LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 30, 28 September 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The "Southland Times" reports that the flax market has taken ah upward trend from prices ruling during past seasons, and Southland owners are replenishing old plants or erecting new mills. When everything is in full swing employment at the fiaxmilling industry will be found for some hundreds of hands. / "] don't believe in reformative treatment under the Prisons Act," observed Mr. H. W. Bishop at the Christchurch Police Court on Saturday, in. dealing with the case of a youth charged with various thefts, "there is no real attempt made to provide suitable means for reformation. The system is at the present time an absolute farce." : i

About two weeks ago (writes the "Lyttelton Times") a Christchiuvh resident had his bicycle stolen, and on Friday the remains of his machine, which had been almost a new one, were found in the Avon, close to the Worcester Street bridge. The thief had maliciously wrenched the back wheel off the bicycle and so damaged the rest of the machine that the frame, hand.es and one wheel were practically all that was left of it.

Everyone in the vicinity of Toko will remember the social given by the single ladies and bachelors to the married folk. It was stated to have been the most successful function of its kind held in a district whose name is synonymous with dances and socials, whose success has excited envy and admiration from all the rival townships. This time the married folk are bcjng the promoters, and in the Coronation I Hall on October 4th next they will) show how a real social is run. Mr. 0.l E. Bocock is secretary.

At a public meeting at Moose Jaw,

Saskatchewan (Canada), the city officials and townspeople the other day unanimously resolved to advance the time in their city by one hour, commencing at midnight on May 30oh, and continuing throughout the summer months. It is expected that this extra hour of daylight will go a long way towards stimulating amateur sports in the city, as it will enable business men to attend baseball, cricket, and tennis games and aquatic sports', which will from now be held after 6 p.m. Now that daylight saving has been started in Canada, it is expected that .the scheme will spread with rapidity. The Post Office Department of the United States is, according to Mr.

Haskin, by far the largest postal institution in the world. Its 300,000 employees handle more than 15 000,000,000 "pieces of mail" each year, which is one-third of the aggregate postal business of' all the civilised nations. The American Post Office handles more than 800(000 letters every hour of the twenty-four every day in the year; it issues and redeems daily more than 250,000 money orders; it j registers daily more than' 115.000 letters and parcels, and it handles thousands of tons of second and third and fourth-class matter every hour. For many years there was a big deficit in the operations of the Postal Service, but this has been eliminated, and the Post Office is now a -paying institution. A had cold unfits a man and is dan-, gerous. Tonking's Linseed Emulsion positively cures all colds; Is (id. 2$ t«f I Js 6d. ' •

The Hurleyville Dairy Company has an offer of. 6 9-16 d per pound for'the season's output. Ratepayers are reminded that all rates remaining unpaid after the mst. will bo sued for without f:.ii. The Joll Co-operative Dairy Company will this year sfend all its' output of cheese through Messrs. Nathan urid Co., on open consignment. The live, poultry exports from the Dominion last year numbered 2214, af the total value of £482. Li ndditj4% £-11.1 worth of frozen poultry was s'h p pad to oversea ports. -Last,year there were exported frcm New Zealand 5171 head of horses', valued at £171,593. Most of the horsed went to New South Wales and Victoria. In the libel action, Gordon v. "The sew Zealand Times," at Napier yesterday, the jury deliberated for three hours, and then announced that they had laded to come to any agreement. With the consent of the parties the jury was discharged.

Alternative schemes for a double express service on the North Island Main J runic railway are being considered Oy the Department of Railways; No in-' formation will be given regarding the time-tab es of the new service until one of the schemes has been adopted, ihe double service will be commenced March y 3l ml'. ccmtinued « ntil "Taupo, New Zealand," writes Colonel Moore to a London paper, "is the most wonderful place., on earth for trout. Two Irishmen, who came for a month, caught a thousand fish. . . Ihe trout are magnificent this season. J- <lan t see how they can well be otherwise, as the feed brought down by the rivers is wonderfully good." .'•i'^ 6 S ?Y *M the action of plainjiffs m this case," said Sir J. Findlay, m concluding his opening address lor the defence in the Star of Canada case at the Supreme Court, "is { not altogether as we have been told, like a modern version of the Good Samitan, but it reminds one of the memier of the Scottish nation who Had oeen saved from drowning, and upon ascertaining that his rescuer was a labourer, offered him payment for the time occupied in the rescue at the award rate of Is per hour." (Laughter) In Hove Cemetery have just, been aid side by side the bodies of two ilelong friends—Frank Washington, licensee of the Keidal Arms, Hove, and James Farrell, of Hove. Born in the same year, 1886, they were educated at the same school and remained close friends ever after. Both were taken on the samo day to the Sussex bounty Hospital for operations, and I'oth operations took place on the same clay. Both died on the same day; and both were buried on the same day in the same .plot of ground. .

An accident, fortunately bereft of sonons consequences, happened to the iWaitotara mail coach yesterday-morn-ing whilst proceeding 'to the; station imuig a heavy shower of hail the Horses made a sudden dotom' : and the coach, was capsized ,on tjw'-fidp tf the road. Ih e driver,. J. n ijumped from.the box- seat .and. escaped muiurt. Of the two passengers .inside the coach,. Mi;,.Chirk was fortunately unmjiuied, .but Constable Mhon sus-, .tamed,an injured ankle, r besides,;a lacerated arm ,and sprained, ,wi.itft, The liorrotf were cuj free uninjured.' : ;TJie i new, i )yiYele6s , was picked up by tho s.s.'MahemrV'wireim plant when the vessel was 1000 miles off the coast of New Zealand on

imirsaay night last. This .call is the ?».' d smmimM the,MkiM&tion on J makori Hilts, Wellington. : The message was heard very. distinctly ''by tJio Maheno s operator, who wirelessed' back to Pennant Hills,'near Sydney, stating that he had heard the signal and telling the Sydney bpev&tor to stand by.i- Almost' immediate'ly-Jaf ter-wards-the 'Australian 'statioW I nicked up the signals from 1 1 which were heard with remarkable clearness n is anticipated that'the Hew'Auckland station ivill be easily able "to call lip Pennant Hills; as the ; plani is of the same pbwer as that at Wellington. . A' man in New South.'tyales who played the part of a good Samaritan thirty years ago has just, ■ been rewarded. The- Sydney, "Daily! Telegraph?; states that Mr.;'P, Si Hanslpwj of Cudgebegong, has been in-." iormed by a firm of solicitors'-that a man named Whitehead recently died in Victoria and left him the whole of ins property, valued at about £2OOO It Seems that in 1882 Mr. Hanslow found

Whitehead, who was a tramp at the' time, lying seriously ill at the side of tile road. He conveyed him. to an hotel where he paid his board, and also ftaid.;for medical advice. When Whitehead got better Han slow gave him 10s m cash to help him on his way. He a ad entirely forgotten the occurrence till he received this letter. At the tenth annual conference of the New Zealand Employers' Federa--bion held in Wellington yesterday, the following resolutions were carried:— that this Federation supports the request of the Furniture Workers' Association re regulation for employ--m , ent °/ Chinese in furniture f ivories.' J. hat the Government he approached in [regard to having all goodssheds kept open lor the receipt, of goods till 5 p.m. on week days and 1 p.m. on Saturdays. That the Government be urged to amend the Wages Protection and Contractors' Lien Act, 1908, in-the direction of making it compulsory-for he sub-contractor, as well as the contractor to enforce the provisions in clause 60, also- to point out that the Act is inoperative so far as clause 00 is concerned. That this conference of the JSiew Zealand Employers' Federa-

turn recommend to; the Government fii iffn' consideration the offer or the Mhelburga or any'other syndicate to develop the iron industry ?S the : i Dominion. That the Shops and Offices Act, 1908, he amended bv I'e-in'sertanir the words deleted by the'l9lo Amendment Act of clause 3, also that clause \ ot section 6 he re-inserted. New iCaledonia in Japanese hands would be a standing menace to Aus- 'v braha and New Zealand as well, and ot a little 1 uneasiness is being felt in-*. Australia on account of the large influx of Japanese into the French possession (writes the Sydney correspbn- < dent of the "Post"). Members of the Federal Government are gravely concorned regarding the statement of the lokio newspaper "Niroku" th"Mp|§poo additional coolies are about to leave Japan for the New 'Caledonia nickel mines, but the Minister for External ' • Affairs (Mr. Thomas) said to a question, "What can we do about it.P New Caledonia doesn't belong to us." There' > are already several thousand Japs in

.he island, all of them, so authorities •" declare, ex-soldiers, and a consider- 'I lb) 1 * nrnnortion of the educated class; and their movements and the official . f, interest shown by their own Govern- )'M ment in their welfare suggest that"... they are there with some definite purnose. It is not expected that there l ivill he any trouble just now, but the Japanese colony is growing larger and •) larger each year, and may soon pre--sent the same nroblem that faces the ;,, authorities at Hawaii. It will not be °asy to get rid of them, if that is ever desired, and the presence of several ~ thousand trained men may, at some •■'..'>* critical moment, give the French authorities a great deal of worry. What concerns Australia and Niw' Zealand is the danger it will he tc US.

'A sharp and long-sustained, shock of earthquake was felt at Gisborne at . 4.31 yesterday morning. The directum was east to \vest. A slighter shock wan ", experienced at 3.30 o'clock on the pre vious morning. The wet weather has prevented the Stratford County Council from ''getting out" shingle necessary for ' the very large amount of repairing and metalling required this year for the roads. The outlo'ok is a serious one, V if the next'few months are also go Jiyjig to be "wot." well-known local resident of Wan'gaiiui, Mr Peter Thompson, Sen., mei /with a serious accident this morning. He, was engaged building a houset, . when the wind blow down one of Uh walls which fell on him, breaking his leg and inflicting other injuries.— (P.A. Wire). The Taranaki Oil Wells, Ltd., has roceived a cheque for £2500 from the Government, being the second instal Uterit of the bonus offered for the first 500,000 gallons of crude oil won. Good progress is being made with the pre-; • liminary work for the refinery, says a New Plymouth wire. The Eltham Borough Council, at a meeting last night, in reply to a cir- ■ ■! cular from the National Peace. Coun- ' cil, Christchurch, unanimously passed the following resolution':—"That tin: ' Council has no sympathy with those ■ who desire, through technical defects in the law and in the administration of the same, to evade their duty in defence, of their country." .For Influenza, take Woods' Great '>'.. Peppermint Cue. Never fails. Is 6d ' and 2s 6d. * ! *