LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2, 23 April 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

To-day being St. George’s Day, the banks and legal offices were closed. A Sydney cable states that two cases of smallpox are reported at Coraki. The Australian submarines have arrived at Singapore, states to-day’s cables. A Wellington Press Association message this morning states: With the £2OOO voted by the Macarthy Trust. Victoria College proposes to establish a school of economics, commerce, and history, with a professor at £BOO per annum. The Go/element will be asked to provide auditioned funds, if necessary, and fDither contributions from the "rust, if any, will go to reduce tho amount supplied by the Government. “THEY WHO SEEK TROUBLE • NEVER MISS IT!” Troubles that none seek, and only few manage to miss, are coughs and colds, sore throat, and influenza, etc. The <afe. sure, and speedy remedy is Tonking’s Linseed EmulGhemists and stores, la 6d, 2s 6d. 4s 6d

Sir lan Hamilton is a passenger by the Moeraki which has left Melbourne for New Zealand, states a cable today.

The Mayoral campaign will be continued to-morrow evening, when Cr. King will deliver an address at the Town Hall. Mr Kirkwood will again address the electors on Monday evening next, and it is understood that Mr King will also make a second speech in the Town Hall on the following evening. The election takes place on Wednesday next, the Town Hall being the polling place.

A Christchurch constable had a difficult task to perform on Thursday morning in u city hoarding-house near the Clock Tower (the Lyttelton Times states). A young woman had been locked in a room upstairs, and the constable was called in to liberate her. This was found to he no easy task, and the rescuer had to climb a tire escape and lift the woman out through a window. Some spectators thought it a sensational arrest, but after the rescue the constable dusted himself and resumed his beat.

The advent of another daily paper to Christchurch was hinted at by Mr R. Semple, organiser of the 1 nited Federation of Labor, in the course of an address he gave at Sydenham on Thursday evening (says the Christchurch Sun). “When we have elected Mr Spiers to the mayoral chair,” he said, “we intend to start right away to establish here in Christchurch a daily paper—not the one,” he continued, iu allusion to certain' recent cartoons, “that is going down, but the moon that is rising.”—(Laughter.)

Referring to the tom and bulletriddled colors and rusty sword handed over to the Defence Minister at Orakau as a relic of that engagement, a well-informed correspondent of the Taranaki Herald avers they were really relics of the White Cliffs massacre. The flag, probably, was an adornment of the military settlers’ moss room, and was moth-eaten, not bullet-riddled, certainly it was never a “colour.” The sword almost certainly was Lieutenant Gascogne’s, concludes the Press Association wire.

The “Xovoe Vremya” publishes various details of the economic reforms which the new Russian Administration proposes to carry out. In order to combat drunkenness it is proposed, first, to reduce the output of vodka: secondly, to increase the penalties on illicit trading; thirdly, to teach the people the advantages of temperance through tli£ medium of the churches and schools; fourthly, not to admit extenuating circumstances in the case of crimes committed while under the influence of drink.

From a matrimonial standpoint Eastertide in Ashburton (the Guardian states) was a complete frost. The weddings celebrated in the district during the Easter holidays number as a rule from 10 to 12, but Easter for 1913 was a record, for then 17 couples stood before the hymeneal altar. But this year not one wedding was recorded. For the falling off there is not any reason apparent. Perhaps the little man with the bow and endless supply of arrows is following the bad example set by the workers in all parts of the world, and has gone on strike.

A nugget of gold about 12oz. in weight, and worth about perhaps £SO, was found at Ballarat in peculiar circumstances recently by Mr J. Bridgeland, a member of the Moreland Bowling Club, who with other members of the club was on a visit to Ballarat. Mr Bridgeland is an amateur photographer, and while preparing to photograph a bowling team at a spot where the excavation works are being carried out, he found it necessary to break away some earth to obtain a level foundation for the tripod. In doing so he unearthed a nugget lying in the gravel.

Speaking of the Stratford Main Trunk to a “News” reporter, the Minister of Public YVorks (the Hon. W. Fraser), said this year’s vote was the biggest that had been devoted to this line, .the national importance of which ho fully recognised. The work of construction, however, was not very easy, especially on this side of the Tangarakau, where it was costing about £15,000 a mile. He was satisfied it could not he done cheaper. Within the limits of the vote the Government was pushing on to the utmost with the work from this side. If they had more money available, of course they could make greater headway, but the Government, it had to be remembered, had many similar works of pressing importance on hand in other parts of the Dominion. Once through to the head of the Hcao Valley, however, the work would he comparatively easy, as it would also be through the Ohura country. At the other end the contractors were making good headwaay with th© tunnel and bridge. These would take three years to finish. The jpest of the country was, he was assured—for he had not been over the country—fairly easy railing. Asked as to how long it would take at the present rate of progress to link up, Mr Fraser said it would be quite impossible to say. Later, perhaps, when money was easier and freer, they might be able to devote more money to the work and thereby accelerate its progress. At present the Government was doing as much as it could.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you Sneeze, and your friends all groan, For this good old earth has need of your mirth. It has colds and coughs of its own. Cough, and you spread the coughing Kill it with process 'tire; Laugh—you shall laugh w;rh pleasur* If*you take Wood*’ Grant I'-jpptr- ‘ mint Cure. 1

The Emperor of Austria passed a good night, states a cablegram from Vienna. The catarrhal symptoms are unchanged. The Premier visits Thames on Wednesday, and receives deputations. He will give a speech in the evening. Among the matters discussed will be the bridging of the Piako and Waihou rivers on the Hauraki Plains, and so secure direct communication with Thames. i In Dunedin the price of the 41b loaf has been increased by a halfpenny, the cost now being 7sd. The bakers claim that the increase is more than - "warranted, and that there is no profit in bread, owing to the prevailing price of flour, £lO 10s per ton. The flourmillers say that the price of wheat has been going up all the time. P.A. For years past the postal vans on •the mail trains have always been in front of the train next to the engine. This has now been discontinued, and the vans are placed behind the guaui s van. The reason for the change is to save time in shunting when it is found necessary to put another carriage on or to take one off. It is practically part of the scheme of speeding up. Ever since the New Zealand railways have been opened there has been a regulation which says that the guard s van must be behind the train. Ibis regulation will now have to be altered. / The dispute at the State Mines com- • menced at the Arbitration Court yesterday (states a Gfeymouth P.A. wire). The proposals by the Department were filed and represent reductions in the hewing rates and some daily wages hands. The counter proposals by the Union will be practically the same as the agreement which expired in January last, and is still in operation. A statement put in by the Department

showed that there was a .debit balance on the .Point Elizabeth No. 1 mine last year of £7377, and another statement put in showed the average daily earnings of the miner in 1905 to he 12s 7d, with yearly increases till November last, when the earnings were 19s. The last average had been 17s 4d. The case is likely to last for several days.

One of the spurious £lO Bank of New Zealand notes circulated in Auckland has already had an interesting history which is not devoid of humor. It was handed to the police as a bail bond by a man arrested on the racecourse! .on Monday last... Its previous career is not known. The police accepted, jt f\s genuine, as undoubtedly it to be by the man in question. The, next day it was includejd in a sum paid over by the policy-;.to the Magistrate’s Court for fines collected. Again it escaped detection. In turn, the Court paid the note ;to the Stamps and Deeds Departand again it was accepted in good faith. It was at the latter Department that its spurious nature was finally discovered, and the question which is now disturbing the minds of quite a number of Government officials is what department should be held responsible for the note and the consequent loss.

An, electrical invention, which, it is claimed, will do away with waiters in restaurants and hotels, is being experimented with in Paris (states a London paper). Each table in the restaurant is to be fitted with a frame bearing the menu and a series of electrical ‘‘press” buttons corresponding with each item in the menu. The customer, sits down before the. already laid table, with a pile of plates and silver on one side, chooses the dish which he prefers, and presses the corresponding buttons in turn. In the kitchen of the restaurant the number of the table and the number of the course required are signalled on a screen to the chefs and their assistants, and in a few seconds a steaming hot dish appears in a little lift at the side of the diner’s table. The customer helps himself, presses a ton, and the dish disappears as silently as it came, leaving at the side of the plate a little aluminium ticket indicating the sum to be paid.

The British War Office makes it clear that New Zealand mutton is not specially discriminated against in the food contract (according to a London correspondent). The discontinuance of the army contracts for mutton, it i says, is due to the fact that the British soldier prefers beef to mutton. The authorities have deferred to this preference. The limitation applies to mutton from all sources, and is in no way to be construed as a reflection on the quality of the mutton coming from New Zealand. The Pall Mall says facetiously: “The New Zealand High Commissioner cannot believe that the British soldier rejects the excellent mutton which comes from his Dominion. But so it is, and the distaste applies not merely to the frozen species, but to the whole commodity—British or foreign. Some of these gregarious aversions are very mysterious. Whj r will not servants eat game, and why will not Scotsmen eat eels? There is room for a systematic study of our table taboos.”