LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 35, 6 February 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A potato grown in Lincolnshire (England) weighed five and a quarter pounds. The inquest on the Tima.ru Harbour Board quarry accident closed on Saturday, with the evidence of Clark, engineer, which added nothing new. I tie Coroner returned an open verdict. He said gross neglect had been shown by Calvert (foreman) and Hayes (laborer.) the former for not seeing everything was right, and Hayes for not drawing attention to the fuse being too short. One of the London society papers publishes a report that in future the presentations of American women at court will lie restricted to those who are married to British subjects, or whose male relations hold nigh official positions in the United States. This new arrangement, if carried out, will have the effect of excluding from those functions many American women who have hitherto been privileged to attend. There is a now method of rabbit extermination. A Southern Otago settler has tried the experiment of placing .tarred straw at the entrance to the burrows of the pest. His efforts have been eminently successful, as in no case have the mouth of the burrows boon re-opened. By following up the operation and closing up the holes which have been left untouched, the destruction of bunny is complete—at least, on the area treated. There was a general smile among councillors last night when the Mayor (Mr. J. Masters), said that some “young fellows” wished for the use of of some chairs for the opening of their club, and asked whether the Council would grant the necessary permission. It changed to laughter when Cr. Paget moved a resolution granting the request, because he believed that “youths” should be encouraged.

Colonel Maude, speaking at the Authors’ Club dinner recently, said the one thing that kept the peace of Europe a few weeks ago was that the French General Staff knew that England was prepared to send divisions across the Channel. The Irene?) Generalissimo in the war to come, General Langlois, went over privately to England and reported the result of his investigations. He laid it down as a fact that even with the state of the Territorials as they Acre then—a new force—England could do all she had promised to do. That knowledge was what kept the peace cf Europe. In Centerville,' Maryland, the whip-ping-post has been revived for the benefit of Laurence Stiner, a wifebeater, who was sentenced to receive s x lashes. Stiner requested that his wife shoupld be summoned to witness his atonement at the hands of the law, saying that he deserved it, and wanted her to see him punished., Mrs: Stiner was given a chair near the whipping-post, and sorrowfully but dutifully watched the proceedings, Stiner took his punishment bravely, and seemed much less distressed than the observant wife, who wept. When the s'xth stroke fell a sign of.relief escaped the throng;.gathered to see, ; tpe ■ whipping.. A blankef was ,thrown ({bout the victim’s shquldgrs, and hq whs hurried to his ;cell, whom the physicians applied ointment to his sciuicd shoulders.

It" is singular what a stroiig clination most women have to-tell their age. Not even for such allurements as a Christmas present of cash and promise of a pension would the young women employed by the Boston Telephone Company, reveal their ages. Recently the directors of .the company voted the girl switchboard operators a i; cqsh presept at Christmas, the amount varying according to age. .It was announced, that this Christinas n-ift would eventually develop iiito a pension. One of the young men secretaries was given the task of tabulatirig th girls by ages. He began Ins work among the 150 young women employed in the main office. After, a few hours of fruitless questioning, he reported that the task was a hopeless one, as not one of the operators would answer Ids'question as to the date cf her birth. The scheme, therefore, has been abandoned for the present. “Teachers—l mean female teachers arc hard to get, and still more difficult to keep, after they have entered the service of the Board,” remarked a Waimate Plains teacher to a representative of the “Witness” a few days ago. “I have had,” he continued, “during the last seven years or thereabouts no less than fifteen teachers. Some of them were swept into the matrimony net, or, it may be, walked in themselves and lured somebody m with them. Anyway, matrimony 7s the chief agency that keeps the young lady teacher scarce in the service. Others also discover that they were not built or horn for the profession and drift into other occupations. The best female teacher I have ever had,” he continued, “I moan the best teachoi intellectually, the finest disciplinarian and the most capable in school management and the handling of children, was a young woman to whom Nature, generous in all other respects, had in the matter of personal appearance dealt harshly, almost beyond the power of words to express. She was a born teacher, and might have attained the very highest position in the service, but her looks simply killed all her splendid qualifications of mind and character, and the Board buried her in some remote hush school where her superb qualities as a teacher count for next to nothing.”

A meeting of the general committee of the Canterbury Industrial Association was held in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon. The following resolution was unanimously passed “‘That this committee having ascertained from the Auckland Industrial Association that it has been definitely determined to organise an industrial exhibition of a colonial nature at Auckland during the course of the year 1912 decides to recommend the Canterbury Association to meet the views ol Auckland Association as expressed in their Jotter by postponing the proposed Canterbury exhibition until 1913.” The committee will recommend Canterbury manufacturers to support the Auckland exhibition and gladly cooperate in every way possible to ensure its success. The secretary was instructed when forwarding the resolution to the Auckland Association, that tlie committee had read extracts from the Auckland daily papers, in connection with the proposed exhibition, advancing the claims of. Auckland as being “the leading commercial and manufacturing n centre of the Dominion.” The committee was of opinion that while that sort of thing might be good advertising it should be deprecated as likely to arouse resentment among people who knew better. It was satisfied this loud trumpeting of j Auckland’s claims bad not been inspired by the Auckland Industrial Association and it was not responsible for such extravagant statements.

Mr. Newton King has received the following cable from bis Sydney agents re hides: —Eighth to a farthing higher.

A whaler’s try-pot has turned up in I imam, where it has been in use as a drinking trough at a town dairy twenty vears or more.

At a meeting of the Christchurch City Council last night the Mayor brought down a scheme for improving the city roads and footpaths, involving a cost'of £120,000. The scheme will l)e discussed at a special meeting to 1)0 held next week. At the same meeting serious complaints were made re diseased meat being sent out from the municipal abattoirs, and the Council decided to hold a special enquiry into the truth of the allegations.

Whilst tendering the Mokoia in the Gisborne roadstead on Sunday evening, during a heavy swell, the lighter carried away her mast and derrick, which fell overboard. The vessel was drifting on to the Tuatea, the Union Company’s passenger tender, and the latter went astern to avoid the impact, when her mast caught in a steel rope hanging from the Mokoia’s derrick, and the top half of the mast was snapped off. At the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court on Saturday, George Watson, who calls himself a “hydropathic specialist,” and carries on a business known as “The Health Supply C 0.,” in Cashel Street, was charged with having used an instrument illegally on a young woman for the purpose of procuring abortion. On the application of Chief Detective Bishop, who said that the young woman was in the hospital in a serious condition, accused was remanded for one week. Mr. _Cassidy ( counsel for accused asked his Worship to consider the question of allowing bail. His "Worship replied that ban was out of the question. There could bo no bail granted while any doubt remained as to the girl’s physical state. Following is. a statement of public revenue for the ten months ended January 31, with figures for the corre- . spending period of the previous financial year for comparison :—Customs, 1 1912, £2,678,969 (1911, £2,460,428); stamps (Stamp Department) £790,480 (£643,953); stamps (Postal and Telegraph), £655,358 (£614,797); Postal and Telegraph, cash receipts, £191,250 (£172,607); land and income tax, , £675,532 (£652,436); beer duty,' £97,735 (£95,068); railways, £2,922,- , 522 (£2,709,0Jj); registration and . other fees, £84,633 (£62,879); marine, 1 £39.206 (£36,735); miscellaneous, £233,944 (£201.818); terr'torial, £180.437 (£167,558); totals £8,550,066 (£7,817,314). (The Department of Hospitals and Charitable Aid is at present engaged in making a forecast of the probable expenditure on hospital construction during the next five years. A letter was received at to-day’s meeting of Stratford Hospital and Charitable Aid Board from Dr. Yalintine, asking for a rough estimate of the probable iost of the buildings which the Department has tentatively agreed with the Board it was necessary to erect. By giving the estimate, he added, the ratepayer and the taxpayer would be in a better position to know the probable expenditure on ’hospital construction. Mr. Ward moved that it was - the opinion of the Board that it was impossible, seeing that their district was a young and growing one, to give anything like an estimate of their expenditure within the next five years. This was carried.''U. ■ KI! 1 AI I'/ < '. Mr. Loughnan, S.M.,- gave judgment at Hamilton; yesterday in a test rlr case, (a police ; prosecution) t ’.Hamilton • ib Borough Council v. Bates, motor gar-” Age, proprietor, for, breach of the motor' ‘ by-law, by exceeding the speed limit of eight miles an huor. Defend--ant pleaded not guilty, though admitting he exceeded the speed mentioned. Counsel for defendant contended the by-law was unreasonable. In reply to the S.M. as to,.whetherdie could not go ...ffi quicker in a hansom cab, defendant.; ] said he could go quicker .in a wheel- ', j ■barrow. .(Laughter) After a, mass' of .i-„. evidence in favour of defendant by.i ,< •, motor-car owners,.the Magistrate com- . < mented on the fact of the j Borough. Council having no representative present. He considered the case should have been taken out of the hands of the police in defending its' own bylaws. Tjien costs could have been awarded to the unfortunate man, who had thrown himself into the breach to get the by-law cancelled. In concluding a lengthy judgment, the Magistrate said, because he thought the by-law unreasonable, he would indict no penalty. If the police decided to appeal against the decision, he woudl put it in writing. A man from the West Coast came over last week, says the Christchurch Evening News, and brought with him a new storey of human depravity. It seems that there were three surveying camps near a little mining town, and on one Saturday these three sent in their representatives to join the townsmen in their proportion for the Sabbath. Ahead of them all sailed an Englishman with a most amazing thirst. The next he was not feeling happy. Tlie luck was against him too, so nobody was surprised when he declared that losing in seventeen “shill-ings-in” before 11 o’clock on the Sabbath morn was too hot altogether. Besides he was religious. He went away to sleep. The others talked it over, and half an hour later woke him up and asked him to take part in a new game—a religious one they called it. They called it ‘ ‘Pontius Pilate” and it was ■ awfully simple. Bible names were written on slips of paper and put into a hat. The man who took Pontius Pilate took the pool. The Englishman won the first pool and thereafter lost as steadily as he drank for the rest of the day. Later on he learnt that he coiddn’t have lost the pool, because the hat was simply full of Pontius Pllates, and the others had decided to say nothing. It paid them in the end they said. Courtsey is a characteristic of the Japanese, especially amongst officials and Mr A. M. Thompson in describing Ids, travels through the Land of the Chrysanthemum, says that even the word “please” is in Japan elaborated into a lingual art. Hero is an example: “The guard in the train to Tokio caused as much amusement when he came round to examine tickets he began by stading at the end of the car, took off his cap to the honourable assembly, bowed to the ground rubbed his knees with his hands, drew in his breath audibly, and delivered himself of an announcement in Japanese which 1 imagine closely translated as follows“ Your most honourable excellencies and most augustly-deigning-to-be-pleased ones, I hope you will pardon this creature of mud for having been born into this world to ask you, most gracious and superior ones, to show your augustly blessed tickets, after which I beg your will honourable deign to grind and crush me who am but a snaiLof the soil beneath your kindly sandals!” “The passengers bowed nrofoundlv in return, rubbed their knees with their hands, sucked in the’r breath with the peculiar whistling sound which is the special expression of a Japanese greeting, and then produced their honourable tick ets. After This there was more bowing on both sides, and the guard still bowing vanished.”

A special meting of the Stratford Hospital and Oliai itable Aid Board will be held to-day fortnight to take into consideration the matter of overdue accounts. The Hospital and Charitable Aid Board were discussing this morning a matter of a woman wJio had to all intents been deserted by her husband, and was.now receiving charitable aid. The man had left the district. -Mr. Ward said it should bo made clear that the Board was not going to remain a “stalking horse’’ for men to go away to evade their responsibilities. If the woman refused to take legal proceedings the Board should refuse aid. The fact was that the man was a waster, and he had gone to the land of “threepenny beers.” There was plenty of work locally for those who wanted to work. The action of the secretary in getting the woman to obtain legal advice was approved. A rather amusing discussion occurred at the meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board when the matter of the proposed apportionment of members to the Board was under discussion. In the table submitted, Whangamomona was entitled to 1.35 members, and it was thought that perhaps they should have two members. The Secretary remarked that according to the same table Stratford was entitled to only 1.576 members, and yet had two representatives on the Board. Mr. McAllister turned to Mr. Ward and remarked, amidst laughter: “You’re the .576.” Another member remarked that under the new valuation it would not be very long before Stratford was fully entitled to its two members. The reply to the Department as to the Board’s decision re the matter of riding representation or otherwise was held over owing to replies not -having been received from all tho bodies concerned.

A neat and well-written letter was read out at the meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board this morning from a little girl in the Orphan Home at Papatoetoe. It ran as tollows“To the Secretary, The Stratford Charitable Aid Board.— Dear Sir, : —On behalf of myself, my brother Jim, and also Leslie, Freddie, and Ronald, I am writing to thank you for the £1 you sent to us, and we expect to have some pleasure from it._ 1 must tell you that we had a few records from our gramophone, which was given to us by some kind neighbours, arid then we went outside and played some games. On New Year's Day in the afternoon we had sports, and when tea was over we played games. 1 am writing this in our dayroom, and there are two other girls in here, and they are writing to some of their friends. It is sued ii lovely day here, and I hope it is down there, as I can imagine it to be. On December 21st we had our Christmas tree, and you can guess we were ail in high spirits, but we did not have two of our great friends present. I will stop now, hoping you will all have a prosperous New Year, although I am ratiier late, ‘but better late than never.’ I remain, your little Friend, .” The letter excited very favourable comment from the members of the Board.