LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 19 February 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Postmaster-General has expen- ' mentally introduced a system of cheap night telegrams in Britain, so as to make use of the telegraph wires at times when they are now idle. The charge is 6d for 36 words and Jd for every three words thereafter. The telegrams are accepted up till midnight and delivered with the first morning delivery of letters. Messrs Harland and Wolff, of Belfast have launched during the year ten vessels with an .aggregate measurement of 118,209 tons and a horse power of 97,000. These figures gives the firm the largest output on record in one yard, and the highest total for their thirteenth year, and the largest horse-power of one year for a single firm. The ten vessels include the White Star Liner Titanic, the official tonnage of which is now given by the builders as 46,000. A candid criticism of Australians (says the Dominion) is offered by Mr. A. F D. Bedford, a Manilla merchant who has been visiting Australia and ir; how in New Zeajanad. “Of course lam only in a position to speak from what is' a superficial knowledge of Australia,” lie said, “but the impression I have, gathered iS that most of you are hired l —-always tired,' and wanting to lean dp, against a post. I noticed that particular on the wharves at Lnsbahe iand Sydney.,' Many of the young fellows'! see about'are not only stunted in body, but seem stunted in mind too.” Portions of the State farm at Moumahaki are divided by .a main public road. While in tins locality reepntiy, the manager of the farm, Mr. Lonsdale, mentioned to a Ha worn Star representative that ho periodically runs the mowing machine ever the grass bordering this side of the road. ’When questioned as to whether this was not shouldering a gratuitous burden, Mr. Lonsdale replied that ,by so doing many weeds' Were prevented from seeding, this in its turn obviating the necessity for much labour tb get rid of weeds, the seed of which had blown over the fences into the adjoining paddocks. Within a fortnight several of the houses being erected at Island Bay. Wellington, by the Department of Labour, under the new scheme will be ready for occupation. Very good progress is being* made by the contractors, who have now—though the work has only been in progress for a month—ll of the 23 houses in the block well on their way to conpletion. The block at Taitvillo is also in hand, and will probably be subdivided and ready for selection by workers within a couple of weeks. The subdivision is occupying rather a long time owing to the contour of the ground.

A novel strike occuretl at a picture show at AYonthaggi (Victoria) last week. During the week the management of the show discharged the pianist, and a man engaged in his place was said to have accepted the position at a reduction of 10s per week in salary. ' While the first picture was being shown the pianist was pelted with potatoes, tomatoes, and fruit, and had too seek shelter. The show was stopped and an explanation made by the management but this was not accepted by the crowd, and at the cry of ionists leave the Hall!” the audience rose and left the building, only a few women and children remaining. Had it not been for the police, serious trouble would have oceured. It afterwards transpired that neither of the pianists is a member of the union.

Greymonth has unearthed a local Sherlock Holmes. On Saturday night a lady’s bicycle was stolen from a local hotel. The proprietor, becoming acquainted with the event about 11 p.m. found a clue in the fact that the missing machine had flat tyres. Thereupon he secured a strong acetylene lamp, and with the aid of a companion traced the marks of the tyres which left a good mark on the roads, from the hotel round town and down to the vicinity of the railway goods sheds where the machine had been carefully hidden amongst some timber. A long wait followed, but the culprit did not put in an appearance, and the searchers returned to the hotel with the bicycle much to the astonishment and gratification of its owner.

The stringent law against tlie importation of opium into Now Zealand has driven Chinese opium-smokers to the use of the drug in other forms (says a Christchurch paper). It is said that some of the irreclaimable victims of the habit are making considerable purchases of opium pills. They are not too satisfactory as a substitute as a man who is used to the drug in its smoking form can swallow with impunity an almost unbelicveabH number of pills. The smuggling of, opium for smoking is now a matter of considerable difficulty, as there are no direct steamers to New Zealand from India and China. Occasionally a few tins are got ashore at the West Coast, and one may drift through to Christchurch. The number of op’um smokers in Christchurch, however, is exceedingly small. They are almost invariably elder Chinese, who live in the outskirts of the city. The younger generation of Orientals, who have seen the harm worked by the poppy juice, are generally abstainers. j

Mr. and Mrs F. W. Wake and Miss F. Wake arrived back in Stratford on Saturday evening after an Australian trip.

The preliminary announcement of the Gymkhana, to be held at Stratford on Easter Monday, April Bth, will he found in another column. Entries for the Stratford Horticultural Society’s Show close at 8 o’clock to-morrow night. Vases for hire may be obtained from the Secretary at a cost of 6d per dozen. The election of five qualified persons to serve as members of the Stratford l/censing Committee is to take place on Tuesday March 12th. A notification regarding same appears in another column. The ladies of Mahoc are giving a Leap Year Ball on March Bth. Misses G. Cnmbcrworth and I Astbury are acting as joint secretaries of the func-. tion. Yesterday five climbers reached the top of the mountain from the Stratford house. They report that the going was good, but that the air was very cold. They were very enthusiastic about the brilliant . effect produced by the icicles near the top. In connection with the forthcoming poll on the electric light proposal, those on the roll should recollect that if the qualification is in the wife’s name the husband is entitled to vote, and if the qualification is the husband's the wife may vote. The Town Hall has been booked foi February 29th, the occasion being a song recital by Miss Rosina Buckraann, assisted by Mr. Hamilton Hodges and others." It is to be hoped that Miss Bnckmann will receive more support than that which was accorded recently to Miss Thelma Petersen. The Messrs C. and S. Mowlem, wfio have been sheep farming at Douglas for a number of months, have sold out to Mr. Gray, of Palmerston North, at a satisfactory figure. Mr. S'. Mowlem left for Palmerston on Saturday and Mr. C. Mowlem leaves on March 3rd, when the farm is to he taken over.

This morning’s mail train contained an alleged pickpocket, in the charge of a member of the police force. The light-fingered gentleman has been, it is said, convicted in most of the countries of the world, and his work is described as being highly artistic. A civilian at the Hawera races gave him over to the police, and he is appearing on remand at that town this week^

The Dawson’s Falls Mountain House was visited yesterday by some thirty or forty Stratford people;, as well as by a large number from Eltham, Hawera, etc. Ideal weather was experienced, though the climbers, who numbered about thirty, d’d , not get such a good view as might have been expected. Three Hawera men reached the summit, finding the climb not extraordinarily difficult. Mr Graham’s ■" big telescope was in great demand during the day, the look-out ifieing ‘ crowded by 'visitors anxious to'Watch the climbers in their efforts to 1 conquer‘the Mountain. . : “ : '

.4 They. aye complaining in; America,., < sd th.e ; stoi;y .goes that the sty]o ; of for-( j •ensic eloquence is,changing, It is-sai^,..., to bq.po longer worth one’s \yhile, ,po ,’jj .they,ssy, to go courts.m H) . v; ■the hppe of hearing.,real,,..peatery.,, “Case and Comment,” an Americap ~,,..5 legal paper, points the difference by recalling the manner of a certain Robinson of Cleveland whose addresses to the jury used to attract a crowd in the old; clays. One of his great triumphs was in a case where the opposing counsel was defending a notorious raiser. “Who is this man? Who is he?” thundered Robinson. “You know and I know .that, he boils his potatoes in widows’ tears.” This'sublimd flight of Imagination; so.lmpressed the that Robinson won his case. ’ '

The food value of walnuts says! the i .Lancet is very high; they are ,yery‘■ , rifli in fat, containing as rauch. fis 63 per cent, while proteins 'amount i( to nearly 16 per cent. It has been cal- , ciliated, that 30 large walnut kernels contain as much fat as 21b of dean beef, and yet the walnut is used as a supplement to a square meal. Added to this the glass of port, say 2 fluid os., contains besides 180 grains of alcohol 70 grains of grape sugar. In the combination, therefore, we have all elements which make for a complete dish, namely, fat, protein, carbohydrate, to which may be added mineral salts. Port and walnuts after a meal, are, therefore, from a nutritive point of view “ridiculous, excess.”

The truth of the old saying that “a fool and his money are soon parted,” was proved last week in the case of a sailor who was paid off from a vessel at Lyttelton, his wages, amounting to £l4. He had a ‘‘day out” and money and liquor both flowed to such effect that by night he had spent his' all, and was reduced to borrowing a few shillings from a shipmate. In connect'd! with the spending operations trouble was caused in one hotel. It is stated that the sailor in “shouting” for a number of friends and others, put down a five pound note. This was rolled up by the barkeeper and placed in the till, but change for a one-poiittd note only was handed back. The shipmate became indignant, and, jumping over the counter, grabbed the fivepound note and exposed the fraud. For a time it seemed as if serious trouble would arise. The shipmate threatened to deal severely with the barkeeper, but matters were finally smoothed over bv the licensee’s wife.

A Swedish soldier (wrote the Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Telegraph on December 16) was shot a few months ago in the head, and half of his brain was blown out, in con.seqncnce of which he lost part of his mental powers. This event has come to the ears of American journalists, who are giving the most extraordinary accounts of it. For instance, they say that ho can see a flea hut not a horse that he can hear a whisper, but not a* cannon shot, that he can understand English hut not Swedish, that he knows the first half of his name but not the second, that he hates the smell of violets, hut loves the fragrance of onions. The facts regarding fir's young man are in themselves so interesting that they need no exaggeration. After the shot he lay unconscious for a fortnight, and when lie regained consciousness he had completely lost his memory and could not even remember his own name. Gradually his memory returned and he recollected what happened in his childhood. And now he remembers everything up to the third day before flic shot. His general health is good, and his temper also. His sensorial nerves are destroyed, and his sense of sight is distinctly damaged. Ho has, for instance, lost the power of seeing anything at the sklo_ cf him; lie is oblitrcd to look straight at an object. He has also partly lost the capacity of reading ard writing, and lost the power of combining letters, and this he will u. 'yor be able to take up work in which writing and reading are necessary.