LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 22, 19 September 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Auckland Presbytery is moving to have policemen granted two clear Sundays off duty each month. During the past financial year Glasgow’s tramways carried over 270 millions of passengers, and took nearly £1,000,000 in receipts. Tokio, the capital of Japan, has a female population of 752,000, of whom 191,000 seek their livelihood outside their own family circle. Various No-license Leagues in Australia have lately carried resolutions in favour of a Commonwealth prohibition referendum, and' it is indicated that an agitation to that end is being set on foot.

There are GS26 persons engaged on co-operative works in the Dominion — 152 artisans and 3266 labourers on railways, 45 artisans and 3030 labourers on roads, 2 artisans and 45 labourers on water-power development wo; ks and 161 artisans and 125 labourers cm public buildings . The Victoria Cross and New Zealand War Medals worn by the late Ensign McKenna, V.C., together with the revolver given ’him by Captain Swift, when the latter foil mortally wounded in an engagement during the Maori War, have been presented to the Auckland Museum.

Lord Llangattock has a most curious hobby. At the Houdre, Monmouth, he lias a chamber of horrors made up of a wonderful collection of trophies and relics collected from public executioners. and associated with the most notorious murderers over a lengthened period. His lordship holds three houses in Monmouthshire, for which county ho sat in the House of Commons for some years. He has also been High Sheriff of Monmouth, and has served as its Mayor. The freedom of the borough was conferred upon him some time aero.

An artist has lately found a way of painting under the sea. He goes down in a diver’s suit, to which air is supplied through a tube and ether apparatus, and there, with heavy oiled paper and paints, ,he makes quick sketches of what he sees. He has painted a, picture of fishes that have fins so large that they are like the wings of butterflies, and ihake the queer creatures appear to be flying through the strange green gloom of the water. Sometimes it seems as if many of. the fairy stories are actually coming true in every-day life. When the Frenchman Jules Yeruo wrote his fanciful story called “Twentv Thousand League's Under the Sea,” no one supposed that anything like that could eve;' really come to pass, and yet the divers and submarine boats nowadays have made sneb a voyage almost an ordinary occurrence, though perhaps no boat has yet descended quite so j deep as Verne fancied, nor has trav-j oiled quite so far.

A branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union was formed at Carterton on Friday. Mr. Philip Skoglundj Town Clerk, has received word that the steam roller ordered for the Borough, has arrived safely at Wellington, and has boon transhipped to New Plymouth for railage here. The “Clutha Free Press” states that evidences of the early spring are to be seen in sheltered nooks in various parts of Gatlins bush, where in the gardens of the settlors peas are to bo soon in some instances Sin. and 9in. high, Two cows owned by Mr. T. Doherty, of Viowmont, Otago, have this year given birth to live calves, all of which wore heifers. The calves are perfectly formed, and three survive and are doing well. The house of Mrs. Dowden, near. Normanby, on Tuesday night, was struck by lightning. The “Argus” is informed that the iiouse wes very badly damaged, one side being almost destroyed. No one in the house was injured.

An applicant in New Plymouth approached the local charitable aid secretary for assistance. In pulling out her handkerchief to wipe away it tear or two, a hank book containing a credit balance in her favour of £lO odd accidentally disclosed itself. Needless to say the case did not come before the Board’s meeting yesterday.

r< “I see it’s foreshadowed in the Governor’s Speech,” commenced Cr. Smith yesterday, when the Council were faced with an ultimatum that the New Zealand State’s Guaranteed Advances Department had nothing for tne Stratford County. “Put' not your trust in princes,” murmured a voice, amid general laughter.

The Manawatu Motor-cycle Club, which is the strongest in the North Island, is arranging a ten days’ Christmas tour of the island. Members will start from Palmerston North on Boxing Day and proceed to Napier, Rotorua, and the thermal districts generally and Auckland, returning down the 'Vest Coast. The following Christmas they will tour the South Island. The wreckage which was reported as having been washed ashore at Ruakaka, near Marsden Point, on Friday last, still remains a mystery. It .is thought that the wreckage, which consists of a boom, a gaff ; three double l2in. blocks and four single blocks of tlie same size, and a~torn sail, with mast hoops attached, may be from the cutter Mana, which was sunk off Wai-

.icko in a gale some weeks ago, “I’ve been up the Mountain three times, and I don’t want to go there again,” said Cr. Thomson at the meeting of the County Council yesterday, when the telephone to the Mountain House was under discussion. The Councillor considered that the telephone was not needed, so far as their ratepayers, at least, were concerned. The sum of £2 3s 4d was involved, hut, the Council were only guaranteeing this amount.

“Festiua • lento!” The Stratford County Council spent twenty minutes, yesterday debating .the subject as to whether they should guarantee ..an amount of £2 3s 4d on a telephone,to the Stratford Mountain House, apd even then a division wins taken.!- fit 1 might he explained that the guarantee has been furnished' many times by the 1 Council, and, according - to orie Councillor, they have nevepyet been joined upon to pay. ’ 1 : "

■ ■ ! M I, tP ( Matters with yegard| to, the mapu-> | facture of cement pipes ; in Taranalp I Tyajr | {alleged by a ■member;pf ytiiq, County’ I Council that a southern company “got I wind” of the local bodies’ proposal, : and brought up the question of a fac- | tox-y in Taranaki, only when faced with 1 losing the very liberal support’’that- ; has been accorded the company by Ta- ■ ranaki local bodies, and, further, that j directly the local bodies let the mat- : ter drpp the southern company would | possibly do likewise. It must. 1 be ■ un- ■ der.stood that so far as the Stratford j County Council is concerned. they; do i 1 not want to enter into competition' ! with a private company in Taranaki,; 1 and the excessive railway freights are I the only factor which has prompted j them to consider launching out' into pipe manufacture. : A very plucky action on the part of a fireman belonging to the Monowai saved a drunken man from alriiost certain drowning at Lyttelton on' Wed--1 nesday; afternoon. The Christchurch 1 ‘Evening News” says that the man fell into the harbour off the wharf, and sank like a stone. He was quite hplp- ; loss, but the fireman, who noticed his plight, jumped in from the top dock of j the Monowai, without a moment’s hesitation, got hold of the drowning man, who struggled considerably, and, with the assistance of people on the wharf, got him out of the water. The man/was taken charge of by the police. He recovered from his immersion after receiving medical attention, and at the Lyttelton Police Court on the following morning was convicted .on a charge of drunkenness and ordered to pay medical expenses, IDs 6d. Under the direction of a number of eminent explorers and geographers of Germany, plans are being perfected for an expedition having Us its object the discovery of a north-east passage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. This expedition into the Arctic Ocean and along the Siberian Coast will be headed by Lieutenant Schroeder Strantz, the German explorer. It will be the largest expedition of its kind ever organised, and will remain in the Arctic regions for four years. The cost of the undertaking is estimated at £IOO,OOO. The promoters of the project are confident that a commercially practicable route tcan be found. They predict that Hie result of the expedition will be found of great economic as well as scientific value, as an Arctic passage from Europe to the Orient would, it is claimed, he shorter than the route hv way of Suez or Panama. The expedition is expected to .start in the spring of next year.

This story of the maimer in which a poultryman overreached himself is vouched for by a local resident (says the ‘'Taranaki Herald”). Wishing to purchase a few laying hens, a man betook himself to one of the local auction marts one Saturday morning. On examining the poultry pens, his eye was immediately caught by a taining three Wyandotte ' seemed to ho just what he was loSHng for. A closer inspection of the pen disclosed the fact that there were three eggs in it. More convinced than ever that he had found what he wanted—fine birds, and evidently 1 Ayers—lie slipped the three eggs into his pocket, to avoid so far as possible the likelihood of the price being run up on account of the conclusive proof of their excellent laying qualities. Returning to the mart in time for the sale, he took up his stand opposite the pen which contained his would-be purchases. when, happening to glance in their direction, lie, was amazed to see that there were three more eggs in that pen. The problem did not take much thinking out, however, and needless to say he changed his mind about purchasing those too fertile fowls. ‘

Tho annual meeting of llio Stratford Bowling Club, which was to have been held to-night, has been postponed until Thursday next. An Elthaxn milkman found to his sorrow “the strength” (as expressed in tho vernacular of the man about town) of adding milk to water. An unsympathetic Bench recorded a hue of £o with Vs costs.

The Egmont Club and Fire Brigade played their return euchre match in tne Club rooms last night, the Club a<*ain proving the victors by 4b games to 39. The results of tne various tables are as follows, the Club being Mentioned, iirst in each case, /—l, 12 “ 7 , 9-4, 2-7, 0-6, 7-7, 7-7. After refreshments had been partaken of, Captain Grubb and Mr Ward made short speeches.

That popular annual fixture, the Manawatu Grand Agricultural Show and Industrial Exaltation, and Kennel Club’s Champion Bog Show, will be held at the Snow Grounds, Palmerston North, on October 30th and 31st, and November Ist Entries for ail classes close witn tho secretary, Mr. W. T. Penny, or. October 4th, and live stock entries on October 11th. Schedules may be obtained free on application.

Mr. W. Morison, chairman of the Ngairo Co-operative Dairy Company, states that in our report of tho annual mooting he has been credited with a remark made by another shareholder, to the effect that the payment of half per cent, more commission on the without-recourse system had cost the 1 company thousands of pounds in the course of six years. While on the subject, also, it may be mentioned that the name of the Dairy Company is spelt “Ngaire,” not ‘‘Ngaere, as now adopted by tho Government, and as by a reader’s error it appeared yesterday. '