LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 49, 1 March 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ackland Sciiool picnic will be held on the school ground on Thursday next. Proceeds will bo devoted to the British and Belgian Belief Fund.

Sir A. Graaff has been appointed Minister of Finance in the South African Union Government.

The other day a record pig was slaughtered at the Feilding abattoirs (says the “Star”). It gave a dressed weight of 433)b, the head alone weighing 351 b.

Madame Sarah Bernhardt is steadily improving (states a Tiraes-Sydney Sun cablegram). The famous actress hopes to return to the stage in May.

Members of the Stratford Home Defence Corps are reminded that there will be a parade to-night at 7.30. As special business is to be done, a full attendance is requested.

A Feilding flockowner who refused an offer some time ago of 17s 6d for a line of 100 fat lambs had eventually to quit them at 4s per head. He hoped for showers which never came.

The response to the Horticultural Society’s appeal for produce to be sold on behalf of the Belgian Fund at their exhibition in the Town Hall on Thursday has been very good so far, and the secretary expects a good deal more to come in. All produce will be ticketed, and will be available to the first buyer. The Show promises to be one of the best exhibitions yet held by the Society.

“You write about the women folk working for the soldiers making comforts, etc.! Can anyone tell me what is done with these things? This regiment sees absolutely nothing of them, in fact, this Main Expeditionary Force, as far as I know, has received nothing except ordinary food and work galore.”—vide Allan Maxwell’s .letters to his sister.

Countrene de Montaigne, who in November last was adjudged bankrupt on his own petition at Rotorua, was committed for trial at Hamilton on Saturday on two charges of breaches of the Bankruptcy Act; It was shown that accused’s income— was £6B a month, but he was living at the 'ate of £2OO a month.

The’garden fete in aid of the Belgians to bo N held at the Presbyterian Ma use on Wednesday promises to be a very popular event. Refreshment and sweet stalls are to be on the grounds, and -special items in the afternoon’s entertainment are to be sports, singing, and an exhibition of the harmonograph, the work of which was exhibited at the Stanley Exhibition, London.

All accounts from 'the hoys of the New Zealand Brigade in Egypt serve to show that very solid work is being put in daily. In one of Allan Maxwell’s letters to his sister at Toko, he says, for instance: “We have been on the march since early dawn, only stopping to partake of a snack which we carried in our mess

tins, so you can guess we have covered a good deal of ground. As usual, .wo passed oasis after oasis, Arab villages, desert camel corps wandering along, monks with beards down (o their waist bolts riding on donkeys, and fruit sellers following ns with their wares on camels in the same old way. It all seems quite natural to me now, but it was only the other day the scene made me stare.”

! . Twenty-two births, four marriages, and one death were registered at Stratford during the month of Febni- , ary, 1 The Royal Pantomime Company will 1 return to Stratford on Friday and pre--1 sent the musical extravaganza, “The 1 Jam of Cathay” in the Town Hall. The Inspector of Stock notifies f hat the vaccination of calves will take place in Webster, Dobson and Coy’s u yards on Friday next. Failure to comply with the regulations renders the offender liable to a heavy penalty.

In Dunedin during the mouth of February#there were recorded 140 births, 73 deaths, and 30 marriages. In February, 1914, the figures were 160 births, 62 deaths, 55 marriages.

Hawera carried a proposal on Friday to raise £6OOO by loan for the purpose of completing the asphalting of the footpaths in all the streets. The polling was not heavy, as the figures show: For the propsal 133, against 20, informal 1.

The Agricultural Department advises that during the currency of the San Francisco Exposition the New Zealand Commissioner’s address will he; “New Zealand Pavilion, Panama Exposition, San Francisco.”

Trooper Allan Maxwell, of Toko, who is with the Main Expeditionary Forces in Egypt, thus concludes recent interesting letters to his sister:— “Give my love to all, and remember that I have only been wounded once, and that in the arm with a vaccination needle!”

Regarding vaccination, a trooper with the Forces in Egypt says, in a recent letter: “Yesterday (9-1-15), I with others, was vaccinated, and remembering your advice that under no consideration was I to object, I went through it, although I still feel that 1 shouldn’t have done so. Strange to say, all the chaps that had never been vaccinated were big robust chaps, and the majority of those that had, were poor of physique and insipid looking. However, 1 understand there is a case or two of smallpox in the Australian camp some twelve miles distant, so perhaps after all the vaccination will turn out O.K. ,

An elderly man, who should have more sense (says the Opunake Times), > was parading the town on Wednesday night in woman’s attire. Several youths of the town recognised him and jostled him home. The policeman appeared soon after, hut the individual had disappeared into his domicile and there shed his skirts, etc. A deputation of “knuts” afterwards waited on the masquerader and gave him to understand that he would be court-martialled and ducked if he was caught parading as a woman again. The silly old man!

“The most unpleasant thing we had to put up with in a recent trip across the desert—(vide Allan Maxwell’s letter’s to his sister)—“was the continu. al clouds of dust, through which one could only see a few yards ahead. You can imagine how it blew, when I tell you that many troopers lost their hats through these being lifted off their heads and carried away in the air like so many birds. When we returned to camp we found that the Y.M.C.A., two or three tent shops and several of our tents were on the ground, to all appearances as if they had been thrown about by mad bulls.”

According to the Eltham Argus, it was generally believed that not much interest was being taken in the forthcoming election of a Licensing Committee for the Egmont Licensing District, but to the surprise of many people, no less than ten candidates were nominated. As there are only five seats to be fdled there will have to be an election, which will be held on the 9th March. The following is a list of the candidates:—J. D. Bashford (Kaupokonui), A. H. Christie (Manaia), IV. C. Dudley (Opunake), G. D. Gow (Eltham), A. H. Guy (Kaponga), L. Hdl (Eltham), R. W. J. McNeill (Auroa). E. Parrott (Eltham), C. L. Struck (Eltham).

Life in Cairo may not be quite what some parents wish for their sous, hut on the pi'inciple that “experience teaches” it will in some respects at any rate, prove a desirable change. That there are other novel and healthy places of entertainment besides the low quarters of which we -f have already heard too much, is shown in the following excerpt from a letter written hy oife who evidently reaps much that is worth while garnering in the social field of soldiering; “One can sit out in front of the hotels here, and while having a drink or something to eat, witness a picture show, free gratis. In most of the main streets, large boards are to he seen, on the corners, much like a ‘bill placard board,’ but these are erected by hotel' and tavernkeepers to provide amusement for their customers in the form of pictures. The orchestras are simply divine, and I really never heard such delightful music a« these Easterners provide. Needless to say, the instrumentalists are mostly foreigners, such as Italian, Greeks, and naturalised or neutral Germans (if such term can lie applied to them).”