LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 17, 18 January 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A list of 994 registered dentists is published in the last Gazette. The number is equal to a dentist to even 120 of the population.

A rather unique record has beer established at Gore in one of the boarding-houses which will be hare to beat. During the past eight yean no less than 22 young ladies employed at the Club Hotel have left there employ to be married.

The two road bridges to be put up across the Tangarakau Gorge will link the chain of vehicular road between Stratford and all parts of the King Country, also Auckland Province. This will enable Taranaki mails to reach Ohura two days quicker than at present, and will create a now and valuable route, for tourists by motor cars.

A number of Parliamentarians are about to pay a visit to Central Citato, The following is the published list of those who intend making the tour; Messrs R. F. Bollard, J. H. Bradney, J. S. Dickson, J. H. Eseott, D. H. Guthrie, A. Harris, J. B. Hine, F. W. Lang, F. Mander, H. J. Okey, T. AY. Rhodes, G. R. Sykes, C. A. AVilkinson, 0. K. Wilson, J. A. Young, and R. Scott.

The famous Tangarakau Gorge is attracting visitors from all parts. The AVhanga correspondent of tlie Herald says that a party of Hawera tourists have been camped there, for the last few days and several AVhanga picnickers have paid the gorge an enjoyable visit. Very few New Zealanders have an idea as to the most magnificent scenery which can be viewed in the Tangarakau.

The Daily Mail recently offered a prize of £IOOO for a set of twelve photographic prints, which most successfully depicted a leisurable holiday. Naturally, thousands of entries were received from all parts of the globe, and the result, recently received, shows that the prize was won by Mr Douglas Brown, of Putney-hill. London, who used a postcard kodae in the making of his pictures. The second prize of £IOO was divided by j two ladies, one of whom also used a postcard kodae, while the third prize was also divided, one of the contestants again using a camera of kodae make. The competition created great interest amongst photographers, as the prize money is undoubtedly the largest amount ever given for the purposes of competition of this kind.

A game of football between girls’ teams at Chicago was stopped by the police, and when the spectators demanded their money back it was found that the promoter iiad decamped with the “gate.”

“Attired in a costume of navy blue cloth coat and skirt, relieved with white, and with a toque to match, the bride and bridegroom left for Durban on their honeymoon,” says a South African paper in describing a local wedding.

Government tax on the receipts of the Auckland Pacing Club’s summer meeting reached the goodly, total of £I6BO. This, added to the £1205 10s received from the Auckland Trotting Club, means that Auckland’s Christmas racing carnival week yielded £5885 10« to the revenue of the dominion.

It is understood, on good authority, says the Marlborough Express, that an interesting action will be tried in the Supreme Court at Blenheim next month, in which two prominent members of the local Reform Party will bo proceeded against for a large sum of money in connection with the late election petition case.

At Hawera on Thursday afternoon ear-piercing yells drew attention to the pitiful plight of a. man engaged in the erection of a building in Princess street. He was handling an iron bar for concrete reinforcement, and allowing it to rest on a live electric wire, his hands were terribly burnt and he received a severe shock.

From the examination results for the Junior University and Senior National Scholarships, as forwarded by the United Press Association, the only Taranaki pupil, and further the only District High School student in the dominion, to gain a place, is Master L. C. Mail, of the Stratford District High School, who came fifteenth on the list, obtaining 3341 marks. This is indeed creditable to all concerned.

Tickets are selling excellently for the Burns Supper, to be held in the Town Hall, Stratford, on Friday, January 24th. The programme will be a good one, both as regards addresses and musical items. In the former department, Mr E. C. Bruce, ex-M.P., a noted Scotch orator, will propose the “Immortal Memory,” and in the musical section the best of local talent will be heard.

The scarcity of meat in Germany has led to several shipments of frozen carcases from Australia to that country. Room for 100 carcases on the Oberhausen, which sails from Sydney at the beginning of February for Hamburg, has been offered to an Auckland firm, but the offer is likely to be declined, owing to the necessary transshipment and the consequent risk of defrosting at this time of the year.

The committee of the Presbyterian Church at (ts last meeting unanimously decided to sell the old manse to Mr Wake, and to buy his home as a residence for their minister. A meeting of the congregation is to be held on Monday evening to deal with the matter. The Rev. J. Pattison is earnestly appealing, to the Presbyterians of the town and district to rally round the church of their fathers. Ho hopes to see the Presbyterian Church take its place as one' of the foremost churches in Stratford, as a numerical, social, and spiritual force.

hor the Australian Nation’s Portrait Gallery eighteen portraits in oil of the leaders in the Federation movement are to be-painted, and the terms and conditions for the work have now been approved. The portraits are to be painted in the following order: The late Sir Henry Parkes, Sir Edmund Barton, the late Mr C. C Kingston, the Chief Justice (Sir Samuel Griffith), Lord Dudley, Lord Denman, Mr Deakin, Mr J. C. Watson, Sir George Reid, Mr Fisher, Sir Albert Gould, Senator Turley, Dr C. Carty Salmon, Mr C. McDonald, the late Marquis of Linlithgow, the late Lord Northcote, the late Sir Richard Baker j and the kite Sir Frederick Holder.

The Stratford Boy Scouts returned to Stratford this morning looking all the better for their “trek” into the back blocks, and expressing themselves as having had a “ripping” time. The troop got as far as the Tangarakau Gorge, and then returned to Whangamomona. Regarding a paragraph which appeared in the Taranaki Herald, and stating that the boys were making their way towards the Waitaanga Falls, the Scoutmaster stated that they had no real intention of making such a big journey, the difficulties of which they were fully cognisant. The cart, ' with which the Scouts set out, proved a very excellent arrangement so long as the roads were good, but with the rough going the cart had to be dismantled.

According to a correspondent’s message, Mr G. V. Pearce, M.P., states that a measure will come before Parliament next session providing for the cutting down of the number of counties in the North Island by half. In making this statement at a meeting of the Patea County Council, lie largely attributed the multiplicity of small counties to the establishment of small country newspapers. There were getting too many of such papers in the country, and he instanced Taranaki as a bad example of what followed that state of affairs. The break-ing-up of the old Hawera county intp smaller administrative areas was, in his opinion ,the direct result of the founding of small papers. The discussion oiq the subject was the outcome of a new Wayerley paper’s application for a share of the Council’s advertising, which the majority of members evidently endorsed, ' but which Mr Pearce’s view turned down.

The Okau dairy factory, which is a new concern and commenced operations a month late in the season, has so far made 15 tons of butter. This factory is run wholly on the home separator system and is the first of its kind in the Taranaki district (says a correspondent of the News). Cream is being delivered some twelve one way and six another. What a" boon this system of butter-making is to the backblock settler! If he had to depend on the running of a factory on the creamery system it would be impossible for him to get along. The butter is carted to AVaitara, some 32 miles by road, and under various drawbacks. The grade received—from 91 to 93) —is, the correspondent thinks, very satisfactory, and no doubt this system of butter-making under efficient management has come to stay, and in a few years lie predicts home separation and cheese. Very few creameries are being built, the home separators taking their place.