PASSING NOTES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume I, Issue 21, 7 May 1892, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

The licensed victuallers of this colony. ;are an enviable class, and favours are ■being continually heaped upon them by •a benevolent Government. iLately there Jiave been 'issued tickets or coupons from the Bureau of Industry to the various police stations for distribution to poor bat honest tramps. These 'coupons are really letters of introduction from the Government to hotelkeeper, etc., serving to introduce the «aid deserving paupers to soft-hearted publicans who are enjoined to give the -unfortunate wanderer a bed or a meal ifor sixpence just to oblige the Premier. This country teems with publicans possessing soft hearts. That blob of flesh, 'however, is more apt to soften at the xemkrk^ than at the- presentation of a Coupon which gives the Bonifece 1 full permission to hand •over a 2s meal for 6d. j

Isn't the, whole thing laughable 1 Imagine the crude idea that must have pervaded the man's mind who dropped <on to this brilliant method of ameliorate ing his specieSiV '■ I never send a beggar .awayempty-handed," said Mark Twain- """ I always give hina a letter of introduce liion to afrierid;"/ The last drop of your ■ brother's; blood is a^ Teryssafe thing to , ; sbed, t only■_. your "brother sometimes 'desires to'be consulted on such a delicate .matter.' ■;■ Tol dispose :of the scrofulous tramp, and dirty dead beat, byibilleting fhin>on a boarding house or hotel at 6d .;a time, which 6di he would probably owe ;:tmtil>he called again, strikes usasbeing Jthe most ghastly ijoke: the new Labour )policy>has yet played.

The value of the gold and bullion -won 'in the Qhinemuri 'County for the year •ending March 31st last was £35,843 IBs. This gives an average return per head «of; White population ((men, women and 'children)/of a fraction under £24 for /the year. The; average value of the bullion is a fraction under £1 13s 2d peroz. ta-king-in; alt-qualities. These ffigures are highly satisfactory and will, •with the increase of reduction power, be augmented during- the current ; ■'-''■ '■'■ ■■ c' -i: •■ '- '■■•"■". " ■■';

Woman Suffrage is in the,air.. The 'prejudice against women voting is not; *batirqpißfo/ dying out. At> every person but lunatics, felons =and women can vote in this colony, ©oes that read well'?. Although . a %6mass (best: place :;in -her toonae— *willi her children, yet What argument is iihat against her being able to, give an 'opinion as;tovwho;jihe:best representative: <of a given district may 'be. It is simply; *fche.arrogance of'the.male that steps in.j The woman's cause is;man's, they rise or sink' Together, dwarf or godlike, bond or free. • —T-Pbr' woman is not undevelop'd man. Butdiv.erae.r-—" 'Sosays Tennyson, and so true is hel

The Rev Mr Berry must have been •there himself. In his late gambling ;eermon he pats the boys up to a dodge. The rev. gentleman says:—"Among the forms of trickery connected with 'cards was this: A man bought say 20 packs of cards at the stationers'. The 'court cards were then extracted, and the rest of the pack cut down the least bit, and the edge regilt. The court cards 'were then returned to the pack, which "was made up again to look just as when it left the makers. These packs were -dropped about, a pack here and there, in rooms where playing was carried on. Innocents took them up with confidence, as they . seemed perfectly new ; and fenaves who were in the secret could tell by feeling which were court cards, and 'dealt accordingly." Thanks, Mr Berry. (Look out, some -of you fellows.