LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 35, 16 June 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Bailway Department wish' ii understood that no perambulators wil be carried Iry any of the excursion trains to-morrow.

At the Court this morning a. first offending drunkard was convicted and discharged. A man arrested on Saturday for drunkenness who failed to answer to his bail was fined the amount of his bail (£1).

For the past few days the Borough Inspector has been very busy taking the names of people driving vehicles without lights, and a number will appear at the Court on Friday to answer for their breaches.

The Amalgamated Society of Kailway Servants has been informed by the General Manager of Railways that married apprentices will be paid the married allowance from the date on which the Department is furnished with the requisite proof of marriage.

The Manawatu Poultry Association has secured a novelty for their show in the shape of a three-legged fowl, which the proud owner has lent for exhibition purposes. Freaks in animals are fairly numerous, but a healthy freak fowl is a rare bird and ishould excite curiosity.

At the Lumsden (Southland) Court, four men were charged under the New Zealand Railway Offences Act, 1908, with removing a ganger's trolly from Balfour and travelling to Lumsden on it. In view of the fact that there was no damage done, and the accused intended to replace the trolley, the magistrate fined them £1 each, with 3s 3d each costs.

At present the Defence Department is organising a special corps consisting of railway employees, the particular duties of the corps being to deal with mobilisation of troops per medium of the railways, and generally to deal with railways in warfare. Mr Eric Simmonds, of the Stratford railway staff, who is an old Volunteer, has been appointed a second lieutenant in tne corps.

In the current number of the Agricultural Journal Mr J. L. Bruce says that "it is no optimistic prediction to assert that New Zealand is easily capable of carrying not 21,000,000 (as at present) but 50,000,000 sheep, and still provide excellent scope for the expansion of the dairy industry on the rich low lands less suitable for sheep but eminently adapled for dairying."

A plain little mongrel dog who got his foot crushed in a door has been provided with a diamond leg-joint by his master, Dr. Milton P. Clark, surgeon, and Vice-consul for Greece at San Francisco. The diamond was inserted in the joint because silver corrodes under certain conditions. The operation is said to be the most remarkable that has ever been performed upon an animal. Warner's Bust-proof Corsets. In the latest models, the bust is low and full. Flexible corsettmg above the waist is the result—the newest figure fashion. Perfect comfort with figure elegance. B

The Borough Council's voltmeter,

after having been tested, is now being re-installed at the Borough Council Chambers.

Citizens are reminded of the gathering to be held in the Borough Council Chambers this evening, when the Mayor will make a presentation to Dr. Carbery on behalf of the citizens of StratfoTd and district.

At Awakino on Friday night, the Postmaster-General (Mr R. Heaton Rhodes) announced that >n May tiePost Office Savings Bank deposit;' exceeded the withdrawals by £99,526, as compared with an excess ot Lf2,SOC in May last year, indicating a turn in the tide.—P.A.

An American railway company, theChicago and North-Western, have just appointed a doctor as sanitary inspector of their system. He is to inspect and inquire into the sanitary condition of passenger trains, paying special attention to the lavatory accommodation and to the cleanliness and disinfection of the coaches themselves. It is hoped (says the Medical Officer) that some of the English railway companies will follow this excellent example.

One of the finest lines of fat lambs dealt with at the Pareora Freezing Works this season (says the Timaru Herald), was sent in a few days ago by a well-known public man who has an excellent grain growing and sheep fattening farm in South Canterbury. The line consisted of 1000 lambs, all of which were reared and fattened on the farm in question ; they killed out at the very satisfactory average of 451 b each, and returned the grower 22s 3d per head. There have been other lambs as good sent to the works this season, but not so many in one line. ;

A case not unlike that of the faithful St. Bernard that refused to leave the side of his dead master was furnished in Invercargill on Monday, with the difference that the animal in this instance Avas a ferocious bull-dog and his master was still in the land of the living, but helplessly intoxicated. The constable who visited the inebriate saw that any efforts to make an arrest would be fruitless until he got the assistance of someone better acquainted with the canine's nature. This he did, and the owner of the dog appeared at the police court and was I lined ss.

In the course of a speech at Portsmouth on the 3rd inst. Father Bernard Vaughan, the well-known Jesuit preacher, laid stress on the danger that is threatening the nations owing to the decline of the birth-rate. France, he said, was making more coffins than perambulators. In America, the old'stock was anaemic, and only immigration was saving it, while if the present state of things continued in England the rapid fall of the birthrate would bring ruin to the Empire without the interference of any German army.

The Stratford Primitive Methodist Sunday School are to open new class rooms on Thursday evening in the Regan Street building, and naturally the opening is to be celebrated and to be well celebrated, by a concert and social. An excellent programme of musical items, recitations and d' ar logues has been arranged, and sup- ; per will be served. The concert will commence at 7.15 o'clock. In view of the occasion a very big attendance can bo confidently, looked for. .

Professor W. Stirling, of Manchester, described a new departure in cinematography, known as "ultrai cinematography," in a lecture at the Royal Institution, London, last month. M. Nogues has invented a cinematograph camera with which 180 image* a second can be taken on a film. The images are projected on a screen by an ordinary machine at a rate of 16 a second. Thus the movements photographed are "slowed down" about 10 times. By means of this invention the various phases of a movement- • such as the flight of "a pigeon, or a man walking, running, jumping, or throwing a stone—can be analysed by the unaided eve.

There are-at present on view at Mr Foster's premises in Broadway boots manufactured from the Allie leather, which has been turned out at Mr S. H. James' tannery under the supervision of Mr 0. Harper, tanning expert. For some time the leather has been used in harness, and it is claimed to lie absolutely unbreakable. It is also claimed that the wettest weather will have no effect on it, the leather retaining its pliancy. Recently two sides were cut up at Goodacre's boot factory, New Plymouth, and the material was favourably commented on by all the workers into whose hands it came in the process of manufacture into boots. Being waterproof and retaining pliancy under the worst conditions, the boots should fill a long-felt want in Taranaki. Mr Harper, who has spent four years in perfecting the process of tanning, says that the tanning is done in a very short time, four days being sufficient..*

A social and dance in aid of the fixe fund, will bo held in the Perafroko Eoad School on Friday Hie fotribution of prizes to the children trill also take place.

'At a meeting at Palmerston North | tfst evening, the two lads, Ross and Tunnicliffe, who went to gaol rather than pay the fines for failure to render military service, were presented with medals from the New Zealand Socialist Party. A Press Association message states that speeches were made against the Defence Act, and a resolution war. carried disagreeing with the principle of conscription. The medals bear an inscription for com-

JS Mr R. McK. Morison has disposed il of 63 acres of his land on Mounuuo f Road South, lying outside the borough, to Mr W. A. Fieldes, of Toko. Mr Fieldes will occupy Mr Morison-* present residence, but Mr Mornon will continue his nursery business on the section adjoining, where he w 11 biuld a new residence and to which • his stock of trees, etc... will bo transferred. Mr Morison has purchased Mr Fieldes' farm of 140 acres odd at tfbko.

At New Plymouth on Saturday,! Messrs. Okey and Hine, M.iVs, were waited on by members of the laranaki branch of the Teachers' Institute, the teachers having a.sked for the meeting to enable them to talk over various grievances from which they elaim to bo suffering. Mesita Stratford,. McElroy, and Tyrer were the principal speakers. Mr McElroy advocated fcho centralisation of inspectorate and the inauguration of a Dominion promotion scheme, as distinguished from the district scheme* at present in operation. Mr Stratford advocated improved conditions for pupil teachers, both as regards salary and

training. Mr Tyrer put in a si.org «tolea for an increase of salary to assistants in secondary schools. Messrs Okey and Hine took notes of the matters brought before them, and promised to lay them before the Minister for Education on their first visit to Wellington. Mr Stratford (president of the Institute), at the conclusion o f | the conference, thanked the members for their attendance.