LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 62, 6 November 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Sporting Notes appear on page 2 of this issue.

Sea-gulls are causing havoc in various parts of the Otaki district by attacking young lambs, and cither maiming or Killing them. One Manakau settler has lost quite a number of wellbred lambs through the attacks of the birds.

Five hundred English pilgrims, headed by the Duke of Norfp.k, Eng-j land’s leading Homan Catholic nooJe- , man, have been received in audience | at the Vatican by the Pope. The | Duke, on behalf of the Catholic Lmon j of Great Britain (states a cable to the j ‘Sydney Sun’) read an address, assuring his Holiness of the union’s fidelity and devotion. The Collector of Customs at Wellington (Air. Brabazon) has received by "post 8s in stamps, believed to be “conscience money.” if no intimation to the contrary is received within a week from the person who remitted the stamps the money will be paid into tne public accouht. Tenders will be called within a few days for the erection of a iublic Works Office in Juliet Street, on the section adjoining, the Stratford Club. The site will be tilled in, and a handsome two-storeyed building erected There will be ten rooms, plastered inside, and the foundations will be of concrete. The Defence Department, Public Works, and Agricultural Department will all'be accommodated in the building, thus saving the Government a considerable sum in rents.

The official opening of the 1912-19 13 season of the Stratford Bowling t/Uib is to take place to-morrow, Tnursday, afternoon, at 2.30. A full muster cf members and their families is requested, and, in addition, the general public are invited to be present. Alternoon, tea will be provided, members to bring the usual basket. llie Club’s croquet lawn will also be available for the ladies. If the weather is only kind, a very pleasant afternoon should result.

Croquet is going to be very popular this season, if the, splendid attendance at the opening ceremony of the Stratford Croquet Club yesterday afternoon is any criterion. Perfect weather tempted over fifty ladies to emerge in summer dresses, and, with the lawns in excellent order, and locking at their best, the grounds presented a very gay scene. Games were soon in progress, and the indispensable afternoon tea was also in evidence, dainty sandwiches and cakes and refreshing . tea, being,,handed _ round among the members and the.r friends. One lot of fireworks on Guy Fawkes Day entirely upset the kindly-dispos-ed calculations of at least one Stratford resident. Wishing to do a good turn to a friend, he undertook to milk “Polly,” and had got well through the job, despite a bonfire and a running fire of crackers, when, “Ghee, Whizz !” there burst in close proximity to the cow one of those buzzers, the kind of fireworks that even girls shy off. Like, when the crowd yells “oil” on the barrier dying up, so the signal was to “Polly,” and the milkman and his milk were among the also starteds. It was a crestfallen man, indeed, who carried about an eggeupful of milk back to his friend on yestereve. Some of the old time customs associated with the celebration of Hallowe’en in the Old Laud were revived on Thursday at the Young Women’s Christian Association (says the Auckland ‘Star’), when a goodly number of members and their friends gathered to spend a social evening. The hall was decorated with red geraniums,; red lanterns and red drapings, while rosycheeked apples added to the effect as they hung suspended from the roof or floated in a tub of water. In one corner a witch with a black hood and characteristic cap was busy stirring her cauldron to discover answers for the numerous visitors who sought her counsel. In the dim light behind the curtain another group watched carefully the predictions of their future to be found from the “burning of nuts,” while still another group of girls tried the water test to secure knowledge of a destined partner. The celebrated poem of Robert Burns on Hallowe’en was read in unmistakeable Scotch, and Mrs. Stewart in witch’s cap and red hood charmed her audience with her song of Hallowe’en. A double encore hardly sufficed to satisfy her hearers. The origin and later | meaning of this ancient Celtic festival was explained by Miss Stillwell, and supper brought to a close a most delightful evening. Among the guests were a number of English and Scotch girls who had just arrived from the Old Land, and who expressed much gratitude at the warmth of welcome found in Auckland.

“In twenty years,” said Dr. W. T. Brigham, of the Berenice Pauahi Bi shop Museum, of Honolulu, to a ‘Dominion’ reporter, “there will not be a pure blooded Hawaiian in Honolulu. They are dying out fast through various' causes—consumption for one thing, encouraged by drinking and wearing European clothes, and intermarriage. At present they out-vote us by 5 to 1, in the election of the Legislative Assembly, and we consider ourselves lucky if we get one or two white men in to help them to steer a steady legislative course. But that will not be for long. They are a dying race—the spirit to exist as a race is gone—they are, as the Americans say, ‘down and out.’ As one old Hawaiian put it to me: ‘Our kings are gone , our chiefs are gone, and our beliefs are shattered—what hope is there for the race?’ I could not help agreeing that there was very little national hope for the Hawaiian, and could feel for the old man. You mav train the finest boat’s crew of Hawaiians to row a race, but if their opponents get half a length ahead they would throw down their oars —done! Vet never has a people been more! kindly treated than the Hawaiians, They have always been placed on an equality with white people, and at cue time you would see as many Hawaiians at functions, balls and parties as whites, but you don’t see that now. At one time they loved the white man—now their feelings are exactly the re-’ verso.”

“The truly strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small, i would have a man great in great things and elegant in little things,” says Dr. Johnson.

The ordinary evening parade for Senior Cadets will take place on Thursday evening. The afternoon parade, for Territorials instead of being held on Thursday, has been postponed until Thursday week.

After all the passengers had left the White Star liner Oceanic, her arrival at Plymouth from New York, one of the crew discovered a banker’s draft for £IO,OOO. The find was reported to the ship’s officers.

“I would not be surprised to son hemp reach £40,” said an interests tlaxmiller to a Alanawatu ‘Herald’ representative, “but when a drop conies, in my opinion, it’s going to be very sudden. Someone else can take the risk after £35. I’m satisfied.”

State afforestation is now being vigorously carried out in Central Otago, and during the past two years over a million and a quarter timber trees were used in establishing the plantatioixs in the vicinity of Naseby. it may be interesting to mention that the number exceeds the total operated with during the preceding twelve years.

The Lord Chief Justice, states a Loudon cable, in trying the case of a man whose extradition was sought on a charge of fraud alleged to have been committed by means of the three-card trick, held that it did not amount to winning money by fraud in playing cards. His Lordship added that it was skill only.

It is said that dew is a great respecter of colours. To prove this, take pieces of glass or board, and paint them red, yellow, green and black. Kxuoso them at -night, and you will find that the yellow will he covered with moisture, and the green will bo damp, but that the red and the black will bo left perfectly dry. The vagaries of a stranger in the Milton district last week caused no little stir amongst residents. His particular mania was to strip stark naked and spread out his clotfies “to keep the grass warm and dry” during the cold, biting showers. His public exhibitions were abruptly cut short by commitment to Seacliff Asylum. From Auckland on Friday the first outward-bound train for Wellington took away 34 people, on Saturday the total complement of passengers was 33; and on Monday morning the number travelling represented the exceedingly small total of 29. The three trains could have carried a total of over 700 passengers; thqir actual passenger list, on the three trips, comprised an aggregate from Auckland of 96. However, in the course of a week or two a scheme is to be adopted, whereby two night expresses will leave Auckland between 9 and 10 o’clock. Whether the morning express will be continued depends on the extent it is patronised, says the ‘Star.’

Followers of horse racing are more or less superstitious, and an amusing story is told of a New Plymouth sport’s win on the Gup race on Saturday. For a few days he had been closely studying the form of the Cup candidates, but could not make up his mind as to which horse he was going, to support. On Friday night the question was settled. At midnight his wife presented him with a son, and the proud father thereupon decided to back Midnight Sun for the Cup. This he accordingly did (says the ‘Herald’), and the “tip” coming off, he picked up ~a nice little sum. The first ascent of Mount Egmont this season was made on Sunday by Miessrs. W. McLaren and B. Joyce, of Hawera (says the ‘Star’). A start was

madth'frmnDawson Falls Hostelry at •I a.m., and the crater was reached at 7.30. The descent was made on the New Plymouth side, and the party had

rather an unenviable experience, being caught in a fog, which suddenly rose from the valley, while only 1000 feet from the summit. This necessitated staying on the ice for an hour and a half until the atmosphere cleared sufficiently to enable them to get bearings.

Tariki organised a splendid little dance last night, and the thirty couples present danced to their hearts’ content into the early hours of the morning. The object in view was the raising of funds in aid of the Town Hall, and these should now be considerably augmented. The secretaries, who are

to he congratulated upon their well directed energy and enthusiasm, were Misses Bell and Mathieson. The committee consisted of Misses M. Power, B. Power, Inston, S. Davidson, and Messrs Kerr, Slmeider, J. Davidson, Harkness, A. Walsh, R. James, E. James, F. Bell and C. Kaualus. Mr S. Walker acted as M.C., and excellent music was supplied by Messrs Arthur Richardson and Alf Kelly. Some rather extraordinary risks were taken by a couple of men returning in a gig at an early hour one morning from a “house-warming” at Christchurch! It was pitch dark, and ■he driver said he intended to make for a patch of scrub as a guide to a short cut. In looking for this landmark he came out on the terrace over-

looking the Hurunui River. The horse went clean over the terrace, taking the trap with it. He called to his companion to jump for it. He himself was pitched out and fell among the horse’s legs, but was not hurt. The other

man’s leg was broken above the boot, the bone protruding, and he removed the boot. Ho covered the man with bis coat and went for help. The injured man was removed to the Christchurch Hospital, where, after two amputations, he succumbed. At the time of the accident the trap was being driven at about eight or nine miles an hour. The Coroner remarked: “Good gracious !' Eight miles an hour in witch dark in country you didn’t know I” It further transpired that the scrub sought for was only about two chains from the river, which drew another exclamation from the Coroner, who remarked that it seemed a foolhardy piece of business to be driving at the pace. The Coroner recorded a verdjct that death was caused by septicaemia due to moist gangrene, following on injuries received through being accidentally thrown out of a trap.

The careful mother’s surest winuer safeguard—Tonking’s Linseed Emulsion. s