LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 40, 23 June 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

To-day being the Prince of Wales’ Birthday, the local Courthouse officials observed a holiday. A flag also blew out from the pole on the Post Office buildings in honor of the occasion. Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David it nineteen years of age, and was created Prince of Wales upon his sixteenth birthday (1910), being-formally invested and presented to the Welsh people by his Royal father at Carnarvon Castle in 1911.

The No-license Convention in Christchurch enjoyed a hearty laugh at a printer’s error in the proof sheets oi the annual report. “Democratic vote campaign” was printed “Democraticvote champagne.”

The Horehore Estate, opposite Dargaville, containing 7000 acres, has been sold by Maurice Harding to Gieson, a southern buyer, for £60,000. The property will be forthwith subdivided for closer settlement purposes. The Timaru branch of the Farmers’ Union, after discussion on the suggested free trade between Australia and New Zealand, resolved to telegraph the Premier protesting against the removal of the duty on wheat and flour, for fear of destroying the wheatgrowing industry.

Mr Merrett, of Christchurch, is getting out an incubator to hold 3000 eggs. It is worked by electricity, and a bell rings in the house when the temperature rises above or below a certain point. The eggs are turned automatically.

In our report of Mr W. J. Newton’s evidence in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth on Friday, Mr Newton was made to say that the old carbon lamps on the station were rarely used. Mr Newton’s actual remark was that the lamps were rarely changed. i

The threat of Mr Kenrick, S.M., like the sword of Damocles, appears likely to fall.'Notwithstanding Ml the warnings of death and accident which lately have been given in the cases of riding or driving unlighted vehicles, the practice continues in the town and district to an unwelcome extent. Since last Court, a crop of offences has been reaped, and the threshing will take place in the Courthouse next Friday. Let the Magistrate make no mistake—the time has gone past for homilies—and so earn the gratitude of all, but particularly the admiration of very many whoso duties lie upon the highways and byways, and whose ready method of dealing with such offences, is to “put the acid in.”

The Dominion Dairy Show will bo opened at Hawera on Wednesday next, at 11 a.m. Visitors' will find the train arrangements very convenient. Football matches will be played on Wednesday and Saturday, the Territorial Gymkhana taking place on Thursday, and those wishing to see these sports can also attend the Show in the evening, returning home by a train leaving Hawera each day at 9 o’clock.

The necessity for the readjustment of county boundaries was brought up at the meeting of the Moa Road Board on Saturday (says the News), when an instance was shown where a settler whose property was in the Stratford cpunty, was compelled to use the Moa Road Board’s roads as a means of ingress and egress, because there was no road to his property in the Stratford country, to which he paid about £lO per annum in rates. It was accordingly resolved to ask the Stratford County Council to donate half the rates received from the property to the upkeep of this road.

The Kaponga and Tariki factories did very well in the cheese competitions at the Palmerston Show. In case of colored cheese suitable for export, Tariki was second, being half a point behind the winner, Kaupokomii, and Kaponga was fourth, seventh and thirteenth (last); in case of three white cheddar Kaponga was first, a point ahead of Kaupokouui, Kaponga being also fourth and fifth ; in best case of cheese not more than IGOlbs, Kaponga was first, and Tariki second ; in two factory cheese, Kaponga was first and fourth, and Tariki third; in two factory chese open to factories whose annual output does not exceed GO tons, Kaponga was second and third; and for two best loaf cheese, Kaponga was second, third and fifth.

The Rev. Mr Pattison will deliver an interesting lecture in St. Andrew’s Hnil to-morrow evening, dealing with !V trip from Now York to Egypt and Palestine.

The May number of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School Magazine ,j s to hand, and it maintains the high standard already set, the numerous illustrations being interesting in nature and finely produced. In addition to the usual well-written features of the journal there is a special article by the Hon. T. Kelly on tho e-arly history of tho school.

The Perth city council discussed the “cupboard” question, on the motion of ;i councillor, that £4OO a year bo saved by abandoning the practice of providing free drinks for the councillors. Tea was enough for anyone, he said. The Town Hall caretaker had spent a lot of time handing liquor round. On a division showing two votes for tea and ten for “tots,” a city father observed, “The drunks have it.”

In proposing a motion asking the Chief Inspector to report on tho advisability of more frequent physical instruction in tho schools, Mr G. H. Bennett mentioned at the last meeting of the Wanganui Education Board, that at the King’s Birthday parade oi Territorials and School Cadets at Palmerston, ho was struck with the hollow shoulders and shrunken chests, and altogether slovenly hearing of the school cadets. Ho thought that something should be done to alter this. The Chairman said that tho Government had a scheme under way that would probably meet the case, hut he concurred with what Mr Bennett had said with regard to the physique of the cadets. Ho saw a company in Wanganui march lately, and what Mr Bennett had said of the Palmerston boys applied witli equal force to the Wanganui hoys.

To a scries of fortunate chances an inhabitant of Berck-sur-Mer, France, owes his escape from a horrible and lingering death. The gentleman, who is partly paralysed, had rashly ventured in his donkey-drawn cart on to the sand at low tide. At a certain point his vehicle was caught in a quicksand. Unable to stir a limb, he could only wateh, powerless and terror-stricken, the advancing tide. But the drone and throb of a motor reached his ear. It was a military aviator returning to his hangar at Le Crotoy. Struck by the presence of a vehicle at so late an hour—it was now ■sunset—and in such a spot, the pilot descended to within a hundred feet of the beach, and there hung, circling like a great bird. As luck rvould have do it, a cockle fisher returning to Berck r , ; , along the dunes was struck by. the strange manoeuvres of the aeroplane.! , j, Ho approached, and immediately realised the dangerous, plight ,pf the .im- , j , prisoned man, BuUtJie yvheejs. of. the cart were now axle deep in the, shift-, ing sand, and it was necessary to summon the keeper of the neighbouring lighthouse before the occupant of the cart could be dragged to firm ground and to safety, just in time, for a few moments later the waves were washing over the spot where he had looked death in the face for two terrible hours.