LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 95, 26 August 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

| Mr N. J. King is the successfu i tenderer for the work of altering th i premises of the "Kash," following 01 I the recent fire. A month hence the members of th< Toko, Midhirst and Stratford M.TJ | Oddfellows' Lodges will assemble ii ! Stratford to discuss the centralksatioi

of the sick and funeral fund. Tin district officers will be in attend a nee. The remarkable success of the Gold skemidt system of wireless telegraph; in successfully transmitting message;

between Germany and the Unites States, between two points distal) nearly four thousand miles, is pro bably a now record in distance lo

wireless. The messages were von I clearly delivered, and are describee as liaviii;;; been "almost, too loud." j The fortnightly meeting of the I Stratford Lodge of Oddfellows (M.U.) was held in the Foresters' Hall last I night, there being a fair number prej sent. One new member was initiated. After the meeting the usual euchre I party took place, Mr J. Sharrock win-

ning the gentlemen's prize. Miss Lavorty and Mrs Crofts tied for the ladies' prize, which was won in the play-off by Mrs Crofts, who generously donated it back to the committee. A pleasant evening was brought to a close with supper provided by Mrs Brooking.

The New Plymouth Operatic Society have booked the Town Hall, Stratford, for Thursday, September* 25th, when they intend to stage Lionel Monckton's comedy opera "A Country Girl." The Society are sparing no expense this year to make the opera a success, and are having entirely new scenery and costumes made. The production in New Plymouth on Septem-

ber 9 and 10 will cost close on £3OO. Twenty-one civil cases (three of which are to be defended) and two judgment summons cases are set down tor hearing at the Court on Friday. I'lie Borough Inspector is represented by the following informations:—One for driving a gig without lights, two

for riding bicycles without lights, and one for riding a bicycle on the footpath. Oil boring operations at Huiroa are reported to be proceeding very satisfactorily. The bore is down about 300 feet, and the indications for oil in the strata are stated to be already very promising'. Messrs T. Nicholls and I). Watson, members of the company interested, were in Stratford yesterday, and confirmed the favorable reports. it is- understood that negotiations for further boring in the game district

Tho following answer to a question in the Journal of Agriculture i© of interest in this district:—Swede turnips can be fed to dairy cows without' affecting the flavour of the milk to any great extent. Cows should not be allowed to have a free run over turnips. Feeding turnips, with hay, straw, or chaff, should be done immediately after milking. If only a few cow's are being fed, use pulped turnips with chaff and bran, and, if possible, feed thorn away from the byre. Tin's would allow from ten to twelve hours before milking, and it is not thought that any objection would be taken to the sale or use of milk under these conditions. President Wilson sat in his study at Washington on May 24, and sent' a message by phonograph to tlie American Indians. It will be translated into the various tribal dialects, and taken on a 22,000-mile tour of Indian reservations by Dr. Joseph K. Dixon, of Philadelphia, of the Rodman Wanamaker expedition. It is intended to let every Indian tribe hear the "White Father's" message. "I rejoice to foresee the day," said the President, in the course of the message, and quoting Thomas Jefferson,

"when the Bed Men come truly ohe - people with us, enjoying all the rights and, privileges we do, and , living ,in ' peace and plenty.'' . ~.,-: , ; , In the course of an address to thej , Court at Wyndliam last week, Mr W. A. Stout, counsel for one of the defendants, referred to the "extraprdin-,, ary amount of iiqiior'"' that was hein'g consigned daily from license to nolioeifee areas. It was remarkable, he said, the number of beer kegs and

whisky jars to be seen sometimes on the stations in no-license districts along the main and branch lines, a fact which was well borne out' liy the revenue returns. Regarding ,;i drinking in hotels in ho-license areas; he said that it Was a common prac- ' tice for customers to carry their own ' flasks and buy soda water and borrow glasses from the hotelkeepers, and drink on the premises. "Surely," he said on another occasion, addressing the police, "you have seen' in Invercargill dozens going into the hotels and temperance shops particularly, where they get glasses with which to

consume their liquor, and perhaps get soda water with it." Mr Stout thought Invercargill had gained notoriety in this respect. Chatting with a pressman on the subject of interviewing, Sir Joseph Ward said that in America and Canada, if an interview were not given there was a danger that the reporter would make one. One of these faked interviews had appeared in a Canadian paper, and had been copied into a Manchester paper. It contained an account of a desperate encounter be-

tween himself and a man over a table in a shanty at Lake Wakatipu. The reporter had heard of the southern gorges of New Zealand, and had weav-*, ed a Wild West story around them. The story was that a desperado had tempted to put poison into a glass of spirits that Sir Joseph was drinking, and in the resulting .fracas both men liad rolled under the table. This, said Sir Joseph, was his worst experience of interviewers, although* as a matter of fact, lie had never seen the "interviewer." On another occasion a gentleman at one time connected with the Press in New Zealand, had given an interview of about a column to a New York paper under his name, although he had known nothing about it until the "interview" was quoted in a.financial debate, when he found that though in some respects the interview • might have done him credit, it was incorrect in several matters of finance. At the last sitting of the Kaikoura

S.M. Court, a case in which a young man was charged with having been on licensed premises after hours was dealt with. In the course of evidence, reports the Star, it transpired that the accused was waiting in the bade yard for a friend, who was talking to a female employee of the hotel, at the hack door. In dismissing the charge, his Worship smilingly commented that it was, in his opinion, quite legitimate for a man to be in any hotel back yard after hours, "if he happens to be courting the cook or the housemaid."

'".'it is understood that Messrs Henderson's Clinton Estate, at Makahu, has been disposed of through Mr W. W. Hodge, of Stratford. The deal, is stated, runs into about £30,000. The police seem almost to have given up the idea that Virgin drowned himself, says yesterday's Waitara '• Mail, for on Saturday .Detective Bodhma was searching the bush country around Tarata. There was a rumour in Waitara this morning that the missing man had been seen and spoken to on the Kaipikari road, but there have been so mny rumours floating round in connection with the tragedy \mt one pays little attention to them. This last one is quite verified.

The following new books have been added to the Stratford Public Library: —"Myles Calthrope" (Mills Young), "The Swashbuckler" (Mrs E. Reynolds), "The .Red Mirage" # (I. A. it. Wylie), "In Old Madras" (B. M. Croker), "The Daughter in Law" (E. W. Savis, "Roslaind in Arden" (M. Watson), "Hunt the Slipper" ,(0, Hueffer), "The Hippodrome" (R. AHayward), "The. Declension of Henry D'Albiae" (V. Goldie), "The Frontiers of the Heart" (V. Margueritfce), "One Woman's Life" (Robert Horrick), "Calling the Tune" (J. H. McCarthy), "Gracechurch" (John Ayscough), "The F-folliots of Redmarley" (A. Barker), j "Poetical Works of Robert Bridges".

A reminder need hardly be given of the military ball to be held in the j Town Hall on Thursday evening, as it has been the chief topic of conversation with dancers for weeks past. Tickets, have been going off like the proverbial hot cakes, but those who have not already procured them may purchase same at the door. A large number of visitors are expected, a big attraction being the fact that the * committee have secured Crozier's orchestra from Marton for the . music. The working committee are planning something big in the way of decorations, and the hall should present a gay and animated appearance.;, Territorials will apear in uniform. A young man in the Stratford dis-

trict has (in the language of the sporting scribe) "a large number of tickets" on a young lady in Christchurch, and he periodically writes to her to keep her reminded of the fact,. p.and the young lady, very naturally, periodically writes back to him. She' wrote recently from a "sick-bed, and informed the young man that she was suffering.'from influenza. Curiously enough, soon after receiving the letter the young'man had to take to• his bed as a result of an attack of influenza; and now he is wondering it influenza is as catching as smallpox * and capable of transmission in a letter.

The Chiheie'citizens of Stratford are not frequently seen on the railway sta '' tion—they have not the "train habit." And it was therefore surprising quite a congregation of them on the station last night. The suspicior. that Sun-Yat-Sen had thrown up the Revolutiop busines; and had decided on Stratford as a suitable place to lead a quiet life was dispelled when the train drew up and On Kee, who has been on a visit to China,, stepped on the platform accompanied by his wife, his children, and a large number of boxes marked O.K.

A story of how love's young dream was rudely interrupted was told at the Bathurst Police Court last week, when a youth, Norman Stanley Parkes, 19. was charged with having taken Alice O'Brien, a 16-year-old ; damsel, out of the care of her guardian. Evidence for the prosecution showed that the pair had been on W' friendly terms for about 12 months. One night they planned an elopement, and it was intended to proceed to Orange. The girl's step-father, Arthur Ingold, became aware of the escapade, and set watch. He saw his step-daughter leave the house shortly after midnight and go' into a stable in the next yard, where, she was joined by the accused. The pair then proceeded to the railway station, where the accused purchased two secondclass tickets .to Orange. After they had taken their seats in the train Constable Fleming accosted the youth, who admitted that he was taking the girl to Orange. Parkes was then arrested. Miss O'Brien in her evidence stated that it was at her suggestion that Parkes took her away. She had loved him for some time, and still did so. They intended .to get married as' soon as Parkes secured em ployment. The youth reserved hi; defence, and was committed for trial.

In recent Regimental Orders issued by Lieutenant-Colonel Malone, commander, 11th Regiment, Taranaki reference was made to classes of instruction, and it is explained that it is proposed to hold classes of instruction for non-commissioned officers at the various company headquarters nightly from 7.30 o'clock to 9 o'clock, as follows: —C Company, at Patea, from August.2s to September 3; H Company, at Stratford, from September 4 to 15; E Company, at . Eltham, from ■ September 18 to 25; T) Company, at Inglewood, from September 29 to October 8; A and B. Companies, New Plymouth, from October 9to October 17; C. Company, ' at Taumarunui, from October 20 to 29. The orders also state that the Adjutant and Quarter-Master Sergeant will visit the various company headquarters on the dates mentioned below, for the purpose of inspecting record books and company ledgers, commencing at 7.30 p.m. with H. Company on A«K"st 22, E Company on August 25, B Company on August 28, A Company and Band on August 27, D Company on August 29, C Company on September 9, and C. Company on September 16.