LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 50, 30 October 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Examinations under the Plumbers' "Registration. Act will be held on December 12 and 13. A notice regarding same will be found in another column.

The following team will represent Stratford> <in the cribbage match against Denbigh Road ta-mqrrow evi'h T ing:—C. Kelly, 0. Tocker, L. Siuurock,. J...YV. Jones, T. Dawson, W. Collins, \v..;Yardlov, J. Harston, 0. Lo»ve, C.,Beaver., E. : Thomas and one other.;. j,,fK :.,.| .... ....! L.i •■• >. sn> j

"Do dreams come true?" asks the Napier Telegraph. "The following has reached us in connection with the unfortunate, accident that tpok place on Wednesday last at the show:—Arrangements had been made between the deceased and a friend about riding the horse, and the' friend was proceeding 'to the' show' and would have been' prepared to ride the horse," but was met by his fihancee, 'who persuaded: him hot fo do so as she had dreamed there would be an accident."

It is reported from Hastings iHawke's Bay) that the lad Seymour Dennett, a letter carrier at the poit office, t,o .whom -the late Karl Ritz, who recently committed suicide at Hastings, bequeathed the whole of his estate with the exception of £SOO, will benefit to the extent of several thousand pounds. It is said that Ritz possessed considerable interests in Sydney, Paris, and Vienna, besides a tidy sum in a bank. Bennett, who is about 16 years of age, became acquainted with Ritz under very ordinary circumstances. On one occasion, about nine months ago, the lad was collecting the mail bags at a train at the Hastings railway station, when Ritz approached him and inquired what time the train left. A general conversation ensued, and from that time onward Ritz and Bennett became close friends.

Eighteen months ago, while at sea, en route to the Old Country, Mr Kalman, manager of the Central Hotel, Auckland, threw overboard, in a sealed bottle, the following note: "Gneisenau, April 20, 1912.—This was thrown overboard, 880 miles out from Frenmntle, W.A. All well. Finder please state when and where picked up, and post address to Manager, Central Hotel, Auckland, New Zealand. Thanks in anticipation." On Tuesday morning Mr Kalman's note was returned to him. Stained almost yellow, with here and there a word that had faded almost out of recognition, the manuscript was, nevertheless, in an excellent state of preservation, when the nature of its travels is taken into consideration. It was covered by the following courteous note :—This document was found by the Mudir of Nikonumbi, Province of Lanaland, British East Africa, in lat. 2deg. 20sec. and long. 40deg. -10 east, on August 26,

1913. It had been damaged by water, as you will observe. The name of the sender lias been obliterated. (Sgnd.) A. L. Riddie, provincial commissioner, E.A.P." Mr Kalman feels particularly pleased at getting his message back after its long 16 months' journey (states the Star) for at the time of throwing the bottle overboard be was informed by the officers that not one such message in a thousand ever readied the shore, the bottles generally being smashed to pieces on some rockbound coast.

Constablo Scannel yesterday arrested a man named Daniel Currin, who was found wandering ?uout. partly undressed, east of Te Wei'rt. lie was brought to town and charged before Mr S. B. Hunter, J.P., with j>elpW drunkenness. He >vas ivmatrledjlfc" a week for medical treatment. Ci;Ki, who is a big man, caused some tr«m>lfl while being removed from the Court to the cells and Constables Scannell and Bleasel had a tough struggle before he was successfully handcuffed.

At the Waverley golf links on Saturday (states the Patea Press) a lady and gentleman were engaged in a friendly putting competition. At the last hole the lady, who was leading, drove the ball to within a few niches of the hole with her first shot. The gentleman, however, with a long "put' holed out in one. Some bystanders remarked "well done," but flie lady jokinolv remarked that it was an accident °* Immediately a challenge was given and accepted for another round, when, strange to say, the same thing happened again.

Wih a noise and clatter that startled the bystanders in the vicinity yesterday afternoon, a runaway express rushed out of the Club Hotel right-of-wav and made straight for tile doorway of the Celestial fruiterer's, on the opposite side of the road. Visions of rolling apples and oranges and sprawling bananas rose in the mind's eye of the spectators, but the horse drew the color line half-way across the footpath, being materially assisted therein by a telegraph pole which hooked a wheel quite neatly. There was ! left a woman with a perambulator and two children skedaddling out of the way, and quite as frightened as the erring animal, which stood shaking with the shock when seized by a spectator. By this time the horse was well-nigh clear of the trap. Only a shaft of the vehicle was broken, and it was drawn back through the right-of-way to its starting point, where the woman who had been the cause of the trouble owing to hitting the horse with the whip when she got in, was found being attended to. The horse got something back by tipping her out, but she was not seriously hurt.

Says the Waverley Tribune: The uninstructed world little knows what forethought is required to successfully run some concerns. A case -in point occurred in connection with-the totalisator at the races at Waverley on Monday. Mr Spriggins had- provided himself with £IOOO in notes, gold and silver so as to have, as he thought, plenty of; change. But ,the; amount named prqyed to be | insufficient,' and before the, last. race he was .unable to comply:with; all the .calls made xipkm 'fThe Treasury'f : for change. ,An!.instance of the unreasonableness of some investors is contained in the fact that a £IOO cheque was tendered in payment for a single ticket! The cheque was good enough, but it was preposterous to expect that a tote clerk could deal with it in, the rush of business,, .Very great. care,r too, has to.be exercised in Jiandhng-che-ques on a racecourse, as all sorts, of tricks are attempted. One "tried on" somewhat frequently is a post-dated document. ''Cheques not . accepted'' (or even changed) ,at the tote would not be an unfair rule of the machine concludes the writer.

"Tin-canning" formed the subject of a Police Court prosecution at Kawhia on October 22nd, when T. Parkinson proceeded against R. C. Honore, charging him with assaulting his son and breaking his nose. Defendant is the school teacher at Rau-a-moa, and was recently married. On the happy day the tin-canners were in evidence, and they came back a few days later. As one witness said: "The 'boys' had visited the house in order to welcome Mr and Mrs Honore home. He was aware that there had been a previous performance, but considered a repeat justifiable on such occasions—in fact, he had known of • three." On the second occasion (continues the Kawhia paper's report), Honore was in bed, and hastily dressed when he knew there was somebody in the house, and when he reached the scene of the disturbance he bit young Parkinson. The Bench, after hearing evidence, said he considered defendant was not justified to taking the action he did. The celebration was a universal custom, and a reasonable margin was allowed. Some of Parkinson's party had acted on the other hand like .a band of hoodlums, and had committed a grave breech in entering the house. The wife had admitted her impression that it was another celebration. There was no evidence that the injury had been caused by any weapon. He would inflict a small fine of 10s, and £8 19s costs.