LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 34, 23 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr. J. B. Hine, M.P., loft by, the mail train this morning to be present at the Reform Party “rally” to bo held in Auckland at an early date.

We have to acknowledge from Messrs. Spence and Stanford, local agents, receipt of one of the handy wall calendars issued by the National 1 nsurance Company. Air. H. B. Irving and his company, who played “Hamlet” at New Plymouth last night, and are booked for Eltham this evening, passed through Stratford by the mail train this morning.

Humour has it that the Ngaire supporters of the Reform Party are anxious to celebrate the signal advance made by their party. It is suggested that the function should take the fo.rm of a grand picnic. Mr. J. B. Hine, M.P., of course, will be the honoured guest, but every' effort will be made to secure, if possible, the presence of Mr. Massey. According to the Cromwell Argus, a shag shot recently on the Glutha River by Mr H. Hill, was found to contain no fewer than twenty-five trout of various sizes. It has been demonstrated that one shay will, on •an average, consume 101 b weight of trout per day, and as they are ver.v numerous on the Clutha, it is little wonder, in view of these facts, that the stream is being gradually depleted.

The better education of mothers is haying the effect of increasing the weight and height of newly-born children, according to Dr. Ezekiel Boyd. “The extraordinary increase in .the size and weight of babies in Ma.rylebone is out of all proportion to our gradual increase of stature,” he states. “An average newly-born infant used to weigh 6.81 b, Amt l! am now accustomed to babies weighing S;, lb, which is about the average for the last two years, the period during which I Have,noticed tin's strange plhenomenon. Babies of-101b an; 121 b,; or almost double the old average weight, are not pnyspal.” Diy Boyd ascribes th.e 'increasing growth' to the fact that modern wheaten flour is much superior to the • bid milt-groujid flour, because the constant wearing' away of the mill stones introduced a considerable quantity of lime into old-style flour. Lime brought about the premature ossification of growing bones. People who seek the seasonable refreshment of beach bathing, says the Auckland “Star,” should not emulate Kipling’s absent-minded beggar, because sneak thieves, are about prepared to pounce off the lots of little ■things they leave behind them. A five-guinea ’suit, hung up with careless abandon' on a isand-heap, or. in an open bathing house has a forsaken took that appeals irresistibly to the sympathies of the beach prowler, a fact which the amphibious owners o; such property have discovered during the course of the past fortnight or so In default of better precautionary .arrangements a bather can always bin a stray boy for threepence to sit or his clothes while ho indulges, his de sire to make a splasii—stray boys arc mostly honest, for threepence. This warning is not intended for tlie man whoso trousers were kidnapped while he was in the water at Shelly Bead, the other day; he managed to blushfnlly borrow a pair of misfits to tide oyer immediate difficulties, and bar since acquired a fierce and faithful dog.

Every Foreign Office in Europe act; on the theory that an army of spies is constantly on the alert to steal it" secrets, and infinite precautions art taken to baffle their efforts. Vert shortly after the first use of blottingpaper it was discovered that ;t wai quite possible to cause a blottiag-pat to give up jealously-guarded seer ids F simply holding it in front of a *n nor Long after all the commercial world had forgotten the existence of such a thing, the British Foreign Office usee, a sand-shaker to dry its important written documents. Then specially manufactured ink blotting-paper wa; used, but this was not found to be absolutely spy-proof, and a return to tin sand-shaker was contemplated, wbei someone suggested the simple expedi out of a small absorbent roller. Thes rollers have since been used for dry ing diplomatic documents. When sue! a roller has been run up and dow: a document once or twice, the clever cst spy in the world is at liberty, tr try in’s hand at deciphering the impressions.

The excitability and even lawless ness, of the people of Paris is showr an interesting manner by their behavi our in railway troubles. Some months ago all Europe was smiling over a com motion at “the unlucky station” oi St. Lazare, one of the big termini of the city. On that the occasion tin trouble arose over the authorities despatching on time an .evening trail: which although, scheduled to leavi at six o’clock, had not in the course of many months got away before 6.30, The passengers were infuriated at tin unexpected change. They railed a 1 the officials, who, in turn, losing thcii tempers, declared that it was possible that in future such a thing, might happen again. This effrontery led af once to rioting and window-smashing and the compulsory intervention of r‘ large force of police. Lately there war a similar scene. A derailed coal truck blocked a number of incoming morning trains, until about 10,000 passen gel? were hold up. After fuming fm some time, they left the carriages and started In walk along the permanent way. Many who were blocked in a tunnel smashed windows and rack' and cut up the cushions. The restaur ant ears aero invaded, and all re freshmonts demolished. When the; reached the station they were encountered by a strong force of polio? Many arrests were made, at winel- - were an open riot and much violence. Most of the prisoners were rescued, and many police severely injured.

Air. P. B. Lomax, warehouseman representative for the Dresden Piano Company, is on a visit to Stratford in connection with the company’s special sale of pianos and organs at their Stratford Agency, which is placed at Mr. G. W. Mills' stationery establishment in Broadway. “We shall open the evening’s proceedings,” stated the chairman of a political social “by the Alisses singing a violin and piano solo” (says the Christchurch Press). The young lad es referred to did not perform the astounding feat credited to them, but played the instruments named most pleasantly. The following are the dairy payments for December l in connection with the undermentioned factories:— Hawera £7990, Alells £I9BB, and Normanby £2751, all at the rate of Is per lb. It may be of interest to readers to know that of the Hawera factorv cheques 22 are over £IOO, the largest being £239, £IBB, £164, £162, £l6O, and £l4l. Normanby factory has nine over £loo.—“Star.” Air. C. Petersen is at present' in Stratford arranging for a recital by his daughter, Aliss Thelma Petersen, a brilliant young contralto, who during the past two 'or three years has come under the notice of Homo musicians, who are unanimous in their belief that she has a voice worthy of the host tuition procurable in Europe. Aliss Petersen is only seventeen years of age and the critics are unanimous' that her voice is of high quality, her range being a special feature. With* the idea of helping on the recital a large and influential committee of Stratford residents is being formed. The Stratford Operatic Society commenced their practices of “Pinafore” last night in the Parish Hall, there being an attendance of some thirty members. The score was roughly gone through, and the work was found very interesting. The production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s famous nautical opera promises to be one of the best tilings that the Society has yet attempted. From now on practices will be hold regularly every Alonday evening at 8 o’clock. Ladies and gentlemen wishing to join the Society are requested to communicate with the secretary, Air. F. Wilkie, of the Bank of Australasia.

Great excitement and curiosity was shown in “Bevis Marks,” London, recently, by a fracas that occurred on the premises of “Ye Olde Red Lion Inn,” during which an excited, dishevelled young man, dressed in a bygone fashion, was 'forcibly ejected from the premises. The apparent “breach of the peace” was afterwards explained to the crowd as being only a bit of acting by the employees of a .peture theatre company, who were reconstructing a Dickens episode in “The Old Curiosity Shop” for film purposes. Tiffs hostelry is the one mentioned in the book, and the victim was our old friend “Dick Swiveller.” V striking life-sized portrait of diaries Dickens is displayed over the principal entrance of the house to commemorate the fact.

Another “what might have been a serious accident” occurred in Broadway tiffs morning, when a young calf ran amok in our main street. A'local land agent, noticing it turning from the green pastures of Regan Street ■! into the macadamised: barrenness of Broadway, courageously tried to arrest its course by rattling bri the bottom of a bath, the property of a neighbouring ironmonger’s establishment, and 'calling out ‘ ‘Sb'ok;'-sbob',“sobkß’ But it passed on unheeding. Local drapers turned out in full force, lest it should by chance attempt to test the truth of their statements that certain goods were “choice,” or “a nibble,” or guaranteed,” and the like. Finally its career ended ingloriously, in more pastures, in the vicinity of Page Street.

A visitor to Christchurch, the other day, 1 desirous of ascertaining the hours jf the. tepid baths, turned to the telephone list to 'ring up the institution tor the purpose. . He ' tried ‘ ‘Tepid Baths,” but drew a blank. From the i “T’s” he turned to “M,F but “Municipal Baths’ 1 was evidently the wrong designation. “City Baths’’ and “Corporation Baths” were also cold scents, ‘ and there was no mention oh the place under the City Council’s numerous departments. It struck him that he had .arelessly overlooked “Swimming Baths,” but he was again at fault. Plain “Baths” appeared to his now ictive imagination, but it failed hirh. He searched the telephone list under die initials of the caretaker of the baths, the town clerk, and the Mayor, out to no effect. Then he went over everything again, but it was hopeless, rnd after walking round to the city’s Tepid Municipal Swimming Bath, he found that for the purposes of the delephone directory, it was the “Public Bath.,”

According to a telegram published in a New t ork paper, the McNamara (of Los Angeles fame) are living in a luxurious prison where the cells are .•arpeted. They have access to the .ibrary, and are allowed to swim, play mseball, promenade, and smoke. The paper claims that the San Quentin Prison is called the “Criminals’ Paradise.” The inmates, it is alleged, are confined in the cells only eleven hours in the twenty-four. The rest of the time they are making jut© bags or playing baseball, swimming, reading Linder the shade of trees, enjoying a smoke, or else walking over the island. Hard work is unknown in the prison. When the inmates have made the required number of bags each week performances are given by the prison band, of 60 performers. William Sherdan, for twenty years head of the (lentification bureau at the police headquarters, New York, who visited 3an Quentin, says a noted bank thief '■.ills the prison a sanatorium, and ■.dates that all the initiates go in for athletics.

A correspondent of the London "Times” wrote last month:—Repeat ’ marvel too often and men cease to marvel at it; yet it may become all tiie more marvellous by the accumulat'd force of repetition. It was a great feat for a steamer to cross the Atlantic in little more than four and a half days. To repeat the performance 32 times running, and all within a twelvemonth, is an achievement doubly remarkable; indeed, only a man who has lived in the engine-room of a •■teamer and knows its huge yet delicately adjusted mechanism can estimate such an achievement at its full value The average speed between Daunt’s dock and Ambrose Channel lightship of 21.67 westward and 24.66 eastward, maintained through the winter and summer, has necessitated the consumption of something like 160,000 tons of coal. During the year the Lusitania has carried 7TT,294 bags of nails and specie to the value of G 1.361,000, and her passengers have numbered over 40.000, or an average M more than 2500 per trip. These facts and figures will only suggest to vour readers the character of this immense business of keeping a 32,000liner racing to and fro between Liverpool and Now York from one •ear’s end to the other, and remember that these figures have to be doubled to represent the service continuously carried on by the Lusitania and her sister ship the Mauretania.