LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 76, 7 April 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Some ingenious American suffragists have liit on the “cute” idea of buying up new laid eggs by the thousand and indelibly stamping “Votes for Women” upon them ere they are despatched to the breafast tables of the public.

The latest fish story comes from Mangaweka. It is as follows: On Sunday last a local angler caught a trout weighing between four and five pounds and on being cleaned a mouse about eight inches long, from nose to tip of tail, was found inside of the fish.

A new dance that has rapidly come into favour in America is the hand-, cuff, or lock-and-key dance. In this the young woman, small keys, were called jippjn to, remove manacles from the wrists pf their prospective partners. There, was much scurrying /about before the right locks were found. Those fortunate in the search at once waltzed off with their partners-; dmt some were unable to locate their glancipg ( companions before the orchestra had .finished ,the ( music, and ,sp had to rpiss the dance.

The hew Mayor of Wilcannia turns out to bo neither the ordinary type of man who “shouts” for all hands to celebrate a victory nor the alternative who delights in sugar and water or weak tea. When he was elevated tp thp, head of the council, says the Sydney, Daily 1 Telegraph, he stated in the ,course of a few words of thanks that .ho was a teetotaller, and therefore,, instead of providing refreshments, of a liquid nature, lie proposed procuring a ticket in Tattersall’s for each alderman and the town clerk. By this action he has raised a problem for the anti-liquor, anti-gambling party.

There is no better help for a salesman than a sustained advertising campaign. This serves to make the firm he is working for and their line of goods well known. There then need be no preliminary explaining. The salesman is already introduced and can embark right on the merits of his line and other strong selling arguments. But the salesman who has no advertising to back his up must depend entirely upon his personality and persuasiveness. He might succeed, but then think how much time he is losing in getting acquainted. A salesman has only a certain amount of time. He cannot turn night into day. Every minute, therefore, counts. This possibility of advertising should not be overlooked by wide-awake advertisers.

It is not very often that a congregation receive a lecture from the retiring minister, but it occurred at Mangaweka Anglican Church on Sunday week. The Rev. Carew-Thomas, when delivering his farewell sermon, is reported by the Settler as follows; “It would not be true if ho said be was sorry to leave Mangaweka. He was very pleased to leave, and without regrets. When ho arrived two and a half years hgo, he was met by three gentlemen, who were very kind to him, one of them showing him round the district. Those three had now left the district. He was very disappointed when he arrived to find not a church room, which had never been consecrated. The vicarage was only a five-roomed cottage, and in a bad position. There was no convenience whatever. Cattle, sheep, and horses were driven along the road every day, and the road was nothing but dust or mud. He was not speaking for himself but for the next vicar who was coming. He had to speak, his mind before he left, so that perhaps things would be made easier for his successor. The district-was very large and tiring. There was a band of women outside Mangaweka town-

ship who Inul joined together and derided not to discuss the doings of their vicar, or any other vicar in the dominion, and it was a pity that the women of Mangaweka. did not do the same instead of finding fault. He had said things during his stay here which had not been approved of by some of the women, and the consequence was they would not attend church. Tn conclusion he said, ‘Farewell, and God bless you all.’ There was r ,r '-vy large congregation present ’

The despatch of the Waliine (the new Lyttelton-Wellington ferry turbine) for New Zealand was expected to be made on April 20th. A native in a debt case at Feilding, asked how much work lie had been doing, said: “Oh, work three weeks, knock off for a month. We do not like Europeans, work all the time. You know, Maori, lie have to knock off sometime.” 1 ho Unity Congress Committee has started a Labour journal under the title of “The Unity Bulletin,” of " hich Milwaukee Mills is the editor, its motto is: “Land monopoly has decreed the destruction of organised Labour. The answer of Labour must be to utterly destroy land monopoly.” The Unity Congress Committee consists of the following persons: W. T. oung, K. Semple, T. Tregear, P, C. Webb, H. E. Holland, P. Fraser, B. S. Ross, W. E. Parry, H. Hunter, W. Belcher W. T. Mills, and P H Hickey. ‘ '

The fright caused by Halley’s Comet in America, says Miss Proctor, who is lecturing in different parts of the dominion on astronomy, would have been laughable were people not so pitiably scared. A negro made a fortune selling “Comet Pills” during the nerve-racking week that preceded the passing of the comet’s tail. He charged from one to four dollars per pill, according to the credence of his clients. Ihe pills, luckily, were negative in their action, being swallowed merely to enable those eating them to “freely breathe the noxious gases of the comet’s tail without unpleasant effects.” '

The other morning a number of young horses broke loose from a paddock off High street (says the Grey Biver Argus), and one—a two-year-old—obtained access to the premises of Mr J. Kennedy’s residence. It proceeded along a passage, but its progress was stopped through the horse becoming jammed in a doorway. A young child, who was playing, by soi®e means or other got beneath the animal, and the mother,- seeing her child’s plight, and being afraid to approach the horse for fear of causing it to trample on the little one, screamed so loud as to attract the attention of Messrs E. Ashton .and R. Moran, who happened to he passing by. The lust-named rushed in and, realising that the safety of the child depended upon immediate action, managed to extricate it from its perilous position,, fortunately none the worse for its experience, The horse was eventually ; Ipt out of flie house.... r ,

i; interesting sidelights on the. isojat- , ed .and tough life, of mkny of our country, teachers are usually forthcoming oh those occasions when teachers foregather ‘to discuss profession-' : " al matters (says the, Auckland, cotres- ' 1 : pendent of the Post). Last Friday, at a largely attended meeting of the institute, the principle of making service, .in. the, cppnti'y _a> sine qua non of 11 promotion in the service was cordially endorsed. The difficulty seemed to define what should fairly be classed as “country.” A small school on the outskirts of Auckland is hardly a country school in the opinion of a man from the foot of Ruapehu’.' One teacher said that his idea of the country was 60 miles by train, 40 miles by boat, find some nipre miles by . ( coach. There )vere teachers, at the meeting who could not get from their, schools to Auckland in less than four days. It cost one man £7 return to make a journey to town. In the outback region of tin's teacher flour costs £2l per ton, kerosene 19s a case, and bread Is 2d a loaf. Every service but the teaching service allows its employees a special allowance for such places.

The tornado or the cyclone is one of the marvels of Nature. Let the wind but move fast enough and it has the effect of a moving solid. A Yankee, who had experience, Once assured me (writes “Ariel” of The Watch Tower in the Dunedin Evening Star) that ho had seen a straight path only about a hundred yards wide cut through a town. He particularly mentioned a high building that had one end cut ofl it as clean as if a gang of men had, been widening the street. Several floors were exposed with the furniture of the rooms in place, pictures hanging, and the ornaments undisturbed. et thirty feet of the building had vanished into space. He went on to vow that he had seen straws that had been whirled at such a velocity that they had pierced through inch boards. He was a big, likelj r -looking man—so 1, believed him. I have also met an Australian—Australians are always truthful—-who was in a tornado at Nhill, in Victoria. A friend of his was knocked down by the wind, and being unable to rise, lay prone, feet to the wind. The tornado got under his coat, and after several attempts to carry him away like a kite, tore the coat away piecemeal. Then it tackled his waistboat, split it, and took it away. Then it worked the next garment out and made short work of that. He then thought that he would turn head to the enemy. Seizing a tussock he moved his feet, and as soon as the wind got a side thrust it swung him round like a weather vane. It then tackled his sole remaining clothing, worked—er—them down to his feet, and as his boots were elastic sides, slipped them off and left him even as he Came into the world. When the storm was over he was like poor old Sam in one of W. W. Jacob’s novels, when his mates stole his clothes while he was bathing. He got home with the aid of a cement barrel, which he used as a kilt.

For children’s hacking cough at night Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure, Is 6d, 2s 6d. Ladies! Warner’s Corsets are comfortable—guaranteed so— they shape fashionably. The bones cannot rust or can the fabric tear. Order Local drapers, 0

The Stratford station master forwards us the April timetable for the New Zealand Government .Railways. In a flooded paddock near Winton two rabbits were seen on the back of a sheep (says the, Winton Record). . Field mice were 'also observed on fenc>ing wires. While riding a bicycle over Victoria Bridge this morning, Mr N. J. King collided with a milk curt. Mr King was extremely fortunate in escaping with only a bad fall, though he : i suffering from severe shock.

A, sow belonging to Mr Donald McGrath, of East Oxford, a few days ago littei'ed twelve pigs, and amongst them is one which resembles a young elephant. It had no hair on it, and no teeth, only tusks protruding.

A big game of poker took place at Brisbane on March 20th, in which a wealthy Queenslander, Harry Percy Morton Maunsell Pleydell, lost £1835. Subsequently two nlen were apprehended in Brisbane and another at Manly (Sydney), their names being Newton, Steve Addison, and Thomas "Kavanagh, the three being charged with conspiracy to defraud Pleydell of his money

• “It is to be observed that the Death Duties Act, 1909, is retrospective in so much as it fastens on anterior transactions and gives them an effect which could not have been foreseen by the parties at the time of their transaction,” said Mr C. P. Skerrett, K.C., in the Appeal Court yesterday. “It only refers to gifts made three years previously, but otherwise it goes back for all time. I have had in my own knowledge a case where a marriage settlement executed forty years ago became liable to death duty under this particular Act. The English Act, the original statute, on which our Act was, drawn, is not retrospective.” *

The death occurred suddenly at Patea on Thursday of Mr James Robertson, at the age of 80 years. The deceased was born in Forfarshire, and came to the Dominion in the sailing ship Strathsfioldsaye, arriving in Dunedin in 1858., The Press stales ' that after working on the famous Dun- , stan and several other goldfields of the South Island, the late Mr Robertson came to the North Island in 18<5,

taking up a farm on the Stuart Road, Eltham, where he resided till about geven years ago, when after the death of his wife 'he came to Patea, where he had lived with his daughter, Mrs Geo. Williams 1 , ever since. The late Mr Robertson was a, piper of some merit, and was a well-known figure at most Caledonian sports in the Dominion, where ho often acted as judge of the bagpipe raiisic. Some nine years ago, he made an extensive tour of the