some people will have their little jokes, but the man who would- joke with a sombre Borough Council would act the giddy ox with his grandmother. Besides, nobody ever expects a councillor to see a joke. They're too often m them. • • • An ex-patient complains that m Christchurch 'Hospital the thermometer is passed frqm armpit to armpit of different patients without being disinfected m transit, and says that besides being unclean the practice is liable to encourage the spread of various diseases. The patient could not say if a similar practice obtained amongst infectious diseases, nor had the patient seen the thermometer placed m the mouth to test the temperature, as is sometimes done by doctors, but held that an instrument which is used on patients indiscriminately should be sterilised after each operation. .. • • « ■ Hastings "Bulletin" has been butting into the silvertails of the district, and xemarks : "Hastings wants a daily paper. What they have had m the past is about as sorry an exhibition as one could imagine. Yes, they are afraid to touch vital questions -^nothing but slobber and spew; and there is plenty that wants shaking up. Righto ! Driving a milk cart and cflodhopping for fourteen years isn't much of a training for an editor. If they had your pluck they oould have been as big and as influential as 'N.Z. Truth' by now, instead of a poor, miserable, puling rag — a cat's paw for street-corner agitators. Aha, 'Truth' is the paper that shakes the tar out of the wasters." "Critic" doesn't know what it's all about, but no doubt it is well meant. ft • • Skating is pretty well the rage all over the Dominion just now, and ton© is lent to the pastime inasmuch as the rinks are patronised by snob sasfiiety pussons. Democrats , who occasionally roll up without w-hite-starch-ers and clean collars, are turned down. Such was the lot of a couple of workers at Auckland recently, and "Critic" has been asked to breathe sulphurously on the toney proprietors. "Critic" breathes accordingly, and points out how a game can be spoiled once society intrudes. "Critic" has also had forwarded for bis inspection a brummy medal, supposed to be gold, and advertised as a i "handsome" prize for a carnival m one Southern rink. The medal is tin and valueless, and m face of the advt. of' "a handsome, prize," it looks as if successful competitors at carnivals should be careful, otherwise they might be disappointed. • • • "Critic" thinks it is necessary that some little attention should be paid to the Wellington Zoo again. There can be no doubt that the timely, though costly, intervention of this paper m the recent past rescued the Zoo from an early grave, so to speak. It is to be hoped that the new superintendent will see that the water m the seal's tank is kept sweet. ( Last week the stench was awfully offensive to people's proboscis, and the place was almost unapproachable. Mothers hastened their children away from it as though the tank was a plague spot. There is now only one seal left, its mate having pegged out some six or seven <v -cks :i'.!.o. Cnußo of rl ea I]i is assigned as the water 'having been too cold, which excuso is perhaps better than none, though "Critic" has always hern under the. impression that the habitat of these aquatic mammals was the ice-bo.und regions. ;