LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In 1008 the total deaths recorded in .Now Zealand from cancer reached the large total of tw'7. In the fu;!:,,ving year this total Jiad reached Tit. In 1910 it was 742, in 191] 809, and in 1912 it had still further increased to 812. The percentage of deaths due to cancer is, in the same ratio, 7.27. 7.94, 7.70, 8.49 and '-' m for the years 1908, 1909, 1910, 1011 and 1912 respectively. "Where one or two are gathered to. pother."—Mr W. Hathaway, chairman of the County Council, evidently believes in taking advantage of every opportunity which presents itself, and a person who was; present at the wellattended picnic of the Acldand lioad school on Thursday last states that his chiel topic of conversation as he moved about among the ratepayers present seemed to be toll-gates. A Stratford youngster just turned live is feeling the burden of school almost greater than he can bear, judging by the question he put te bis mother the other day. The Mother: "There'll be no school to-

morrow (Saturday), dear, find none the next day, too; lint on Monday morning you'll haro to lie up early." Hill the little chap was not quite satisfied; lie must have had t!m' halcyon days in store for himself; for he said: ".Mum. when will the school shut and never open again;""

One clay Inst month at \orthan i'AV.A.*), Hie soiis of All>(>rt Lookyer a farmer, urrc loft alone in tin homestead. Tlio parents returned and found tlio hoys fill in hod. Later. Keith, aged si-;, name down hleodinp from a Inillet wound in tlio month, and a sooond hoy, when wakened. said thai tlio eldest. Demon, aped 12. shot Keith with a pea rifle, mistaking him for a hnrukir. TJein.ir frightened. all wont to hod. The hnllet was emhedded in the hack of the throat, h firing carried away a tooth. The lad's life will probahly ho saved.

The Borough Council meets this As several of those wishing to compete nt the Fire Brigade Garden Fete have found diiTmilty in getting their •- trii - i;i it ha- been decided to make all i vents post entry. A meeting nf memebcrs of the Retailers' Association was hold this morning, when it iva« decided, in view of tiie Kire Brigade Fete, to close at noon on Thursday next. There is on exhibition in the window of Mr C. K. .lames' premises in Broadway, a large lump of coal procured by Mr ,1. B. Kichards in the Tangarakan (Jorge d;i:iv.j. the recent Cham- ■ r i-'i { o:nmerce trip to the Ohura. As Monday next will mark tlie third anniversary of contimious picture shows at llis Majesty's Theatre. Madame Bernard has decided to-give n fri ■ performance to patrons, when special efforts will be made to celebrate the occasion. A Wellington Press Association

telegram to-day states: Information lias been received that the Xew Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Opawa arrived in London on January 22 wiili her volunteer firemen nil well. The tner v.-orked splendidly during the voyage ami will he 'riven a free passage hack to Xew Zealand, when they •i;v disposed to return. A Press Association wire from Wanganui to-day says: When the hatches were removed on the steamer Stormbird this morning preparatory to unloading a lire was discovered, two cases of hospital supplies being alight. The fire was soon extinguished, the damage by water and fire being about £2O. Had the lire broken out at sea the consequences might have been very serious. Tariki seems to be a home for blackberries, and contingents of pickers wend their way in that direction and succeed in getting plentiful stipplies. Two young men, anxious to get a quantity for the purpose of making jam, or wine, were captured by the owner of the property yesterday with their billies full, and a demand for one shilling trespass fee or "tip your blackberries out" was his request. The young men, not having a "colonial Robert," bad to part with their blackberries, putting them into a bucket the owner- had. They pleaded hard for the fruit they had labored for, hut of no avail. The young men then left the property, and set out in another ■ direction, and managed to refil their billies in quick time without being disturbed. Economy may be roughly defined as getting the greatest possible result from every expenditure of energy or material : and a housewife in the Stratford district has probably a claim to honor in the matter of economy. She has fitted to her windows tin trenches in which kerosene is placed, the fumes rising and overpowering the flies which light on the window, the flies falling Oa)v;h into the trench. A visitor called at her house the other afternoon and seeing the trench pretty. full of flies asked why she did not throw them out at once. She replied that she always cleared the trenches in the morning and used the kei-osene-saturated flies to light the fire. She further declared that the flies gave the fire an excellent start.