A LOCAL BURDEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13920, 3 June 1909, Page 4

A LOCAL BURDEN.

British influence upon so-called inferior races might he even better than it is, it' it were, raised in quality somewhat among the British themselves —at nil events if the British of Tiniarn may he taken as a sample of the whole. The Stipendiary Magistrate was on Monday called upon to deal officially with an example of a grave defect in the character of the local Britisher. Wo claim to be a civilised people; yet public incivility is extremely common among the youngsters and the youth of the town. And their elders arc content to let it 20 unchecked. The public men of Timaru are, very fond of sounding its praises—its artificial harbour the best of its kind; its surrounding district unmatched for productiveness of its own kind; its climate unsurpassed; its trade and commerce flourishing: its municipal enterprises most creditable: its sea-bathing resort the finest in the country-^—and so 011, and so on. And yet Timaru is not a really nice place to live'in, for people who-have a reasonable sense of public proprieties. The ease of public-rudeness-which was brought before the Magistrate was but one of scores per week —if all v.c hear, ia

true —that are put up with, instead of being prosecuted. In fact the majority of the cases of uncivilised conduct do not amount to breaches of any statute law, though they are gross breaches of the law of good manners. One would think that those who are pioiid of ''The Hay" would take measures to get rid of such elements of offensiveness as are here referred to: and that all who are proud of the. town would seek to make its street manners as good as its streets, by resolutely setting their faces against all forms of gratuitous misbehaviour and disorderly conduct. Tt has heen \uggested, and there seems to he some ground for the supposition, that the practice of '*' harracking" at football and hockey matches is not a little to blame for tTie detestable conduct that civilised citizens often have to put up with: that the practice is brought from the play grounds into the streets. Much of the harracking is sheer impertinence and gross rudeness, and the cultivation of these rudenesses in one set- of circumstances is very likely to yield its crop elsewhere. The Beautifying Associntion has ch-uo excellent work in the improvement of Timaru in its appearance to the eye. Elsewhere such organ ; sitionsare'"ill'-l Amenities Societies. Timaru needs an Amenities Society with a wider application of the term.