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Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 78, 9 April 1913, Page 6

The increase in the rate of interest of i per cent on Post Office Savings Bank deposits under £3OO referred to by Mr Massey in his speech on Friday night will commence on May Ist. [ Just how strange a man’s behaviour [can be on the occasion of his marriage, Bkproved by many an amusing experithe registrar’s office (says the Auckland Star). For instance, “Length of - residence” is one of the printed • questions which the intending bridegroom has to answer. The written answer given the other day at the Auckland Registrar’s office quite upset the gferenity of the staff, for the reply given was, “50ft. by 30ft.” . It was mentioned at the meeting of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce last evening that a petition had been presented to the Minister for Public Works that a survey should be made of still another route for the strat-ford-Te Koura railway. The settlers to the north-west of the surveyed route are anxious that the railway should go through this country, instead of through the Tangarakau, or into the Heao Valley. Qn account of certain objections M|bn to Sunday play by a few momblrs of the Seatoun (Wellington) Bowling and Tennis Club, states the Dominion, the committee has been at some pains to take a plebiscite of shareholders on the question. Great interest was manifested in the district over the taking of the plebiscite. It was found that 321 votes were cast in favour of Sunday play and 59 against, so that bowls and .tennis will be included in the Sunday recreations at Seatoun.

In a letter to the Evening Post, “A Mother of Soldiers” protests against the Railway Department not granting concession fares to country parents and their younger children to enable them to visit H.M.S. New Zealand. She says: ‘‘Don’t we have to pay for the ship (the biggest families pay the most) ? Also, we pay for her upkeep, and are expected to supply plenty of soldiers. I think the least the Government can do is to make it possible for us country people to see our own. Why should we not be made welcome to her as well as the townspeople? They are on the spot, we country mothers, though we supply the most and best soldiers, are not considered a bit.”

In sentencing a man to 12 months’ gaol at the Dubbo (N.S.W.) Circuit

Court for a criminal offence against

a girl aged 14 years and three months, the judge remarked that he won't! have imposed a mUck heavier sentence hut for the recommendation of the i, jury to mercy.. He agreed with the I jury, for the gir| had been not orJy a consenting ppfcy,. hut had encouraged the comipittal of jthe offence. Still he saw he musjb :prqtect such girls against themselves when their pa’ - exits or guardians allowed them to roam the streets at night. His Honot commented on the numbers of offences against girls heard at this court, and said he noticed with regreat that the court was crowded each day with persons to took keen interest in. listening to these details. Offences of this kind were so common that he felt he ought to say something to them. He hoped that ch'oSo" who lis,tened so cloiofy f o the ‘•quahd cioiails

of the evidence could fcad ins remarks. t ■ . The proximity of the Ormgi camp was brought under the notice of citizens on the station platform this morning, when the Regimental butchers, bakers, and clerks left by the mail train for Oringi. On Saturday next the advance party, consisting of one non-commissioned officer and sixteen men proceed to Oringi, together with the sergeant cooks to make arrangements for the batch of 260 men who will arrive on Monday. These are putting in the extra four adys in order to become efficient. On Friday, 18th, 350 men belonging to Xlth Regiment Taranaki Rifles .will be travelling southwards, the train leaving at 7.37 a.m. It is interesting to note that this train is timed to travel faster than the mail, although the former stops at more stations and takes iff more passengers. The Department had experience last year of what “hustlers” the Xlth Regiment are, and the timetable has been arranged accordingly. Our Eltham friends have not yet forgiven our member of Parliament or our worthy Mayor for that little incident of the tree-planting at MaJngatoki School, That such a ten■der plant should have been laid to earth by sacrilegious Stratford hands, without Eltham’s blessing, Is such i serious matter that the question is being asked: “Will ‘Massey-Strat-fordiana’ be allowed to live, or will it be torn up by the roots, unreeutlessly, unceremoniously?” 4 gentleman who witnessed the tree-plant-ing ceremony remarked the other (lay

that Stratford was entirely inno-’-mt in tho matter, and the party would have an absolute want of humour it they had not laughed at the incident after it had occurred. “It was such a little tree,” he said. “Tho schoolmaster asked Mr Massey to plant it, and Mr Massey said he really had not time, but the pedagogue insisted that it would only take a few seconds (1) the hole was dug, the spade was ready, the tree was there. Mr Massey relented, and the cars proceeded to Eltham.' When we mentioned that we had planted the tree, and saw & the look on the faces of one or two Eltham’s citizens, then the ioke dawned on, us. This was Eltham s great surprise for tho Premier, and we had robbed them of the star feature of their magnificent preparations!” Tonking’s Linseed Emulsion kills colds and does away with doctors’ bills. x

A course of ambulance lectures is to be given to the Stratford Boy Scouts, commencing on Thursday evening. A good attendance of the troop is requested.

The first wireless message to be sent away from Stratford was despatched this morning, a visitor to our town being anxious to communicate with' a passenger on the Maheno, now in mid-ocean.

The linotype occasionally tells what ought to be the truth. Reporting how a half-starved party in the Antarctic had the good luck to find a depot of provisions left by a previous expedition, the Melbourne Age says that they “took a day off in honour of the occasion,” and at the end of the day “they fell Idllarrppdpoarvailloss P shrddllu hrdlu asleep.”

The fact that a visitor to our town went to the Post Office this morning and was unable to learn when the next Sydney mail would arrive in Stratford does not redound to the credit of the local office or the servants of the Department as a whole. “I am too busy,” was the reply of the man at the counter when the questioner asked if he could not make further enquiries.

The Stratford Rifle Club is firing to-morrow for a trophy presented by Messrs Hallenstein Bros., and the following handicaps have been declared: Riflemen C. Jackson, C. Speck, N. Thorpe, and Wickham, scratch; A. Speck, 2; Gollop, 4; W. Brocklebank, Rutherford, Rogers, Sangster, Mitchell, Ritchie, and Ferguson, 6; Newland, 7; Macky, 8; McMahon Arden.. and Bowler, 20.