LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Stratford District High School re-opens on Ist 1 February. The Headmaster (Mr Tyrer) may be consulted between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday,

Tlie Tauranga athlete, W. J. Campsfiy, distinguished himself at a sports held in Sydney on Chntmas f|)ay (says the Bay of Plenty Times), when he won the Suminefe.Handicap, of 100yds, running the final In frT-10 ;,sec. Tlie race was run in 12 lieats.

:3 The Gazette states that the tender Oamaru Woollen Mills for the supply of blue tweed Bedford cord for the Police Force, for a‘ period of three years from December 10, 1914, has been accepted. The contract prices are 7s 7cl and 7s 6cl per yard, respectively. The highest tenderer ; was that of the Onehunga Woollen •Mills for 8s 9d and 9s per yard respectively. ;V

At the Christchurch Police Court the Press Association to-day), .Florence Neville, a married woman, was charged with shop-lifting. Evidence disclosed the fact that the woman abstracted articles from the counter and gave them to her child, aged nine. When questioned, the child, at her mother’s request, said it was the thief. The woman was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. Tlie child was sent to a receiving home.

Otago’s contributions to the varmns relief funds, per medium of the Outgo Daily Times lists, show the splendid patriotic spirit prevailing in Urn Southern province. The Patriotic Fund amounts to £20,186 13s 26, Great Britain 1 and Ireland Relief Fund

£B-12 9s 9d, Belgian Relief Fund £6817 •7js 3d, and Motor Ambulance Fund £1173 17s 9d, totalling £29,020 7s lid. The handing of this great sum by the staff of the Times is a striking instance of the manner in which the press of the Dominion as a whole has worked in the “cause that warns assistance and the good that we can do.”

The manufacturers of war supplies, other than powder and arms, in the "United States, are all as busy as beavers. A firm in Rhode Island has an order for a million blankets for one of the European armies. A Brooklyn .concern is turning out an immense iqliantity of khaki uniforms. The shoe manufacturers in Massachusetts are running their factories day and night. ‘Several of the, automobile factories are supplying the armies of the Allies with millions of dollars worth of cars. Chicago is shipping to them great quantities of foodstuffs. All over the United States women and girls are .knitting socks and scarfs for the soldiers. In New York (states the writer) women take this knitting with them to concerts and other entertainrnepts, and the click -of -theSf;- busy ■needl.es is sometimes heard mingling with the music. It reminds one of a 'wfieif knitting !popular in social circles. Not only are ‘the women knitting, but they, and the 'men, too, are raising large winds of money for the relief of the starving Belgians and the impoverished women aiid children of France.

Man Who Blew out tiie Gas.—The story of the gentleman from the backblocks who arrives in town and, after blowing out the gaslight in his bedroom at the hotel of his choice, is found later on in a state of coma, has its amusing side, of course—except to the passive victim of this almost incomprehensible mistake. Many people have found it difficult to believe that such a blunder could lie made, and look •upon the different versions of the story, which appear from time to time as inventions of the professional humorist. Yet, though the person who first did this thing had achieved fame a quarter of a century or more ago, there would appear (states the Sydney Daily Telegraph) to he still an agriculturist left unable to understand the mysteries and dangers of the gaspipe. He became an inmate of Sydney Hospital, having been removed thither while unconscious from a lodginghouse in Devonshire Street. The misguided man arrived in the city from the North Coast, and on retiring to rest carefully but recklessly blew out) the gas. The Civil Ambulance wtisj hurriedly summoned to the scerm a few hours afterwards.