The Bruce auction in aid of the Presbyterian Manse, which took place in the Mechanics' Institute was quite a success, and our local auctioneer is no novice in wielding the hammer. Our Presbyterian friends and others contributed with pleasure to the object, by sending sheep, pigs, fowls, oats, grass seed, drapery, stationery, cakes, and a host of other articles too numerous to mention. Mr W. Somerville, jun. (the local auctioneer), who was selling from morning till 7 p.m., managed to realise the sum of £40 for the Manse building committee. The Manse is nearly completed, and our worthy minister, Mr W. Marlin, has taken no little pains in collecting subscriptions to defray its cost. I would recommend that the cash subscribers' names be published, as well as accounts of cost of Manse. How is it that the United Church is not enclosed in a neat fence? Those interested with its appearance ought not to overlook this.
Our village is progressing ; Mr Bardenhagen is erecting a large brick store near the railway station. We have now no less than five stores in close proximity to Lilydale, maintained and supported by the Lilydalians, and not through increased population caused by the civiliser, the iron horse.
We are slowly but surely growing into importance. Our local Board of Health are going to make bye-laws which will compel every vendor of butter to pay 5s a year for registration, and every baker and butcher £1 a year. What will be the next new taxation? If the Government want revenue (the big one), why allow carcass meat to be imported free of duty ? The inhabitants are not benefited one iota by the meat, as the butchers swallow all the benefit. Fancy 6d and 7d a lb at Bardenhagen's for prime cuts, which cost 2d and 2¼d at the sales. Some of the farmers will be "flyblown" if some encouragement and support is not shown them.
We have now three police stations in this locality. The Court House is to be at Lilydale, and it is high time the powers that be took steps for the erection of a suitable building. Many arrests for contravention of the laws have been made by the police at Hall's Track, Turner's Marsh, and Lilydale, but Launceston is too great a distance for the convenience of witnesses and prosecutors. Cases from the other stations should be tried at Lilydale, and I am glad to learn the Government have already given instructions to have cases tried at Lilydale Police Station, which will be a boon to the police and others concerned.
Mr E. Kowarzik, J.P,, tried the first case to-day, at Lilydale Police Court. A man named W. Smith, for using obscene language, was fined £1. The individual was arrested at Hall's Track by Constable Hogan.
There are a great many bachelors in our midst, and the present Government could take a hint from the New Zealand Government, and tax them £5 a head, which would be a good way of raising the wind.
Some say we could do with a cargo of wives from France. Now, is it unworthy to answer a matrimonial advertisement ? Some of our friends said it is. I am decidedly inclined to the supposition that there is as much to agitate the argumentative mind in the above question as there is in that of any other of a social, a moral, or even of a political character. I will endeavor to answer it in the negative, and to prove that the very purest feelings may animate either a lady or a gentleman in responding to the call of one who takes what may perhaps be termed the novel, but by no means unnatural or indelicate method, of advertising for a husband or a wife.
It is a fact that will be conceded on all hands that there are hundreds of women, having all the capacities of becoming good wives and good mothers, whom circumstances prevent becoming acquainted with one whom they could love and live for. This remark applies to city and country alike, and to men as well as women. How many hundreds of young men are there pining for the very class of companion I have described ? tired, very likely, of the fortune-hunting town lady who does the block every day without fail, and who will make no pretension of love except towards one she considers a catch.
He knows that if he hopes to win one he may consider a match for himself, he must be a silent witness to what the ladies call "harmless flirtation." Is there a man in our midst who will affirm positively that it is a proof of indelicacy for a lady to consent to a meeting with a gentleman with a view to honorable courtship ? It is no more a proof of indelicacy than it is on the part of a gentleman to introduce himself to a fair one whom, though unacquainted with, he admires. It may not be strict etiquette, but the honorable motive is the excuse. Actuated only by the best and purest intentions, he wishes to know her, and has no other alternative. There are numbers, I know, who will entirely disagree with me ; but they may be deemed extremists, and with that class a liberal-minded person can have no sympathy.
One thing we must concede, and that is, that it is the duty of the lady to know something of the gentleman, and this she can learn by correspondence and personal interviews. But it is not necessary to prolong an acquaintance against one's judgment. If ladies only bear in mind one point they will save a lot of trouble. Let them earnestly ask themselves if their proposed partner is suitable, and, above all, let them not decide too quickly. Let them not jump at the conclusion that he is a "nice man," but analyse his character and watch him well. It is no disgrace for any female living a single life — be her station what it may — to wish to change her condition. God made man and woman to unite — it is the natural law; and whether a union of congenial souls is brought about by advertisement or otherwise, where there is honor and confidence on both sides, it is surely a matter for congratulation all round.
July 16.LILYDALE. (1888, July 18). Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas. : 1883 - 1928), p. 3. Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150279930