LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 60, 2 July 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Lord Mayor of London is to captain a cricket eleven wholly composed of members of the Bowater family in a match against the cricket teap of the Guildhall Cricket and Athletic Club.

A Worthing councillor’s wife, who died on Monday, April 20, was borii on a Mbnday, christened on a Monday, and married on a Monday. Before she was married her name was Monday.

Everything in a new pigsty outside Banders, Denmark, which has two storeys, and accommodates 1500 animals, is worked by electricity. There are railway lines all over the sty.

The presence of a Minister of the Crown at the Whangaraomona luncheon yesterday probably accounted for Mr Hathaway referring to ‘the chairman of the local County Council as “the Hon. Mr McCutchan.” The slip caused considerable laughter.

The following quantities of butter are in cool store at the various ports at this date, given in boxes Auckland,24,Bs2; New Plymouth, 7958; Patea, 2036'; Wanganui, 1461; Wellington, 25,266; Lyttelton, 4071; Dun. edin, 2228.

Concerts, socials and dances are the order of the day (or night) just now and in addition to the two socials being held to-night, two are to be held to-morrow evening— a dance at Cardiff, and a concert and dance at Midhirst.

There should be a good gathering of Stratford residents at the Stanley Road school social this evening. An excellent programme has been arranged, and proceeding will also he en- 1 livened by the presence of four pipers. A dance will follow the social.

A reminder is given of the second annual social under the auspices of the Toko Settlers’ Association, which is to be held in the Coronation Hall this evening. The Toko people have quite a reputation in matters of the sort, and those Stratford people who journey out can be assured of a good evening’s entertainment.

The popularity of the picture postcard is apparently waning. The Post and Telegraph’s Department’s annual report attributes to this fact the decrease in the number of post-cards handled in the Dominion during 1913. During the year, there was a decrease of 325,908 cards as compared with 1912.

A “Herald” correspondent saysA large number of the newspapers of the Dominion have wrongly interpreted the notice published in a recent issue of the Gazette regarding the kaka or bush parrot. The effect of the notice is absolutely to protect the kaka. The penalty for killing a kaka now at any time of the year is a fine not exceeding £HO.

A hypnotist, named C. A. Dalmaine, who recently visited Pahiatua with a theatrical company, was yesterday fined 20s and costs 12s for driving a cab round a corner other than a walkink pace. He was also convicted and discharged for furious driving. Tho charges were the outcome of a blindfold drive through the main street. A witness stated that defendant, who did not appear, drove a. cab contain-1 ing a. committee of local residents at tho rate of sixteen miles an hour.

Bix thousand inquiries for postal packets alleged to have been posted and not delivered were made during 1913-14, says the annual report of the Post and Telegraph Department. In 3632 of these investigations resulted in the missing articles being traced or accounted for. The cases may be summarised as follows:—96s, sender responsible for delay ; RIO, addressee responsible for debar: 358, post office responsible for delay; 1499, no delay, or responsibility not fixed.

A somewhat serious case of sheep worrying is reported (says the Wyndham Herald). It occurred on Messrs LaidlaAv Bros’ Mairairua farm on Sunday night. So far -13 carcases have been skinned. Thirty sheep were driven into the creek and 13 were Avorried. Still more sheep have been injured, and the full extent of the damage cannot yet be definitely stated.

Recently, the Whangamarino Acclimatisation Society preferred a charge against a Raetihi native for poaching trout, and a conviction Avas recorded. Funds are now being raised by the natives to test the A r alidity of the conviction, and to determine if natives can be prevented from taking trout without a license, or shooting pigeons, even though a close season has been declared.

An extraordinary case Avas reported in the Juvenile Court at Gisborne on Saturday (says a Press Association telegram). On Friday the police apprehended a girl, aged eight years, who Avas tramping overland Avith her father from Auckland. It Avas stated that the pair had Avalked from Auckland, via Tauranga, and Avere on their way to WaipaAva. (HaAvke’s Bay) to the man’s brother’s place. They had been sleeping in the open air in bitterly cold Aveather. The child, who is in a pitiable state, had been given clothes by settlers. She Avas arrested for not being under proper control. The Magistrate committed her to the Wellington Receiving Home.

When a native of Niue dies be is usually buried on land adjoining a roadway, and some of the public thoroughfares of the island are more or less lined with the ornamental graves of departed residents, but the thing that greatly interests visitors is the islanders’ custom of placing on a grave some article that was much valued by the deceased in his lifetime. Thus, recent callers at Niue saw on graves such articles as a green sunshade, a watch, a pair of roller braces, and a pdly-rusted typewriter, this having been the property of an island gentleman who had met in Auckland an enterprising second-hand dealer. The goods placed on a grave are perfectly safe, as the average native would sooner kill himself than interfere with the disposition of a dead, man’s property.

If persons who buy packets of “everlasting perfume,” “scented beans,”, and similar commodities from street hawkers had been at the Sydney Police Court last week, they would have heard something to their advantage. A young man w.as charged with vagrancy., His business, he said, was to sell studs, tie fasteners, and other trifles in the streets. The police explained that he had a box of “scented nuts” in his pockets, which he was selling. The nuts were supposed to retain their aroma, if not for ever, at least for a very long time. The young man kept a bottle of cheap scent in another pocket, and he had only to put a drop of the scent on to the nut—unseen to customers —to give it the qualities which multiplied its value indefinitely. The Magistrate seemed intensely interested in the youth. He took him off his present occupation and gave him a week’s work—hard work.

When the Governor of‘New Zealand was making his tour around the Cook Islands recently the' natives of the various places visited generally appeared in gala attire, and occasionally the costumes displayed were a little startling. Uniforms containing striking colors were very popular, and it was a surprising hut not uncommon thing to see a every dignified person in the dress of a vice-admiral or infantry captain conducting a native dance, and struggling with a sword which would constantly get between his legs and trip him. At one island a gentleman with a costume partly composed of mirrors did much to gladden the assembled company, and at Rarotonga on one occasion all the local Caledonians gasped. A party of quick-footed native dancers marched on to the ground. They were led by a gigantic Rarotongan, who was completely clad, from ■ kilt to sporran and dirk, in the classical national dress of Scotland.

There are hundreds and thousands of people who don’t want the Church, and will have nothing to do with the Gospel,” said the Rev. Dr. Gibb in the course of his remarks in First Church* Dunedin, on Sunday morning (states the Otago Daily Times), “and that shows that the people of this country will swiftly lapse—and, indeed, are swiftly lapsing—into heathenism. A number of our fellow-citizens are becoming heathens. I have said that before, and the bricks have flown, as they have often done, at my devoted head. T suppose the average morality, of a humdrum kind, is as high here as anywhere else. But I know of large districts where there is no Sabbath Day, and where there are hundreds of children who have not the slightest idea wliat the Sabbath day means, except that it is a holiday. You have a considerable non-church-goiug population in Dunedin, in spite of your brave churches. But you are a very good sort of people in Dunedin, and I am glad to say that average moral worth of Dunedin and Otago is higher than in other parts of the Dominion. You will like that, for the Otago man does like to be patted on the back. The average man in Dunedin stands at a considerably higher moral level than men in other parts of the Dominion.