LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 67, 14 March 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

All sports engagements for to-daj were postponed. Constable Scanned, stationed a Vv haiiganiomona, who has been month’s holiday in the south, letum ed to Stratford last night. Another of the popular Cathode socials will be hold in the town Hall, Stratford, on Monday next, the 18th lust. _ , The executive committee ox Sti atkvd A. am! V. Assort. m w 1 in act at the sccreary s office, Bioacl way, to-morrow night at i MU. At the Primitive Methodist Church, Broadway, on Sunday, the EarvesFestival ’ services will l.e celebrate! morning and evening. A hearty welcome will he extended to all. At the Hamilton Supreme Court His Honour Mr. Justice Edwards sent word to a man who was engaged m painting the building that unless -it desisted at once he would have him arrested for contempt of Court. The programme for the coming gymkhana, to be hold on Easter Monday, under the auspices of the Stiatxoia A. and P. Association, can be had on application to the Secretary, Mr. L. Jackson, of Broadway.

The Mackenzie County Council have in hand a scheme by which it hones to connect every homestead in the iekaDO Hiding of the Mackenzie County |) V telephone. It believes it can get the work done more cheaply than it it were undertaken by the Government. Mrs James Rutherford, who some weeks ago underwent a somewhat senons operation for an internal injury, lias now sufficiently recovered to be removed to her home from the Hospital. Mrs Rutherford made most excellent progress during her period ot convalescence. Considerable interest has been loused in agricultural circles in France by an invention for preventing the formation of hail. It takes the form of rockets, or hail-dispelling petards, which, exploding at altitudes varying from 1300 to 1600 feet, break up the bail clouds. Eighty firing stations have been sot up for the protection ot 59,000 acres of rich land at Limagne. Californian quail are likely, to become a great menace to the farmer in the Auckland province, according to a write! 1 in the Auckland “Herald.” The; birds arc very prolific breeders, averaging' two sittings of IS to 20 eggs each time. They"are jyery partial to clover and other small seeds, and will ' easilv eat'a 'descrtspoonful of them in a dhy .This at about. 2,s to, it? - 6d -per .pound is rather expensive feeding for such birds.

A few days ago a, human skeleton was found at Rockford, near Oxford (Canterbury); AlCthis place ,there, as a 'rock in the Waimakajlri washed on all sides by the river, occupying about a square chain in area, the summit o, which stands , well above flood-water maid:, Recently the riyer. has formed a spit, making the rock approachable, "M,r. W, Earrelly, out of curiosity' went to explore 'this rock island, arid the first objccib that met his gaze was a human skeleton. It had evidently been there for many years. •Says'yesterday’s Hawera “Star”:— A building in Princes Street, formerly known as Harrison’s store, has been removed to make room for the drill hall, 'which is to be erected by the Winter Show Company for the use of the Defence Department. While the main portion of (the building was being drawn along Princes Street by a traction engine this morning, a mishap to the under carriage upon which the build ng was being moved, brought the whole structure to a halt in the middle of Princes Street, opposite Furlong Street, and an hour or two’s delay occurred ere it reached its ultimate destination in Collins Street.

To-day in New Zealand the sparrow is regarded as an unmitigated nuisance an impudent thief without one redeeming quality. Yet, according to Mr. James Buckland, who recently delivered a lecture of “The value of Birds to .Man/’ at the Royal Society of Arts, Now Zealanders ought to bless the sparrrow instead of cursing him, and pay with glad .hearts the toll he exacts from fields and orchards. Without the sparrow Mr. Buckland suggested that New Zealand woidd be, not a land fiou ing with milk and honey and agricultural and pastoral prosperity, but a land in which Scottish thistles and caterpilllars battled for supremacy. At one time, he said, caterpillars threatened to overrun New Zealand; he presented a truly awful picture of the state of things before insectivorous .birds were introduced. When they came the one that multiplied most rapidly was the sparrow. And the sparrow soon cut short the career of the caterpillar. Then Scotch thistles began to be a very bad pest; the sparrows took to eating the seeds, and the Scotch thistle is no longer to bo greatly feared. Mr. Buckland may be right in championing the sparrow, but it is to be feared that his views will not meet with ready acceptance in any country where the sparrow finds the conditions favourable to the multiplication of its species.