LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 23, 19 May 1914, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr James E. Buckley, a wealthy New Zealand live stock raiser, lias purchased ten thousand acres at Edmondton, Alberta, Canada, for the purpose of establishing a sheep ranch. New Zealand capitalists are interested in the venture, which is the first of its kind on the prairies. The erection of carding, dying and weaving plants is contemplated. The Provincial Government promises to support the now industry .—P.A. cablegram.

It was between the lights on Saturday night; but past lighting-up time, says the Waitara Mail, when a man who had evidently more respect for his fellow .men than .he had for the Borough by-laws, posted himself at the Manakorihi end of the bridge, and, waving an umbrella, warned gig-driv-ers, cyclists and others that the Borotlgh Inspector was at the other side of the bridge waiting fo catch delinquents who were hoping to get home without having to light up. There must, have- been a lot of matches struck within a hundred yards of the inspector, but a capture was not made.

A disquieting story comes from Watson’s Creek (N.S.W.), concerning a lioness which is said to he roving about the hush. One settler says positively that he saw the animal. According to a correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, - the mailman now carries a Winchester rifle and takes two dogs with him. The tracks made by the animal’s padded .feet are about the size of the palm of a man’s hand. The people are thoroughly scared, and refuse to send their children to school. Jf it is a lioness, it may be one of ,which escaped from a circus at Mnrrurundi some time ago. By following the ranges, the animal could got into the Watson’s Creek district.

The dispute between the Bricklayers’ Union and the Wellington Building Contractors’ Association was before the Conciliation Council in Wellington to-day, Mr 15.I 5 . Halley, Commissioner, presiding. The schedule of demands, which it is proposed to make into a Dominion award, asks for an increase’ from Is 7d to Is 9d per hour land material increases ifl apprentices’ wages, also for a 44 hours’ week instead of 45 hour.l. Amendments are glso asked in several other clauses. The .employers’ counter proposals are for a 44 hours week, with Is 7d per liqur; The rest of the clauses are hashed: iW the most part on the terms-of The carpenters’ award. The Council is in, committee discussing the proposals.—P.A. -

~ According to the Borough by-la wS, says the.Waitara Mail, no verandah must be less than ten feet from the kerb,and according to the postal regulations;" no verandah - -must be within three feet of the telegraph wires. A verandah lias been put up in West Quay, and partly pulled down again, as it is Tound’that either by-laws or the postal regulations are being violated. If it is ten feet above- the kerb, it is, less than three feet from the wires, and if it: is three feet from the wires it is necessarily less than ten feet from 1 the kerb. Till Obvious -remedy, of course; is to raise the wires, but that is 'not at all likely to come‘to pass. A glance at the verandah in -question will convince' anyone that from all points of view the limit of ten feet is too high.

Cattle waggon No. 19,367 at tire Flemington siding on Monday afternoon last week attracted much attention and comment on the part of (he saleyards people, states an Australian paper. The cause of the interest was the strange mixture of the load, which consisted of six horses,, two foals, and six cows and heifers. They were all mixed up in the one. compartment, and it was quite an achievement to count them. The waggon was marked IJogbabri. Officials of the Meat Industry and Abattoirs Board, which is responsible for the yards, word interesting themselves in the matter late in the afternoon. Flemington siding sees many strange sights l in the' course oi the year, but in the way of consignments that waggon from Bdggabrl/was awarded the palm for oddity."

The following should he hard to beat among stories of curious nesting places. The incident came under my. notice, at Lake Cowal station, near Forbes (writes a correspondent in the Sydney Mail). One of the boundary riders was sent away from his quarters in the men’s barracks to the other end of the station, to. camp for a week. Before leaving he hung a shirt by the cuffs under the verandah to dry. Imagine his surprise on Ids return to find in the cuff of the shirt a compact little nest, built by a wagtail. With the bushman’s usual consideration for bird life, he forthwith cut out half the sleeve, and left it hanging there. The wagtail laid her eggs and hatched her family, quite fearless of the men who passed daily within touch of her nest, -.it became an unwritten law amongst those men that she was to be protected, and for three successive years she added to and used the same nest. The end came at the hands of a newohum, a Sydney boy, who robbed t!ie nest. So indignant was the bird that she built her nest the following year out of reach of interfering hands.