PUBLIC BATHING PLACES

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 43, 10 July 1909, Page 3

PUBLIC BATHING PLACES

One of Auckland's Shortcomings

IF Auckland is to maintain its reputation for encouraging the cleanliness which, is said to rank next to godliness, the request of the Ponsonby Swimming and Life Saving Club for the early construction of municipal swimming baths at Shelly Beach should receive an attentive and sympathetic hearing from the City Council. Considering the advantages which the harbour and our climatic conditions offer, saltwater swimming ought to be one of the most popular, as it certainly is the most healthful and useful of exercises. But will anybody assert that the provision at present made for that exercise is such ac to render it attractive ? The question carries its own answer.

• • • Let any person examine the public baths at Freeman's Bay, which is the sole provision of the municipality in the matter, and he might almost persuade himself that the purpose of the City Council was to discourage' rather than to promote seabathing. In their day, no doubt, the Freeman's Bay baths served a

The police business seems to be a storm in a teapot and a much ado about nothing. Ten years ago the police were notoriously demoralised ; but as compared with what they were then the force 16 now eminently satisfactory. — Masterton " Times."

One of the worst features of our arbitration system is its tendency to restrict production ; and if the introduction of an exertion wage can assist to lessen the evils attendant upon the minimum award then it is worthy of the utmost encouragement. — Hokitika " Times."

If gi'eat care be not exercised, the efforts to alleviate undeserved distress may result in a charitable aid pure and simple to able-bodied men, with its consequent dulling of their ardour for independence, and a weakening of their grit. — Nelson "Mail." B • •

If the opposition to relief rates of pay is necessary in order to preserve the principle of the Arbitration Act, the public will have to ask itself what kind of principle that must be which depends for its existence on contentions that are plainly opposed to common sense, to economic soundness, and to ordinary humanity . — "Wellington ' 'Dominion . ' '

George George, interviewed in Wellington, said that mechanics should be able to express themselves in good English. It all depends upon what G. G. calls good English. Judging from what we know of the average mechanic, he is generally able to express himself in English that, if it isn't very good, is at least both clear and forcible. If George George doubts this assertion, let him tread on the beßt Sunday corn of the first mechanic he meets. Then he will hear some striking specimens of clear English.

Jeremiah Ormsby, who met with a tragic death on the railway near Te Kuiti this week, belonged to one of the best known half-caste families in the province. His mother was a woman of some prominence in the Ngatimaniapoto tribe, and his father, Robert Ormsby, was amongst the earliest settlers in the King Country, and for a long time acted the part of a frontier pedagogue, eventually becoming a State school teacher. Jeremiah Ormsby was one of a numerous family, and in all dealings for the purchase of native land in the district he was recognised as a man of weight and influence. • • •

The introduction of the local government system into the King Country three or four years ago, by the formation of the Waitomo County, brought Jeremiah Ormsby to the front us a representative settler, and at the time of his death he was chairman of the County Council. Another member of the Ormsby family who has been still more in the public eye than Jeremiah is his brother, John Ormsby. It was he who, with Constable (now Inspector) Gillies and a halt-caste named Barlow, effected the arrest, some twenty odd years ago, of the murderer Winiata, who had been a fugitive from justice for a long period, and had taken refuge in the King Country. The sensation which was created by the announcement that Winiata had been trapped and bound, and brought back to suffer the penalty of his crime, will be well remembered, by all colonists of long standing. John Ormsby is still alive, and in the King Country, but is taking no part in public affairs.

The Wellington " Citizen " is only a young paper, and unless it is very careful, it will die a horrible and violent death. Commenting on our Sholto's remarks at the Press Conference, " Tell us what you want us to do, and we will do it," the " Citizen " irverently snorts : — " It would perhaps be rude to inquire hete into the exact nature of credentials of Mr William Sholto Douglas, and what right he has to speak for the colonies, or for New Zealand, or even for Auckland." Rude, indeed ? 'Twould be downright wicked and impious. A paper that is so lost to all sense of decency as to talk of our " Tit " like this deserves no mercy. Let the "Citizen" beware. When Sholto returns, then will come the day of reckoning. ■ • ■

Ex- Judge., J. C. Martin, now living a life of Arcadian simplicity on the shores of the Bay of Islands, emerged into the limelight the other evening to entertain the literary and debating young men and women of Kawakawa with a talk on "The 21st June." J. C. has travelled some, and read more, and the northern papers make it plain that he was able to give a korero about the customs and legends of the world in connection with the Solstice that kept those young people keenly interested. But they didn't strike J. C.'s richest vein of anecdote. Let them just tap him on the subject of " Humours of the Bar, and Clients I Have Met," and they may get a lecture the recollection of which will tickle them from Monday morning to Saturday night.

■ « • Chief Inspector Petrie despairs of getting the metric system of money, weights, and measures adopted in New Zealand, and is inclined to throw up the sponge by catting instruction on the subject out of the school syllabus. Certainly, the prospect does not appear brilliant. However, if there is any chance at all of our ever possessing this easy system of reckoning, and so saving time both in education and business, it must, surely, come from enlightening the future electors of the Dominion as to the benefits of calculation in tens instead ot on the present mixed system. Wherefore it seems that Mr Petrie would deprive New Zealand of its one means of bringing about the reform.

ABNORMAL CAPACITY.

The daily papers seem inclined to heap kudos upon the meteorological cranium of Clement L. Wragge, because he foretold the heavy gale that recently visited these shores. But where do D. C. Bates and our own J. T. Stevenson come in? Both of these wizards of the weather foretold tlie gale. The difference between them and Mr Wragge appears to be in the fact that the latter, by the peculiar nomenclature that he bestows upon tlie, various disturbances, succeeds in focussing the bulk of public attention upon his forecasts. These are accurate euougb, no doubt ; but those of D. C. Bates and J. T. Stevenson, although free from the Wragged frills and furbelows, are just as accurate. Furthermore, they are a great deal more comprehensible to the ordinary layman than are the elaborate prognostications of the Wragge individual, the paid prognostications being frequently full of scientific terms that are sufficient to tangle up any perso-n who is not an expert meteorologist.

According to the strenuous Arthur Rosser, the present depression in the labour market has been caused by the immigration scheme that the Government has been pursuing for the last two years. If Arthur had said that the trouble was caused by the policy pursued by the labour agitators for the last ten years, he would have been nearer the mark. Still, the said agitators mightn't have liked it, and Arthur, being a charitable and unselfish individual, wouldn't hurt their feelings for the world.

Haydn Beck is a curly-haired little Mew Zealander of nine summers, of undoubted musical talent, whom it is desired to give an opportunity of cultivating his gifts at some European Conseryatorium — Brussels or St. Petersburg is suggested — and who is just now making a concert tour of the Dominion, under his mother's tutelage, with a view of raising funds to that end. Young Haydn is a native of Wanganui, where his father is a wellknown music teacher, and has been leader of the local orchestra for some hi teen years. He began to handle the violin at the age of five, when most youngsters' interests are limited to their marbles and tops, and had passed the senior examination of Trinity College, London, before he was more than seven. His power over the violin has been warmly recognised by such virtuosos as Kubelik and Miss Marie Hall, on whose recommendation it is that his parents propose to send him to Europe. So far, the public of New Zealand have enthusiastically supported the scheme, by their patronage of his concerts in the South, and the guarantee lists for hia two Auckland entertainments, to be held at the Choral Hall on the 19th and 22nd inst., are also filling readily, Haydn Beck's genius will, it is predicted, reflect future glory upon New Zealand, and its advertising value 1b worth considering.

Speaking at the Diocesan Synodal Bishop Wallis, of Wellington, ask^ti those present : " Could they wondis| that many parents were reluctant to^ bring the thought of ordination befowli their sons when they knew that ''/(raff lads were certain, if they took b6ly|| orders, to be poor men all their liveaifpE But is it the Bishop's opinion that the<f aim and object of the clergy should op to become rich men? Most people! who take up trades have no prospect! of being other than poor men all theirl lives, yet that doesn't debar them froni| adopting these trades. Bishop Walliß'il remark is interesting, illustrating as£t| does the trend of the present-day pai|| son's ambitions. In the church, a^itljl every other phase of life, the almightM dollar holds sway. ± l £?M

■ • ::; m Who ie likely to be the bettet authority upon the rights and wronfm ot marine traffic — a city lawyer likflf W. J. Napier, or a seasoned sea-dog like Captain J. H. Bradney ? M£ Napier asserts that a ferry boat by; which he was travelling to Devonpoxtj had her bows crossed in a dangeronc way by a Northern Company steamer! and for that reason he wants the hat; bour by-laws amended. Captain Brad« ney says that from Mr Napier's ovrn description of the incident, th<j Northern skipper kept within hi| rights, and ridicules the allege? danger. However, we are -to have thi new by-law, so that William Jose^| will have the opportunity of gettin| bis up-to-date ideas of navigation giroi effect to. • , tM

■ ■■WM The retrenchment now in the IU recalls stories of other retrenchmew schemes, and the difficulties .undji which they were carried out. Here sfi one, as to the kind of colloquies whicj are said to have passed between Si) Julias Yogel and his principal oificifkllj when the screw was being put on ii the 'seventies : — Sir Julius, speakisi to a departmental head : " Can and So be dispensed with ?" Anaweilj " Oh, yes !" Sir Julius : "-Whii||| his salary ?" Answer : " £600, bufc»i| " Well ?" queried Sir Julius. ** Wjium was the answer, " he is a nomineftSl ." "Ah," sighed Sirjgffl " well, then, what of 80-and-Sb ?^|§| gets £400, does he not!" ■:An»#M "Yes, but he is a nominee too.'-ifjiSl Julius : " Confound it I Well, Sb<Uffl So gets.£3oo— " •• Stop* «*o£.&|« the amazed interruption, " whv-:^P| a nominee of ." Sir Juliuß : |oil despair): "Well, then, there reniiftgj Jones— he gets £100 a year. iß^i that will be something. He iISII nominee, is he?" Answer :" Npi|^o] you can hardly retrench him, fol^J Sir Julius (losing all patience) : '* what's the matter with JOjtiil; "Matter !" was the indignant r Bpohse, " Why, Jones cannot b<B^|ii penaed with, for it is he wb^dofjj^ entire work of the4e^artin«BJb : l^.i||;|

FROM THE HEART.