The Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6140, 29 March 1898, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

... With regard to the movement that is on foot for- making tha Samaritan Home a " separate institution," we; hope that the public will; not lose, sight of theforembst consideration." It is in the highest degree desirable that the women who are at prosent occupants of the Home should be retained there, for if they were let loose to prey on the community as they have done in the past, the public morality and the public health must suffer enormously. As to the financial aspect there may be a misconception in the minds of some people. It has been represented to us, on behalf of those . who are in so philanthropic a spirit undertaking the responsibilities of management, that the cost will be about .£SOO per annum. Of this siim it is estimated that .£l2O will be raised by subscriptions, and since the Government contribution is 24s for each £1 so raised, the amount is swelled to .£264. Then, assuming a requirement of .£l5O from, local rates, the consolidated fund would contribute an equal sum, so that the direct demand upon local ratepayers would in reality be very small.

There is another point which has been made clearer. When the Charitable Aid Board objected to male inmates being retained, they were forthwith discharged from the Home. Since that time there have been . occasional male occupants. Of these, one pr two have been specially sent by the Board itself. The remainder appear to have been hospital convalescents, and to have been paid for out of the Destitute Parents' Relief Fund. We are told that,. as a matter of fact, the management. of the Home would prefer to work in conjunction with the Charitable Aid Board as heretofpre. , Failing this, either the Home must be shut tip, or it must be placed on a financial basis by conversion into a separate institution. We decline to believe that the public wishes the cessation of the beneficent work that is being •done.

Inconsistency, thy embodiment is to be found— occasionally — in the City Council. That hoarding round the base of the clock tower was a subject of discxission at the meefang of the Council last night. The City Surveyor declared that the safety of the public would be endangered by the Removal of the. hoarding. Therefore it is to , r< *nain. Well and good. But why, oh why,,dogs the City Council, that has been

profcestirig against tt» defacemefit v of telegraph, pole*' by means of advertisements placed thef eon, deliberately invite tenders for advertisements to be stuck or painted on the clock tower hoarding? Surely there are enough and to spare of such adornments in the city j already.

When a mistake has been made, the best thing to do — sometimes — is to own up. That is what the City Council has done with regard to the holding of meetings in Cathedral Square. Its advertisement, duly headed with 'the city seal, expressly declared that henceforth no meetings were to i be held unless permission had been first j obtained. Now we are told that the unikappyTown Clerk blundered, and that what was really intended was that people desiring to hold meetings were to apply to the Council, and the Council would allot ; positions. The Mayor was absent from ! thrißtchnrch when the advertisement appeared. Last night he " put the set " on the cv had no more power to grant permission for the holding of meetings than it had to prevent them. The position is this : On tho one hand, the public has an inherent right to hold public meetings and to exercise freedom of speech. On the other hand, the public has no right to inconvenience the public, or to inconvenience private persons either. Therefore such gatherings must be made— as they are — subject to law and order ; and of law and order the police are the active custodians.

The "Wairarapa Star says that some of the applications for relief sent in to the local committees by sufferers from the bush fires are strangely worded. Here is an extract from one by a widow :■ — " I have in family four dairy cows, two pigs, a horse and three little children, all being by. my first husband, and two goats in full milk, and a baby by my second husband. All the animals was lost in the fire." •