LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 38, 16 February 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hawera Acclimatisation Society intends to liberate 500 18-month trout in the Waingongoro river next week.

An Auckland Press Association telegram states that the Northern Milling Co. has advanced flour to £l6‘los net, with the usual advance for small sizes.

It is satisfactory to learn (says the Poverty Bay Herald) that there is a good deal of interest being displayed by Gisborne dairy people in the establishment of a herd-testing association, and it i$ .understood that .there is every prospect of an association being formed.there and at Tolaga Bay, ready for next season’s operations, \ The Rev. Father Bircji, speaking at an early mass in St. Francis’s Church, Paddiutgou, Sydney, on January 24, said ho was grieved to notice a number of young women- and girls, attendants at the various services, who remained sitting or standing at even the most solemn .parts of ,the mass. He supposed’ that the skirts they wore were too tight to allow them to kneel. Their action was a grave scandal, and it would be almost better if such people remained away altogether. He had received several complaints on the matter from parishioners.

The cocksfoot harvest on Banks Peninsula is rapidly drawing to a, close, threshing being now well advanced (says the correspondent of the Christchurch Press) , Reports from the various districts show a very disappointing harvest, mainly on account of the shortage of rain. It is estimated that barely half the average yield will be put to the riddles. Prices are rather higher than usual, 6d, and 6jd being offered on the floor, and as much as 7d to 7icl off the riddles. The want of rain is being severely felt by the dairy, factories,, the falling-rdf in supplies being very marked. It is anticipated that it will be necessary to close down much earlier this .smlson.

A yoiing bride had a most unpleasant experience in Napier on Tuesday (says the Herald). Arrangements had been made for tlie wedding to take place at the Cathedral at 2 o’clock. At the appointed hour the bride and her friends drove up in five motor-cars suitably decked out with white ribbons. The party entered the church, and were alarmed to find that the bridegroom had failed to put in an appearance. After a long wait a messenger was dispatched to the bridegroom’s home, .but he was not there. Eventually the bride and her friends left the Cathedral, the wedding ceremony being abandoned. It is not ’ known exactly why the bridegroom failed to keep his engagement, although several more or less,wild stories are told..

It is the boast of the Foreign Legion, which has distinguished itself in the fighting at Soissons, that it can provide men from its own ranks to meet any contingency. ’ Its commander once said his .men were capable not only of winning a war, but of writing its history. On one occasion when a new barracks was being erected the Legion ranks supplied half a- dozen qualified architects; and time and again on the battlefield, when the cab has been for doctors, Legionaires have stepped forward and acknowledged their - medical qualifications. Once, says tradition, when no padre was available to conduct a burial, the commandant. appealed to the ranks. A man stepped out and saluted. He had been a bishop.

It will be ten months on the 19th of this month (says the Tikokino correspondent of the Hawke’s Bay Herald) since we were favored with any Rood rain at Tikokino. On the 18th of May last year heavy rains fell, and there wore floods in the. creeks for a few days. Rain had been falling previously, and we had a few showers up to the 23rd of that month. Since then frosty weather and gales alone have varied the monotony of the weather programme, with a few very few, indeed—light scudding show. eis, \i hile other places’ have been better served. On Tuesday last a thunderstorm travelled high overhead while a furious gale was in progress below, and heavy rains and an exceptionally heavy hailstorm visited the district less than two miles away from here. On the Kereru.road the storm caused a deep wash-out, and hailstones lay thick like snow ’to a great depth in the gullies. Splendid lain folloued, and not a drop came here. The new Gwayas Settlement was in the favoured area, and the stoi m came as close to us as to reach „ sn - L ’---own as the “Boomer’-’ at