LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Skating will take place at the Town Hall to-morrow (Thursday), both afternoon and evening, T he meeting of the Stratford Lawn Tennis Club, which was announced to be held last night, will now take place on Friday evening. Golfers are reminded that the season will ha opened to-morrow afternoon at 2.30 o’clock. The Preside (Mr. A. W. Budge) will formally opeilf the season and mixed foursomes will he played. T he rangers for the Stratford Acclimatisation Society are out on the war path, and it behoves all shooters to have licenses. Any person found with dog and gun or gun only on private or public property is deemed to he in pursuit of game, and may ho prosecuted. The Taranaki Agricultural Society’s third annual Winter Show is to he held this year in the new Hall at New Plymouth on June sth, 6th, 7th, and 8 th. No less than 35,000 feet of sjbaee will bo available for exhibitors, and the Show promises to be New PlymouthI’s 1 ’s best effort in this direction. Mr. Arthur Cliff is secretary, and lie will he glad to supply schedules. All entries close on May 25th. School committees The Midhirst Gun Club, which has only been in existence for a very short time, has already made its presence felt. The Club will perform its first public action on Thursday evening, when a euchre party and dance will be held in the Oddfellows’ Hall, Midhirst. Good prizes tire promised for the winners at cards, and an enjoyable time generally can bo looked for. A Danish .settler in the Waikato, who has learned to write English by means of a Danish-English dictionary and copies of a weekly paper, in a letter to the editor of that paper, says; “I think a. man that will not serve and fight for his own country, or the country that gives him shelter and his living, should be exiled or sent to gaol for a long period. 1, for my part,_ will gladly join in and take my training, and be ready if necessary to fight for the defence of New Zealand.” Sixty-seven pheasants arrived yesterday by train to the order of the Stratford Acclimatisation Socity, and are being kindly looked after 'by Mr A. \V. Budge. A further number will arrive at tiie end of July, so that sportsmen will see a good’policy of restocking is go;ng on. The shooting season, which opens on the Ist of May, promises excellent sport. Licenses may he obtained from the post offices at Stratford, Toko, Cardiff, Midhirst, Whangamomona, Strathmore, Huia-' ' kama, and Eltham. Sir John H. A. Macdonald, who is a member of His Majesty’s Hoad Board, in the course of an interesting lecture on the public roads at the itoyal Institution in London, observed that as to the future, it might seem extravagant to ‘say that in another decade the main roads would become practically mudless, dustless, and smooth ways, but he did not doubt that his audience would agree that, if anyone had prophesied on the first day of the new century that before twelve years had passed there would ho more than 2,206,000 motor vehicles upon the roads of Great Britain, that of the 500,000 horses in London, 420,000 have disappeared from the streets, and that reverend rectors who denounced mechanical vehicles as “engines of Satan,” and lashed at motorists with their whips, would have to receive their Bishops on diocesan visiTatitm. arriving in motor cars, the gifts of the faithful. The presumptuous prophet who said such impious things would have been considered fit only for Hamvell or Colney Hatch. (Laughter.) The Victoria Cross, which has just been extended by His Majesty to the Indian Army, was instituted 56 years ago. There have been 522 crosses conferred. One of the earliest recipients, General Sir Charles Gough, has just entered on his 81st year. His brother. General Sir Hugh Gough, who died three years ago, won his during the Mutiny, and Sir Charles’s own son, Colonel J. E. Gough, won his in Somaliland nine years ago. Sir Charles Gough obtained his during the Mutiny. Only in two instances other than this has the Victoria Cross gone more than once to the same family. Major-Gen-eral E. H. Sartorius, colonel of the South Lancashire Regiment, and His brother, the late Major-General R. W. Sartorius, both obtained it. In the other case Field-Marshal Lord Roberts has the cross, and it was also awarded to Ids son after the lieutenant’s heroic death at Colenso.