LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 73, 31 July 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The system of rating on unimproved values was carried yesterday in the Thames County by a four to one majority.

The Stratford Volunteer Fire Brigade express their thanks to Mr Petrie for the two prizes given for the waltzing competition at this evening’s social.

Figures have been published in New South Wales showing that since the compulsory service was introduced summary have been'tjfiken against 12,373 cadets for failing to register and not attending drill.

Members of the -Fire ißrigade ; mustered in strong force at the Town Hall last night, and, judging by the vigorous efforts expended on the floor, dancers should have a good time at to-night’s social.

Mr A. Gray, Technical College .Director, attended a meeting .of theHkato and Puniho Co-op. Dairy Company at Okato on Tuesday, and put before them similar proposals, to those put forward at the Strafford and Midhirst meetings recently, with regard to making a grant towards the cost of an agricultural expert for the district. Tiie meeting unanimously decided to make the grant asked for.

A Press Association message from Dunedin states that it is anticipated that the marine surveyors will be unable to finish the work of ascertaining "the damage to the Indrabarah before the end of the week. It is believed that the repairs cannot be effected in less than two months ,and a rough estimate puts the cost down at close on £20,000.

A black-edged postcard, addressed in red ink “To the Magistrates and Detectives of Auckland,” and sent from Guildford (England), is regularly received by the chief detective at the end of July. This postcard, which is unsigned, has been coming for a good many successive years, and all it contains is the petition from the Litany asking that “Magistrates may be given grace to execute justice and to maintain truth.”

An epidemic of typhoid is affecting the Maoris in the North. The Kawhia Settler says that a protest has been sent in the strongest terms against the neglect of the Health Department regarding Maoris of Kaitawa who were infected with typhoid. Ten deaths had occurred since May, and there were six delirious patients devoid of attention. The Native Minister replied last Thursday that the matter had been referred to the Minister for Health, and would be attended to.

At a gathering in Stratford last night of the shootists to commemorate the finish of a very good season, many were the appreciative remarks I expressed concerning the hospitality and fine sporting instincts of the farmers of the Stratford district, who hardly without exception when approached had generously placed their properties at the disposal of anyone with a license, a dog and a gun. When it is remember that an occupier of land can sustain quite considerable loss at the hands, of a careless “sport” or of a foolish fellow clumsily climbing over fences or leaving open gates, the farmer’s hospitality is all the more to he respected.

Tlie limits of the English language in expressiveness have often been the subject of comment (says the Lyttelton Times), but one witness was able to furnish the Magistrate’s Court with :m example of forceful use of the mother tongue. The witness explained that a taxi-driver had expressed to him his eagerness to fight another taxi-driver, and had said, to make known the extent of his eagerness: “J’d crawl on my hands and knees over 12 yards of broken bottles to get a crack at him.”

In chronicling the fact that the Stratford Borough Council recently purchased a steam roller and had just decided to purchase a stone crushing t plant at a cost of £315, the Patea Press says:—Stratford, with ite abattoir, and up-to-date water and drainage systems, is without Idoubt one of the most progressive towns in the Bominion, and one that has the brightest future before it. No small share of its present success is due to the magnified! t spirit displayed by its public men who have worked unitedly together in the past, carrying out to the full the motto of the town “Kia pipiri,” or “Shoulder to Shoulder,” in spite of any political or private differences that might exi*t.