LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 61, 14 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Makahu fanners’ picnic and sports will he held on Thursday, April 17th, on Mr J. Manning’s property A dance will he held in the evening.

The “Our Miss Gibbs” theatrical company reluctantly passed Stratford on their tour northwards. They were the victims of circumstances, as a travelling picture show had ‘pencilled' a date for the local Town Hall, hui did not “face the barrier,” as the sporting writer says. It was the onb date upon which Miss Gibbs could play here, and what was said when the breezy agent heard of the nonappearance of the picture show is not likely to bo recorded.

Settlers in the backblocks appreciate the value of education far more than do the residents of the towns, where good schools are plentiful, and where the youngsters toddle off to lessons over half a mile or so of level pavements. Near the farthermost corner of the Stratford County, in a district where houses are «catvered over bush country, and where a rainfall of a hundred or more inches plays havoc with indifferent roads, lies the Acland Road school. There are twentythree scholars on the roll, all young children, yet six of them did not miss a single day’s school during the year. Is there a city school which can show such a fine record?

The Inglewood correspondent of the Taranaki Herald writes:—“Further particulars of interest concerning the old gentleman from Inglewood who reached the toil of the mountain on Sunday last have come to light. It appears that some eight years ago or thereabouts he had a very bad leg. so bad in fact that the doctors (two in consultation) decided that it must come off, or the patient would die. The patient refused point blank to submit to the operation, and said that he would rather die than have it off, and that he would “die whole” at any rate. Now at the age of 82 he can get to the top of Mount Egmont, so that he was somewhere near right in his decision.”.

A remarkable romance in which the usual order of tilings was strangely reversed is reported from Russia. A pretty Caucasian girl of 1G fell madly in love with a handsome hoy at Sari, a village in the government of Kutais. Beautiful and otherwise charming as his fair admirer was, however, the youth remained unresponsive to her advances. He didn’t want her, and wouldn’t have her; but she vowed that she would have him. The girl therefore got together a number of young tribesmen, and with their aid on a recent night she carried off the object of her affection to the neighbouring hills, where the captive was threatened with instant death unless he took the girl for his wife. A clergyman was forcibly abducted, and was compelled to marry the young couple, the boy’s kinsmen, who in the meantime had been warned of the plot, arriving ton late to prevent the ceremony. A stormy scene followed, but finally a reconciliation was effected between the bride and bridegroom themselves, and their fauiilios.

There were no deaths, marriages, or baptisms last year in the village of Hardwick, England. A special meeting of the Stratford Borough Council will be held on Monday next, at 8 p.m., to consider the rating question.

Lieutenant-Colonel Malone, O.C. XI Regiment Taranaki Rifles, will inspect H Company to-night at the school gymnasium hall. G. A. Hudson, for riding a bicycle on the footpath in Page Street, was, at the Stratford Court this morning, fined 10s and 7s court costs. Mr W. G. Kenrick, S.M. was on the bench. The monthly meeting of the Stratford County Council will he held at the County office, Stratford, on Wednesday next, at 11 a.in. Cr Marfell will move according to notice of motion —“That £SO be transferred from the East Riding Special Fund Account to the Ahuroa Hoad West Account.”

A Press Association message says: At Hokitika Albert Critchell, aged 74, an old pioneer miner, was burned to death at two o’clock this morning through his hut at Rimu catching fire. His arms and legs were burned off when the body was found.

A magnificent find of golden stone is reported to have been made in the Pride of Reefton mine in a reef two feet six inches wide showing good gold. A Press Association message states that the mine is a continuation of the Gladstone and Dillon tunnels abandoned some years ago. Gold runs in streaks through the stone.

In less than six minutes and without disturbing train schedules on the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, a new iron bridge has been placed in position over the Pennsylvania Canal at Yardlcy, Pa. At a given signal the old bridge was removed by steam hoists and the new structure was dropped into place by the same hoists and levelled up. The engineers conducting the job had the operation timed so that it was conducted like clock-work, says the Philapelphia Record. The change was made just lifter the 7.10 a.m. train had passed, and was completed some time before the next train was due.

Applications for the position of General Manager of the Now .Zealand Railways are now being considered by the High Commissioner in London. The appointment will be made by the Cabinet. The whole matter has been entrusted to the High Commissioner, who was given a free hand in the matter of advertising for applications. The Minister for Railways (the Hon. W. H. Herrieg) stated to a New Zealand Herald representative on Monday that he did not know how widely the position had been advertised. All the applications had been received by the High Commissioner, who would make a provisional selection. When his report was received the Cabinet would make the final appointment. The new general manager would be announced probably within a month.

It is significant of the growing status of the auxiliary language, Esperanto, that the “Lancet,” the important medical organ, should publish in detail a report of the Special Congress of Esperanto doctors held at Cracow in August last, on the occasion of the Eighth Universal Esperanto Congress. Among the items reported is a reference to a special committee, consisting of Professor Jameson Johnston (lecturer on surgery to Dublin University), Dr. George Johnston of London, and -Dr. Rothschuh, of Aachen, being appointed at the second session to work for the inclusion of Esperanto among the official tongues at the forthcoming Seventeenth International Medical Congress in London. Papers were presented by Dr. Sos, of Vienna, on “New Methods in Dentistry”; by Dr. Dabrowicz) of Warsaw, on “Salvarsan” ; by Dr. Fischer, of Tiflis, on “Extra-Uterine Pregnancy”; and by Dr. Moser, of Switzerland, on “Atinomycosis”; and were thoroughly discussed in Esperanto by all present. All of which is further evidence—if further evidence bo needed—that Esperanto has “come to stay.”

There was an extraordinary scene in the arena of the Coliseum, which is the principal circus of Lisbon, on December 20. A challenge had been issued by Johannes Josefsen, who claimed the title of world’s champion, according to “glima,” the Danish stylo of wrestling. Josefsen, who had recently appeared in Paris, London, Berlin, and New York, offered a sum of 200,000 reis (£4O of English money) to anyone who should succeed in throwing him, or wounding him with either knife or dagger. After defeating several Portuguese and French wrestlers, he agreed to meet a Portuguese bluejacket in the service of the Minister of Marine as orderly; and the sailor, entering the ring, leaped at a single bound upon the Dane, striking him on the right hand and then on the chest, and wounding him rather badly. There was immediately a scene of great uproar, which threatened to develop into a serious riot, when the demurred to pay the money over to the bluejacket. About 200 friends of the victorious sailor jumped into the arena to uphold his claim, demanding payment, and in some instances producing revolvers. Their threatening attitude terrified the spectators, and the officer in charge of the police advised the manager to pay the money pointing out that the smallness of the force under Ids command could do nothing in the event of a tumult, and that there was danger of the circus being wrecked. Eventually the director tossed a bundle of hank notes into the ring, and the triumphant tar was borne out on the shoulders of his friends, waving the money in the air as ho went,