LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 50, 23 October 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Masterton has had six cases of drunkenness before tlie Court in four days—a record for the town since, the advent of no-license. A short time ago one of the hounds belonging to the South Canterbury Hunt escaped from the kennels, and has been roaming the country in the vicinity of Geraldine, where it is being credited with killing many lambs—as many as twenty each night it is said. On Thursday a party of young men with guns went out to shoot the dog (says the ‘Timaru Herald’), but it eluded ' them in a scrubby riverbed. The ‘Gisborne Times’ says- it now looks as if Poverty Bay may be ret the first possessor of permanent and good reading, as there is a proposition to come before the Council next meeting to go into the matter of paving their strets with ‘‘Kortfelt.” This material has stood the test for three years of the heaviest traffic in Gisborne, and shows no sign of wear yet. ‘‘Kortfelt” is a New Zealand patent, made of a specially prepared tar and laid down with sawdust and shavings, and has' proved a dustless, soundless, and water-tight road.

The main thoroughfare of Fox ton presents a very busy sigut at present, there being nine buildings in the course of erection. j iie dentists of Hawcra have agieed to give a block vote for the Saturday huli-liolidav. Perhaps the lead thus •riven by 'them will tie followed, ny-aud-by, 'by other professions in cue town, adds the Star. A stone crusher, the property of Mr Tarrv, of Inglewood, collapsed at the junction of Fenton and Juliet streets yesterday afternoon, a hiokcu axle was the immediate cause o the disaster, and the dismantled machine still remains in the middle oi the street, the terror of passing horses and an unfailing object ol interest to passers-by. “Jn these days of unrest that is the most horrible thing you can call a, man,” said a solicitor in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Conn,, addressing a man who had referred to anothu man as a “scab.” “How about wowser ?’ ” asked someone. J‘On! in fhese day’s ‘wowser’ is quite a respectablcterm,” said the solicitor. Scab means an out-and-out ciawlei, dii many men would prefer to be called a liar rather than a ‘scab.

The ‘Waipa Post’ is informed on reliable authority that the redoubtable .Mr. J. Payne, the representative or Grey Lynuj intends to contest the Napier seat at the next general election. Following the precedent set by the sitting member, Mr. Vigor Brown, Mm Payne has already started two picture shows in the electorate, and a lierce contest may be looked forward to. Manaia has formed a Building society and the shares are going off steadily, 1100 having been taken up already, in this connection the local paper gets off the following: “The only vacant building at present in Manaia is the police lock-up, and if something is not done very soon to provide housing accomodation in the town, Constable Carroll’s sanctuary stands a chance m being commandeered and turned into tenements.”

Headers arc reminded of the tea and concert at the Broadway Ciuirci this evening. A splendid programme will be presented. Miss I). Bayiy, LAB well-known as a talented musician', will contribute a pianoforte sclo, “Espieglerie,” by Mark Hamburg and also will sing “At My Window. Others rendering items are Miss Evans, A.T.C.L., Miss gangster, Miss Moon, Mr T. Lamason, and anthems by a large choir. It has been the custom for several years past for the shopkeepers of laniatua to observe a wnole holiday on “People’s Hay” of the Manawatu Rummer Show. A number of the business people, however, are not in favour ol the continuance of the custom, holding that it has a detrimental effect, upon local trade, and that money goes out of the district. As the Show is to lie held in a fortnight’s time, it is p.o posed (states the local paper) to obtain an expression of opinion on tne subject from shopkeepers either at a meeting or by a ballot. There is a prospect that the housewife will have to pay more for hei Christmas hams this year than is us nally the case. An Auckland grocer informed a ‘Star’ representative that, on account of the recent dry season m Australia, buyers there are now offering slightly higher prices • than tiie wholesale prices ruling here. Hams are worth Is 3d per pound in Australia to-day, and in order to supply our market a similar rise will be necessary shortly in this country. At the West Coast Competitions the judge selected what ho thought would be a humorous, subject for the irapromptu speech—namely, “Old Bacholor,” but the speakers treated- -the, old fellow as a subject for tears rather than mirth. To try to improve the occasion, the judge gave as the evening subject: “Ho married men live longer than single men, or does it only seem longer?” Even such a subject (sadly remarks a West Coast journal) was viewed by many competitors through the eye of sorrow rather than of joy!

An Opunake painter unintentionally created a pun and a deal of amusement the other day at the expense of a local tradesman. The signwriter was deputed to paint the tradesman s name and calling “watchmaker and jeweller.’ The writer did his work admirably, and knocked off work for a time leaving unfinished at “jew.” The jeweller had a number of callers at Ins' shop “ranting to buy a vaicn.’ After finding out the reason of the merriment the tradesman hurried off to the painter to add further letters to the nationality.’ Kansas has again been brought into the limelight as a centre of eccentric origihhJity* by a farmer named John Heden, who lives about two miles from Medora. Heden has brought good-natured ridicule upon himself by making all his horses wear trousers this summer. “People can laugh if they want to,” says xieden, “but I’m going to keep my horses in pants the year round, because the animals like it and do better work. It may look funny, lint it keeps the flies from pestering them.” The trousers in question are made of coarse cotton, and cut to fit the legs of the animals, with, supporting braces of same material running across the' withers and back.

The household of an Invercargill boardinghouse was plunged into an hour’s consternation and excitement the other night. One of the lodgers, arriving home in that sublime condition between earthliness and heavenliness. which injudicious acquaintance with alcoholic beverages promotes, dug out a revolver and took a pot-shot at a fly on the ceiling of his bedroom. The success of his markmansl ip upset his already precarious equilibrium, and he capsized, striking his nose against the bedpost in his descent. The shot awakened all hands and the lodger was discovered apparentlyjifeless. His face was lying in a pool of blood; a revolver was firmly grasped in his right hand. Murder had been done, and general excitement prevailed. A doctor was summoned at once, and the result of his diagnosis gave relief to the distressed landlady. A vexed question, which stid remains unsettled at that boardinghouse is, who is to bo hold responsible for the payment of the doctor’s half-guinea? Writing to a Patea correspondent in connection with the Veterans’ Pension Scheme, an Aucklander thus delivers nimself: “if there was one occasion in my life in which I had occasion to feel proud of being a veteran’s son it was a few years ago, when the Imperial troops were visiting Auckland. It was luncheon time and the veterans were being entertained in a large marquee whilst the Imperial troops were lying down at ease close by. Suddenly the cry went round; ‘Here come the Veterans.’ As if by magic the Homo troops leapt to their feet, and stood at attention of their own free will, and as the veterans appeared they rent the air with cheers and then as the men walked slowly by they stood at the salute. It was a moment I shall never forget. It was the tribute of the present generation to the past, the tribute of men who were about to do things to those who had already accomplished \ lem, the tribute of the young to the , Id whom they seemed to revere.

The Court list for Friday’s sitting of the .Magistrate’s Court include twe.icyfonr civil cases, one information for maintenance; one for procuring liquor while prohibited, one lor leaving a voiiicle unattended, and three judgment summonses. “The potato scorns to bo cooked as regards the Opunako raihvay.” Iho Stratford correspondent of tne Taranaki Herald thus sums up the position, and adds—“To Iloti has it, and Hawcra and Patea are to be congratulated on their capture of the tuber.”

Mr. J. B. Richards, secretary of t\o Stratford Chamber of Commerce, iP , formed a representative of the “Evening Post” this morning that, in response to overtures made by the Chamber with regard to delayed goods oh the Toko line, Mr. J. E. Armstrong, district traffic manager, had informed him that a more powerful engine would be run as soon as it could be procured. For 7th of November a cycle road race for boys over sixteen and under nineteen years of age, lias been arranged. The course will be to Inglewood and back, the race to start at 2 o’clock p.ra. On the following Saturday a similar race will be held for boys under sixteen years of age. Judging by the number of entries already received, the races are expected to be keenly competed. At the present rate (says the Southland Daily News), it will take several years to make good the damage done to roads and bridges in the Waiau Riding of the Wallace County by the recent Hoods. In one place the Orawia river washed away the eastern approach of the bridge on the Merrivale-Eastern Bush road, and the river is now' running about 30ft. across the road, having altered its course that much. Waimate papers report that a wellknown Hook farmer, Mr. E. J. Adams, met with a nasty accident on Wednesday afternoon. He was attending to a heifer that had got a turnip stuck in her throat, when the animal made a lunge at him, and its horn caught him in the,throat, narrowly missing the jnflar vein. Mr. Adams was taken to inmate and received the necessary attention. The ‘Cromwell Angus’ states that vegetation on the sand dunes near , Cromwell has never been so prominent ( as at- the present time. On a very large area the marram grass has the sand under control, and everywhere the young grass is in evidence. Thousands of lupins are coming awuiy with a strong and healthy appearance, tnd in this respect the recent rains have , had a wonderful effect.

The motto of the 16th (Waikato) Regiment—“Ka whaiwhai tonu” (We light on for ever)— recalls memories of strenuous days in the district where, nearly half a century ago, occurred the last fight with one of the noblest native races of the earth. The heroic stand of the Maoris at Orakau, : where the words above quoted were used (relates the ‘Star’) filled their foes with admiration and earned for them undying fame. To show how quickly a district becomes depopulated where a strike eventuates, it was pointed out to a member of the ‘Greymouth Star’ staff by a visitor to that town, that, whereas some 300 men were engaged at the Blackwater mines prior to the strike, less than a hundred now remain at Waiutu. Those remaining, however, it is stated, are on strike pay, and, together with a little alhlvial-gold which they obtain; are - enabled to. live 'comfortably, not to say affluently,' during the strike period. Many of the miners allege they are also benefiting in health in the open-air search for the precious metal, and are. in ’onsequence, helping to staveioff "Any-ill-ef-fects that might have been contract jd from the dust nuisance whilst working in ’the stopesU* l '/. > i.

The ‘Southland Times’ reports that from all parts of the district complaints regarding the backwardness of the season are being heard, and ,it is certain that the. area under crop, will this year be touch less than would nave been the case if weather conditions had been favourable. Merchants . report that the qunatity of grain purchased for seed purposes has this year been comparatively small, and in many distances farmers state that they nave given up the idea of growing cereais, and will put their paddocks down in grass and turnips instead. So saturated has the ground been that it has been impossible to work it in a large number of cases, and the experience of farmers in this respect has men most disheartening. When the. Middle West was in the making, it required an ox team, one man to drive and another to hold the plough, and the time between early dawn and late dusk to “break” an acre of ground, says the Boston Monitor. Recently at the experiment station of Purdue University a machine of fifty fourteen-inch ploughs, pulled by three powerful oil-burning engines and operated by four men, ploughed a strip of land fifty-eight feet and four inches wide at a speed of four miles an hour, or one acre in every , four minutes and fifteen seconds. This broke the international ploughing record, but machinery on the farm has been doing things* quite as remarkable during the last twenty-five years, and quite as marvellous, when compared with earlier agricultural methods.

The Hon. W. Fraser’s first attempt in the compilation of a Public Works Statement, or of such small part of it as is left him by the heads of departments to get something in on his own, is not without some merit (states the ‘Waimate Witness’). It is not involved, it is intelligible, and it is without blatancy or blazonry, and here and there through it there are some sensible remarks, quietly expressed, and without any assumption of omniscience. Of course, he doesn’t whoop and yell about what he did last year, as he never had a last year as a Minister, and he fortunately spares us the infliction of reciting the things the other fellow didn’t do, or denouncing him for the things he did do. He is not a man gifted with any largo or brilliant powers of expression, but he has the rare qualities of conimousesse, shrewdness and keenness of observation, there is no man in (lie House whoso fairness and freedom from the extreme partisan spirit is so generally admitted. A small runholder in the bleak, storm-swept uplands of Central Otago, and chairman of his County Council for many years, he succeeded the Hon. Tom Fergus, a blonde, large whiskered giant, known as “The Inborn,” from his sp ice-shattering power, as member for the Wakatipu, somewhere about twenty years ago, and has hold it since against allcomersl He was in those days known as “Gentleman Fraser,” and the title is still good-—which is a strange and unusual thing to say of a politician after so many years.