LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 29, 4 October 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A census of the Roman Catholi population of Wellington City is to h taken soon. The Roman Catholi Federation and the St. Vincent d Paul Society will undertake the work

Nino members of the llifle Chi! were at tiie range on Thursday,, whci the season was opened with a friend ly shoot. The conditions were a against good shooting, a nasty fish tail wind making itself felt, and th best score registered was 86.

Under the will of the late Mr 1 C. Williamson, the Actors’ Associntioi of Australia will receive the whole o the deceased’s theatrical library, print, pictures, etc., included in which art some rare and valuable Th't association also receives a share of rhi proceeds of the sale of the entrap.-e----neur’s racing stables, which wil amount to about £3BO. The Actors Day matinee held in Sydney on Friday week realised a profit of £2BO.

Residents of Stratford will bo idterested to learn of a return nVi of Miss C. W. Christie, F.T.S., lecturer and national organiser of the The'isophical Society. Miss Christie has spent some years in India where she obtained first-hand evidence of the subjects she lectures upon, and will be able to throw fresh light on occult science and the progress of libeial icligious ideals. Our advertisement columns detail her series of lectures.

An accident of a somewhat peculiar nature happened to a minor named Ben. Gleghorn in the Extended mine at Huntly on Monday. G leghorn and his mate were working together hewing coal. Gleghorn was working behind his mate, who was using the pick. A backward stroke of the pick caught him in the neck, the point going through into his mouth, and just missing the jugular vein and the muscles of the neck. The wound sustained, however, is not likely to result in any permanent injury.

A young man who appeared before Judge Burnside at Perth in support of demands for increased wages made by the Clerks’ Union, admitted _ a somewhat extravagant taste in the matter of hats. He said his age was 21,.and he was receiving 70s a.week, which he complained was not enough. His board cost 25 s, washing 2s Gd, in* surance 2s Gd, and recreation 15s a, week. His clothes cost £SO, and ho bought a dozen hats a year. He could nofc account for the balance of the pay, but lie did not smoke. The judge recommended matrimony.

Garden robbing is vexing flower growers at tho north end of Dunedin city. The Star writes: It is annoying to have one’s choice blooms plucked during the. night, and far more provoking to find that the thief has had the impudence to go, round the garden and lift roots and bulbs of sepcial value. As a means of thwarting such systematic robbers one gardener has hit upon the scheme of false labelling. The labels that he puts in the ground mean something else; and wluk that .something else is is known only tc himself by means of a private plan of each bed and border.

A ■ Californian paper publishes the following item of news from Avalon under date August ,2“For one hour and 20 minutes last evening, Mrs Winnifred M. Pharazyn, of New Zealand, fought dexterously an Bft. swordfish upon nine-nine tackle, and finally landed it, establishing a woman’s fishing record never before made by any angler. When weighed upon the Tuna Club official scales the monster swordfish nulled down the beam at 161 pounds. The fish wps landed near Mosquito Harbor, San Clemente Island. and will be mounted and sent to the Pharazyn home, Wellington, New Zealand.”

The problem of maintaining fordable crossings over river shingle beds subject to changes by successive floods appears to have been effectively solved in the Waiapu County. A recent visitor to the Waiapu district told the Poverty Bay Herald that the county engineer has adopted a method which appears to be acting most satisfactorily. A concrete weir curving towards the centre is constructed across the river immediately below the ford, and the travelling shingle accumulating on the upper side-makes an excellent crossing. The central flow of the water is maintained by the curved design of the weir, which, with the shingle available, is comparatively inexpensive, gnd, makes a permanent job.

-< The, Foxton Bofotigh ‘douiicil : lias heepi } running Jnoving pictures for • neaylß tbr’ee believing'Ahat' thewo,rd§. “AmukemerTt''and iflstrubliuh,I’’ 1 ’’ ’■ cpnita.ined 1 in' section 290 'of ‘’‘The 1 Mum-' cipal Corporations Act, 1 1908,'” ■' HVduld include such pictures. This the Chief Justice does not recognise, holding that the running of kinematograph pictures by a municipality is illegal. A strong effort is now being made by the Foxton Council, with the assistance of other councils, to have a clause... inerted iff the 1 Municipal ■ Corpora-! q tionp Billy before Parliament! makingV it legal in the future for municipal!* iim ties, to run moving pictures. r J From ,/ October, 1911’, to March 31y 1912, the i net profit of the Foxton venture was-/ £347 Is 6d; from April 1, .1912, to; ~, Mdrch 31, 1913, £961 14s; and from April 1, 1913, to date, £402 16s 9d. The cost of running is shown to vary from £7 2s 9d to £7 10s per night.

The morality or otherwise of picture shows is beginning to attract attention (writes the Sydney correspondent of the Dunedin Evening Star on the 16th ult). Undoubtedly sensational scenes of lawlessness and cruelty must leave very ■ undesirable impressions on the minds of the young. We are too moral to allow citizens to supply one another’s needs a minute after certain hours in the afternoon ; but the influence of demoralising exhibitions is regarded as negligible. Adults are assumed to be incapable of managing their own affairs without minute regulations and heavy penalties, but children are supposed to be able to look after themselves without any regulation at all. Some of the shows are harmless enough—, may even he highly educative—hut assuredly that cannot he said of all of them, and as long as sensational exhibitions prove to he better “draws than those of a more innocent character they will become not only more numerous, hut of a rapidly degrading type. Some maintain that the effect of such exhibitions in suggesting or promoting immorality by this teachinh gy example is “nil.” Well, if it is impossible to teach, immorality, it is equally impossible to teacli morality. On this showing it would he as well, or better, to dispense with this feature of the curriculum altogether. At any rate, that is what the moralists are saying. If some general consensus of opinion as to the things which matter and those which don’t could he arrived at the position would he materially simplified.

The September number of the New) Plymouth Boys’ High School Magazine is to hand. It contains the| usual excellent assortment of school netvs. A special feature of the number is a review of the past football season. A fine'photograph of the new English and Classical master, Mr Rockel, is also given. Lovers of cinematography will be pleased to learn that Madame Bernard has made arrangements to put on an additional change of pictures at His - Majesty’s Theatre, making *hree programmes for the week, viz., on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The new order commences from Monday, 13th inst. V \ The New Plymouth Operatic Society are staging “A Country Girl” in Eltbam on Monday evening next at 7.60. When the opera was staged . here quite a number were unable tc gain admission, so that the perform ance in Eltham should be a splendid opportunity for those people to witness this charming opera. The special train which the Society have arrangec for will pass through Stratford about 7.10 p.m., and will return after performance. There is a slight alteration in the cast. Miss Kathie Bennett > is playing the part of Nan. Miss Bennett took the part of Molly Seaenore in the “Geisha” last year.