LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 41, 17 February 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

February 17—English celebration of the 400th anniversary of Caxton’s ;invention of printing, 1877.

On dit that an old Kaikorai (Dunedin) footballer has drawn the first prize £5000) in “Tatt.’s” consultation on the Launceston Cup.

The report of the annual meeting of the Stratford A. and P. Association will be found on the third page. “The Man She Loved,” a divorce Court affair, appears on page 2.

Hospital Saturday in Wellington eventuated in fine weather. Young ladies were extremely busy, and called ed between them the sum oi £361.—P.A. wire.

The district electors’ list of the Borough of Stratford is now ready for inspection, and may be inspected at the Town Clerk’s office during office hours until February 22nd.

The Opunake Times says: The natives are playing an important part in the industrial scenes on this coast. Nearly all the drivers of teams are natives and a fair proportion of them are road makers, hay makers, and milkers.

There was a stir amongst the tin cans on Tuesday evening (says the Opunake Times). The bing-bang society welcomed home two newly-mar-ried Chinamen. The ladies are new arrivals from the Flowery Land. The occasion was celebrated in European stvle.

The necessary special notifications in connection with the Stratford i Borough Council’s loan proposals are published in another column of this issue. They include a special loan of £20,000 for street improvements; a special loan of £12,000 for drainage extension and improvement; a special bridge loan of £0000; and a waterworks extension and improvement special loan of £4OOO.

A Napier wire, runs; The whole telephone service in the district was thrown out of action this morning, through the bursting of a hydrant flooding the exchange and short-cir-cuiting the wires. The trouble is not likely to be remedied till late this afternoon, and business people are suffering considerable inconvenience.

Rumour has it that the Department are not proceeding with 1 the proposed alterations to the Stratford Post Office, though the private boxes will be increased in number. The confirmation of the rumour is not likely to raise consternation locally. The Mayor (Mr W. P. Kirkwood) stated this morning that he felt that nothing but a new building would meet Stratford’s requirements, and this is the general feeling of Stratford citizens. The way would now seem clear for the Chamber of Commerce and the - Borough Council to go straight out for a new Post Office, and the Premier will not be allowed to pass through the district without Stratford’s needs in this respect being put under his notice.

Father W. J. Dalton, of the Church of the Annunciation, in Kansas City (U.S.A.), in view of the number ot single young people in his flock, last December instituted a marriage bureau, which, according to a report just issued, has been a remarkable success. “Out of 17,000 letters received from all parts of the globe, 400 marriages have been accomplished,” says the report. “Letters came from Jerusalem, Constantinople, Africa, and South America, and nearly every State of the Union,” the report continues. “When I receive a letter asking for a mate of certain qualification - I refer the writer to one in the same eefion of the country who will come ip to the requirements.” Nearly 85 per cent of the letters received were from women, according to Father Dalton.

As was stated in our report of the second day’s racing at New Plymouth the Lupin-Lady of the Lake filly, Lucerne, was unfortunate enough to rick her hack, through, it is supposed, stepping m a hole on the course. At first it was thought the injury was not serious, but internal c. replications arose on Saturday, which made it necessary to destroy this lino mare. Lucerne was bred by Mr A. W. Budge, and at the time of her death was leased to Dr. Paget, the lease expiring next September. Messrs E. Mason (Stratford), King (Auckland), and Neil (Hawera), veterinarians, were in attendance, but their services were unavailing. Lucerne was only four years old, and gave great promise. Her first race in open company was won on Wednesday last at New Plymouth in a manner. which stamped her as a thorouglily high-class performer, and the loss is therefore a heavy one to all concerned. The careful mother’s purest winter safeguard—looking’? Linseed Emulsion. x During the holidays the children are bright and happy and no better time could be chosen for having them photographed. At the McAllister studio special attention and extra troubh are taken to secure pleasing pictures and faithful portraits of the little ones l'he charges compare favourably with any in the Dominion, and you are in vited to compare the results with those obtained elsewhere. No effort will be spared to add you to our long list of satisfied customers. Your patrnnnro Ifi solicit'd for the McAlhste’ Studia Stratford. s

Grief over the mysterious death of a big turkey belonging to Thomas O’Gorman, of West Springfield, Mass., was turned to joy when an informal autopsy revealed a £4 gold piece in the bird’s grdlot. The money was divided among the O’Gorman children. The Square Deal, the official organ of the Australian Independent Workers’ Federation has a long article giviug a full and accurate history of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, It considers that employers of all kinds should get into line or become a federation so as to resist the attcmftj; to make legs and arms dominate brains.

Despite the fact that there was a. difference of £6420 between the lowest Australian and American tenders the Federal Government decided to have the engines for the trans-Aus-tralia railway built in Australia. They have just ordered from the Clyde Engineering Company, Sydney, four P class locomotives and tenders. These engines, of 4ft Bfin gauge, are intended for use in connection with the trans-Australia railway now in course of construction. All of Die engines are to be delivered within 10 months, and the first one within eight months. The contract price for the locomotives was £24,420.

Record entries have been received for the Taranaki Agricultural Society’s autumn show, which will be held on the racecourse, New Plymouth, on Wednesday and Thursday, February 26th and 27th. Up to Saturday night the entries in the live stock classes totalled 1305, representing an increase of some 260 over those of last year’s show. The largest increases are shown in the cattle and sheep sections. The Society is expecting a big batch of entries by tonight’s mail, and those who have forgotten to enter may do so up to Wednesday next.

To take articles of an explosive nature into a railway train, says the Southland Times, is an offence against the New Zealand Government Railway by-laws, but many people are ignorant of such section, or, being aware of it, do not observe it. It is a practice which is a very frequent one on tiie Southland railways, but is very hard to detect. For the carriage of explosives over the railways special arrangements are provided by the department, but there is an extra fee to be paid if the only legitimate method of transport is adopted. A Woodlands resident, named Thomas Thomson, was fined £2 and 7s costs at the Police Court for a breach of the regulations governing the conveyance of explosives. From the police story, defendant, on January 28, placed 60 plugs of gelignite, 61b of blasting powder, and two coils of fuse in a carriage of the Clinton train, intending to cenvey it to Woodlands, where he held a contract for splitting stakes. The parcel was, however, labelled “explosives,” and this gave the railway officials the clue to the offence.

There is a movement in America just now, the Telegraph says, to bar not only suggestive dances, but also vulgar songs. In pursuance of this crusade, notices have been posted in all Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. branches throughout the country prohibiting the playing and singing of songs such as “Hitchy-koo,” “Bow, Bow, Eorv,” and “Everybody’s Doing It.” Such songs, it is urged, are suggestive, Mr William Cooper, the general secretary of the organisation, interview r ed, said : “Formerly street music was derived from the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, hut nowadays it seems to come mostly from the music halls, and many of the songs are unspeakable. It is not so much the actual and literal meaning of the words sung that is objectionable as it is the connotation and the idea which is obviously implied, or that one is liable to anticipate, which constitutes the peculiarly vicious effect of these songs. Popular music to-day is at its lowost ebb, but even if it cannot show brains it ought at least to show decency, and we shall welcome any movement designed to this end.” •

The official programme for H.M.S New r Zealand’s tour provides for her calling on the voyage out at St. Vincent, Ascension, St. Helena, and Simon’s Bay, and then leave for Hobart. The New Zealand visit will probably commence at Auckland, whence the battleship will proceed round the North Cape and down the West Coast of the North Island, calling at New Plymouth, Hawera, Patea, Wanganui, and any other place where there is a convenient roadstead and some amount of population. She will look in at Nelson, and then go down the West Coast, showing off Westport, Greymouth, and Hokitika, and continfiing, probably, right round Puysegur Point to the Bluff. It is the intention to look in at several of the West Coast sounds. Oamaru and Timaru will bo included in the ports visited on the return to Wellington by the East Coast, and the circumnavigation of the two islands will be completed before the New r Zealand leaves again for Europe. She will, in short, be shown practically wherever there iS anyone to look at her. The homeward route wall be by way of South America. The chief executive officer of the New Zealand is Commander H. E. Grace, a son of the famous cricketer.