LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 5, 31 December 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In the course of the various races -held throughout the Dominion on Boxing Day, the to put through the totalisator was close upon £150,000. The Commonwealth senators sat only 60 days last session, which, at the rate of remuneration they receive, works out at £lO a day for their services. To-morrow will be New Year’s Day. Here in Stratford high holiday will be kept and Taranaki will send many visitors to take part in the Stratford Racing Club’s popular meeting, which promises to be the best the Club has ever held and a fitting birthday festival for 1913. During the recess the views of members are to be ascertained on the, most suitable name for the Commonwealth capital. About 100 names have been suggested—from Shakespeare to Myloe (which is said to' mean the meetingplace). Many members are anxious to know why Canberra should not be retained. James Allison Mclntosh, a Whangamomona resident, was brought by Mr S, B. Hunter, J.P., yesterday at the local court, on a charge of theft from a dwelling. He was remanded until Tuesday, January 7th, and no hail being asked for, was conveyed to New Plymouth gaol this morning. A bad cutting and .an awkward turn on the Cardiff Road has been responsible for many accidents at one time or another. * On Thursday last no less than three mishaps of a more or less serious nature occurred in the form of trap accidents. In one case, Mrs R. H. Susans was thrown from her trap, sustaining injuries which necessitated her removal to Nurse Stronach’s private nursing home, but she was able to return to her home shortly afterwards, having been successfully treated. In the second instance, Miss Ina Hancock was thrown from a vehicle, receiving a very nasty scalp wound, and she was removed to Nurse Stronach’s, where it was found necessary to insert seven stitches in the wound. A third accident in exactly the same place is also reported

Special railway arrangements to suit visitor* to the Stratford races, from New Plymouth to Wanganui, have been made. ■ Mountain trips are going to be Very-popular this season, and several lii'fae local ones are being organised fair the New Year holidays. < (At Eastbourne (Eng.) recently Master Arthur Lovely, aged four, went Up in a waterplane along with his father. So far he is quite the young“flying man” on record. j What is the difference between Tur-j defending herself against the al-j Ue« and Mr Asquith defending him-] self against the suffragettes?—One is n, J tacked by petty States and the other by petticoats. the site of the highest railway station in the world was pierced recently *at Jungfrau-Jooh, 11,400 ft. above the sea. The tunnel of the' famous Jungfrau railway emerges here right among the glaciers. Portugal, Russia, and the Malay; Peninsula issue coins of the lowest value; in South Russia there is a cdin in use worth one-four-thousandth part of an English penny, and the Malays circulate a wafer peny, one-tett-thousandth part of a penny. At the Dunedin races at Wingatui oh Boxing Day, the supply of “soft ■ drinks” ran out, and people were pitying 3d a glass for water. How the dour Scotchman must have squirmed at parting for a glass without a “wee drappie” in it! the year 1912 theae have been eighteen bankruptcies in Wei- ' lington, one more than in 1911. The total number of fires in the city this year calling for the services of the brigade was 254. The most serious was Whitcombe and Tombs, the damage Jby which amounted to £70,000. An. eVent of considerable interest will take , place at Hukanui, Forty Mile! Bush , on January 25th, when Taipu, . second son of the late “King” Mahuta, will' be married to the daughter of the influential Taupp chief, Te Heuhed. A, large band of natives is now engaged in the erection of a meeting < house for the occas - n. 1 j., (J. Broughton, an elderly man, ! employed as a machinist on the “Nor- ' them Mail,” had his right hand caught ] in a platen machine and badly crush- J ed. Four fingers were removed in j the Whangarei. Hospital, and it is leftred that the man will lose the whole of his hand. ! A- bungalow at Dolosbage, Ceylon, in yrhich Mr H. S. Popham, a planter, ' was seated with a friend, was struck J • by.-Ughtnirtg, which, though it left , thein unhurt, hurled a dog across the ' tooh)r burnt a bookcover to tinder, ' molted the soldier of a tobacco tin, cricked a mirror and a china vfse to atoms. * | lA ! passenger by yesterday’s mail i tjaiu stated that small grass fires j dawn the dine' were numerous, and the . railway fences were in several , Maces burning vigorously, sparks , from, passing engines being apparent- . ly the cause of the outbreaks. The ( untary passengers who left the j catliage’ windows open when passing < theta fires,. were treated to volumes of- chpking smoke and clouds of sparks - and finders. •A ; railway collision at Kidoerpore, j Ind&h’was described by a babu station i master in the following', terms: “I i hate .the honour to report that yestermorning the I up train ran into ( V down. The two trains were inex- ( triCably commingled. Carriages to the s right of them, carri ages to the left oi j therti' Carriages everywhere and ho where. Thank God, no lives lost, ex- \ cept guard of I up’s left eye.” ( “Blowed if I leave this ship untiJ , I have had my Christmas dinner,” . said an immigrant on Wednesday lasi j at Dunedin, when he was told he i would have to proceed north by spe- , dal train which was leaving before j noon. ; The dinner in question is saic. , to have been very appetising (states , the Star). The disappointed paesen- j ger is reported to have “seen the j skipper” about it before he could be persuaded to leave the ship prior tc Christmas dinner-tjme. ■‘The. last word of the Fasten , Question,” said Lord Derby 35 years , ago. “is who is to have Constanti- , nopie ?” In the many pages I then wrote on this vexed question (says , Mme. Novikoff, in a letter to ‘The , Times?), I ventured the following suggpstioh— namely, “the conversion o. , oiMtintinople into a free city under j the guarantee of Europe, governed! b;, , an International Commission.” Would not that be a solution of what now seeing likely to be the question of the ’ day ?'/ ! To increase the number of Bibles j in the hotels of Illinois from 8300 to ‘ 35,000 is the avowed object of the . Gideons, who met recently in Chicago < for their fourteenth annual State , Convention, which opened in Grace Methodist Episcopal Church. Exte- ] don of the “Bible’corps” in Illinois • was discussed, and an order for another carload of Bibles from the New York headquarters of the Gideons followed. j In England prison warders are pro- 1 mised higher pay and shorter hours. 1

s All men employed in convict prisons are to have their salaries raised £lO a year. In local prisons the present 12 hours of duty a day will be reduced ttf nine. There will be an increased allowance for warders living outside tbte pri lions—-8s 6d a week in the provisoes abd 11s in London, an increase of about 2» 6d. The heavy belts are tovbe discarded, and box-calf boots wip bo provided. Christmas Day Mr J. W. Harrisdn, of Eltham, accomplished the feat.of driving a3J h.p. single speed, engine motor cycle and side-car, with passenger, up to the Dawson’s Falls Mountain House. This is an undertaking which we (Eltham Argus' think, establishes a record which will not be beaten. The long pull frorr Kaponga to the Mountain Reserve is very trying to an engine and the’ climb of 4i miles from the gate tc the Mountain House, over the rough, boulder-strewn track, with its sharp comers, where even high-powered cars are taxed at times, was successfully accomplished. The average grade or the track is 1 in 10, but in numerous places it is as sharp as 1 in 6. To determine whether a man is insane or not is, often a difficult matter. especially when that man is more or less on his guard. A case in point occurred a few days ago at the local police station, 'when a man who had been flourishing a big knife “out , Fast,” was brought in to town to be | medically examined as to sanity. To the officer in Charge he talked sensibly and showed himself to be a welleducated and man, and the officer Was somewhat in doubt as to how to proceed. When being taken to the cells, however, the suspect dramatically asked what was the charge. When met with the reply, “lunacy,” he juriiped to his feet, waved hie armsj and exclaimed “you can’t do it. Since the passing of the Penny Postage Act, the police have no power ‘ of arrest.” That settled it. On Saturday the man was conveyed to Porim.

Hotel accommodation in town i taxed to its fullest to accom modal visitors for the Stratford races. Messrs Marett and Fox, of Napiei proprietors of the new silent totalise tor to be used to-morrow at the Strat ford Racing Club’s meeting, in com pany with the Club’s president, M A. W. Budge, yesterday visited th Stratford racecourse, and expressei themselves as exceedingly please with the excellent arrangement, which the Club has mad© for its nev totalisator house. A visitor, who had toured the road, to the east of Stratford, expressed tin surprise at th© spread of dandelioni and daisies on the dairy farms. 1 was particularly noticeable that while some farms were clean and fret from weeds, others adjoining were the colour of an autumn sunset, being smothered with buttercups, dan deiions, daisies, and the rest of that family of robbers. Professor Perkin, addressing the Royal Society of Arts at Lonaon lasi week, said that synthetic rubber, wueu made of starch' and sawdust, would cost only Is a pound. At present it was neither possible nor probable that the rubber industry would suiter tne fate ot other industries wmen had been killed by synthetic products. A Uerman lirm were abetting £1,000,U00 lor research in connection witn synthetic rubber. in opening a church relief and labour uepot at Bnxton, Mrs Asqmcn said: “'mere is only one way in wmen tne problem of unemployment will be solved, and tnat is by love. There is no otner way of serving God than by serving our poor fellow-creatures.' -tv. labourer among the audience remarked tnat he met witn no sympatuy from tne rich. Mrs Asquitn repaed: A think tne poor are very sympathetic to the poor, and help one another more than tne inch help the poor. One settler in the Lower \ alley of Wairarapa nas erected ,a stop oank round his property, and, during tne winter, hood gates through this oank will be closed, and the water pumped qif tne land over tne bank, m vie summer tne hood gates will be open, and tne drainage will go in tne usual manner. The pumping plant will probably consist of a lb or 21) horsepower oenzine engine and a rotary pump capable of delivering bOOU gallons a minute. y Among the many disappointed passengers who were left benind on the I'neresa Ward’s hrst trip to Stewart island on Wednesday (says the Southland Times.) was a clergyrhan wnose cloth did not manage to secure him a place on board. He pleaded earnestly that he had to take two services over to the Island, but the officials proved obdurate, and the reverend gentleman had perforce to remain on tne wharf watching the departing vessel, and meditate on the vagaries q\ fate.

Moving pictures are probably the most popular form of indoor amusement at the present time. Tne Jb'oxton Borougn Council Seized tne opportunity by the forelock and are running a picture show in their own Town Hall. In the first year the municipality mad© a prorit of £6UU. Tnese profats can be oevoted towards the amelioration of rates. Tnere is something in this that should make other municipalities put on their thinking caps. I

A gentleman of an enquiring turn of mind worked his way behind the counter in an Eltham tradesman s shop on Friday night, arid was caught • fumb'Hhg ) mvith ;| the till. The pro-;' prietor happened to return from a oack room to the shop at the psychological moment. in response to an enquiry as to what he was doing, the visitor said he was “looking for lus mate.’ The ArguS, reporting on the incident, says the fellow was seized, by the soruff of the neck, lovingly and firmly conducted to the door and a number boot travelling at the rate of 60 miles an hour expedited his speed in the search for his mate! I A plebiscite has been taken in Paris to find out the attributes of the ideal woman. A young girl won first prize with the following definition: “She must be neither a blue stocking nor a housekeeping fanatic. She should not be too intelligent. She should read Neitsche, but not talk about it; she should be able to play a Schumann melody without six months’ study, and she should be able to make cushions for a bazaar, and, if necessary,' dam socks.”

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children does so much splendid work that a small-child story at its expense , can do no harm. An afternoon drawing-room meeting was being held at a country house near London ,to form a local branch of the S.P.C.C. The little daughter, aged four, asked to be allowed to be present, but was told that it would not amuse her, and she had better remain in the nursery. However, she persisted, and at last was told ,she might come if she remained very quiet. The opening proceedings did not interest her, but at last, getting bored, she turned to her neighbour and said, 1 “This is dull. When is the cruelty going to begin?” ! In an article on Mr Andrew Carnegie, of whom he presents a long character study, the editor of the Daily Mews, Mr A. G. Gardiner, writes: “Having failed to get rid of bis fortune by building 1500 libraries, 6000 church organs, palace and peace institutions, and by founding Scotch university schemes and hero funds, 1 why does he .not try another method ? Why does he not spend the rest of his days and resources warring ag-’ ainst the twelve-hour day and the seven-day week of the Steel Trust,! which is the most colossal monument to Mammon that modern industry has; conceived? Its capital is 1500 mil-i lion dollars, half of which is water, j and upon that water vast dividends| are paid out of the excessive hours and the under-payment of thousands of unhappy serfs. That cannot be a pleasant thought to Mr Carnegie as he wakes to the sound of the bagpipes at Skibo Castle. It was he who broke the union that gave these serfs at least fighting chance.”

A new experience befel Riverton on Tuesday evening in the shape of a bread famine (says the “Southland Times”). It seems that the local demand, in view of the holidays, had been very large, and when to this was added the demand from some hundreds j of holiday trippers, the supply simply gave out. Late comers paraded, the streets in the evening, visiting all! the likely shops in the hope of pick-1 ing up some of the “staff of hfe.”| However, bakers, confectioners, arid j grocers were out of that commodity, i and substitutes for bread, in the shape j of biscuits, buns, and cakes, had toj be purchased. Bread is a very, prosaic and not a very honoured con-; stituent in the daily meal, and one! only realises how much it is appre-| ciated when it can’t be bought, and ( an indication is made to fill its place ( with some other foodstuff. There is no really satisfactory substitute for the good homely loaf aftep ad.

s The Stratford drapers, stationers, be etc., are observing to-day as a Batur- , day and will keep open until 9.30 rJ P-m----x-i “I’m glad to get'back to the ‘green t-j of Stratford,” said a local professional i- 1 man yesterday, who had made Auckr land the scene of his Christmas holin' day. He didn’t mean to cast any dj aspersions on the business sagacity of d local citizens, but just that Stratford s was looking cool and refreshing after ,v 1 the dusty brown of the northern city. | The building permits for the nine I s months issued by the Stratford Bors ough Council total £9300. A gratis fying feature of the figures is that t' the liouses were not built for speculai, 1 five purposes, but in almost every e case were erected by the builders for immediate occupation by the owners, -j A local draper informed a “Strat--j ford Evening Post” reporter that he t bid not think the local Christmas trade this year had been any larger 3 than that of last year, and stated that t his opinion hqd been confirmed by , his fellow tradesmen. Competition, j on account of new blood, was, of 1 course, keener, but, allowing for this, - the present season was by no means I phenomenal for business done. Other i trades, with some exceptions, report ; on similar lines. Silk is not the best material for ■ bathing costumes, especially if it has been kept for any length of time. This ■ fact was discovered too late by a lady i well known in society, who bears the I name of one of England’s most famous s artists. Shortly after she had taken i her morning plunge at a fashionable j* Continental watering-place, she had the horror of seeing her entire new I I costume of crimson hue come away 1 in ribbons, and she soon fund herself 1 in a state than can be better imaginji ed than described. Her distress was accentuated by the fact that the I French boulevardiers insisted on tak--1 ing the keenest interest in the methods which had to be resorted to to get her out of the water. ' Professor Bergoine, originator of ' the theory that the human body can be 1 nourished by means of electrical cur- ' rents (says a message in the Sydney , Sun), has communicated to the Acadamy of Science the remarkable results of some experiments that he 1 recently carried out. The case described by the professor is that of a I patient who had become a physical ! wreck, and was unable to assimilate i his food. This man, whose weight when he was taken in hand was 1071 b, was subject to a series of 40-minute applications of a high-frequency currency, with the result that he continued to put on flesh nntil now he weighed over 1381 b. He has regained his ,normal strength, although he eats much less than he did before the electrical treatment was entered upon. Professor Bergoine declares that the day is not far distant when it will be possible to cure completely all troubles arising I from malnutrition.

It may interest some of our readers who have not followed the loan proposals very closely to know that so far a £40',000 loan for the Borough is mooted. Of this sum streets will absorb £20,000, drainage £12,000, water extensions £2OOO, and the Victoria Bridge £6OOO. The figures are only approximate, as some of the proposals have not yet been actually decided upon. It is in the total, of £40,000 that there may be found some of the reasons for His Worship’s action in

giving ,notice to move at the next meeting of the Council that these proposals be placed before the ratepayers in separate issues. Mr Kirkwood '.recognises'»that < SB4ofo6o‘ is a sum so large that many of. the ratepayers will look askance at it, find signify their disapproval of so ambitious a loan, by recording their votes against it. Rather than let the whole scheme, over which so much labour, and not a little money, has been expended, “go by the board,” Mr Kirkwood is prepared to let each proposal stand on its own merits. The Mayor’s proposal will almost certainly evoke strong opposition by a section of the Council, who hold that His Worship’s attitude is parochial, in, that it will encourage a state of what amounts to practically* a civil war between the so-called “north” and “south.” The position is certainly full of interest.

Ladies, be sure your men friends smoke Regent / Cigarettes. Thus they will be able to secure splendid free gifts for yen.