LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 28, 7 June 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A general conference of the beekeepers of New Zealand will be held at Wellington on June 18th, 19fch, and 20th, states a Press Association message.

According to a statement made at the Tramway Board's meeting at Christchurch the traffic benefited to the extent of about £716 through the visit of the battle-cruiser H.M.S. New Zealand.

The committee of the Stratford Band Tis at present hard at work preparing- for the concert which is to be given in the Town Hall towards the end of the month.

A grand concert in aid of the hall funds is to be "field in/the Douglas Hall on July 11th, and will be followed by a dance. Mr J. W. T. Jones is carrying out tho duties of secretary, and a pleasant.evening can confidently be looked for.

The first annual social under the auspices of the Toko Settlers',Association is to be held in the Toko Coronation Hall on Juno 19th. The arrangements for the function are now well advanced and everything points to tho social being highly successful.

Captain Lampen, adjutant of the Xlth Regiment, has been notified that the office of tho Regiment will be shifted to Hawera as soon as possible. Captain Lampen's successor is tc assume duty during this month.

The sale is reported o i'the Flaxnull Estate of thirty thousand acres, three miles from Dargaville, at a price in the vicinity of £60,000, from Mr 13. E. Williams, to Mr E. H. Abbott, of Auckland, who has formed a company to subdivide, road and make it available for settlement.

The Municipal Association Conference does not meet this year, and in order that any matters of consequence shall not be held over (states a Wellington P.A. wire) the Mayor, Mr Lpke, has convened a meeting of the executive for June 24th.

At a representative public meeting at Kimbolton yesterday, a Chamber oi Commerce was formed to frame deI finite proposals to place before the , Minister of Public Works for the I construction of a light railway from | Apiti to Feilding, a length of 29 miles, ,' via Kimbolton, Kiwitea, and CheltenI ham. The Press Association message I adds that the Minister will be in- | vited to inspect the proposed route.

The complainant in a mamtenanci case at the Christcnurch Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning told tin Magistrate that her husband had been cruel to her. "What did he do?" asked the Magistrate. "He never wrote to me, that's all," said the complainant, and she went on quietly with her knitting. "You can leave that until afterwards," said the clerk of the court. The woman smiled, and for a few minutes her hands were still, but unthinkingly she began her work again. and the small red woollen jacket she was making occupied all her attention while the Magistrate was deciding her case.

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At the Wallacetown (Southland) sale mi Monday, Mesrs Fosbcnder Brothers, of New River, topped the beef market with two extra heavy three-year-old steers, which realised £l9 and £ls 15s respectively.

As the cost of living has increased considerably during the past few years the Presbytery of Melbourne South has decided to suggest to the General Assembly of Victoria'that the minimum stipend should be £250 with manse, or £3OO without a manse, in cities, or £275 without a manse in the country.

Recently a story came from Auckand of an intending bridegroom des-

cribing his length of residence in the city to the registrar as so many feet by so many feet. This, however, is capped by the performance of a young man at • the Christchurch office the other day, who described his length of residence as "one mile."

The Dairyman says that owing to a big drop in the price of cheese several of the larger'dairy companies are turning their attention to buttermaking again, and already in South Taranaki- the .Tolls, Hawera, Meremere, Riverdale, and Normanby factories are manufacturing butter instead of cheese, duplicate plants enabling these companies to do so.

An approximate idea of the expansion of the fruit-growing industry in the districts between Beaumont and Roxburgh may be formed (says the Mount Benger Mail) when it is stated that last week five trucks of young trees for these districts arrived in Lawrence. It is estimated that the consignment contains well over 100,000 trees.

A number of Greeks are at present in Sydney buying up all the roes of fish obtainable for export to Port Said and surrounding ports. It is a queer industry, but highly profitable. This is the breeding season for mullet, and the heavy roes are bought by the j Greeks for 2s to 3s per dozen. At the end of the season in New South Wales the , Greeks will move on ,*#,• fresh fields,, .taking with them , the , roes, salted or otherwise,treated- The .. roes will be sold af 1.5 s per lb to the ~ people of the northern countries, .who regard them as a,great luxury. .The., dealers-are said, to have made a lit of £3OOO last t Three or four ■noes weigh Tib, which is bought for 9d to Is, and sold for 15s.

The trial shipments of honey to tho Old Country by Canterbury bee-keep-ers arc evidently going to turn out a marked success (says the Press), for already, while the first shipment is still on its way, an offer of 4d per lb has been received from Home by cable. This is stated to be a better price than that offering locally, and the offer has been made without seeing the shipment. It is anticipated that even better prices will be realised than that above mentioned. A second shipment is'also on its way, and a third shipment, is almost ready.

A Taihape resident some time ago left for a fortnight's holiday, and during his absence one of his hens hatched out a brood of chicks. The hen and her brood were cared for by a, next-door neighbour until the owner returned. Since then the chicks have reached full development, and the.hen has resumed egg-laying duties again. Apparently out of gratitude to the neighbour who cared for her brood, the hen now comes through ( the- fence each morning and pecks at ~. the neighbour's door until admitted . through the kitchen to a little back room ,■■■■ where she obligingly lays -, an , egg; after which she struts out again .... with the air of, one who has done her duty towards her neighbour. # With eggs at 2s 6d per dozen, a good many people will wish that their neighbours kept hens of this kind.

The Parisian press condemns the conduct of the suffragettes, and offers the explanation of their behaviour to the fact that the majority of them are unmarried. "If the element of love entered into their lives'," says one newspaper, "their present action would be impossible." Another paper offers up the prayer, "We are thankful that these viragoes are British and not French." French caricaturists picture suffragettes in dreadful drawings of rough, red-faced creatures with enormous feet, touzled hair, and appalling garments, rushing to the fray. Ugly bats in Paris are called "chapeaux suffragettes."

The corporation of the City of Glasgow have invested in a motor roadsweeper. Instead of the cumbrous horse-drawn revolving brush, the street sweeper in the Scottish city now sits on the box of a neat motor, with a broom underneath it, and drives up and down the thoroughfares. • The motor has a two-cylinder 18 h.p. engine, and when so engaged in sweeping has a speed of thirteen miles an hour. Power for turning the brush is transmitted from the engine, so that there .is no drag on the wheels, and the sweeping apparatus can be detached easily, so tnat the car may be used for transport purposes.