LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 16, 24 May 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Tn this issue the Town Clerk, Mr P. Skoglund, gives formal notice of the estimates for the year as approved by the Stratford Borough Council.

The Government has approved of the issue of a commemoration medal to each member of the New Zealand Senior Cadet Contingent which visited Canada last year. The medal will be of gold and enamel, with a representation of the flags of the two dominions crossed. In addition each cadet will receive free a magazine Lee-Enfiold rifle.

At the pigeon-shooting match at Wanganui yesterday' under the auspices of the Wanganui Gun Club, Harrison, of Eltham, and W. Beard, of Wanganui, tied for the first place in the £IOO handicap with fourteen kills. Each takes £4O. Ten others with thirteen kills, divide the rest of the prize money. Thirty-six. entered in the sweepstakes and fourteen divide the stake.

“It is outrageous that this country should spend tens of thousands' of •pounds annually oh its-territorial defence scheme, whilst seettlers in the backblocks were denied roads to their 2>roperties. I am willing to take a rifle to-morrow in defence of our fair country should the occasion arise, but the present territorial Scheme is shameful waste and extravagance.” —Such was the outspoken condemnation expressed by a speaker at air Otago Farmers’ Union meeting.

A feature of some of the country school parties that have been visiting New Zealand, at Lyttelton! is the remarkable,, number of parents that some children seem to accumiir late. No adults other than parents and teachers, or committeemen strictly in charge, are supposed to get on hoard in the morning, but the regulation had not foreseen the possibility of accumulation of parents.. Some small folk have been bearing the responsibility of two or three mothers; and quite a lot of fathers apiece Muring the week.

An American engineer, Shuman, is about to leave London for Cairo to in&tai a “sun” plant for irrigatiqii purposes. Mr Shuman declares that by means of parabolic mirrors he will be able to concentrate the sun’s rays and obtain an intense heat, which, when directed,on the boilers, will generate steam to drive a pump that will irrigate 1000 acres. Mr Shuman prophesies that it will be .possible to harness the sun and uS© its power for irrigation in any country which enjoys 75 per cent, of sunshine daily.

“i would admit him to probation if 1 could,” said his Honor Mr Justice Denniston in the Christchurch Supreme Court when referring to a prisoner, “but he has been convicted of wilful and corrupt perjury. . Perjury is rampant in the country. Everyone has to recognise that, in administering justice, it is treated in the very lightest way. It would be a serious thing to allow it to be thought that a man could permit permit perjury with impunity. I regret having vo sentence this man, but i oannet allow it to be thought that a man can commit perjury and escape by probation. I will treat the present case as leniently as 1 can, and will impose a sentence that is not a usual one for perjury. The prisoner will be sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, and it may be thought that 1 have treated him with dangerous leniency.”

I With reference to Mr L. G. Nay tor’s “lind” of £l4O worth of gold, made the other day on Clyde commonage', Waikeri Valley (says the Wyndhain Farmer), Mr William Howard, of South Wyndham, a veteran digger, states his belief that this gold would lie identical with part of the escort gold robbery committed by Rennie and another at Dunstan 40 years ago, for which crime Rennie was imprisoned. Mr Howard states that the robbers “planted” their booty in several different places and, as to his certain knowledge—lie being on the Dunstan field at the time—no coarse gold was obtained from the Waikeri Valley it is reasonable to assume that Mr Naylor’s “find” was part of the stolen escort gold.

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Notice is given by tho Commissioner of Crown Lands of tho withdrawal from sale of section 8, block \ It., Mapara Survey District, eompi rising -itß acres. i no directors of tho New Zealand (iaranaki) Oil Fields, Ltd., state that given a spell of lino weather tho refining works at New Plymouth yaonld be sufficiently advanced by tho Lt prox., to enable tho furnaces to be lighted. A fortnight thereafter it should be posiblse to give the plant a trial run. I’ne Magistrate at Hawera to-day lined Walter Valentine £l6 for having, whilst being the holder of a pubI lean’s Jeiense for the Manutahi Hotel, sold liquor to a person when in a. state of intoxication. The Magistrate described the case as a bad one, but tire license could not be endorsed, as the licensee had transferred it to another.—P.A. L. connection with the Stratford on try Show, an art union will be K( ; 10 Minister of Internal Affairs has given the necessary permission for the art union to be drawn 0,1 tile hist day of the show. The hrst and second prizes are two, valuable gold nuggets. New novelties are being introduced, which are bound to make this show popular arid a credit to Sti afford, The Society has fourteen New Zealand Championships to award. The schedules will be out in a few days.

Empire Day is now evidently a thing of the past as fat as Stratford —and probably most other towns in Now Zealand—is concerned. No flags flying, no offices closed—how different from the enthusiasm centred round this historic date even a few years back. Judging by cables lately received from Home, the same apathetic spirit is prevailing there. It seems a pity that although this is only the twelfth anniversary of Empire Day, its significance, commemorating as it does the memory of the beloved Queen Victoria, should so soon have diminished.

There are many dangerous possibilities in a morning frost, not the least of them being the treacherous surface it gives to roads and footpaths. Passengers, both foot and horse, have been made aware of this fact more than once lately by suddenly slipping m a manner reminiscent of the time hmored banana-skip joke. Among tiiorjo- who suffered the .experience in a startling form is one wjro Happened to he riding across .Victoria. , bridge, early this morning. Hjs legs, flew from under him, and they .earn© 1 down Heavily.'Th© jman jwas thrown.; clear, And luckily neither, at, all hurt. 1 , + „ „■ .--..7. -uni botoiltaOM -it

It is not glvCri’ to dveryono ‘to 1 understand and 1 (nitwit 1 ths wibkeddesa ’ and guile of a penny-ifi-the-slot gtampveudinL’machine,’ a 1 particularly canny Specimen of which-fcTinstalled at the local post office. Having, like our corporations, “no body to kick and no soul to damn 1 .” it frequently acts upon the principle of something for nothing with unblushing effrontery, and having swallowed the “brownie” refuses to disgorge the quid pro quo. On© young fellow' ! jye&tefday; 1 u 'jatfier 1 in. admiration of '■ thf like silence and immovability in splie ’’ of objurgations and mere foreibl© f© r monstrances, wondered tow ’ far ’'it would carry out its simple and yet so effective methods- of ’ sharp practice. Five- pennies he put in/and ffvo pennies he was the poorer. 1 - Other in-* stances -are reported of similar kiud. It is rather a useful procedure, for prospective purchasers from this mechanical stamp merchant, to indicate that they will not ho trifled with by dealing out to it a vigorous punch when the coin has reached a resting place in its “innards.”

In us lecture entitled “The End of le AVorld, at Dunedin, Mr Joseph McCabe outlined possible causes advanced for the world’s termination, or tor the planet becoming inhabitable ami as a result the extinction of ' e (sports the Otago Daily Times). He said that so far as we knew, without any positive knowledge, the world would certainly come to an end, but that was not within the range of practical politics. He thought that the end of our world would assuredly come, but not less than in a million years from the present time, so that man might go on with his works and ambitions, and would have ample time for the realisation of his dreams.—(Laughter). As to the possibilities, our little world might come to an end prematurely, like the individual, or if it escaped premature decease there was a life fixed for every star in the universe. Here the system would grow cold and cease to work, as the sun ceased to pour its rays upon the earth. But first lie would discuss some interesting possibilities that had been suggested about the epd of the world. Some believed that the seas were going to disappear, some that the atmosphere was going to disappear, some that the dry earth was going to disappear, and some that we might he exterminated by a comet or a star. And it was said that our earth was not as solid as at first sight appeared. There was some doubt about the interior of the earth, and we were'told that it held a mighty mass of molten metal under terrible pressure. So it was said that the earth might ho prematurely put an end to by an outburst from within itself.

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