LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10, 2 May 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The committee set up to gather information regarding freezing works is to meet in Stratford next Wednesday.

Mr 13. G. King has notified the Borough Council that he does not intend to continue las tenancy of the Town Hall.

The “flying squadron” of the Liberal party will continue the campaign in Taranaki on Monday, when Messrs Witty and Smith will 'speak at Midhirst, Mr Forbes at Tariki, and Mr Isitt at Whangamomona.

“It is unlawful for anyone to keep, store, or bring any liquor into a prohibited area for another person.” Mr Crooke, S.M., emphasised this clause in the Licensing Act when imposing a fine of 10s and costs on a man named Carrington, of Awakino.

A month ago (states the Sydney Daily Telegraph) a horse, the property of Mrs Margaret Stevenson, of Cessnock, was maliciously injured through having one of its feet blown off by an explosive. The Government is offering a reward of £SO for such information as shall lead to the conviction of the guilty person or persons. In proportion to its population, Australia devotes more time and money to horse-racing than any country in the world. It is the gambling element, of course, that sustains the racing to such an extent, and in “Life” for May, just published, the question is discussed, “Has the general public that supports the racing a fair chance ,of coming out on the right side in its transactions with the bookmakers ?’ The weight of evidence is in the negative.

The Secretary of the Stratford A. and P. Association has received seventy names of those who are wishing to make a trip to the Experimental Farm at Moumahaki on Thursday next. The party will leave by the mail train and will travel firstclass at second-class rates. The down and up mails will stop at Moumahaki railway station to put down and pick up passengers. A number of ladies are included in the party already booked. All persons going must be at the Stratford station early, in order to get tickets.

“A quarter of the native population of New Zealand fs located north of Whangarei, and these Maoris should receive consideration,” said a member of a deputation, when asking the Prime Minister at Kaikohe to subsidise medical practitioners in back districts. Mr Massey admitted the responsibility of the Government in this connection, and said that in certain cases, where it was impossible to supply doctors, trained nurses were being sent to isolated districts. Although not head of the department, said Mr Massey, he would do what he could.

Indignation is being expressed at Cheviot (says a correspondent of the Lyttelton Times) at the failure of the Public Works Department to push on with the Main Trunk line. Not only has thousands of pounds been sunk in cuttings, tunnels and bridge approaches, but all this is likely to prove so much wasted work, as the cuttings and tunnels are falling in, the bridge approaches are being washed away, and the whole length of the formed line from Parnassus to near Mendip is a desolation. Now, to cap all, the sleepers which had been stacked in thousands at Parnassus are being railed back.

A clover Frenchman has constructed a timepiece 12ft high, composed entirely of bicycles, or their component parts. The framework is a huge bicy cle wheel around which are arranged 12 ordinary sized wheels, all fitted with pneumatic tyres. A rim within the largo wheel boars the figures for the hours, the figures themselves being constructed of crank rods. The hands are made of steel tubing which is used for the framework of bicycles. The minute strokes on the dial are small nickle-plated pieces. The top of the clock is an arrangement of 12 handlebars. The clock strikes the hours and the quarters, bicycle hells, of course, making the chimes. The pendulum is made of various parts of a bic} r cle frame.

The election for the member for Lake County for the Bluff Harbor Board on Wednesday created unusual interest throughout the district. Mr Reid, a leading farmer, opposed Sir J, Ward, who has represented the district on the Board for eighteen years. The totals at all the polling booths were: Sir Joseph Ward 300, Mr Reid 219. Maojrity for Sir Joseph Ward 86. After the poll Sir Joseph Ward said the result was very gratifying. The election had been carried out on a restricted franchise. His opponent was an old local resident, and he (Sir Josen i) had not been in the district for eight years, and his absence had been used for all it was worth. He had no opportunity of meeting any of the electors until the last few days, and the whole efforts of his political opponents had been used to defeat him. with the acknowledged object of creating an unfavorable impression against him throughout the Domuron

The Stratford A. and P. Association has decided not to affiliate with th© Dominion Council of Agriculture. The well-known classic dancer, Maud Allen, and her company had pencilled the Stratford Town Hall for May 28ch, but notice has been received that the booking is cancelled though the company may appear in Stratford at a later date. Mr J. B. Richards, president of the Chamber of Comerarce, has received advice from Mr Meredith, of Ohura, that a party of Ohura residents will visit Stratford, the visit being a return to the one paid to Ohura by a party under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce. How eager the unemployed workmen of Munich, who are mostly Socialists, are to earn a living was shown recently. The municipal government announced that some thou-

sands of men were needed to clear the streets of snow, and only 180 responded. although there are 10,000 unemployed in Munich.

A case of unappreciated genius is reported from Umtata, South Africa. A young “nut” engaged in a Government department at a monthly salary of £l2 10s found it hard to make both ends meet. He hit upon the following brilliant idea. He raffled his monthly pay. During the three months that this little game has been proceeding the ingenious youth netted a clear profit of £3l by the sale of the os tickets he had issued as shares in his salary raffle.

The shooting season opened yesterday, but reports of “bags” are not very common yet. A party consisting of Messrs H. E. Abraham, J. It. L. Stanford, Grey and Davey visited the Puniwiiakau district and secured seven pheasants and about fifty quail. Mr Abraham reports that the party saw anywhere up to fifty pheasants and large numbers of quail, but the pheasants were hard to get owing to the abundant cover.

A goods train ran into a waggon at a level crossing at Marshall, near Geelong (Vic.) last Friday morning, and several person's had a remarkable escape from death. When the train struck the waggon the near side horse was cut in halves. The driver was hurled against the post with such » force that his clothes were torn off, and Mrs Donovan and her daughter were thrown into the cattle pit, where they lay safely while the train thundered over them. None of the three persons sustained serious injury.

The rainfall in Stratford for the past month was 12.08 in, which, as previously mentioned, is the highest record for April for twenty-two years. There were three very heavy falls—• 3.15 in on the 14th, 2.37 in on the 20th, and 1.30 in on the 25th. Other falls over half an inch were;—7th .S2in, 10th ,56in, 13th ,64in, 16th .56in, 19th ,53in, 24th .74in. There were only three falls recordable in hundredths—s on the sth, 7 on the 21st, and 2 on the 26th. To-day’s pluvial operations seem to suggest that there is no danger of drought occurring in May.

Recently the Department of Commerce wrote to the Strafford A. and P. Association stating that new arrangements were being made for cabled market reports from London, and asking for suggestions as to the form of information desired. Mr W. A. Hewitt was deputed to interview local merchants and he reported on the matter at a meeting of the Executive held last night. He stated that nlerchants generally were satisfied with the information supplied at present, but the opinion was expressed that when prices of dairy produce were given, the name of the steamer which earned the produce should be given also, to enable factories to tell what price their stuff is bringing.

In connection with the arrival of a party of immigrants in the Milti- | ades at Sydney last week, it is interesting to recall that last August the Sydney Daily Telegraph published a photograph of a farmer and his wife and six children who were desirous of emigrating to New South Wales, but had not the money to do so. The children comprised three boys and three girls, and the whole family was vouched for as one which possessed all the necessary industry and pluck to make good. The notice attracted the attention of a kindly Sydney philanthropist, who made a contribution to a fund to provide the money to bring the family out, and, further arrangements having been made with the Immigration Department, the family became passengers in the Miltiades. Meantime the Immigration Department arranged that the farmer could get a start in the Inverell district, under a solid dwelling, and with sure employment. The philanthropist also met the family, and, taking them under his wing, made overtures of such a well-meant character regarding their immediate future that they showered blessings on their benefactor and nil who had to do with ifheir pilgrimage to a new land. It is only fair to add, however, as indicating the independence of the sturdy English farmer, that ho has statetl plainly that the monetary advance which has been made on his account will be treated simply as a loan, and will be repaid.

A woman named Mario Defense gave birth at Kain-les-Tournal, Belgium., to four children. , ■ ■* ■-, ’ Mr J. B. Hine, M.P., president of the Hockey Club, has donated a trophy to be’given to the player showing the greatest improvement during the season, A man who was arrested for drunkenness in Palmerston North put up Something of a record. He was arrested three times in one day. He made the excuse: “I was a bit sick, your Worship,” but the unfeeling magistrate fined him 20s. The absence of the usual amount of late cable and telegraphic mattei today is due to the temporary dislocation of the work of the 1 elegi aph Office, owing to the wires being down somewhere between Hawera and Wanganui. Mr E. D. Brown last week trucked 14 polo ponies which were in Waikato, by the ’ Hawke’s Bay Polo Club, to be prepared for shipment to India on June 20. Altogether 40 ponies are being sent to compete in the matches there. Amongst the New Zealand players will be Messrs Harold Russell, G. Pharazyn, Be- M'Kenzie (Hawke’s Bay), and H. ■Wilson (Rangitikei).

A women’s church lias been started at Wallasey, Cheshire. Miss Hoy, the secretary of the new church, has explained that, while most cf the committee are suffragists, they do not want to make it a suffrage church, but the majority of the women connected with it are women of progressive ideas. There is a compromise in the arrangement by which, while the afternoon services will be for women only, the women will be allowed to take their men folk to the evening service. 'The London “Christian World” suggests that the danger of the new church is that of feminising; the Gospel—giving it a: bulge in the direction of the ideals of the “progressive woman” that may be fully as mischievous as, a narrow theological, ecclesiastical, or a forced “Social Gospel” bulge.