LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 32, 20 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

All members of the U.A.O.D. Lodge are requested to attend a meeting which will be held in the Foresters Hall on Tuesday 23rd. January.

We have received from the publishers. Messrs. Whitcombs and Tombs, Christchurch, a copy of the Dominion Year Book for 1912. The price of the publication is one shilling, and it contains a mass of information for everybody.

Campers by , the riverside at the Opihi who lost articles of various descriptions through the recent flood are finding these one at a time in different parts of the river-bed. Some of them have got into very surprising places. A big safe, for instance was washed right through a belt of willows, and other things have been found lodged well up into tall trees. In many ways is Kano a wonderful place to find in Central Africa. This native city has great enfolding walls, 12 miles in circumference, pierced by 1,3 deep gateways with platform and guardhouse and.massive doors heavily clamped with iron. Its, written records datq back nearly 800 years. And although incomparably the, most important, :it is not the oldest of the Hausa cities.., Jvatshia, nqw , ip the. same province,.; is-i’probably.ipidpr. ', !■ Ve ■ A' man was prosecuted at-Napier for refusing to leave a'hotel when /ordered to do so. His excuse was tiiat the hotelkeeper refused to serve him. His worship said ho wished to point opt to the defendant that he could rot demand liqout fijur anyciJ,, lic-n pnseos were entitled to refuse to serve anyone they chose. For some reason best known to himself the licensee of tins; particular ..hotel had,, refuse},,. to, ,servo- defendant,,.arid; he .was perfectly entitled to do so, , ;,}n. consequence’of this refusal defendant had gone to the hotel and created a,, disturbance.. He would be fined £3,. with costs 7s, there being several previous, convictions against him. ~.

At iv recent symposium ot tlie College of Physicians of Philadelphia, stories were related of experiments which exploded the theory long belies ea in medical circles that caffein, the basic stimulant in coffee, is deleterious to health. Whatever ill is caused by intemperate coffee drinking, the physicians concluded, does not result from the caffein therein contained. Experiments conducted both by psychologists and by physiologists were described to prove that caffein stimulates the muscles, the nerves, and the mental organs, without creating a secondary depression common to most stimulants.

The biggest gun in the world was built primarly to guard the biggest canal in the world. This enormous engine of destruction is a IGin. breechloading gun, the newest weapon designed for the sea coast defence of the United States and its insular possessions, the first one completed being intended for the Panama Canal. The total length of the gun is ,49ft 2.9 in. It has a diameter of GOin at the breech, tapering to 2Sin at the muzzle. If smokeless powder is used it is estimated that a full charge of 57GUb will throw a projectile weighing 2,4001 b a d : stancc of 22 miles. The projectile prepared for the monster is sft 4in long, and it has been calculated, says “Popular Mechanics,” that it would go. through a steel plate of 42. Sin thick, if the plate was placed at the muzzle.

It is probable (says the Nelson Colonist) that the selection of a successor to Dr. Mules as Anglican Bishop of Nelson will be made at an early date. In accordance with the procedure in such cases, the Acting-Pri-mate (Bishop Julius) will submit the resignation of Bishop Mules to the other bishops in New Zealand, and upon them assent, or that of a majority of them, to its acceptance being signified, it will take effect as from (lie date specified in the resignation, or such other date as the bishops may fix. The Acting-Primate will then direct the Bishop’s Commissary (the Rev. J. P. Kempthorne) to convene an extraordinary session of the Nel-“ son Diocesan Synod to take into consideration the election of a bishop of the diocese.

] n a cottage in the Montgomeryshire village of Caersws (Wales) lives a retired railwayman named Thomas Williams, who is confident of proving liis’right to a fortune in America of C 00,000,000. He bases his claim on his belief that lie is the nearest snrv ving relative of Edward Edwards, a Welshman who emigrated in the eighteenth century, and amassed an enoimons fortune, but died intestate. Edwards was a native of Llanymynech, near Oswestry, and removed to Silverdale, Staffs, where he married. His wife’s behaviour caused him to emigrate to New York, where he acquired cheaply the marshy land on which part of New York City now stands. When the British Government recognised American Independence, Edwards leas ed his land to the United States Government, but the lease expired in 18S0. Edwards also acquired collier's:- at Edwardsvillo (named after him).

A special meeting of the Borough Conned will he held on Monday evening to consider the question of purcaasing a road roller.

Owners and trainers are reminded tnai nominations for the Taranaki Jockey Club’s autumn meeting will close with the secretary, Mr. E. P. Webster, at New Plymouth, at 9 p.m., on .'holiday evening. A local cattle buyer has in his possession rather a curiosity, in the shape of a large hall of a substance and texture tnat defies identification, except by those ‘‘in the know.” About tee size and shape of a cricket ball, u has the smooth hard surface of gutta-percha, but weighs only some, two or three ounces. It seems that butchers occasionally come across them in the carcase of a bullock. The iiidi is entirely composed of hair, but it is seldom that this fact is not apparent. It is the natural result, of course, of , pinch vigorous licking on tlie part of the animal, when its coat is moulting.