BLENHEIM TABLE TALK.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 20, Issue 68, 27 August 1909, Page 7

BLENHEIM TABLE TALK.

NEWS FROM ACROSS THE RIVERS. [From our Corresponden ]. Wednesday. All the street talk in <oWn to-day is OD football. We have not yet recovered from our victory of Saturday afternoon whereby we rot ain the Seddon Shield, while the ringing cheer which greeted the new-! of the win of the South Island team by 19 to 11 in the inter-island match this afternoon showed that the crowd appreciated the feat of the team in which Jack O’Brien was playing almost as much as if it were our own match. Tomorrow, too, the Aucklanders will figure on the Showgrounds, and the Mayor has called for a half-holiday for the occasion —which, by the way, the Retailers’ Association have decided not to entertain. Football enthusiasts here were pleased to get O’Brien into an outside rep. ma'ch, but there is a distinct feeling locally that the sehc- : tors might at least have visited I Blenheim prior to picking their men, for there are others here —Church and Manning, for instance —who are at least worth serious consideration. But Marlborough is only a small Union, and tho little chap goes to the wall in the crowd every time. Yesterday afternoon a collision occurred on the narrow approach to the High Street Bridge, between two traps driven respectively by Miss C. Jackson, daughter of Mr Adam Jackson, and Miss Cummings. The accident was caused by the horse driven by Miss Jackson shying. She was thrown out on to the road, and the wheel of the trap passed over her body, with what result can hardly be told fur certain as yet. The injured lady is much bruised and shaken, though she was feeling slightly better ' to day. This evening the youngsters be'onging to the Methodist Sunday School are having their annual tea and con-, cert. Crowds of children were swarming in and out of Wesley Hall as I passed, and the mau with the bag told me he was doing good business with the parents. Besides being a treat for the kiddies and providing a chance of social meeting for the elders, the function will serve to reduce the £SO or £6O overdraft on the new infant room. A rate of 2d in the £ has been struck by the Borough Council, despite the most convincing array of figures adduced by their more progressive members to prove that the affairs of the Borough cannot be carried on with anything approaching satisfaction with a less rate than 2£. Our streets are in a disgraceful condition, and the public lighting is wretched, while the outlying parts of the town are being built on with increased speed and need immediate attention. With a twopenny rate we shall find ourselves with considerably less money than we had last year to meet the urgent demands of our growing town, and it simply means that every attempt even to maintain the status quo will have to be knocked promptly on the head. From what I can hear about the street, the ratepayers as a whole are not in sympathy with parsimony in any shape or form while our town is in its present shabby condition, and want progress, even if we have to pay a bit more for it, We have been using loan money for repairs instead of spending it on permanent work —street patching is not permanent work—and one of the councillors, Mr Ed. Parker, seconded by Mr E. H. Penny, the ex-Mayor and a present Councillor, put the whole position most lucidly before the ratepayers in to night’s papers. It looks as though skin and hair will be flying at the next Council meeting.