LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 15, 10 September 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Sporting Notes by "Cicero" appear on page 2 of this issue. Government offices will be closed on 23rd September (Dominion Day). New rhubarb seems to be as precious as the latest fashion in millinery, says the Dunedin "Star,'' for one wholesale price of forced stalks oj sourness is 4d per lb. In West Hartlepool a barber displays the following notice is his shop window whilst his premises are under repair: "During the alterations customers will be shaved in the back.

A Gisbonie settler, who some time a<ro was badlv injured by the stampeding of a bullock in the sale yards, .is suing a well-known auctioneering farm for damages. The Government are still in i active treaty for 1800 acres at Otanomomo Estate (near Balclutha), and it is possible that some finality will be arrived at this week. It is announced in the "Gazette" that relatives of a deceased worker iesklent in South Australia shall have the samo rights and remedies under the Workers' Compensation Act as if resident in New Zealand. Death rates of the four centres and their adjoining boroughs for the month of July are as follow :- Auckland 0.73 per 1000, Wellington 1.08, Christchurch 1.14, Dunedm 0.5)0. Tne lowest city death rate is Dunedin (0.99), and the highest Wellington (1.16), per 1000.

According to a cable in the Sydney "Sun," J)r. L. Forbes Window, tht well-known authority on mental disorders, declares ..that England is going to the dogs. The mental condition oi the people, he avers, is most disquieting. Degeneracy is alarmingly on the increase, and crime also is becoming markedly more prevalent. "Take care of the children," says T)t. Forbes Winslow, "and the future generation will take care of itself."

The following is from the London correspondent of'"Truth":—New Zealand is getting a good and cheap advertisement just now through the film maker. London swarms with continuous moving picture shows, and quite a number of "them have been lately put , ting on New Zealand" scenery pictures ' —one of the best bfeiiig the' Wangrinui River. These pictures always' get ia : warm round of .applause.

A family of ten children is so much a rarity in these days of empty cradles that officials of the Labour Department were at first rather taken aback when a Wellington woman last week asked for assistance to take her ten. children to Auckland to rejoin their father. For many years past the department statistics of those assisted in this manner have shown a. steady drop. The average number of children dependent on. the men assisted was 3.30 in 1896, but it fell to 1.77 in 1909-10, the last figures available.

"There is ample room for reduction in the scale of our importation," observes the "Trade Review." The paper further adds: "The genera] higher scale of living and greater tendency to indulge in luxuries are having a very decided effect on the volume of imports. Some two millions have been spent on motor cars, etc., within the last two years. The lessened production of gold here is another factor. ' One of the speakers at the Oxford Agricultural and Pastoral Association's dinner the other evening remarked that in days gone by anyone actively connected with farming was called a clod-hopper. Xow there was a groat change. Tho present day up-to-date farmer was expected to have soma knowledge of scientific farming, and possess a fail - education; and instead of being clod-hoppers a great many of them were riding in their motor-cars, and enjoying the advantages of refined surroundincrs.—"Lyttelton Times." A very enjoyahlo evening was spent at the euchre party held by the Oddfellows' Lodge in the Foresters' Hall last night. There was a large attendance, and everything went off smoothly. The ladies' first prize went to Mrs. Miscall, and the second to Mrs. Payton. For the gentlemen. Mr. Mar-' ratt secured first, and Mr. Walsh second. The "booby's" were annexed by Mrs. McQuay and S. Thompson. A very tasty sapper was partaken of, being supplied by Mrs. Brooking, and was much enjoyed. After supper a few dances were indulged in to music supplied by Mr. Marratt. A woman of Lyons who desired to have the beauty of youth restored to her and failed to achieve her wish.! d«ked for if 000 damages against a I doctor, as the price of disfigurement. I The doctor had offered to remove the wrinkles in her cheeks by lifting the j skin and sewing it to the forehead rnder the hair. The operation succeeded beautifully on the right cheek. The left cheek, however, refused to succumb to the beauty doctor's treatment, and the woman has now a youthful right cheek, which is firm and blooming, and an elderly left cheek, with wrinklos, and the half of a double chin. She thought that he disfigurement was worth £IOOO. The Court undeceived her, and gave her nothing. The following letter was received at the meeting of the Borough Council last night, in reply to a communication from the Town Clerk that stables at the roar of the Stratford Club Hotel be demolished:—"T have just received from somebody that calls himself the Town Clerk of Stratford, saying that T should pnll down some stables. Well. 1 am not off my nut yet. If he likes to come along and pnll them down, well, T am not going to stop him. As T have got no indieesfion at the present time, and am not that fond of hard work, if some of the Government loafers want some InH work let them come along and try their hand at it, as they have got more, time than me. Yours most sineerelv. Mr. Charles Diamond." While i In- letter was received "amidst applause," one of the Councillors murmured something about an apology. ,

The eccentricities of our street lights was referred to by Cr. Lawson at the mooting of the Council last night, the Councillor stating amid general laiighter, that when a light had gone out, it was generally possible to restore the illumination by "kicking the pole." Taranaki .still holds the premier position as the biggest dairy export district of the Dominion with the handsome total of A; 1,055,004 to its credit. This, However,nvas a decrease of about £62,000 on the value of the dairy products exported the previous season. Last season Taranaki s export of butter decreased by £l-16,50(3, while the value of cheese exported showed an increase of £B-1,118. ■■ 4

Napier's municipal theatre will ta- v an expensive affair. The original " contract was for £25,000, and to that the cost of land (another £6000) had* to be added. Then there are additional charges,_and it is said that in all probability the total amount that the ratepayers will have to find will be somewhere in the vicinity cf £lO,000. The theatre, which is now Hearing completion, will be one cf the best in Australasia. It will have seating accommodation for about 1900 people.

"Counsel might have a difficulty in suggesting that I had made up my mind about the defendant in this case, though 1 might say it myself." With those words, his Honour Mr. Justice Chapman suggested that another Judge should try a case before the Court (says the Wellington "Post"). The defendant had been in a previous case iii which there had been a conflict of evidence, and his Honour had found against defendant. "Counsel would naturally not suggest that I had a bias. Whether defendant's evidence was intentionally or unintentionally misleading, 1 had to express an opinion on it, and it would be rather too much to ask him to start off in this case with that load against him."

Speaking at the celebration of the completion of the Nelson railway to Glenhope, Mr. H. Atrnore, M.P.' for -Nelson, advocated the extension of the lino to Murchison, in the Upper Buller Valley. He had been informed that there were 1200 dairy cows in the Murchison district, and "these would soon bo trebled. In his opinion Murchison would be the Palmerston North of the South Island. Mr. Doney, speaking as a young settler of the Murchison district, said ho had tried both the North Island and the South, and he had no hesitation in saying that the land in Murchison was some of the best in the Dominion. The development of the district depended on railway extension, and he was confident that the lino would pay handsomely if put through. The speaker argued that why the Nelson line was not a handsome paying proposition was bocause it was incomplete.

The Hawora Co-operative Dairy Co. paid out Is 3fd per lb to suppliers for butter-fat during the past season. The Kaponga Co. paid an average of Is l£d and (with the bonus) it would total Is for cheese. Butter was made for the first part of the season and cheese in the latter part. In his remarks at the annual meeting the Chairman stated that the directors were offered 6 l-16d for their cheese output, and many people called them fools for not accepting what seemed a vory high price. Other companies were offered the same, and one company, wliicJi was supposed to contain the brains of Taranaki, signed on the same terms as Kaponga—consigned at hSfd guaranteed without recourse. This other company, hearing that a smaller factory had sold outright at 6§d, considered, 'that__they had made an ; error,, and ,recalled the agent.. He immediately 'offered to buy half their output at 6|d,' wjiich they accepted. On that half they lost £7OOO. If Kaponga had sold at 6fd they would have lost over £4000; if they had accepted the 6 1-16 d offer they would have lost over £7OOO. (Applause). A well-known firm of entertainers purchased last week a property in Queen street, Auckland at the teremendous price of £I2OO a foot. The frontage is'thirty-*' '.ree reet, /so that the cost of the land will be £39,600, which, oven allowing for the fact that the section is three chains, deep, is a hoavy load for. a building' enterprise to carry. Comparisons with. Sydney and Melbourne prices make this transaction still more noteworthy. Property changed hands the other day in one of the best positions in the 'heart of Sydney, near the Post Office, at £56 an inch, a little, more than half the -Auckland figure, and in Collins street, Melbourne, about/the same time, a property brought £64 an inch. Sydney and Melbourne are many times bigger than Auckland, but evidently there are people to whom the future of Auckland has no limits. Needless to say, a picture theatre is to be erected on'the site. Should our long period of prosperity come to an end, it will be some consolation to remember that we had a good time while it lasted, the Christchurch "Press" adds.