Ohinemuri Regional History Journal 56, September 2012
(From the Ohinemuri Gazette, 1893)
We notice that the Government is extremely anxious as to how other people's servants are treated, but we also have occasion to remark as to the manner in which they treat their own. No doubt many of our readers remember Claude Forgie, who was in the local post office and entered this service five years ago with a salary of £36 ($72) annum. He is now a qualified telegraphic operator, and is in receipt of the same salary. Talk about sweat!
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The Paeroa Amateur Gymnasium Club gave an open night last evening, at the Town Hall, which was largely attended. The Brass Band, under the able leadership of Mr Brown, played several selections and Mesdames Cadman and Snodgrass discoursed sweet music, and were vociferously encored for their selections. Messrs Rhodes, Lawless, Jordan, E. and J. Edwards sang, and the club under Mr Towers, showed their proficiency in marching evolution, and with the dumbbells and clubs. Messrs Brenan, Griffiths and Jordan were very successful in their Koman rings acts. The programme concluded with an enjoyable dance.
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Mr George Crosby opens his new hotel, the Royal Mail, today (July 1, 1893). The house is a most commodious one of 22 rooms, handsomely erected in two storeys. The bar is neatly fitted up, and has the usual advantages in the way of offices and spirit room with capacious cellar. There are several sitting rooms on the ground floor, And one of these is set apart as a "Ruma mo nga tanaga Maori". There is a roomy hall and a first-class bath room on the landing. Upstairs there are eight bedrooms, drawing room, and sitting room. The verandah has two sides, from each side of which there is a charming aspect. Mr Burrows, of Tauranga, and Mr J. McAndrew, the contractor, and we must congratulate both, the former on his taste in architecture and the latter on his workmanship. Mr Crosby has had extensive hotel experience, having been in the line at Rotorua and elsewhere, and we wish him every success in his new venture.
(Editor: This building was destroyed by fire in 1912, was replaced in 1926 by the Crosby family and is the present Paeroa RSA and Citizens Club.)
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It is a little item worth noting these times, that the total value of the Ohinemuri County is £241,261 ($482,522) inclusive of European, Crown and Native lands. The only rateable lands is the former, of course, under the present law, and their value only amounts to £87,490 ($174,980) leaving land to the value of £126,771 ($253,542) not liable for rates. Thus, approximately, from every £1 ($2) paid in rates by the ratepayers about 13 shillings ($1.30) is expended in increasing the value of someone else's land. Think of this the next time you are asked to pay rates and also think of it at the next general election after all the high sounding promises made in rating reform.
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On Sunday evening last Mr George Ginn, a well-known builder, while walking along a dark passage at Mr Williams' boarding house, fell over a sleeping dog and broke his left leg below the knee. Dr Cooper was in attendance and set the limb. Mr Ginn proceeded to the Thames Hospital on Wednesday morning per s.s. Paeroa and is now, we are glad to say, progressing favourably.
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There have been several rows between the Waitekauri School Committee—if committee it can be called—and the teacher culminating on a row royal the other day. The causes are various. The committee very rarely sits—indeed only once in the whole 12 months, as a rule and the whole thing is left to the chairman.
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Burglars broke into Phillips and Son's last week. They left a note saying "they couldn't, their hearts would not let them, steal anything as the prices were so low".
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On Monday last at Te Aroha, the school teacher at Waihou was brought before the Bench by an aggrieved parent for administering the rod to one of her erring offspring. In discussing the case the Resident Magistrate said that there was too much maudlin sentiment now-a-days about flogging school children. It was this that had brought about the present deplorable conditions in some of the large cities in Australia, and was the cause of the larrikinism in our colony. If one of his own boys had told him such a lie as Harry Cornes had told his mother, he would himself have given him such a flogging that he would not be able to sit down for a fortnight. He was of the opinion that boys should be taught and made to respect girls, and any boy who was rude to a girl deserved to be flogged. Discipline must be maintained in our schools, otherwise larrikinism would be the inevitable result. He therefore dismissed the case.
(Gazette Editor's note: We most thoroughly endorse those sentiments. The utter disregard and contempt for all authority, whether parental or otherwise, is one of the most noticeable and objectionable features of colonial life and manners.)