PASSING NOTES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume I, Issue 49, 19 November 1892, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

: The-roport of the' Committee on the Govern®ient'Printing Office is a very startling document and shows 'fairly the fallacy of the Socialistic, fad .of a ' Gorernmont running a concern which, it knows nothing abo-ut, and inter- : fering with private enterprise. iTTnder the heading of "Arrangement anid, working/ 'the 'Committee report as follows :—. Your Committee have arrived at the conviction that the "Panting Office has outgrown the necessary limitations of such an establishment, and'is already assuming proportions beyond adequate supervision and control; and yet the tendency continues in the directijn of further centralisation. From the information your Committee have re-, ceive'd as to the bearing of the Government Office on the general printing busiupss of the colony, they are of opinion that there is much reason for the dissatisfaction "expressed by the master-printers with the way in which private enterprise is interfered with. Looking at the list of hooks prinfeS and published by the Government Printer,' it is impossible to find any g'>od reason for having spent public money on them. 'In the earlier year* of the colony there might ' have beeo some justification forrthe Government printing books containing information which-it was desirable should receive publicity, but, the time has-now come when literary work of a private or semi-private eh irncfcer,'like all other kinds of Tork. should depentil upon the support to which its merits entitle it. . ■ • ' ' * * The Committee after this reoom, mend that no printing- should be i executed at frhe Government.Office | which is not official in its character;., and that the printing of the Govern-- ! rrent departments in the' several , localities of" the colony, where' such | printing can bo as • cheaply executed as at, the Government Printing' Office, should be distributed among :the ' local printers. . The expenditure of the Printing Office is very large. The i sum on the estimates "for the yeaT 1 1892 93 is £36,245. and tbig amount \ arises not. from any excessive payments ' raa'de to" the employe? of the establish- , mont, but f'oni the mass of papers and documents of no practical use which are printed and thei thrown aside. The members of the Guvera--1 ment, and the members of the Legislature, are alike to blame in moving | that 1 returns be printed in large num.- - bers which nobody ever reads. Iv. ■ " ; Then comes the following remarkable. statement: As a proof dt gthe waste in this way, it may be ' mentioned that last year the Printer - sold 53 tons of waste paper—that is, , paper whinh had been printed npon «nd never left ihe office—for which he obtained £161 9s 6d. On a moderate calculation, it must have taken £250 ; a ton to convert that paper into the ■ condition of waste. A clear waste of ; no less a sum than £14.000!!! *<* Scene—P^oroa Post Offioe. First Vigil'*nce Committee, man, '' Say Sill; , this 'erp—hif—^bloomin' £6000 loan— ,: ain't it a fearful thing for hu«—hie— pore ratepayers'?" Second Vigilance ■ Committee nnn (rateable valne Is 9d), " Yes, and 'ow are we agoin' to pay the hintere't is wot kills me." Third Vij?ilann» Committee man (defaulter), " 'Orrible. Lend us a bob and I'll shout." V Nowadays, the bold, bad baron does not .always victimise the rare and radiant village-maiden. The heavy villain' in this narrative is a gilded Auckland youth who came to L Qbinemuri to try the effect of his un- , earthly beauty upon, the rural damsel in her native wilds. He soon-made ' the acquaintance of a beauteous ra»idan who was willing to take him i round and show him the scenery, but one afternoon she returned alone, anil • told her friends that the stranger 'haft i ventured 4o presume upon his lovtfli-

i3iew and her trusting and confiding 'nature, 1 and would be found in an abashed and broken-up condition under a certain * kabikatea-tree,- about'three miles out* The < gay 'deceiver was found on the spot indicated, so* badly ' damaged tthat he will not, be* fit for i publication again ■ for many days. , )Tmt Boy : " Say, Freddy. "What yer think ? One ofany mother's hens 'laid a"double-yoked egg■ yesterday*" 1 Freddy: ''Oh! that's nothing! My sister laid a foundation-stone last wtfek.". " Xtf Memoriam" from Melbourne : Art thou in Heaven, or. where can yoii be ? » Father, dear fatHer, we still think of thee. " f It is meant in kindness, no doubt, 1 but the family that fetels so doubtful as all that as to the old man's hereafter • should keep quiet. • l van .•> * t * . < . N.S.-W: Geologist Pitt- • man concludes that the formation and ■ origin of the Broken Hill lodes-is analogous to' the saddle- gold '-refefs • of Bendigo, i.e., a cap with an eastern 1 and western leg; and' that like^Ben- • digo,. w.hen these legs taper away with < depth, other caps and' legs will be ' iouDd. This could' be^proved or dis- " proved by boring through the cap to .. a greater depth—which* he advisee. * # * " Gh?ace -Graham, the girls*who was 'abducted a few years ago from the' > Barrier in a crazy cutter by that fine L'buccaneer/the late Mr Caffrey, and ■ -cast *> upi • somawhere on the Australian < coast, was lately gaoled for vagrancy lin "Melbourne. The girl who gets her 1 portrait into the papers' - generally, • -comes to- grief at last. * * 'An officer'of one of H.B M's ships, • now lying at Sydney, relates that some • years ago when out on the Swahilij ' Coast' he help to constitute an r im-> •promotu board of examiners, which flat to enquire into the qualifications ■ of a big nigger who wanted to become" a Government interpreter. There is only one book which h-aa been trans-' ' lated from the English info the ' Swahililrtn^uajre and'that is " JEsop's JPrfbles." which a former bishop wrote ■ up into nigger chatter. The chaplain, ■ who, with'the Captain, completed the board; handed th<* book to the son of Ham. open at the fable of the fox and the grapes. The candidate, whose English'hnd been for the most - part picked' up in the forecastle, attdcked'the story valiantly es follows : " Last commission labbit (rabbit) him Ree-um %ooch of glapes; "him malree jomp ; him "no catch; him makee;jcmp again, him no catch ; him makee jomp - one time^more; him no catch. Last • of all him say, 'No' (blanky) good,' " —which 'bold translation pulled tho, Wrickfellow through. ' 'i

# # # A> provincial Taamanian bankrupt <■ called a meeting'of creditors in hie lawyer's office. The clock therein; 1 registered Hobart time, owingl to ■ which mistake the lawyer {holding 10 proxies) and the bankrupt alone were present. " Proxy Ift-moved and Proxy - 2 seconded the solicitor into, the chair ; 1 bankrupt placed himself' unreservedly in the' hands of the meeting 1 but could « make no 'offer; Proxyß' moved and ' Proxy 3 seconded the appointment of 1 the chairman as trustee—unanimously i carried. " Any other business, gentlenfiaen^" "-None ;" Proxy 7 moved and TProxyE4 seconded a cordial vote of iftbanks to the-'chair—carried without -1 dissent; chairman 'thanked the meetc ing, -which broke •up ' harmoniously just as an adverse -creditor, >with 15 proxies, appeared at^the door, and was^ told-^' The 'little matter is Bettled, the meeting has dispersed, the statute do^ not permit it to be re-opened." ' The Supreme Court has upset the arrangement, apologising, however, 1 for its' broad interpretation bi the Act.