LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 43, 21 October 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The monthly meeting of the School Committee is to be held this evening. C The annual meeting of the Swimming Club takes place at the Borough Council Chambers at 8 o’clock this evening. A Maori pig at Bangiotu committed suicide the other day through disappointment. The porker put its head in a biscuit tin, and not only found emptiness reigned supreme inside j but found that the tin stuck fast. De-j spite the efforts of its owners, the pig galloped for the nearest stream j and drowned itself.

! Jn the annual Egmont Pen Competij tion for 1913, promoted hy Messrs H. j jI. Jones and Son, Wanganui, the | second prize in the class for under i ! nine years of age was won hy Miss Nora Bowler, of the Convent School, Stratford. Out of the 14 prizes offered, Gisborne schools captured eleven, Hawke’s Bay and Wanganui vith one each providing the remaining prize-winners. There were 650 entries altogether.

At the close of the‘public meeting in the Town Hall last night, the visiting if.P.’s., Messrs Thomson, At more, and Isitt were entertained to a light supper in the supper room by their Liberal friends. Mr N. J. King; (chairman of the local Progressive Liberal League) presided over an attendance of about seventy, and the| proceedings were reported to be very enthusiastic. The following toast list was honored : “The King,” “The Visitors.” “The Progressive Liberal Party,” “The Local Branch,” and the •hairman.

The Nelson Anglican Synod last light adopted the following resoluiou: That in the opinion of the Sylud it is desirable that women xnemiers of the Ctmrch should he eligible o vote at parish meetings for tiie apmiutment of parish officers and maters in regard to the general business >f the parish. The voting was : Clergy, Yves -1; Noes 2; laity, Ayes 19; Noes An axemen’s carnival is to be held n connection with the Auckland Exlibition, and will be spread over two lays. The carnival will be opened m February 27 .with the “New Zeaand Championship Chop, of £22.” Then the “New Zealand Championship Sawing Match, of £10,” and a “Handicap Underhand Chop, of £50.” Some bicycle and running events will intersperse the programme. On the following day there will be a variety of events, including the “World’s Championship Chop, of £200,” and the “Exhibition Chop, of £100.” Nominations are to close with the sports secretary (Mr A. J. Woodley) on January 21st. The ordinary meeting of the Oddfellows Lodge, M.U., was held in the Foresters’ Hall last night, when a fair number of members was present. P.G. Bro. T. Partridge in the chair. The District Officers, G..M. Bro. W. Mountford, D.G.M. Bro. Melville and Corresponding Secretary- P.P.G.M. Bro. C. E. Bellringer paid their proposed visit and discussed with the members the centralisation of the sick and funeral funds. P.P.G.M. Bro. Hancock also paid a visit to the Lodge, and Lodge honours were conferred oh the visiting brethren. The matter will be fully discussed at future meetings, and the delegates to the next district meeting will be instructed how to east their votes.

The disappearance of Lake Canterno, near Rome, will not seriously affect the map of Italy. Only the local tisherfolk will miss its few square miles should its water never return from the subterranean caves into which they; have again disappeared. The Russian Government, however, is more concerned about , the greatest of all lakes, the Caspian Sea, which covers an area of 180,000 square miles. The waters of this great inland sea are' slowly disappearing, and the Imperial Academy of Science has appointed a commission to investigate on the spot the cause. Unless the shores of the Caspian are rising (which has been suggested), there seems no other explanation but that the .water is passing away by some subterranean channel, The British Colonial Office has , also recently ordered an inquiry into ' inexplicable alterations in level of Lake Victoria, which, occupies . ’ some 2d,000 square miles of the British East Africa Protectorate, and occasionally sinks so low as to prevent steamers communicating with the shore.

j In connection with the shooting afI fray on the construction works on the I Gisborne-Motn railway, it appears that j there has been a long-standing feud ! between the two men which dates back, to December last. Man nix, who i is now in the Gisborne Gaol, has been , a cripple through rheumatism for some i months past, and has been unable to I work. He has, he declares, been subi ject to a great deal of chaff from the j men, Fitzgibbou being tjie ringleader. I Mannix brooded over this to such an extent that some months ago he cameinto Gisborne and consulted a lawyer on the matter. He was advised to take no notice of the,barracking he was receiving. This led him to declare that there was one law for the rich and another for the poor. He then decided to. take the law into his own hands, and by shooting his tormentor, to compel tlie case to come before the court. He declared to the police that he was simply carrying out the unwriten law and felt happier after shooting- Fitzgibbou than he had done for months. Fitzgibbou, who was a worker on the railway constnicetion works, hails from the Waimata district.