LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

It costs the London County Council £0,000,000 to educate the (300.000 children in the schools controlled by them. During the last 100 years the average hours of labor in England have been reduced from 1(3 to 10, and in many cases to eight. The tourist traffic on the Wanganui: River during the present month (Mannary) has been very heavy, considerable numbers making their way both np and down-stream. The Houseboat and I’ipiriki House are now favorke places : with many for a few days or a wo°k . stop-over. The .Australian ho'-’m's, to, the number of 02, make the trip from I Taumarunui to Wanganui on Febru-j ary sth,

The ALinawatu ami AVest Coast A. and I*. Association’s eleventh National Dairy Show will take place this year on the ICtb, I»tit. 18th and 19th .1 tine. The heavy rain of yesterday evening seems to have been local. A Niters returning from the New Fly-, mouth excursion did not run into it until AA’aipuku was reached. Rev. E. Handy, with a friend in; a. side car, rode his motor cycle (a “Royal Unity”) up to the Mountain House on Monday last. Tins is be-j lieved to be the first side-car to; reach the Alountahi House. ! Dr. A. C. Livingstone despatched bis wedding; presents, securely packed in a box, from Liverpool to Rochester by railway. A similar box was delivered, but on being opened it was found ta contain empty pickle jars. The original label was attached to tlic box. Land agents’ licenses were granted to the following at the Court this morning: AV. \V. Hodge, F. Dobson, Jos. AlcCluggage, and J. H. Thompson. The applications of AA’. M. Bayly, C. Jackson, J. B. Richards, T. Say well, and T. I. La mason were adjourned owing to the papers not being technically correct.

A fine line of 950 fat lambs were trucked from Stratford on A) eonesday for Messrs T. Bortbwick and Sons’ Wa.itara Freezing Works. They were bred by Alessrs Pitt Bros, on their Stanley Road property, and were a fine advertisement for that locality, seeing they were finished entirely on grass. The owners have a second draft of 500 on rape on the same property, which they expect to finish off in a month’s time.

A fine of 29s with costs <s, was imposed on John Lunn at the Court this morning on a charge ot cruelly ill-treating a mare on January 20th, by working it while it was suffering from a tore back. Sergeant AlcNoely said that defendant drove a baker’s cart. The sore was a raw one about three indies long by an inch wide. Defendant said that it was apparently an old sore. The horse appeared quite well when taken out in the morning, but by the time half the round was done the sore developed. It appeared that a scab bad been worked off an old sore.

Mr G. M. Cleary, secretary of the Toko Settlers’ Association Show tiesires it to be specially noted by settlers that' at the Dog Trials, the head-pn!!-drlve-and-yard event is to be an open one. It is hoped that a large numbed' of outside entries will be forthcoming. It has been arranged that a special train wiP leave Stratford for Toko on Show Day at 1.30 p.m., arriving back at Stratford at 6 p.m. The usual afternoon train for Pohoknra will run two hours’ earlier than the scheduled time, returning from Stratford at 7 p.m. as usual. The date of the Show is Tuesday, February 10th. On Monday evening there was a big meeting at Whanganiomona in connection with the Medical Association, Air G. Court presiding, whan the following new committee was formed Messrs G. Court, V. Klee, L. T. Ayiward. W. A. McCntchan, C. E. Bacon, W. Reader, R. Shields, S. Mills, and W. Hodge, with Mr McMeckan as secretary. ihe balancesheet was read and adopted. The secretary reported that the endeavors of the committee to secure a medical man for the district had failed, and it was resolved to make further efforts to secure a doctor within the next throe months. A series of thefts have recently been reported locally (states the I’.ltham Argus). It is stated that a man, who has been seen on various occasions riding a horse, as to whose color opinion differs, and that he has visited several farm houses in the district, securing sums of money ranging from 10s to €3 or £l. He is said to visit the homesteads during milking hours, and without interruption helped himself to the monet which has been leit chiefly in the pockets of the clothes of the owners. Somewhat strange to say he lias not turned Ids attention to anything other than the clothes, and in some cases larger sums of money left in other portions of the house have not been interfered with. It is understood that there is little or no clue for the police to follow. The Women’s Convoy Corps came in for some jesting when it was first formed. Besides teaching women to ride and to camp out. to do ambulance work and field hospital practice is an enterprise bound to amuse the type or person who never believes that- any-, thing is going to happen till it has happened. Airs St. Clair Stobarts hook, “War and Women,’’ rather docs nvay with the pretty-jest theory (says :1m “Pictorial.”) As the founder and ‘ommandant of the corps, she went to Bulgaria when the war broke out, saw die Queen and the medical authorises, and, armed with all necessary lermission and invitation, sent for the ■envoy hospital and installed it at \irk Kilisse. What they did there is lit overwhelming justification for her lersistence in the face of the stateuont made to her that men would he (referred for the Bed Cross work, and hat the Balkan war was—oh, hoary ihrase!—“No place for women.”

Mr Kenrick, S.M., was on the Bench, at the Court this morning. The accident he suffered during ids recent holiday is still affecting him, and he has to use crutches when walking. The coronation of the Emperor of Japan has been officially fixed to take place on November 10 next, and that Daijo-sai (one of the ancient ceremonies in honor of the Imperial ancestors connected with the coronation) will take place on November 13 next. The Borough Inspector had two eases at the Court this morning. Charles AVasley was fined 20s with costs 7s fur driving twelve loose horses on a Borough street, the animals not being under proper control. I Dominic Sisarich was fined with costs 7s for riding a bicycle without 1 r light in Fenton Street on January |loth. j Schoolboys at times conch their j views of men and things in a funny ! way, but just bow near the truth one I boy in New South AA’ales got in his | opinion of a member of Parliament, j few would care to say. Here is Ids statement: “A member gets all railways and bridges in the electorate. If wo had no member the electorate would go to ruin. If we have none i of these things it would not be worth j our while having a member.”

AA'ork at the Whangamomona railway is making great strides, and the filling in for the platform is nearing completion The permanent way as far as Kohuratahi will bo formed some time in February, but it will l-o well on the June before the iron horse will be able to run right through, as a lot of bridge work lias yet to bo finished. Nos. 8 and 9 bridges are well nigh completed—thanks, it is understood, to the efforts of Air R. Hill, who has pushed on the work, and who is hopeful of getting through*with No. 10 bridge by the middle of the year. Many are the uses of a motor car, but here is an ingenious one. Air T. Chamney, of Tarata, finding a difficulty in securing motive power for chaff-cutting, rigged up a contrivance iu connection with his Ford car, and cut fifteen tons of chaff in fine style. Outside his labor in making the platform for the car and other work, the cost of the job amounted to two tins of benzine. Air Chamney purchased the car through Air Curtis, the Stratford agent. At the qualifying certificate examination in New South \A ales, one of the tasks set the candidates was to write an essay on “Why the teacher was angry.” The prize essay was discovered in a paper written by a bov in the Aloss A ale district. It shows that even with school children it is as well to laugh when the boss makes a joke. “All the children were assembled ope day before the vacation,” wrote the candidate.' “The teacher was fond of giving jokes, and he liked to get plenty applause, and if there was none given he was very angry. He gave what he thought a good joke, but one hoy never laughed. The teacher was furious, and gave him the stick foxbeing asleep.” But while there is any amount of humor in some of tne answers, there is frequently a lot of unconscious pathos. Could there possibly be anything sadder than this from a little lad in a dairying centre, on “what I did on Christmas Day” :—“On Christmas morning, I had to got the cows, and then milk, and then have breakfast, and wash the separator, and we had games the rest of the day till milking time. I had to milk, and separate, and feed the calves, and have tea. and go to bed, and the day was gone.” And the day—Christmas Day—was gone! The conversation had drifted round to the well-worn theme of stolen bicycles, when the silent member of the party rose in the corner and said; “This is true, Bill. Dinkum! It ’appened not a ’undred miles away from ’ere, Stratford, 1 mean—an’ not s’long ago. neither! I’d been in at the pub and’ ’ad one or two—per’aps more—’tanyratot when 1 goes out, blimo if the old jigger didn’t made ’orseif scarce. It was after ten afore I could look around, an’ w’at could a feller do f- nothink, of course, but pad the ’oof. The road seemed dustier and longer than ever 1 seed it afore. I was terrible parched, 1

was; I might as well not heen into the public house at all. But there it was: You newer misses the water till the well runs dry. For days I mourned 'or loss, an’ I watched ’em ’rill I know’d every hike w’at goes up town: i was worsenor the inspector, so I was: ’cause I saw lots on ’em in. the dark. But. stone the crows, if one day f didn’t spot the Sergeant no loss aridiir my pusher np the town, i t cays nothin’, says I. ’cept to myself, wait on ! So up I goes to the Station next day, and .1 says to the Sergeant, says 1; I’ve come for my hike. tV > haven’t got your hike, says ’e. darn, says I, didn’t T see you aridin’ it with my own eyes! An’ then the Sergeant tumbled. Says ’e: Yes, von’r right. There is a machine ’ere, ’e says; .been in the lost parcel's office for some days, ’e says; reelin’ a hit leg weary t’other day, ’e says, I got astride ’er and rod© no town. An’ that’s how you found your hike, ’e says with a laugh. You thought the police had stolen your hike, eh? Ha! ha! ha!” And the speaker subsided into the corner, leaving his listeners to nick up the moral —When yon lose your bicycle, first of all go to the police station !

A charge of allowing, a cow to wander on the r.alway lino at hirst on January 7tli was preferred at the Court tiiis morning against Wing Kee. Ihe stationmaster, Mr E. J. Patou, gave evidence that the cow was on the line when the mail train came in, and \ he train had to be pulled up to running the cow down. Mrs Wing Kce had been warned on previous occasions on the. same matter. On the day in question he put the cow in one of the railway yards and gave defendant notice that he would in-

form the ranger. She was given permission to milk the cow, and when she had done so she released it. A line of 20s with costs 7s was impos-