LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 12, 30 August 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A clause in Mr. Lloyd George’s National Insurance Hill enacts that ‘‘any workman who becomes repeatedly unemployed through lack of skid or knowledge may be required to attend

a suitable course of technical instruction, and-if lie fails to do so or to profit by such instruction, this fact may lie taken into account in considering what is suitable employment for him.”

According to the Shanghai correspondent of. the “Morning Post,” it lias been decided to form a new Chinese province of Chuan-si, comprising the western portion of Szechuan and tiie eastern part of Tibet. The capital will be Batang. The system of chieftains will lie abolished, and a governor, three taotis, and prefects will he appointed. In future there will bo only one amban at Lasa and two secretaries. The change will be effected immediately.

General Zurlinden, who has twice been France’s War Minister, declared in the course of an interview that everything was ready for hostilities with Germany. “There will be no repetition of the uncertainty and disconcerting delays of 1810,” said Genera! Zurlinden. The Germans will find our army just as ready as theirs. Our mobilisation, odr ' concentration, our transports, and railways, are all remarkably well prepared. Our infantry, cavalry, and artillery have all been trained for a big war. They have all been put on the defensive, which alone can ensure success, and they burn with the desire to shout again the old battle-cries.”

Speaking at the Australian Museum the other night, Mr. W. J. Rainbow, F.L.S., made an attack on the performances of so-called “trained fleas.' “Trained fiddle-sticks!” said the lecturer. “A man might as well attempt to train fioas to do set acts as to hang his hat on the crescent moon.” The fleas, it seems, are cured of their habit of jumping by being imprisoned in a glass case, where they find the process of hopping painful, and soon learn to crawl. After that they are gummed to their position in a set piece, and act only by the light of nature. “The whole thing is,” the lecturer said, “nothing mere nor less than a showman's trick.'

Or. Kiess, telegraphing from the Lick Observatory, .Mount Hamilton, California, reports that he discovered a comet on July 6 near the comparatively bright star lota Aurigae. The exact position of the comet'. atlSh 2 l-'min, Pacific time on the morning A the 7tn inst. was Right Ascension !h Slmin 52scc, North Declination 35 log. 15min sSscc. The comet is described as of the ninth magnitude, and having a tail; tin's, of course, is to be understood as visible in a telescope. It is moving towards the constellation Taurus. Tiie comet, it will be seen, is in the circumpolar regions of tile sky for this latitude, but during our short aights.it will be very near the northvest horizon. Tins'is a very unfortunate position for us, owing to the nightly illuminated sky; otherwise it should bo easily visible in oven a small tele scone.

“Yes. I have read about what has been taken off some farms of limited area in a season,” remarked a Levin farmer to a Palmerston “Standard” reporter, “but, you can depend upon it, where the cows give phenomenally good yields, as I have seen now and again in the ‘Standard,’ it is net the land so much as the man who is working it who should have the credit, in nearly every case you would find ti:at remarkably*good returns are attributable to farming on up-to-date lines, old to considerable care in the selection of the herd. Besides a rich soil, the whole surroundings must he specially, well adapted to dairying where unusually good results arc obtained.”

The surveys needed before the recent delimitation of the frontier between Bolivia and Peru, led to an exploration of the almost unknown Heath River, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, in north-eastern Bolivia. Hero, amid dense forests, live the Cluirayos, hitherto always intensely hostile to explorers. They have a curious way of capturing fish by means of the juice of a tree called “mamma.” When it is poured into the water the fish are rendered incapable of movement, and arc easily captured. Gold is declared to be abundant, and copper, antimony, gadena, and silver - arc reported to exist abundantly in a region which is still largely inaccessible.

'where are the boys, ancr what arc they doing? Very few are offering in the labour market, says the Wei; iugion “Post,” and the Government Printing Office has had some difficulty in satisfying its requirements in this direction. During the past three months the printing office has advertised several times lor the much-sought-after boy, but the response has been but poor. Last week tiffs Government department advertised for ifcher boys or youths, and while too number of hoys who replied was small, quite u number of applications were received from “youths,” whose ages ran from 20 to 35 years. As the work had to be done, and somebody warded to do it, several “youths” were engaged—not at boys’ wages. Mr. Frank T. "Cullen has introduced a Hull audience to the delights qf whaling. It was a singular thing, ho said, but lie had never scon or hoard of a shark attacking a man when there was a whale about. Ido had seen a man washed off the back of a whale, and although there were 200 or 300 sharks busy all round the whale, they never paid any attention to him at all. A mere miserable morsel of a man was of no use to then when there was a whale about. He spout the whole of one Christmas afternoon until sunset on the back H ! a whale which, in rolling, had wrecked their boat. They knew the sharks were underneath, and the great problem thev tried to solve was how ! mg it would take them to get through the '‘•moment and conic to the superstructure*

The Town Clerk, Mr. P. Skoglund is at present confined to his lied through indisposition. 1 A’ projectile can be by the naval I2in. gun the astounding distance of 23 miles, and the gun has an effective range up to lo miles. Friday had been sot down as the date for the quarterly mooting of the Stratford Licensing Committee, but as no business has conic forward no meeting will he held. The election of a representative for the Diocesan Synod will take place at Holy Trinity Church to-morrow (Thursday) evening, from 7 to 8. Fourteen civil actions, two judgment summonses, two maintenance cases, and three informations for , breaches of Borough by-laws, are set down to be dealt with at hriday s sitting of the Magistrate’s Court. A grand social under the auspices of the Druids’ Lodge will be held in the Foresters’ Hall this evening. The Host of music and an agreeable time generally is premised. To-morrow evening the children taking part in the Fire Brigade Ball will hold a practice. No practice has been held for a few weeks owing to the prevalence of measles, and a good muster is wanted. Mr. Tosland, the democratic candidate for the Egmont electorate, will address the electors at the Athenaeum Hall, Kaponga, on Saturday, September Oth, and at Wilkinson’s Hall, Eltham, on Tuesday, September 12th. Madame Bernard, proprietress of His Majesty’s Theatre, left for "Wellington by this morning’s mail train. She will arrive back on Friday with a new picture projecting machine, which it is expected will be used for the first time on Saturday. All hands forward on the steamer Nikau left the vessel at Nelson last "Wednesday owing to dissatisfaction with the victualling department. When the Nikau arrived back at Wellington on Thursday morning she had new hands forward, and also a new . cook. Captain Hay said that the seven men had a personal disagreement 1 with the cook, but they did not complain of his cooking or the victualling. They had left the vessel at Nelson, . and the cook had been signed off before the seven other men signed on. Straying cattle have been for years, says tlie Wellington ‘‘Post,” and will probably continue to be for many more years, a source of trouble to local bodies, who have been sorely puzzled as to the best means to take to abate the nuisance. Karori Borough Council lias tried its best, and, according to the town clerk (Mr. W. E. England), its efforts have been practically in vain. The clerk brought one case before the Court, “but,” he sadly remarked, “the defendant engaged a lawyer, and we lost.” He had recently brought two further cases, with the same result. “It would appear,” said the clerk, “that the Court is rnore lenient to owners of cattle than to local bodies.” Mr. England further said that he had consulted the borough solicitor on the matter of cattle straying on to vacant unfenced sections, and was advised to give a boy a few pence to throw stones at them and drive them off!

Only those with an “inside” knowledge of how newspapers are conducted can understand now errors creep into even the most carefully-supervis-ed journal; but even the initiated cannot explain some of the “howlers” that sometimes appear. In a recent issue of a Hawke’s Bay paper the advertisements yielded a fine crop of “bloomers.” Either the writing of the people who send the advertisements .in is exceedingly bad or the .journal must have a humourist on its staff, i; One notice of a Sale announces that “nine hnstfed wcanersP will he offered. This is apparently a new feed peculiar' to Hawke’s Ray. Another sale notice calmly states that “50 hull ewes were sold at 2s 6d, and G 8 hull lambs at 3s!” A “c” instead of “b” would probably seis tlie matter right, but, anyway, it was an “inner.” Still again the journal blunders on "in its careful way—for we read that a “line of heifers in calf to a two-horned hull” is awaiting a buyer; but the best of the lot is a “wanted” which announces that “butchers are wanted to crutch sheep!” From the look of some sheep that have been crutched (says an exchange) it would certainly appear that butchers have done iß—with a cleaver!

A judgment summons was called in the Hawera Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, in which thhe defendant was a labourer, and the claim was for about £B. The application for the order was made apparently only within six weeks of the s judgment being obtained. There was no appearance of the judgment creditor or judgment debtor, but the former was represented by counsel. The claim was.for rent. The Magistrate commented on the fact of the quick- . > ness of the issuing of the judgment :■( summons, remarking that it was unreasonable to assume that the man, a labourer getting perhaps 8s per day, could have had the money to meet the debt, and while agreeing with counsel that the debtor should have been present, he wanted sufficient evidence adduced to show that the man could have paid the amount. A man was not sent to prison for refusing to pay the debt, but for contempt of the order by the Court when he has had the ,n. means to pay. Where a man was, v, liable to be (imprisoned he required the fullest information particularly in a case where application for an order was made shortly after the original judgment. Mr Kcnrick added that supposing in the present case tne judgment debtor had attended and showed Ids earnings were 8s per day, that he had a wife and family, no order would have been made so soon after the judgment. The-man would thus have lost a day in being brought to the Court when ho probably could not afford to do so. If judgment creditors intended to bring wages debtors to Court so soon after judgment they must have, according to the affidavit they have filed, reasonable belief that the debtor has received other monies in addition to his wages mentioned. Counsel, who was appearing for another solicitor in the case, asked that it ho adjourned for one week. Tliis was granted.