Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISB0RNE, SATURDAY, FEB, 1, 1930 LOOKING BACK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17173, 1 February 1930, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, SATURDAY, FEB, 1, 1930 LOOKING BACK

Am American chemist wittily suggested to tho audience before whom lie was lecturing - that their heads were screwed on to face the wrong way. A man’s eyes always face what is in front of him: in his mind lie is always looking back. The suggestion is more than whimsical; it is worth consideration. The schoolboy lays down the toys of the nursery wistfully. When the bow is temporarily - unstrung the professional or business man looks back to the school playground, his early triumphs therein and those of contemporary heroes. The retired veteran lives very much in the past and travels along many a road of his own making, which ,he might have taken in the past, but did not. Looking back may be justified by experience. Many a proverb, worn threadbare, may be quoted. “A burnt child dreads the tire” or “Once bit twice shy.” Education deals primarily with the past. What to avoid is a predominant tone in the schoolroom. To the nervous boy the past is a very real and great ogre, indefinite, obscure, all-powerful, and ever ready to assail him it - lie fails to retain all that he has been told of its traps and pitfalls.' The task of to-day, in a wider sphere than the schoolroom, is always compared with that of yesterday. Improvement is rewarded; stagnation is floated. The standard of measure is always behind. When, the great man of the century arrives, ho is duo who has broken away fioin the rule. He has dared to look ahead and just a little to forget the past; he lias loft the dead to bury their dead, lie lias not allowed himself to lie cramped within concrete and fixed foundations which mny overlay many a fallacy. He has ventured into “the pure empyrean” of the unknown. His imagination has defied limitations and through him a great discovery lias been given to enrich mankind. There is a looking hack that is commendable and a legitimate source of pleasure. It is found in going back over the pleasant places of past- life; in recalling the joy of life and, through ils spring, the overcoming of past difficulties that at one time threatened to bar success. Such recollections rarely altogether die, even though the present may much belie the promise of the pasl. They live on as subjects for contemplation and gratitude. Holidays afford fitting times for living a good deal in the past. Past triumphs, past pleasures, past friendships, may well attend at even-tide at the lake side, undisclosed and invisible guests. The construction of roads so greatly accelerated dtying the last, three years lias opened up .the inland districts so as to make accessible some of the most beautiful resorts in the North Island, We share with many .the regret that, Hie road, upon which so much lias been done from Gisborne to Hicks Bay, with its extension to Runaway, is not on a charted track for tourists and holiday makers from the South. The beautiful, rich, and extensive territory near the East Cape has never received the attention from the travelling public that its beauty and latent; resources deserve. Because of its isolation for so lengthy a period the rich inheritance at the East (’ape has been confined to pastoral purposes, absorbing only a small number of European workers, its capacity for close settlement and greatly varied productions, until very recently, has never had a chance. Difficulties of title have been a potential factor in deterring the investment of capital, though in spite of difficulties it is surprising what has been attempted, not we fear too profitably, by a few courageous people. The natural and very proper desire to train the Maoris to utilise their lands profitably for themselves and for the prevention of racial decadence has held back vast areas of land which must be capable, when treated reasonably, of permanent production. That the Maori will justify tin l confidence shown in lfis possible future we may expect. Tin effort has undoubtedly delayed the development of a great district: it should not prevent it. If the Maoris can be trained, as individuals, to produce profitably the fruits of the earth by patient and regular methods, and, so avert what might amount to tribal pauperism, the delay in progress which has 100 long cast a black shade, over a great territory will be more than justified. Looking back on the near yesterday of the Maori and his proved adaptability to trained habit and method, the prospect is full of encouragement. Writing to-day at the end of a period of very general holiday time we have a curiosity to know wlial the holiday maker lias got out of his too short a change of life. The holidays will have failed in their purpose if they have not. sent many back to their ordinary duties strengthened in body and mind. 'Those who went out into the country willing to see, can hardly have - failed to bring back memories of scenes of quiet beauty tu be stored up as a valuable part of the capital of life. Sonift /nay have allowed the inconveniences of camping out to rob them of the possible delights which others have reaped. There are mosquitoes and their kind. The rain, may have interfered unkindly with improvised camp conditions. Arc these inconveniences forgotten? lias the .view of nature on the grand scale, undamaged by man and somewhat; defiant of him, if she condescended to regard him at all, obliterated all those minor trials inseparable from a hasty raid into bush life? Nature can be so strong and so beam mil that she rewards amply those who sacrifice to her. .She suggests so many things that are lovely and of good report. As holiday-makers roam through the bush or over the lakes, in search of just the pleasure of living under more natural conditions, and at evening, if tin' altitude is high and the night chill, gather round the camp lire, with life’s responsibilities forgotten and ordinary avocations of daily work some hundreds of miles away, an opportunity does come for another kind of stocktaking that: demands ncillier books nor auditor. They cannot have failed to be enriched by what they have seen around them. Each camper could have acquired a share, without premium or in the solemnities and very architecture of the mountains a lid inland seas which owed nothing to him and yet gave him everything. Ho can hardly have come back from such scenes as exist in perpetuity at Wnikarcmonna, the lakes near Rotorua or Taupo unrofreshed, and more willing and more able to take up cheerfully the ordinary duties of life. He should have proved, if proof were necessary, that life, in itself, is good. He may have discovered that for everybody there is an open road upon which he can walk looking forward to good things: a pathway which trodden though it be by work and mutual eonsidoratenoss can, at the journey’s end, be- looked back upon with satisfaction.

No petitions in bankruptcy were filed in Gisborne during January. In the corresponding month last year two petitions were filed. The Ulimaroa left Sydney for Wellington yesterday. The passengers include the athletes, Lermond (of U.S.A.), Peltzer and Emton (Germany), and Golding (New booth Wales). The Australian Board of Cricket Control is making arrangements for a visit of a West, Indies team next season. Five tests will be played—two at Sydney, and one each at Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane. The Customs returns for Wellington for January were £277,486, an increase on last year of £28,679. For the 10 months the increase is £389,245. Motor spirit, and tyre tax shows decreases of some £4OOO and £3338 respectively. The beer duty was £4013, a drop of £4.—P.A. Four fewer births, nine more deaths, and four more marriages were registered in Gisborne during January than during the corresponding month last year. The returns for last month, with Hie figures for the corresponding period in 1929 shown in parentheses, were: Births 48 (52), deaths 20 (11), marriages 13 (9). A good deal of misunderstanding appears to exist in connection with the reopening of Hie primary schools next week. The impression has obtained with some that the date for resumption was next Tuesday, but this is incorrect. The schools are to resume op Monday, on which day the high school also reopens. In a report of court proceedings yesterday, the accused in a case of alleged theft, which was dismissed, was described as a timekeeper for the Public Works Department. This post is invariably hold by a permanent officer of the department, whereas the young man was a casual employee, it has been explained. The Dominion conference of yachtsmen at Auckland last night agreed to a remit on the easting vote of tin' chairman, that all boats taking part in the Sanders (up contest; be measured with outside steel moulds immediately prior to the contest. It was agreed to approve the principle of the formation of a Dominion body 1o control all New Zealand championships for sailing and power boat, events. The Cook County Womens’ Guild acknowledges with thanks a number ot donations to the Children’s Creche Improvement fund, received through the courtesy of Mrs. W. Clark. Other gifts received recently included those from Mr. B. Sutton (cakes), Gosford Fish Depot (fish), Mrs. W. Clark (bedroom towels and fruit), Mrs. Holden and Miss Gray (fruit), Miss Tucker (butter), Mrs. Cook (bats), “A friend” (vegetables), and Mr. Chits. Gowlaml (illustrated papers). The Customs returns for Dunedin for January, 1930, show an increase over those of the same period last year, ex cept in the case ot beer duty, which shows a decrease of about £4500. There is an increase of £6o€o in the Customs duty, and an increase of about £4500 in motor spirit. Tile tyre tax has also shown an increase of over £4OOO. Following are the month’s figures, those foi January, 1929, being given in parentheses ior purposes of comparison: Customs returns, January, 1930, £81.241 0s 9d (£75,242 0s lid); beer duty, £19.362 (£23,996 5s 8d); motor spirit £9969 16s 4d (£5578 4s); tyre tax, £2096 7s (£1656 4s). The quality of the early lambs which found their way to the freezing works in Poverty Bay lias been the subject of pleasing comment on the part of visitors in a position to judge. Further comment on this aspect /was made to-day by Mr. W. C. Barry, Wellington district superintendent, Live Stock Division of the Department oi Agriculture. After mentioning that the lambs generally throughout the North Island had not been doing too well as a result of the wet season and great growth in the pastures, he remarked that the early Poverty Bay lambs were in particularly good order. The lambs he saw at the works this week were also of pleasing quality, which was ahead of that in other districts further south. A run to the Shotover to see the giant dredge’ that is being built by Joseph Sparrow and Sons for the Golden Terrace Extended Dredging Co. lias been one of the attractions for visitors to Queenstown, writes a Dunedin correspondent. Although it is not yet completed, this dredge has an imposing appearance. The housing goes up three stories, and the platforms and stairways run to a great height. Parts of the running machinery have been erected and some tried separately, and it is expected to have a trial run of the whole in combination about the end of February or early in March. The wide beach of 450 acres on which this monster machine is to work was partly tried by a small dredge 40 years ago. This new dredge will go down 33ft., thus reaching deposits that have never been touched. The prospects are very promising. Comment that the slump in beef on the export markets several years ago was still being felt in tluv North Island was made by Mr. W. C. Barry, Wellington district superintendent, of the Live Stock Division, who is at present on a visit to Gisborne. Many of the sheep stations gave up the breeding of beef cattle at the tirno when beef prices made the carrying of run cattle unprofitable, and as a result many of the station herds were thinned out considerably. It was realised, however, that even if beef cattle were worthless on the market, station holders would have to stock their piupotties with cattle to keep their pastures in order. Speaking generally, he said that sheep stations were at present, considerably understocked with cattle, and Poverty Bay properties were no exception. 'I rise to deprecate that statement,” said Mr. T. Corson at the annual meeting of tlie Chamber of Commerce last evening when Mr. T. E. Toneycliffe had asserted that the Harbor Board had unnecessarily delayed the completion of the harbor bridge, drawing members’ attention to the board's slow method of connecting up the railway with the Kniti wharves. Mr. Corson said the board was alert to the position, and explained that there were many local craft which required berthage. Provision had to be made for them, and the engineer and tho harbormaster did not at that time want to take away any of the berthage on the town side of the wall from the fishing boats and other small vessels, the basin not being sufficiently largo to hold them all at the same time as the visiting steamers. The board had been only too anxious to have the bridge completed. The president, Mr. L. Miles, said he had always understood that the reason for not closing tho gap in the bridge was that accommodation must be provided for the small vessels. Mr. F. Tolerton remarked that some months ago lie had written to the hoard on behalf of his company asking that- the completion of the bridge bo expedited, and the engineer then said it would be 12 months before the fillings would be consolidated. which seemed to the speaker to be ridiculous. “The engineer is not the board.,” pointed out Mr. Corson.