LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 51, 22 June 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Yesterday (June 21st) was the shortest day of the year. The Convent school broke up on Friday for the midwinter holidays, lasting two weeks. Barras and Keggiardo concluded their season at the Town Hall on Saturday evening, the various items being well received. Mr C. A. Wilkinson, M.P., will deliver pre-sessional addresses in the Eltham Town Hall to-night and at Opnnake to-morrow night. A meeting of the local Scottish Society will be held to-morrow evening. The principal business will be making arrangements for a small social in July. The first contract in connection with the Te Roti-Opunake railway is to be let within a fortnight, said Mr C. A. Wilkinson, M.P. for the district, at a meeting at Kaponga on Friday night. The following tenders for leases of railway bookstalls have been accepted by the Department, (states a Press Association message from M ellington): —Aramoho, New Plymouth and Stratford, Books and Papers Company, Led.; Hawera, Cole and Donnelly; Wanganui, S. W. Smith. A Press Association telegram from Dannevirke says:—Mr T. M. Milford, M.P. for Hutt, addressed a meeting at Norsewood on Saturday night, and was accorded a vote of thanks. A resolution was also carried embodying an expression of continued confidence in the Liberal Party.

The Meteorological office predicted rain, hail and snow for Saturday, and each article duly arrived—in small quantities.— The snow arrived late in the evening, and though the fall was heavy it was not of long duration. Out Cardiff way, the fall must have been heavier as the ground remained white yesterday afternoon.

The Stratford Municipal Band was favored with the best of weather yesterday, and as a result their concert in Victoria Park was very largely attended. A collection was taken up on behalf of a distressed family, a sum of £3 16s 7£d being gathered. The offer of the band to give the concert was a considerate action and will no doubt be properly appreciated by those concerned.

A special meeting of the ‘ Borough Council will be held this evening to consider motions to rescind two resolutions passed at the last 1 ordinary meeting—one calling on the proprietor to put a concrete floor in stables being built at the Club Hotel, and the other appointing Mr J. B. Hine, M.P., to represent the Council at the Municipal Conference.

The Stratford Municipal Band is now fully prepared for the marching contest at the Hawera Gymkhana on Thursday next, having put in a lot of practice. The march was gone through at the concert in Victoria Park yesterday, the band shaping very well. The necessary uniforms have been borrowed to give the men a good appearance. Previous to leaving .on Thursday morning the band will .play in Broadway.

That the shag is one of the chief contributing factors to the depletion of trout in our rivers and streams (says the Win ton Record) is well known to all. Another instance of this bird’s voracity was related by a local shootist the other day. Having shot a shag, he found, on making a post mortem examination, that it contained no fewer than five trout, the largest, being easily half a pound or more in weight.

Williams, the Christchurch antimilitarist, was rushed by a crowd of several hundreds on Saturday evening at Dargaville. Ho spoke for only a quarter of an hour, when his face was covered with flour and mud, amidst hoots. Finally a rope was requisitioned and an attempt made to lassoo him. Ho was knocked off his box, and, under police protection, rushed to the shop of Gregory, a local draper and sympathiser. The crowd hooted vigorously, though it was good-tempered. This is the second similar instance in six weeks, states the Press Association.

People who attended Mr C. A. Wilkinson’s political meeting at Kaponga on Friday night will long remember “the light that failed,” states the Hawer Star. The hall was fitted up with an acetylene gas service, but half-way through the meeting the illuminations began to grow dim, and, gradutlly fading away, finally went right out, leaving the hall in absolute darkness. The scene which followed was certainly unique. There was the chairman of the meeting keeping up an illumination as best he could with a succession of matches and the speaker doing likewise and vainly trying to read his notes and references; scattered here and there throughout the audience were little streaks of light emanating from the over-useful match. It was truly a dim religious light, and seemed a much more fitting condition for a spiritualistic seance than a matter-of-fact political , address. This state of affairs continued for some minutes until oil lamps were provided; and the gas service in the meantime receiving attention, the ordinary light was finally restored.