LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 72, 20 March 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr J. Bullard, Commissioner of Crown Lands for Taranaki, made his first official visit to Stratford this morning, when, as chairman of the Turnout Bark Board, he proceeded, along with Messrs C. Gocdson (HaworaL Collis (New Plymouth), R. Mc.K. Morison (Stratford) and Stocker (secretary of the hoard) to the Stratford Mountain House, where the quarterly meeting is being held. The caretaker, Mr Christianson, and his wife, entertained the visitors.

Cl-. Anderson’s action in purchasing a horse, dray, and harness tor the West Hiding was approved by the County Council tins morning.

A Leap Year Ball, under the auspices of the spinsters of Midhirst, will be held in the Midhirst Hall on April 3rd. Misses N. Hall and E. Findlay are acting as joint secretaries and they promise a good evening’s enjoyment.

With many apologies for bringing up a subject that died a natural death, Mr J. B. Richards read a letter from the Town Clerk of Hawera, stating that the question of a universal half-holiday had been discussed at a very representative meeting at Hawera,' which, while in favour of a universal half-holiday lor Taranaki, was strongly against Saturday as that day, and had recommended 'Wednesday to their Borough Council. This recommendation had been .accordingly adopted bv the Council. He suggested that if the Chamber moved again in the matter next year, start earlier. Mr Richards mentioned that Hawera had been approached on the matter in .a letter dated October 25th, their reply was dated January 25th. “However,” he added, “the thing is dead. Let it die!” The Rev. Mr. Dalton, pastor of a popular church in Kansas City, has formed a school of (matrimony to increase the number of marriages in h s parish. Calling the young people of his congregation to a church meeting recently, he announced that it was his opinion that any bachelor aged twenty-four years, earning £ls a month, and any girl over eighteen years of age, ought to marry, and he 'intended they should. Ho forthwith formed a matrimonial club for that purpose, and enrolled fifty couples. To the present members the pastor is now delivering weekly lectures on “Courting” “Buying Furniture,” “Cooking, “Saving Money,” and “Rearing Children,” eajfli concluding with an admonition to the effect that the sooner the fifty- couples assist themselves to embark on their matrimonial careers the better it will be for them.

An example of the art of looking on the best side of things was furnished by Dr. McArthur, S.M., chairman of the North Island Railway Appeal Board, at a sitting of tjie Board at Auckland recently. Mr. M. Dennehy, who was appearing for an appellant, said that out of 1875 'members l of the railway service in the First Division, no fewer than 1286 were in the Tenth Grade, in which the maximum salary was £260 a year. If, he said, railway servants in this grade were not allowed the opportunity of reaching the maximum it would the keeping many of them below a living wage. “Thero is one advantage in that.” Dr. McArthur jocularly observed. “When men, who are brought before me in the : Magistrate’s Court on judgment summons, show that they are receiving less than £2OO a year* I never make an order. Therefore, in one respect. it is not a disadvantage.”

The discussion which took place ait the meeting of (he Australian Women’s Association, on ‘ the dangers of the barbarous, hatpins worn by ( -wpmcii, Inis been, potpd by the Victorian State Government,' ( says! the .Melbourne “Age.” 1 ~r f ho meeting, unanimously agreed that the p^e'/of .hatpin protection should he ■hu/clo compulsory. The Treasure/ admijttdd that lie was not fully informed of the extent of the danger, ibu't said he would make enquiries. The Association was uncertain as to whether the evil could be suppressed by the' municipalities or required legislation. The instances quoted of shocking injuries caused by tho projecting pins f chou-kl ? it was felt, prompt the proper authorities ! ih Melbburne to' ;fol16Sv! the ■ exhm ides’ ’ Uefi 1 by' - aJnfl. 1 adopt imasures to suppress ’ the bav'barity. ' | / ; : ! lW ' h///‘ " "/;

'■Gases of ..mistaken identity' are not so frequent nowadays as they used to be, but they come along occasionally, says the Invercargill correspondent of the “Lyttelton Times.” 'One came to light in the Magistrate’s Court the other day. A judgment debtor answering to the name of William 'Todd stepped into the box and submitted to a closer examination with respect to his weekly earnings, the size of his family, and other such details, upon which isolicitors are wont, to dwell in pursuit of an order of the Court. The alleged debtor . mentioned quite incidentally after a time that he did not know the plaintiff, that ho had never owed him any money and that he had never lived at Kcnnington where the debt was claimed to have been incurred. At this stage the bailiff interposed with the suggestion that the wrong man had been served. The .case was accordingly dismissed, the Magistrate remarking that there seemed to he quite a number of William Todds about. The big python at the Zoo has at last broken its fast, says the “Sydney Morning Herald.” There are no hard-and-fast rules governing the appetites of snakes, and the python’s five 'months’ abstention from food did not worry the director of the Gardens very much. The big snake since its advent here has disdained all the delicacies which are dear to most of its kind, and it was not until a halfgrown goat was put in its cage the other day that it exhibited any disposition to eat. The python seized the goat and proceeded to swallow it. For the first day or two the reptile plainly showed' the result of its gorge, 'but on the third day it regained its normal girth. It would be interesting to know how long the python had fasted before it came into the possession of the Zoological Society. Moreover, the huge cocoanut crab at the Zoo lias been “off its food,” and also showed an irrepressible inclination to wander. It escaped, but reappeared after several days, looking bright and fresh, and now it, too, has regained its appetite. Impressions on a blotting-pad afforded the clue which resulted last week in the sensational arrest in Melbourne of a young man on two charges of larceny in dwellings. iOn February 21, Mrs. Erodribh, a Fitzroy lodginghouso-keeper, reported to the police that a young man. who refused to give his name, paid for a week’s lodging at her place. Next morning, however, lie had disappeared, and another lodger nrsscd a new suit of clothes and watch and guard. ..it \vi ememberod tluit tlio- strungor imd written two loiters in the 'house, and Detective Armstrong discovered t’’o address of a woman and three I! ws of marks for kisses impressed on the blotting-pad which was available to the lodgers. Last week several detectives proceeded to Cecil Street, South Melbourne, and bad approached a certain house, when a young man suddenly rushed out of the door, 'and, jumping over the fcii'ce, made into Cecil Street by a circuitous route. Detective Smythc called upon him to stop, and as' the demand was not heeded he fired a revolver. The man only quickened Ills pace, hut after having been pursued about 1100 yards, bo discovered a detective almost on his heels, and throw up his arms in surrender.

“They say he’s six years old, but 1 take it from bis mouth he’s nearer nine,” remarked Cr. Anderson at the meeting of the County when a horse was under discussion. There s nothing like having practical men on a Council after all. Mr. Marfell reported on behalf of F’>' East Riding members to the meeting of the County Council this mornin” that he would not advise the Council at this juncture to approach the settlers vc raising money to metal the Almroa Road West, unless the settlers themselves requested it. He recommended that nothing lie done beyond temporary repairs. This course was agreed on. A Russian smuggler was shot recently by Cossacks just as he was crossing the Austrian boundary, not far from Czernowitz. The body fell across the frontier, the head in Russian territory, the trunk on the strip of neutral ground which forms the frontier, and, the legs in Austria. No one was competent to deal with the removal of the body, as it fell in different countries. When the last English mail left, the body was still lying unburied, the head guarded by Cossacks, the rest by Austrian gendarmes.