LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 68, 13 November 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A'constable who gave, evidence in a case h.eai'd in the Invercargill Police Court awakened exclamations of incredulity when he stated,that lie was told by a publican in the vicinity of .[nyei-cargil I , that he had. sold sixteen cases of whisky 'on a certain sale day.

The • second Esperanto congress, which was held at Melbourne a fortnight; ago, was a (great success. The Lord Mayor gave the Esperantists, to the number of 200, a civic reception, and afterwards entertained them at afternoon tea. Several interesting meetings were held, the most remarkable of which was the church service, which was conducted on Sunday afternoon wholly in Esperanto. A welltrained choir gave a good rendering of well known hymns translated into the international language, and an attentive congregation of about 300 listened to an eloquent sermon, and quite forgot that they were worshipping in another language. A reporter in Christchurch timed the speed of a city tramcar by travelling in a motor-car alongside, and carefully checked the figures recorded by the speedometer. At one part of the journey a speed of just on thirty miles per hour was reached. The test, to the reporter’s mind, proved two (things conclusively—that the ordinary person’s idea of the speed of street traffic is inaccurate-; and that the iiamcars have a far greater speed, at tneir command than the authorities recognise. The bigger speeds chronicled, were all made over spaces comparatively clear, and were no prejudice to public safety. The only thing noted was that when a pace of twen-ty-seven miles or over was gained, the car, a short one, swung and swayed a little.

There were thirteen of them going to the races—it doesn’t matter which races, nor is the time of moment. The number was really an accident, but such an opportunity to defy superstition was not to lie missed ■ the fatal number should guide them in all their doings throughout the day. The great race of the clay came along, and eagerly they referred to the thirteenth horse. And what a horse! Not one of them would risk a farthing on him. Their folly could hardly lie carried that far. And so it happened that ever since that day thirteen men have been •chewing the bitter cud of what might have been. Number 13 won, and each man of the thirteen has told me (says ,H correspondent of the ‘Manchester Guardian’) separately many times that he is £330 worse off than lie ought to be. They can -run oyer every detail of that race with the fluency of a professional reciter, and have everything relating to the odds at the very tips of their tongues as pat as ever bookmaker had it.

A Wellington man who has just returned from Gisborne told a ‘Times’ representative that strenuous efforts are being made to refloat the Star of Canada. The work is being undertaken by a contractor formerly well known in Wellington, Mr. Langlands. He decided to drive a row of strong piles into the papa rock some distance astern of the vessel, attach to each one a cable and 50-ton block, and by this means haul the vessel over the ledge on which she is now resting and launch lier into the deep water under her stern. The cables from the piles are carried to the after part rf the vessel, and when all are worked together, a pull of 500 tons can be exerted. When the tide recedes the vessel is pumped out as far as possible, and the contractor relies upon the action of Hie rising tide to lift her sufficiently while nearly empty to enable him to haul her backwards. When she is drawn up level on the ledge she will be patched sufficiently to stand the voyage to Auckland for permanent repairs.

For the current year the Hawke’s Hay County Council have received over £SB in revenue as a result of the imposition of 10 per cent, on all overdue rate demands.

Tiie Mamari has just left London with 525 reduced-rate passengers, including 120 single female domestics. 1 he High Commissioner (Hon. T. Mackenzie) inspected the crowd and addressed them before sailing.—Cablegram.

The monthly meeting of the Stratford County Council will he held at the County Office, Stratford, on Wednesday next it 11 a.m. The annual meeting for the election of a chairman will i>e held on Wednesday, 27th her, at noon. WJ,

The practice of renting pews, which is in vogue in many Auckland churches, was respohsihle for an incident in St. Matthew’s Church on Sunday a woman demanding in a very audible voice that a visitor should give up her scat, as it was “rented by her husband, and her husband was coming to church to-day.” After some very unorthodox behaviour in the church, the offending visitor left the seat into which she .had been shown by the verger, and took up her position in a seat bearing a placard informing all and sundry that it was “free.” At the ordinary meeting of the Stratford County Council next Wednesday the following notices of motion will he considered Cr. Thomson to move; “That, in consideration of ,the railway and faqtory traffic passing over it, that portion of the Finnerty Road from the Mountain Road to the Dairy Factory he treated as a main road in the Council’s books, and included in the main road account.” Cr. Young i to move: “That £SO of the Tupi.i Road | account he transferred to the Funiwha- ! kau Road account.” '

A horse which was sold in the Greytown pound, the other day, for one shilling, cost the Borough 28s 6d for its keep during the interval of its being impounded and being sold. It was suggested by a Councillor, at Monday night’s meeting of the' Council, that the owner of the horse had turned it out on the road, as an easy and cheap method of getting idd of a useless animal—cheap, that is to sav, to the late owner, not to the Council.

An example has been brought to our notice of one way in which weeds are introduced into this country (says the ‘Taranaki Herald’). In a local warehouse a package of tinned goods imported from England was being unpacked, when the man engaged in the work noticed among the straw a sus-picious-looking flower. On examination it proved to be a Californian thistle, evidently cut off with the straw when in blossom, and the seed had just about ripened and was ready to germinate as soon as it found a congenial home. , ■ '

_ “I came across a curious problem ip Kansas as to the definition of liberty,” said the Hon. C. Louisson at the Licensed Victuallers’ Association’s smoke concert at Christchurch. “The boundary between Kansas and Illinois in one part is formed by a populous street. On one side of the street in Kansas, gambling is allowed, but alcohol is forbidden. On the other side (in Illinois) liquor is allowed, hut ' gambling is forbidden. The result is ‘ i one side is l lined with hotels and the ' other with gambling salobnsr On which side of the street can it be said that liberty exists? The audience failed toll unravel sthp enigma; .. . , v ■ ■ o, >1 •

Boal’dinghouse-heepers and hotel proprietors in Auckland, with keen foresight, are already preparing for jt is pronanls'tliht, several very extensive, additions to buildings will be made in order to cope with the rush, of visitors whiqh the exhibition is sure to bring to the city. Already plans are ip , preparation for adding ’twenty rooms,, bo -;x large boardinghouse in Albert Street; while another, in Symonds < Street is making arrangements for‘the addition' of 32 rooms. Various hotels . in the city will also be renovated and added to for the exhibition season.

The ‘Concourse Lepine,’ which ’has produced a shorthand machine for the blind, has also scored another scientific victory in a machine for opening oysters. This machine, named by its inventory M. Danon, “L’Unique/’ has been awarded a gold medal, the London ‘Telegraph’ says. No, well-regulat-ed restaurant or household should be ■without it, at least in France, for in England, alas! oysters are—if one may say so—caviare, and the plutocrats who indulge in them can well afford to have them opened, by their fishmongers or their menials. Taut in France, where the' workman in his shirt-sleeves can enjoy his dozen of the best, M. Danon’s invention should sell like—live oysters. The recalcitrant oyster is firmly, if gently, placed between two grinders, a button is pressed, and a very sharp blade does the rest.

Criticism of the modern woman was indulged in at the recent conference of the Congregational Union in Sydney. Mrs. A. P. Campbell, in a paper entitled “Femininity and Christian Womanhood,” said that the modern woman was seen daily with her South Sea, Island headdress, her bai'ed neck and arms, scanty skirts, and gossamer stockings—an understudy, as a visitor )iad said, of the demi-monde of Paris. She might read anything she liked, and the modern bookseller kept a class of debased novels for “quite nice women and girls” to read. She said she must have life, break the. traces, she unharnessed herself of a few more buckles and straps, and, although perhaps she did not do so more than did her type of former years. She might go anywhere for amusement alone at night. “Quite nice girls,” the speaker had heard a woman say recently, “can go to the theatre now in ones and twos—one sees them at the races, too, quite often.” Evidently the male protector their grannies thought necessary was a ghost of the past.

One of the to which Bulgarian soldiers are stated to have subjected Turkish women was the forcing of them to eat pork and drink alcohol. The significance of tliis is only understood when it is known that one of the strictest laws of the Mohammedan faith, is one which forbids the eating of “unclean foods.” The breaking of the law is supposed to entail the loss of Paradise, and that (to a Moslem) is worse than death, for death is considered a cheap price to pay for Paradise. The power of this idea over the Moslem mind was illustrated in New Caledonia some years ago. The Arab crew on a steamer threatened to mutiny, and were even preparing to attack the officers on the bridge. They knew that the officers were armed, and would probably shoot most of them down, but that fate had no terror for them. It was the cook who drove them back cowering into the forecastle, where they lay huddled in fear till the boat reached n'n’t, and they were arrested. The took, a quick-witted Frenchman, seized a dish of cut-up meat, and, running on to the bridge, threw it among the mutineers, yelling out “Pork!” and the foul meat was more terrible to the bloodthirsty Arabs than the bullets of the officers. The incident was ludicrous from a Caucasian point of view, but it waj* fraught with- absolute horror to the Moslems.