LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 6, 4 May 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The orchestral scores for “H.M.S. Pinafore” have now been received by the Operatic Society and are now in the hands of the conductor. Professor Owen Cardston, the wellknow skating expert, will be present at the Stratford 'Town .Hail every evening until after the carnival. The Romo correspondent of • the Morning Post says that the Pope is reported to be about to issue an important document on the discipline of the clergy. No priest henceforth will be ordained before he is 28 years of age.

“It is going to establish the old system of grab,” said the chairman of the Stratford Comity Council, referring to the Local Government Bill, viewing with alarm the prospect of having the riding system abolished. In the Stratford Magistrate’s Court yesterday the case of a youth charged with furious riding was mentioned, and an adjournment made. The name of defendant is Ernest Robertson, not Robinson, as appearing in our issue of yesterday. The latest erstwhile Taranaki boy to distinguish himself at Edinburgh University is Mr. W. A. Bowie, who was for some time in the Public Works Office, Stratford,. Mr. Bowie has succeeded in gaining first-class honours in the junior division of medicine, sec-ond-class distinction in junior surgery, and second-class honours in diseases of ear, nose, and throat, at the recent Edinburgh examinations. The Ilawera “Star” states that in the Ilawera Magistrate’s Court in February last W iliam Reid and Alice Reid were lined £lO and £5 respectively for supplying a native woman with liquor. The defendants were allowed time in which to pay. This expired a few days ago. The woman has paid her fine, but the other defendant has not done so. He was arrested on ’Thursday, on a warrant of commitment to New Plymouth for three weeks, and was taken there in the afternoon.

As a variation on Arctic and Antarctic exploration, the Berlin Palestine Exploration Society is sending a pai tv to Palestine to carry out a thorough scientific investigation into the phenomena of the Dead Sea. Barely thirty miles from Jerusalem, the conditions existing in 1 lie vicinity of this famous lake arc such that life is almost unknown there. The air is stagnant ar d hot, and the atmospheric pressure > ormally about 33in., while the surface of the water is almost 1300 ft. below sea level. No one has ever remained long enough at the Dead Sea to gather data useful to scientists, and the mission of the German scientists will he by no means a picnic.

Mr. J). C. Collins son of the Hon. Dr. Collins, M.L.C., of Wellington, enjoys the rare distinction of being the only Double Hint' who lias come to light for forty-two years, says the London correspondent of the Press. I'be last Double Blue, also in cricket and rowing, was Jack Dale, who batted and pulled for the victorious Cantabrians in 1870, so the New Zealander is bridging a wide gap. By the way, the title Double Blue was formerly reserved absolutely for men who won their places in cricket and the Eight, but latterly a practice has grown up of applying it to men gaining representative honours in any two of the snorts for which the Bine is awarded. The llrst real Double Bine under the stricter meaning of the term was Charles Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of St. Andrews. He was one of the fathers of the boat race. He rowed four in 182!) and plaved cricket for Oxford in 1827 and 1829. “Tom BrownV’ brother, C. E. Hughes, was a Double Blue, and so Was Lord Justice Chitty. Each University has contributed eight to the. list, and of the schools Eton has found four. Tonbridge three, and Harrow two. Wellington College is, the only school outside' England to produce a Double Blue.

Mr, McNamara, the secretary of the Opimake Bailway Commission, this morning advises us that the published list of the dates of the sittings of this commission have been altered, and are not as already published. The now dates will he announced next week. Messrs H. Campbell, G. Hunter and Davis, who went out after pheasants in the direction of Waitara, designing to work homo via Whangamoniona, have made a progress report of their tour, tills report coming by telegram from Kota re. The report states that all are well and that tiiey arc enjqljng themselves. To date forty pheasants have been secured, Mr. Campbell’s tally, which is not specified, being the largest in the party.