LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 36, 25 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Waipawa Borough Council has decided that motorists exceeding four miles an hour through the town will be prosecuted. There is apparently a dearth of teachers in this district, says the New Plymouth “Herald.” for the Taranaki Education Board :s experiencing some difficulty in obtaining the services of relieving teachers. “You are dirtier when you get out of a bath of that water than when you get in,” was how a member of a deputation to the Devonport Borough' Council described the Borough water supply.

Six shearers at a Marlborough station, working one hour short of full time, shore 1023 sheep. The sheep were 400 half-bred hoggets, the balance being all from four and six-tooth wethers. This is believed to be a record for Marlborough. The highest tally was 205 sheep.

The butchers at Auckland have decided to abolish late shopping hours on Saturdays, and now close at 6 p.m. instead of nine, as heretofore. On other days they will shut at o p.m., as usual." On Wednesdays, instead rf remaining open till 1 p.m.,they will l>e closed at noon. This :s the-first time a trade in New. Zealand has decided to abandon the advantages of the Saturday night business. v

' ! The recent purchase.,of. an,, air rifle by a small boy desperado has brought ■brief dn Train feayfi-the Wanganui, '‘Chronicle”). Imbued with the - ‘true* spirit'’of the immortalised Western tow-boy, be punctured, with a couple of pellets, the, nether . limbs of his brother’. The police ’ got oiPtd bis track, and, with infantile logic, he endeavoured to explain his action by saying’ that he “couldn’t help it.” Now the local ironmonger who supplied the:,weapon has received notice to attend the Court and explain, if possible, why he,made, the,deal.

Two small monkeys escaped from an upstairs window in Victoria Street, Auckland', oil' Thursday last, .and' eiin fert<iiiied' : .thy -passevsby. for. some; time, 1 says the 1 “Herald. v They were eery expert at running over the verandah, and took brief refuge upon various windowsills. The owners of the fugitives opened one window after another in the hope of catching them, and aftef ; a game of catch-as-catch-can, with ’at least three windows as bases, a chain attached to one of the monkeys was'caught. The monkey promptly tangled itself up with some iron trellis-work, while its companion explored the drainage system of the verandah. The two allowed themselves to bo caught, and declared a truce; but a moment later they slipped out again. Having apparently worn the joke out, they finally clambered in through the home window again, and the owner closed it to save further trouble.

A wealthy American lady advances some very substantial reasons for not living in America. • “After a week’s visit among one’s friends in America,” she explains, “one knows all about the latest scandals, divorces, and domestic troubles, but docs not hear a single word about the big things which wealthy or philanthropic Americans may have done for the country.” lint this lady has another very excellent reason for staying in England. She does not admire the way the sons of millionaires are trained. “They are not a credit to society,” she affirms. “They do not work, most of them drink, and American hostesses have often to apologise for the condition of young men guests; whereas in England no man would ever appear twice in an intoxicated state in any house, because lie would never get a second invitation. The sons of the rich English do not drink like the Americans, but grow up healthy, strong, normal, and devoted to outdoor sports; Therefore I shall educate my sou in England.”

A resident of Mow South Wales offered a‘substantial bonus for the best essay on paspalum, and the winner turned up in a Matakana (North Auckland) small farmer. He maintains that paspalum is an ideal dairying grass, and its carrying capacity js scarcely credited by those who have not seen it. It is indeed, ho proceeds a marvellous grass; given the necessary warmth of climate, for it will not flourish where heavy frosts are prevalent, and there seems to be no end to the various uses it can be put to. It flourishes in the poorest, driest gum-hills. It grows six feet high in swamps. No land is too poor for it not to be the most'suitable grassto grow. No land is so rich that it will not pay better by establishing •paspalum than any other way. It is even showing itself capable of crushing out noxious weeds. It is fighting steadily against the fern, the curse of the hill lands in the north, and will in time boat it. It is now to be seen in some instances chocking gorse. It is even said that with help it will eliminate blackberries. In fact, once i .has taken hold nothing seems able to put it down or choke it out. In three months in summer, I have measured three feet of growth, and this with hardly a drop of rain. The secret of this, of course, is that paspalum is such a- deep-rooted plant that droughts havb no effect on it, and so it continues to throw up luscious green feed right through the driest summer, when every other grass is dry and useless. What a splendid quality this is every dairyman knows.

A shunting accident occurred at Te Wera yesterday, when a porter named Jemison had his leg broken at the thigh. Dr. Steven attended him, and he was taken to the hospital yesterday. Wo have to acknowledge with thanks one of the Union Assurance Society’s highly* artistic wall calendars, which has been forwarded by 'the Stratford branch of the N. Z. Loan and M.A. Co., the local agents for the company. Tho St. Andrew’s Sunday-school is holding its annual picnic at Ngaere Gardens to-day. A largo number of children left by the 10 o’clock train, and present indications are that they will have a splendid time, the weather being ideal for picnicking. John Harvey, alias Hargraves, alias Cook, alias Taylor, with more convictions than aliases, appeared before Mr. Sole, J.P., at the Magistrate’s Court this morning, on a charge of drunkenness. Sergeant McXeelv put in a good word for accused, and he was fined os. A Wellington Press Association message states that the “Post” announces tiiat Mr. F. Waldegrave, Commissioner of Police, is retiring from the service on March 31st. Mr. Waldegrave, who lias been 38 years in the service, leaves for England in April. Mr. George H. Buckeridge, of Eltham, convenor of those interested in the Farmers’ Co-operative Auctioneering Co., notifies that the mooting called for Saturday last, 20th ,n?t. has been postponed, owing to lasting v,’Th tho annual meeting of the k.con C mpany, until Saturday, 27th rst. at 2 p.ra., in the Elthara Town Hall. Berlin, the city which never sleeps, has long since outdistanced all its European rivals as a city of night life. In addition to its sports of, all kinds, its all-night cafes, daybreak restaurants, and theatres, which open their doors only at midnight, Berlin has now a magnificent bathing establishment, which is open every hour of the twenty-four.

According to an English agricultural journal, a few years ago the despairing farmer used to say, “Nothing pays but grass” ; now it is the general saying that, “nothing pays like wheat.” There is a natural desire to have a good braird showing ’in the spring, and for this purpose much seed is being procured from the expert hybridisers of Sweden and France.

Orson, in Sweden, has no taxes. During the last 30 years the authorities of this place have sold over, one million pounds’ worth of trees, and by means of judicious replanting have provided for a similar income every. 30 or 40, years. In consequence of this source of commercial wealth there are no taxes, and local railways and telephones are free, as are education and many other thing*. A Crimean veteran recently passed away at Swansea, in Wales, at the age of Si. He was the holder of Crimean, Baltic and Turkish medals* He was the oldest marine engineer in South Wales. In 1874 he was the means of saving 162 lives in the RioV Grande river, ' and three years previously, during a collision between-twp large Indian liners off Cape. Trafalgar; ihe : . jumped below,; and eased the. safety-,: Valvh,’ thus controlling the’ boilers and! / averting a terrible catastrophe.

Mr. G. Peterson, the‘ iveil-lhi iwn and popular herald of .Wirlh’s, “Gregt-it-, est Show,'on Earth,” has jast'c-omplel- i: ed arrangements for the - Circus and Menagerie to appear in. Stratford on✓ . February 13th. Mr. Peterson ore’e-a-voured to obtain the ground belonging to the Domain Board, but was not piepared to pay the £lO rent for cue. night,,;whiph, the. Board required. He, however, has secured the ground, on which Wirth’.s pitched,four,years, ago,, in,,Sey.tbn. Street. Particulars,' wall' b’ej duly’jann'ounced v ‘ j', j'. ' j.'..,h-'-iK

i :It tis. likely That the' City Council lofu r Sydney will adopt a recommendation' ; - by the Health and Bylaws' Committee 'j .to prohibit' the use of the prbtruding ■;■ hatpin in feminine headgear. The .. action by the committee is the out- '■>; come of a letter received from Mr, L. '» A. Pogouowski. “The large hatpins worn ,by ladies,” he wrote, “are a serious menace to every foot passenger, and also tram riders, whose eyes are in jeopardy every time, they come within range of these stilettos. Camuot a bylaw be passed that guards on the points of hatpins be worn by those using them, a fine being imposed on • defaulters?” Nowadays the hats worn by women are of such- a size and the pins running through them of such extraordinary length as to he not only a source of much inconvenience to those who have to pass them, hut a positive danger. In Esquimau land a woman must have sharp and strong teeth if she is to he a model wife. Some reasons for this are given in “The New North” by Agnes Dean Cameron. “Every bit of Esquimau skin clothing is soft and pliable as a kid glove. This softness is not produced without patient labcur, and the teeth of the women are brought into requisition. The raw seal skins or hides of the reindeer and bear are staked out in the sun with the skin side up and dried thoroughly. “Before this stiff material can. be worked up into garments it must he made pliable, and this is done by systematically chewing the fibres, a slow and painstaking task. Creasing the hide along its whole length the women take it in their hands and chew their way along the bend from one end of the skin to the other, working their way back along the next halfinch line. Watching them, one is reminded of the ploughman driving his team afield up one furrow and down another.”