HALCOMBE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8865, 16 July 1907, Page 3

HALCOMBE.

From Onr Own Correspondent. Onr school ;oimuittee mot in Mr Purkiss’s office on Saturday uight, tho chainnvi presiding. Visiting committee reported that further improvements to offices had been effected. Letter from Education Board empowering committee to have ventilators repaired was received and stops taken to remedy defects. “Further derangement of teaching staff w T as discussed. The committee, however, -were sympathetic in this case and hoped the special throe days’ leave granted to the headmaster would bring happiness to him and his bride and adci to tho unity and success of the school. The resignation of Miss'Lynch, who has been appointed to the' Newbury school -was accepted with regret and tho secretary and chairman were instructed to convey tho committee’s keen appreciation of her faithful and valuable services during her teaching term as mistress of the Halcombe school, A. circular from Mr B. Loth* bridge was read in which he aiiuouced his candidature as the representative of the Central Ward upon the Education Board and set forth his claims to onr suffrage,. The request of our school ball committee for assistance*' on the uight of the 26th instant, when a record attendance is anticipated, was readily complied with. Some of the members of our rifle club indulged in practice on Saturday afternoon when scores were recorded that indicate there will be good shooting at the annual field day competiious, which take place on Saturday next.

A hit of good shooting, of the rapid snap sort, was done here on Thursday last, when seven hares in succession, without a miss, were bagged by one gun. Considering their scarcity this season, how few and far between, I consider this an excellent performance, which apart from straight shooting was largely due to the clever dogs. One of the couple is a young Irish getter who, this year, made his debut in the high low T Jack game and lie at once got on all fours with the best that I have seen. “Look at Togo” directed my companion. It was a sight to make glad the heart of an old gunner. “Set” he was as cement. A quick enquiring look at his master and the dog was told to go—-and ho went. So did the hare, but not more than forty yards, _ from whence Togo brought it and laid it carefully down at his boss’s feet It was an admirable piece of work, an allround exhibition, which, to a sport, repays much rough walking and blank days. Tho continuous, cold wet weather of the past three weeks has produced an unusual crop of sickness and in some distressing cases death has claimed the younger victims. “Lay their playthings all away; they will never need them more” is a sorrowful injunction that makes the mother’s heart sad and sore and elicits our deep sympathy. Carnegie’s gift to Pittsburg, which cost him £5,000;000, is probably, says Life, tho largest sum in the history of the world over given _ by a single individual to a single institute. It covers four acres and has sixteen acres of floor space. It contains 6000 tons of marble. It has 25,000 electric lights and its book shelves will accommodate 1,500,000 volumes. At the recent opening of this monumental institute Carnegie said : “My banker tells me that I have so many bonds; I never even saw them. Did I earn them? Well, I started tho machinery going and they came to me. When tho Institute project was first mentioned I wrote my name to a little slip -of paper; that completed my task, and still I get the feredit; it does not belong to me ; I told my wife last night after I had viewed this wonderful place that I felt that Aladdin’s lamp had been working and she replied, ‘Yes, and you did not even have to rub the lamp.’ That sizes up my position exactly. Only when a man labours for the general good, and for other than miserable aims that end with self can he know and enjoy the high spiritual rewards of life. Tho highest tvpo of humanity is that which doos'most to make onr earthly homo • heaven. The highest worship of God is service to man,” That’s the , talk and those are The actions of men and millionaires but the question forces itself upon me whether it were better to have left tho millions in the millions of hands or to have gathered them in and disburse them oven as tho one time “bobbin boy” is doing? He “started the machine” uo.denbt and such machines have done and are doing some‘very rough hard grinding. In lighter vein; a lawyer defending a man accused of house-breakng, addressing the court, ' said : “Your , Honor, I submit that my client did not break into the house at all, lie fonrd the parlour window open and : merely inserted Ins' right arm and ■ removed a few trifling articles. Now my .client’s arm is not himself, 1 and I fail to see how you can punish tho whole individual for an ■ offence committed by oilly one" of his limbs. ” That argument, ’ ’ said the judge, “is very well put. Fol- , lowing it logically I sentence the defendant’s arm to one • year's imprisonment, he' can accompany it or not as he chooses. The defendant smiled and with his lawyer’s assistance nnscrewed his cork arm and leaving it in the dock walked out.