The Rev. A. C. Yorke. of Mnaterton. has not gained a very good opinion of Masterton folk during his stay among them. He is nbout leaving for England, and in announ cing his intention to his congregation, he said :— " I may say with all bolduess that since I have been in Masterton I have found that spiritual life is dead. When I came amongst you you were all spiritual zeal, and I would never look for anything better than to have finished my work amoDg you. That zeal is gone, and by working where spiritual life is dead I am bringing on myself a spiritual rWdness. I foel that I am bring ing on myself a mortification of my own spiritual life. I may say in closing that never, never, will you find any clergyman bold enough who will ever be able to fjeht against this spiritual dendneas. It is like touching mouth to mouth with a corpse breathing death. Tf any clergyman lives among spiritual deadnons, it kills the spiritual life in him. Wo part in three months from now. It may be for your gpjd."

Apparently some of the Oamaru footballers misbehaved themselves sadly on the return journey from Dunedin on the Queen's Birth day, for we find the North Otago Times speaking out plainly after this fashion : — " The exploits of the football party who undertook to paint the railway line from Dunedin to Oamaru red last Monday night emphasises the argument that triight be used that many of our young men should never be permitted to wander away from the controlling influence of their parents or — a policeman. Wo are told that the carriages iv which the footballers were riding were like a small pandemonium. Under the influence of the contents of several hottles of whisky fcheso rowdies gave a most disgraceful exhibition of the depths a footballer can Biuk to when he forgets what ia clue to himself as a human being and to those in whose company ho is. Several windows of one of the carriages were smashed, and this in itself would have been bad enough, but it was aggravated by the abominable language used by some of the worst rowdies. 