Compiled by Cameron McCullough
WHILE business people were brightening up their shop fronts and making their show windows attractive; while the cottage garden was being trimmed up and thrifty industrious householders were cleaning up the back yard, all in readiness for Christmas and the New Year, the moribund Council slept serenely on.
It did nothing to brighten up the streets or the foreshore, in preparation for the annual influx of visitors.
The Council maintained a masterly inactivity, except in one direction.
During the holidays and prior to New Year’s Day, hundreds of casks, said to contain material for re-coating the tarred roads, were dumped on the roadside, between Mr. Sage’s shop and “The Rendezvous.”
It was explained that the Council was compelled to find a new depot for its tar melting operation, and the Mornington road reserve, facing the tennis court and the foreshore, was the new site selected.
As a result, several chains of charming picnic grounds were monopolised by unsightly barrels strewn higglety-pigglety along the side of our most beautiful highway.
On New Year’s Day when thousands of holiday-makers monopolised every yard of public reserve, this encroachment on a favoured area was repeatedly resented, particularly by female members of picnic parties, who were compelled to scramble over the unsightly obstructions, in order to reach the sheltering cliffs and shady ti-tree on the other side.
Truly, our Shire Council has a lot to answer for!
Resolutions For 1925
It may be assumed that with the ringing-out of the old year 1924, and the heralding of this the year of our Lord one thousand, nine hundred and twenty-five, countless millions of degenerated inhabitants of Mother Earth, standing on the threshold, so to speak, at midnight on the 31st of December last, meekly bowed in humble contrition and mentally made a series of good resolutions for the future, near or otherwise.
True, the second week of 1925 is passing through the shadows of retrospection, and already many people who, on January 1, professed well-meant determinations, have lapsed into the habitual groove of the past, because while often the spirit is willing, the flesh is deplorably weak.
In order to sustain a fresh role in the eyes of our neighbours, and adequately present new born virtues before the footlights of reality, such a modus operandi necessitates rehearsing the part again and again, for even surface idiosyncrasies, based as they are on inherent characteristics, will be found most difficult to subdue at the psychological moment.
They will persist in rising to the surface of recently acquired resolves and suddenly illumined purpose, thereafter burst into the flotsam of decayed habits.
It is only by the gradual process of building up one’s character that the average individual may feel confident of, eventually, achieving success in the desired directions, made on the spur of the moment.
Wonderful New Year resolutions are of too haphazard a nature to invite credible analysis.
As a rule, they are the outcome of an exceptionally appetising dinner which has left one’s digestive organs unimpaired, or, presumably, the result of a mellow glass of wine, the effects of which have created an optical illusion, and caused the convert of the fleeting hour to gaze on the horizon of hope, with the object of leading a more circumspect life, through rose coloured spectacles.
For example, an unpalatable mince pie would have made all the difference. Steadfastness of purpose is a grand motto to pursue in every day life, and even in this jazzing mad world today, the man or woman who adhere to so fine a principle, usually reach the goal of their ambition.
In brief, impulsive resolutions lead nowhere; they rarely fail to accomplish anything material, and are a snare and a delusion.
NEXT Friday, the first monthly meeting of the current year, of the Frankston and Hastings Shire Council will be held, and it is quite on the cards that in view of what transpired at the special sitting of the local government body on December 22 last, relative to the attitude adopted in respect of a certain communication which was “received,” following a camouflaged discussion, further developments will take place.
In moving that the said letter be “received”, and at the same time expressing the opinion that such a modus operandi would be the “safest plan,” Cr. Brown, the highly-esteemed representative for Seaford, was quite within his rights, but, in retrospect, it may be asserted that when a matter, dealing with public honour, is shelved and pigeon-holed, it does not tend to allay conjecture, or clear the atmosphere in the criterions of the ratepayers.
A subject of serious public import, as propounded in the significant “Prider” letter, demands that it would not be judicious for those concerned to permit of the second, and quite extraordinary one addressed to the civic fathers, and which did not refute the statements contained in the first amazing communication, to rest unchallenged in the archives of the Shire Chambers.
ON Sunday last, a “Nash” motor car, owned by Mr. Neuhands, of Melbourne, and driven by his daughter, Miss Neuhands, while proceeding along Melbourne road, and on the verge of passing the Beach street intersection, just at the busy period, about midday, ran into the fence on Honor Avenue.
Fortunately no one was injured. The car, however, was damaged to the extent of an axle, and a badly bent wheel.
Mr. O. J. Olsen, the well-known proprietor of the Frankston Motor Garage, was quickly on the scene of the mishap, and had the damaged car taken there for repairs.
ON Sunday last a sensational accident occurred at the Carrum bridge at about 5.10pm, in which three cars collided:
An Albert single-seater car, belonging to Mr. W. O. Hobson, of Sandringham, which was travelling from Melbourne, entered the bridge at the Melbourne side, while an Oldsmobile car, owned by Mr. A. Balfour, of Flemington, and a Ford car, owned by Mr. A. Mohr, of Brighton North, travelling to Melbourne, entered the bridge at the Frankston side.
The front mudguard of the Albert car struck the Oldsmobile on the rear mudguard, the Albert car then swung around across the bridge; the Ford car, which was following the Oldsmobile, collided with the Albert.
The cars continued to bank up on the Frankston side of the bridge until about 600 were lined up.
The local police (Constable Feehan and a temporary officer) soon had the traffic under control.
The damage done to the cars was:
The Oldsmobile car, mudguard damaged and bent wheel; the Ford, back and front left wheels damaged, axle bent and battered head lamps; the Albert car, front axle, wheel and guard bent, and head lamps smashed.
The occupants of the three cars had a miraculous escape from sustaining serious injury.
One of the rails bordering the bridge was splintered.
In view of the ever-increasing numbers of motor cars and other vehicles which pass over this route, more particularly on a Sunday, the question is being asked: Has the time not arrived for the powers that be to widen the bridge, or, better still, erect another structure, in order to provide a one way traffic?
From the pages of the Frankston and Somerville Standard, 7 & 9 Jan 1925
