LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 18, 20 January 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At the next Eucharist Congress, to be held at Malta, a proposal to federate all the Catholic societies throughout the world is to be discussed.

William Miller, an ojd man of 70, has been granted a divorce at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the ground that his wife, who is two years his senior, had taken his false teeth and converted them to her own use.

A bookkeeper at Bingen, Germany, whose sweetheart’s parents forbade him to visit her, secretly entered the house by the chimney. He became wedged half-way down the flue, and was suffocated before he could bo extricated.

An Eketahuna resident did about 1200 miles of a motor' cycle tour during the holidays. He states that the only times he had to get off Ins machine while on the road was to ford two unbridged rivers. This may be regarded as rather a good performance. ,

■ A movement is being cordially taken up by the Victorian State Labour Party for subscribing tho expenses for a trip round the world for its leader, Mr Prendergast. It is hoped to raise £SUO. Mr Prendergast, who leaves in February, will visit Japan, America, and Europe.

Quite a creditable performance has been put up by a firm of Balclutha butchers—Messrs Paterson Bros.— who have shown their horses and turnouts at six summer shows, viz. ; Taieri, Milton, Balclutha, Owaka, Waitahuna, and Lawrence, gaining 23 first and two champion awards, 13 seconds, three thirds, and netting £32 in prize money.

Speaking at a meeting of the Te Karaka (Poverty Bay) Racing Club, one of the stewards, in referring to the loss of the club’s totalisator permit, said that to many people the only attraction of a race meeting was 1 the excitement attached to investing a few shillings on the machine. Many racegoers, indeed, never even saw the ( horses run. ’

Jack Johnson’s wife has been prevented from going into cafes frequented only by whites. On one occasion 'the" was'"ordered out with Johnson’s manager (a white), who was accompanying her. The manager of the restaurant said sneenngly to Mrs Johnson: “A few more incidents like this will make you understand why Johnson’s other wife committed suicide.”

The London Philharmonic Society presented the Beethoven gold medal to Mr Harold Bauer, the well known pianist, in the last week in November ; and it was then announced that Madame Tetrazzini would be the next recipient. The only living pianists who have received this medal, in addition to Harold Bauer, are Paderewski, Madame Arabella Goddard, and Emil Sauer.

Constable McLeod, while making his customary inspection of shop frontages about midnight on Saturday (says the Timaru Herald) found two show cases of goods hanging outside the entrance to the premises of one shopkeeper. One case contained about 15s worth of silver sample cutlery, and about £2O worth of silver watches. The cases were taken to the watchhouse, where they made quite a good display.

An unusual court sentence was meted out to a Roseberg (Ore.) drunkard a few days ago. The man Thomas McCarthy, though less than 30 years of age, had been drunk on an average of five days every month for ten years. The Judge sentenced him to ride on the sprinkler waggon of the street cleaning department for five days. McCarthy pleaded tearfully to be permitted *to serve his time in gaol, but the Magistrate was inexorable, and the prisoner took his initial journey through the streets on the sprinkler to the accompaniment of jests from the onlookers.

During an inquest at Sunderland (England) touching the death of Robert Brown, an engineer, who was killed while walking along the railway, a touching example of canine fidelity was supplied by one of the witnesses. Brown had a fox terrier dog with him when the accident occurred, and next morning, when the man’s body was found, the dog was sitting on it, whining and trembling. At first the animal snapped at those who approached, but ultimately became calmer, and some men attempted to remove it. The dog, however, refused to leave the body, and was allowed to remain on it while his dead master was carried to the mortuary.

Remarking on the industrial unrest the Auckland Star says: It is not the trade union that this country and its people have to fear, ,hut the agitator, who, with nothing to lose, and in some cases a great deal to gain by encouraging industrial warfare, promulgates hjs incendiary and anarchist doctrines among the wageearners, and sometimes induces them temporarily to follow him blindfold, but delusions of this sort happily do not last long, and we trust that this unfortunate episode of the ferry trouble—more especially in view of the amount of harm it has caused and the public indignation that it has aroused —may help tbc workers to understand that thev owe certain responsibilities to the whole community, and that thev are not acting in their own best interests when they put themselves hopelessly in the wrong, and by needlessly injuring everybody around them convert themselves for the time being into public enemies.

Wednesday afternoon will be observed as the weekly half-holiday throughout the Egmonb County.

The Saturday half-holiday movement by organised Labour in Wellington promises to be heartily taken up this year.

At the Invercargill wool sales the top price of the sale was 13i{d, which was paid by Messrs Ross and Glendinning for a choice lot of Southland wool. i

A Mastertpn family which partook

of brawn on Saturday evening experi- , enced symptoms of ptomaine poison-; in;i Emetics were administered, and LhP.results were not serious.

Nightshirts have been banned in 'the United States Navy, and all the ' seamen are in future to wear pyjamas of plain white material, with no trimmings.

The estates of the 95 deceased millionaires reported in the Daily Mail Year Book during the 13 years 1900-J 1912 had an aggregate value of £179,841,411. Mrs Narni Shimooka, certified to be 113 years old, walked GOO miles from! her ‘native village of Yamaguchi to 1 Tokio in order to render homage to the new Emperor.

The Pope has taken steps to sup-' press an Italian newspaper published in Berlin, on the ground of its anti- ( German tone, which threatened seriously to disturb the religious peace of Germany. i

Mrs Alex. Boss, of Johannesburg, punished a man for pestering her with unwelcome attentions by pouring the contents of a gallon jar of treacle over him, and then, with the assistance of her husband, rolling him in flour.

The natives retain many of their old-time superstitions. Since the drowning fatality at Aohonga they have tabooed the whole of the coast as far down as Castlepoint, and Ashing will not be engaged in for at least two years.

A Dannevirke legal firm is reported to have received the following letter | from an anxious native: “Having the greatest opportunity of writing to voU. Why I am writing to you to ask if my land is settled or not. Let me know at once as soon as possible. For 1 am longing to hear what is going to be happened.”

Writing to a friend in Palmerston, an English lady states that the working men in England will not train for soldiers, and nothing will stir them to do their duty. In fact, England is not worth calling England in these day®. The Balkan war had changed the world; the armistice' might quieten, but the Turks would not be a dead nation yet awhile.

A Staffordshire inventor is building a house of sheets of porcelain, panelled and welded on a steel framework. The walls, being non-porous, would not retain dirt or disease germs. No matter how careless or dirty the previous tenant had been, a bucketful of water and some soap would make it as sweet and clean as a polished dinner-plate.

The editor of a Belgium newspaper, who has just returned from a journey overland from Cairo to Johannesburg, asserts that he has discovered a new race of giants in Central Africa. The men, he says, were mostly over 6ft. in height, with clean-cut. features of European type, while the women are of average stature, of great facial beauty, and are also European in appearance. The males of the tribe disdain manual labour, but they are splendid fighters. They make thenliving by means of cattle breeding.

It is a regrettable fact that while many farmers are disposed to make a large outlay to secure heifers of a good milking ©train, very few are inclined to pay a price for a purebred bull. At the Jersey Breeders’ meeting in Stratford on Saturday afternoon, Mr D. Watkin, of Huiroa, gave it as his opinion that a tax of £1 should be levied upon the vendor of every grade bull sold, and each time the animal is sold; the funds so raised to be paid over to the agricultural association in whose district the vendor resides, for the encouragement of breeding pedigree animals.

On the last voyage of the steamer Turakina from London prior to arriving at Capetown, heavy weather was encountered, and two seamen— Suttles and Burridge—were caught b a sea and washed with considerable force against the bulwarks. Both were badly injured. Suttles received the worse injuries, and Dr. Bruist had to perform an operation on the brain. On arrival at Capetown both , men were placed in hospital there, and when the steamer left Suttles’ condition vfas critical.

According to the Melbourne Argus, the gold yield in the Australian States ' and New Zealand has fallen off during the year, and the grand total is only 2,634,064 fine ounces, against 2,911,860 fine ounces for 1911, or a decrease, of 277,796 ounces. Victoria shows a decrease of. 23,4100 z., New South Wales a decrease of 15,8260 z., (Queensland a decrease of 39J740z., West Australia a decrease of 88,2170 z., and New Zealand a decrease of 110,887 oz. The total value for 1912 may be reckoned at nearly £11,195,000, including New Zealand, against about £12,375,000 for 1911, and about £13,457,000 for 1910.

Referring to Mr G. V. Pearce’s recent outbreak against the multiplicity of newspapers and his inference that the breaking-up of the Hawera County was a direct result of the founding of small newspapers, the Eltham Argus says: “As for the small country press, surely they have a right to live and breathe, even while they refuse to be bought up by squatters’ money. They certainly make for the freedom of speech, and pro hably ought, on that account, to be suppressed. The time may come when every small country district will be coerced by arrogant Reform into contenting itself with the squatters’ organ. But that time is probably not yet.”

ranchise Bill has been introduced in the Hungarian Parliament, the result of which will be to increase the numbers of electors by 80,000. The Bill provides that the franchise shall be granted to men who have obtained secondary school certificates on their reaching the age of 24. Men who have not the certificate will be given the right to vote at the age of 30. Workmen in industrial employment who apply for the franchise will have to show that they have been in permanent employment for two years, while agricultural workmen will have to show that they have been permanently employed for five years. Polling will be by secret ballot in the cities, but public in the country.

The Stratford Borough Council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday evening next, not this (Monday) evening.

The total number of cattle in the dominion this year is returned as 2,020,171 ; of this number 633,733 are dairy cows.

A man with a gold plate in his bead, steel girders between bis ribs, steel elbows, and a steel bar supporting bis spine—fixed after he fell 200 feet into the river at Quebec —is looking for work in Canada. There are fortytwo pounds of metal in his body.

King Victor Emmanuel of Italy lias lately had bis name enrolled in the electoral district of Rome. The Press is. vigorously disputing the 1 right of Royalty to vote at elections, and the manager of one newspaper has gone so far as to lodge a petition against the inclusion of the King’s name in the electoral roll.

Settlement in the Kawhia and Raglan districts is .proceeding at a satisfactory *rate. Large areas of native land, which had been locked up for years, are now being opened up, and a considerable amount of capital is being expended in bringing them into a state of cultivation.

On the outward passage to the Chatham Islands, the Petone, on Sunday, the sth instant, picked up a carrier pigeon. The bird, which was quite exhausted, fell on the after hatch when the ship was 250 miles off shore. The cook looked after the pigeon, which is still on board, now quite recovered. The ring on its leg is marked N.P. 1907-133.

The Wairau bridge near Benwicktown is an imposing structure (says the Marlborough Express). Its length is 2225 feet—nearer half than a third of a mile; and it contains three-quar-ters of a million feet of timber. An illustration 'of the benefit that the bridge will confer on the road traffic was afforded last week, when, two timber waggons were stuck in the river for several hours.

During the last few months a number of counterfeit silver .coins have been passed into circulation in Sydney. The Federal Government has decided to offer a reward of £IOO fdi the apprehension of the coiners and the discovery of the plant. The State authorities will be asked to ex tend a full pardon to any accomplice who will give the desired information. The offer will remain open for three months.

A Stratford farmer whose broad acres adjoin the Patea river noticed the other evening several bright; lights in the vicinity of the stream. Cautions investigation revealed the fact that the lights came from acetylene lamps, and that several trout poachers were at work with gelignite. The farmer, who is a trqe “sport,” contented himself with cautioning the poachers, the names of whom, if revealed, would create somewhat of a sensation in the environs of Stratford.

As promised to the shareholders of the Stratford Co-operative Dairy Co. at the last annual meeting, they will have an opportunity, probably in March next, of discussing the butter v. cheese question. The manufacture of casein will considerably affect the position, and local dairymen are looking forward with interest to tin result; of .the big meeting at Waitara, when the matter of co-operative manufacture of the new by-product i will be discussed.

A story of a bride who w r as “waiting at the church” for a bridegroom woo did not appear was told during the hearing of a case in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch on Wednesday (says the Press). Arrangement© had been made for the wedding, which wa© to take place at a church not far from Christchurch, and at the hour fixed for the ceremony the bride was there.and the church was filled with many friends, but there was no appearance of the bridegroom. After some delay, the bridegroom, following the example of the bridegroom in a popular pantomime song, sent along a note to say that ht could not attend the ceremony that day. He left the district, and al though he again corresponded with the young lady, matters have not been advanced, sufficiently to bring the parties to the church.

Four little girls borrowed a horse and trap on Saturday evening and went for a drive. Turning into Broadway by means of the County Hotel right-of-way, they failed to negotiate the narrow lane, and one of the axles was soon ripping up corrugated iron, the noise alarming the horse, which endeavoured to bolt. The scene wap one of the utmost confusion. The girls jumped from the trap, and one at least had a narrow escape from death. Attracted by the noise, Sergeant McNeely and Constable Mcowan rushed to the rescue. The latter got there first, and very pluckily ran down the lane to meet the horse, which, fortunately, though plunging madly, had not managed to get free. It was an anxious time, as had it done so, the constable would have had to stop the horse or be run over, the width of the lane giving no room to pass. As it was, the police had a difficult task getting the horse and trap clear.

“Directly your port "is ready and you find us the cargo, we will find the boats,” said Mr J. McMillan, deputy manager of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, to a deputation ol a number of the leading business men of New Plymouth, who waited upon him at the Harbour Board’s office on Friday night. In the course of the discussion Mr McMillan remarked: “You have a big district, and as far as I can see and learn you have the makings of a port.” The companies were anxious to cater for the trade, but he would point out that New Zealand trade was difficult to cater for. It was a small country with a tremendous lot of ports, and only a little over the million population. It had five times as many port® as Australia had. From the Bluff to Wellington the East Coast was full of ports, and they all thought that their port was the only port in the world. Of course all these towns had their own axe to grind, and the shipping companies “suffer all the time. (Laughter.) You don’t care what we suffer so long as you people are happy and comfortable,” he jocularly added.