LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 94, 28 April 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The monthly figures of the Stratford and Midhirst Cow-Testing Associations appear on page 8 of this isues. Among those called to the Bar at the Middle Temple recently was Mr Ba 0, who probably has the shortest name on record. Mr U is a B.A. of Cambridge. Thirty-six words in current use for “drunk” are given in a slang dictionary. These include “canned,” “sprung,” “loaded,” “on,” and “slewed.” The comment of the Pukekohe Times on the long hours for children on dairy farms is; Some who were once “child slaves” occupy honoured positions in our Parliament to-day.” Shorthand was practised by the anciient Greeks and Romans, but all knowledge of the art was lost from the 10th to the 16th century. Isaac Pitman gave his “Phonography” to the world in 1837.

In a charity football mated] at Tottenham between Tottenham Hotspur and a music-hall team captained by George Robey a kiss was promised to each goal-scorer by a committee of ladies. In connection with the school committee elections this evening, we shall be obliged if secretaries of the various committees in the district would forward the results to this office for early publication. A footsore and somewhat discouraged lady, canvassing for the Dunedin V.W.C.iAi., approached a big house on Thursday with high hopes of a fat cheque, and when she saw a sumptu-ously-equipped motor car drive up to the entrance her expectations rose to the £25 level; but all that glitters ik not gold, and the subscription she got, handed over with a bad grace, was one shilling! The juvenile court sat last week, when a boy was charged with having a firearm in his possession, to wit, an air-gun. The youngster was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon.* Although the matter has been given publicity in these columns more than once, |parents find it difficult to realise that the apparently harmless air-gun comes under the category of firearms prohibited to the young.

Ladiesl Warner’s Corsets are comfortable— guaranteed so—they shape fashionably. The bones cannot rust or can the fabric tear. Order r~ 1 ye! d’-apent,

The annual meeting of the Stratford Licensing Committee is to be field on Friday, June 6th. The Railway Department announces that after Wednesday, JOth inst., the press and the 11.55 a.rn. AucklandWellington express will cease running.

A farmer saw a recipe advertised for keeping wells and cisterns from freezing in winter. Having sent a dozen l Vtamps he received the following: -“Take in your well or cistern at nignt, and stand it in front of the fire.”

A resident of Christchurch has received an interesting memento of the great movement in England in favour of the women’s franchise. It is a post card posted in one of the pillar-boxes into which the suffragettes poured an acid fluid. The card, which merely bore a friendly message from one relative to another, is disfigured, but the writing is easily deciphered. It < was posted at a box in Tollington * Square, London.

A confectioner in Peckham Rye made a Christmas cake which, when completed with almond paste and sugar icing, weighed 1-J tons, or 28001 b. The vast cake was not baked in one piece. It was built up of large wedges of cake, each baked scparatively, and they were .built np in 11 tiers on the pian of a bride cake. It occupied six men for a whole baker’s day to build the cake and put the sugar icing around it.. To make it and bake it five men were busily employed for four days. The almond paste round the cake weighed 8001 b, and the sugar coating of icing weighed 2cwt.

Joseph Kleinert, a farmer at Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria, after being fined £3O for sending watered milk to Munich, discovered that the cans had been partly filled up with chalky water by his three young daughters, who were in the habit of skimming the best of the milk and using it as a wash to beautify their complexions. Miss Ella Sangster left for Wellington this morning, where she will reA ceive tuition under Mr Hamilton Hodges. Miss Sangster, who is one of Stratford’s most promising amateur singers, carries with her every wish for future success. A new paper-making process described to the Paris Academy of Sciences has suggested new possibilities for the French colohies. 'Paper is made by felting cellulose, ; the elastic envelope of vegetable 'cells, and the new process is claimed tb clean and make available

much cellules©' 'cheaper than that of wood. The ' plants- include bamboo, alfalfa, pop^y l , isorghumi, mice, ( maize, and seaweeds, ■ Mast promising of all is the banana,* which on air equal area yields 133 times as much material as wheat, and is estimated to supply two tons of excellent pulp per acre every 10 months, whilst the product of a pine forest, cut every 60 years, is only half a ton of pulp per acre annually.

A tram-car is, perhaps, a peculiar place for the operation of the referendum, but passengers to Sumner try the 6.10 cardou -Tuesday evening worked the scheme quite readily. The “voting booth” appearance of the tram and its trailer as they clattered through the lamp-lit streets was novel. The passengers were called upon to say whether they preferred that Sumner cars should leave Cathedral Square at 5.10 p.m. and 6.10 p.m., or at 5.15 p.m, and 6.15 p.m. \ oting papers were distributed, the passengers struck out the line that did not suit them, and the conductor gathered in each paper, with the voter’s name attached to make it valid. '

Some remarkable memoirs have just been published in St. Petersburg by Countess Lamsdorff, widow of Count Lamsdorff, the well-known Russian statesman. The countess evidently kept a strict record of all the dances in which she participated from time to time, as she is able to tell that she took part in 2934 square dances, 4.500 waltzes, and 600 polkas, her partners altogether numbering 1700. Describing the people with whom she has danced, she says that she found 1200 stupid, 300 boresome, 120 offensive, only 12 who were “nice.” and three who were witty. The Countess made the interesting calculation that in all the dances she took part she covered a distance equal to 16,000 miles-

7 < '- An extraordinary state of affairs is reported from the stockade at Dry Creek, which is South Australia’s chief prison. For months past thefts have taken place from several of the warders’ houses, and also from the residence of the governor of the gaol. Inquiries were always made, and suspicion was allowed to rest on the guards themselves. However, quite recently, while one of these officials and his family were at. the prison chapel attending Sunday service, about £3O worth of jewellery was removed from his house, and the presence of detectives and blacktrackers did not clear the situation in any way. As soon as the incident blew over another robbery ws reported, and this time the governor of the gaol had about £IOO worth of property taicen. An'exhaustive inquiry was made, and a search was instituted. The result was that a prisoner serving eight years for burglary was questioned. He denied any knowledge of the affair, ' but confessed his guilt when confronted with the missing goods at a house of a relative situated close to the prison. It appears that this prisoner was allowed a great deal of freedom, and his actions were rarely questioned.

The Bishop of Treves has forbidden priests to ride in motor cars, states a Berlin cablegram.

A pretty and intelligent-looking girl, 15 years of age, appeared at the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (says the Lyttelton Times) to give evidence in a maintenance case. On being questioned she admitted having passed only the first standard, and stated that she was unable to read and could write but little. “It is a shocking thing to my mind,” said Mr Bishop, “that she can neither read nor write.” It was stated that the girl looked after three children and did all the work of the house. “It is not fair,” said Mr Bishop. “1 shall get a police report on the matter and shall consider the advisability of committing her to an industrial school.”

“It is a great mistake for poultrymen to allow eggs to rise to 2s 6d a dozen,” said an auctioneer at the Christchurch egg sale on Wednesday. “Few consumers can afford to pay that price, with the result that the consumption of eggs goes down over 50 per cent., while the production does not vary. The result is, in a week or so eggs have accumulated in the stores, and sellers are forced to take a much lower price. The price is 2s 6d a dozen for a week or two, then it drops back to half that amount. If eggs were kept at a fair price, the consumption would not be checked, arid during the scarce months the prices would average out better to producers than the spasmodic rises of the market to-day.”

At the meeting in the Early Seilers Hall, Dunedin, to celebrate the jubilee of the arrival at Port Chalmers of the ship A rim a an interesting letter was read from Mr Andrew Watt, of Island Cluff. He wrote:—“When one thinks of the turmoil and confusion we had getting aboard the wee Arima at the Tail of the Bank, the rattling of tin dishes and the scramble for a bite and a sup, truly it was experience which emigrants of the present day have no conception—more like a romance than real; also the provisions doled out to emigrants of 50 years ago —salt horse, etc. The vessels with which emigrants are now provided are floating palaces, with all up-to-date wireless, electric light, and a. voyage of six weeks, instead of 16 as we had. It is a wonder we are alive to tell the tale. Some of our shipmates'l have been in touch with ever since landing, others I have lost sight of, and some on board I never knew, not .even their names. 1 The Dunedin of ’63, with Princess street Cutting in progress and with thousands of Australians landing every week to search, for the gold that glitters, was a Itery busy scene. 'Now the scene is changed—a l grand railway station, trains to all parts of the Dominion, electric trams, electric light, motor cars, and even flying machines. Truly, wonders have been accomplished in the past 50 years.”

What bacon, means to the average householder,: is brought home to him when the price ranges in the neighbourhood of the present high figures. Many private households long ago, perforce, deleted the tasty ham and eggs from the matutinal meal, and it is now not an unusual position even in better class boardinghouses to discover that the orthodox place in the menu knows them no more. Retailed, as much as Is 3d per lb is asked for bacon, while for its concomitant on the plate 2s 3d is required to pay for a dozen. There is no saying to what price bacon will rise in the spring, but it is significant that at Newton King’s pig fair on Saturday, nine weaners only five weeks old brought 15s each. The highest bidder evidently has great faith in the market, as he took the bunch.