The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1913. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 98, 27 December 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1913. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A copy of the current year’s, offiJcial Year Book is to hand from tiie 1 (lovemmenfc Printing Office. There iiave been no cases of smallpox recorded for six days. Despite the festive season, there were only two charges to be dealt . wit’n at the sitting of the Police Court ' i held this morning. Messrs Hunter ’ hind McCluggage occupied the bench. A gentleman who was convicted and discharged at the Police Court this morning on a charge of drunkenness I was making his first appearance in similar circumstances since last Christmas. This would seem to indiJcale that the “burst" is an annual I affair; and ardent Prohibitionists will 1 presume that between the festive seasons the gentleman in question is ran ardent Prohibitionist. I About six years is said to be the life jof the average work horse in New J jYork, but with good care a great many j last double this length of time, while a few exceptional animals endure much ! longer. A correspondent states that .laeob Rlippert is working a remarklabfo pair on one ol his brewery waggons. Their names are Cain and Abel. I They are grey Perclierons. weighing 1,890 and 1,820 pounds respectively, and Colonel Rnppert says that they: have been in active service eighteen years. They are now about twentytwo years old. For six years this pair worked on a Brooklyn route, sometimes making two trips a da\ fiom the brewery at Third Avenue and Ninetieth Street, drawing a truck weighing 1.000 pounds and fifty half (barrels of beer weighing 10.000 pounds. (At present they are hauling one or ji-wo loads daily in New York. They are j jf.-ee from blemishes, wonting one! .small wind puff on Abel.

There wore a largo number oi visitors at the Fast Egmon'f Mountain House yesterday, and several parties travelled to the top nl the peak. Some, exciting incidents are stated to have; been experienced. It was only to be looked tor that (bore would be a spending reaction following on the calling oil' of the recent, strike; and Stratford traders report; excellent Christmas business —bettei ; than last year. The railway department can have | no cause oi complaint this Christ,ua.-, season. All the mad trains recently, have consisted of seven or eight riages, and all have been well packed, j The special trains yesterday from alh quarters were all extremely long and well packed. The weather for Christmas was; ideal and many fanners in the dis-j trict spent a merry and happy Christ-, mas mowing, tossing and stacking hay. Previously they could hardly; calculate when they would he allowed to get “on the jot).” The Now Zealand Official Year-Book is a publication which, perhaps, is not so well-known in general circles as some other publications. Ihe did edition (the twenty-second) is now t 0 hand, and it contains some new features. One of these is the inclusion of photographs of general interest—quite an agreeable change from the maps, price diagrams and weather and birth statistic movement diagrams usually associated with official Government publications. The present edition has for frontispiece a sketch of the new Parliamentary Buildings as they will appear when completed.

Los Angeles, California, has now attained fame as a mine of antique hones. Mr W. H. Osgood, curator of the Field Museum in Chicago, was directed to explore in .the neighborhood of Cos Angeles and what hr discovered there is now astonishing scientists. He found, to begin with, the skull of a prehistoric lion, the and twelve inches wide across the skull being eighteen inches long

top. These measurements may not convey much to the ordinary mind, but to the scientist they indicate that this was the largest lion that ever lived on earth, the. skull being twice as large as the largest one' heretofore known to science. The explorer also unearthed the fossils of three camels, a drove of horses, and a quantity of other interesting hones.

, Writing ito the, Christchurch Star a, .-lubopr h‘adc,r says: ,‘;Tn sfc(ny that there ,-are. some, sensible per,sons in this dominion, we..wish to ..reptrt that-we have received a,, letter from a gentleman who is prepared to arrange for the expenditure of ClO.Otu for the purpose of purchasing land for settlement. He lias made an offer giving to each married man at present"oh strike 1-5 'acres of ■ -land free of charge, the only condition being that they should reside upon the land, and they should have no power to 'sell'the land in the'event of their leaving the settlement.”

'■'The Otlago .Daily 1 Times'states that aodoi'dihg to a ■ cablegram received by Mf T); Ailderson'it would appear that Mr .May has made definite- arrangements in connection with the attempt to salvage the treasure.of the General Grant. The cablegram advised that he would be leaving San Francisco on the IGfcli inst., and his Tntention. is

apparently to make Bluff his headquarters. A letter received from Mr Anderson a few weeks ago indicated that .Air May was busy in getting together np-to-date machinery for the salvage operations. A diver had been down in San Francisco Bay a distance of 110 ft. and, the letter stated, could have gone down 150 ft or more. A feature in connection with the expedition on this occasion will be the fact that a series of motion pictures is to be taken in connection with it. ft is the intention to reproduce part of the wreck on the Pacific Coast. Mr Anderson states that the shareholders originally connected with the expedition are still interested in it.

Stratford and district has for a long time held an enviable reputation for orderliness. Even at periods when everybody is wishing peace and goodwill to every man, his wife, family and friends, and when the code of conduct is modified to some degree, the crowds who gather in Stratford have always been noteworthy for a degree of orderliness and good feeling not met in many towns. 1 here was only one case of ohstreperousnoss to 1,0 dealt with at the sitting of the | Police Court, which was held this morning, and mitigating circumstances were mentioned which to a greatextent excused the offender. Last, night he punched a railnat official, had to be handcuffed in Broadway by Sergeant McXoely, using vile language the while, and when placed in llu l padded cell at the Police Station did a considerable amount of damage to the padding. At the Court this morning he was convicted and discharged on a charge of drunken--1 ness, lined £3 or a month for the assault on the railway official, fined w or a month for obscene language and ordered to pay 15s, he damage to the He was given a month in which to find the money for the fines, on condition that in the time mentioned I he fakes out a prohibition order against himself.

The train, tram, and steamer trails' on Boxing Day. stales a Sydney cablegram, was easily a record. A special meeting of the Police court was held on Christmas morning, Mr C. D. Sole, .I.P. presiding, when live drunks were lined up. Two wore lined lUs each and three were convicted and discharged. The news of the striking of oil at a depth of 1000 ft at the Huiroa bore has been received with every satisfaction in commercial as well as oil circles. It is understood that a vein was tapped at the depth• mentioned, the oil rising in the here. New Plymouth rejoices with Scratlord in the discovery, acknowledging that the “struck oil" phase of operations has never vet been reached there at the satisfactory depth recorded at Buicon. It is also gratifying as indicating the presence oi an oil belt running across the island. Tho Christchurch Consolidated C o. Ltd., is to be congratulated on this auspicious event so early in its history. Deaths from being run down by automobiles in the city streets are steadily increasing, says the New York correspondent of the Auckland Star. In the nine months ended September ffUth there were 1«12 deaths in Manhattan. At the same ratio the mini her for the entire year will 1,0 176. Six were caused by mail waggons, sixteen by other automobile trucks, seven by taxicabs, three by lire trucks, and the rest by private cars. Fifty-eight of the victims were children under 12. The number of deaths in the borough of Mannhattan

caused by automobiles in three previous years were : 1910, 62; 1911, 90 j 1912; 146. With 234 deaths last year in the five boroughs, no convictions were secured. There have been thirty-seven arrests this year, and nine persons have been held by the coroners to await the action of the grand jury. The main cause of tho

accidents is reckless driving and excessive speeding. The mail automobiles killed four persons last year. This year they have already killed six. If they keep it up at the some rate the increase will he 100 per cent for the vear.

The Rev. J. Flanagan, speaking at the Octagon Hall, Dunedin, the other night, said: “You’ve no idea of the .overcrowding in the London slums. 1 know a court, the entrance to which is only about 4ft wide, in which 3000 persons live. In this court a man and his family of six occupied one room, 12it square. In this they lived, and slept. The rent waft 4s tkl a week, This being rather heavy the, tenant let half the room to another family, who paid Him 3s, and so.as to, readjust the interior it was deemed Sufficient tjo put upi a partition formed of broken orange boxes, this partition dividing the room into equal halves, and terminating at the fireplace, each m the wives thus having access to it from her side. One day _I took to this court a lady who wanted to see the slums, and when she could stand the stench and the sights no- longer, ,a.nd asked me to take, her out, tye, had ,tp step over tho bodies of five drunken women who had fallen in a heap at the entrance.-’ These are not .tho lecturer’s exact words, but they represent what he said on the subject.