LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 59, 12 March 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

MtftlW ——— The Rotorua has sailed for New Zealand, reports a Hobart message.

The Garden Fete in connection with the Croquet; and Lawn Tennis Club has been postponed until next week.

An umbrella which was left at tho school gymnasium last night may be obtained by the rightful owner from Mr J. W. McMillan.

John Mounsey, of Te Wera, failed to put in an appearance at the Stratford Magistrate's Court this morning to answer to a charge of allowing a horse to wander in the railway yards. It was pointed out by the police that accused had been repeatedly warned in the matter, and a conviction was entered, the line being £l, with costs 7s.

As the outcome of the shooting at the miniature rifle range last night, Mr J. Masters bas challenged His Worship the Mayor to a match, the loser to provide a rifle for the Defence Corps. The challenge has been accepted, and particulars will bo published later.

A meeting of Toko Road settlers was held on Wednesday night in the Makuri Hall to discuss the possibility of extending the present contract for metalling Toko Road by about 90 chains. The meeting was a representative one, about thirty settlers being present. It was decided the work should be gone on with, and over £65 for interest and road improvements was collected.

The St. Andrew's Church proposes to hold a Presbyterian rally on Monday, 21st inst. The object of the rally is to secure the presence at the services of all the Presbyterians in the town and district, so as to ascertain the numerical strength of the cause. This year the rally will be characterised by two important features, namely, the celebration of the Communion, and a; special offering in connection with the close of the Debt Reduction Movement.

The Eltham Brass Band will play the following music at the Strntford Mountain House on Sunday next:— March—" King Carnival" E. B. Dale, March—" Peek Hill" T. E. Bulch, Waltz—" Sweet Seventeen" T. H. Wright, Selection—Austral, T. Buleh, March— "Entre Cordiale" Shipley Douglas, Hymn—"Sandon" Purdy, Selection—" Pirates of Penzance" A. Sullivan, Waltz—" Light of Love" Daniele Pecroni, March—" Sweet Spirit, Hear My Prayer," Wallace "God Save the King

The Stratford A. and P. Association are again to the fore with their Gymkhana, which is set down for Easter Monday on the picturesque show ground of the Association. This year's programme contains a number of new items, which should he of grcater interest to the patrons than in past gatherings, and already, the enquiries and promises of support are such that the Assiciatiori look to securing record entries, which will prove a good day's fun for the public. Arrangements are being made for special trains and excursion fares, and the public may rest assured that everything that can add to their comi'oir, will be attended to by this go-ahead body. Programmes and full information can be obtained on application to the secretary, Mr Sidney Ward, Stratford.

The war appears to have stimulated the demand for hand instruments. In illustration of this it is understood that the Bristol Piano Co., Ltd., have just supplied a set of HaAvkes' famous band instruments to the Hawera Municipal Band, and are sending other sets to the New Plymouth Citizens' Band and the Third Auckland Mounted Billes Band. A set has also been forwarded to the Trenthani Camp for the use of the Expeditionary Force. Another order received by The Bristol hailed from the Gisborne District High School, which requisitioned for a Hawkes' life and drum band equip ment. Altogether business seems brisk in band instruments.

A prisoner, named George Hart, in the Auckland gaol, .serving two years' reformative treatment, cut his throat with a tin knife in his cell last night. P.A.

At the Stratford Magistrate's Court this morning judgment was given for plaintiff in the civil case I). Steven (Mr P. Thomson), v. E. L. Davis, £4 10s, with £1 10s 0d costs.

An Auckland Press Association telegram to-day states that Solwyn Hodges, aged twenty, alleged to be the second man concerned in the Dominion Road burglary, was arrested by the police last night in a private house in the district.

Fifty-two hoys from the Stratford School set off at 3.30 this afternoon on a trek to the Mountain House. The weather this morning was not promising, but a report from the House was encouraging, as the weather * there showed signs of breaking line. The hoys' baggage is being conveyed per waggon, and it is their intention to return to-morrow afternoon.

The newly-wed are always fair game for wit. Appearing on the door of business premises in Broadway is a notice which does not fail to amuse passers-by. It reads as follows: "This shop Avill not be opened again till next week, as J am busy getting married!" The amount of advice appended to the notice' by other wits is remarkably amusing as* well as instructive!

At a meeting of the directors of the El t ham Dairy Co. on Wednesday, it was decided to pay 13d for butter-fat supplied during February, the totJal payment to suppliers being £13,000. It was also decided to pay an additional penny for the months of September, October, November, December , and January. Advice has been received that the shipment of cheese by the Kia Ora netted 89s.

Mr Jack \Fake, the ex-Eltham and Auckland representative footballer, is now' in Egypt, a member of the first expeditionary force. *The Argus says: He is very keen on getting to close quarters with the enemy, and those who remember the vim the active forward displayed when going for a try can easily conjure up visions of a Turk scaling for safety when Mr Fake moves round on a business tour armed with gun and bayonet. Fake enquires how football is getting on in Eltham, and sends best wishes to his comrades here.

English papers record the temporary appointment of Field-Marshal Lord Methuen as Governor and Com-mander-in-Chief of Malta, in succession to General Sir Henry Macleod Leslie Rundle. Lord is now in his seventieth year. Suice the South African war, in which he commanded the Ist Division of the Ist Army Corps, he bas been successively Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Command, and General Officer Comma nding-in-Chief in South Africa. In 1909 he was Governor of Natal. General Sir Leslie Rundle, who had been Governor of Malta since 19'i9, was on January 1 appointed '■.o command the oth New Armv.

The libel action in which Mr Vigor Brown, M.P., claimed £2t>oo damages from the Hawke's Bay Herald for libel contained in a letter published on 9th December, and headed "Political Hoodlums," has been settled out of court, defendant making full and ample apology, and paying £IOO and all Mr Brown's costs. The letter alleged that Mr Brown organised a band of hoodlums, who disturbed Mr Tenable's meetings, and it suggested he was associated wijth the Bed Feds. The. apology admits that the letter contained reflections on Mr Brown's personal and political character, and unreservedly withdraws them. The Press Association adds that Mr Brown will give the £IOO to the hospital.

Before Mr W. G. Kenrick, S.M., at the Stratford Magistrate's Cotirt this morning, Joseph Henry Thompson, of Stratford, pleaded guilty to driving a motor car over a railway crossing while a train was within half a mile of it. The information given by the Railway Department was to the effect that accused had just cleared the front of the train by a few yards, that the warning bell was ringing, and that the car was being driven at about the rate of 20 miles an hour. Accused denied the assertions (concerning speed and of just missing the engine, and said he did not hear the warning bell. At the Crossing in question there was a long cutting which shut out the view of the railway line. A line of 10s, with costs 7s, was Imposed.

His Worship the Mayor of Stratford has a great sense of humor. At tho opening of the miniature rifle range in the school gymnasium last night, while acting as marker, Mr Kirkwood announced a "bull" five times in succession, being "the possible" in a shoot in which a fellow-councillor was the man behii'd the gun. Like other past masters in the art of shooting, this man was proud of his achievement. He soon called for his score card as a memento of the evening, but lo! he joined heartily in the laugh when he discovered that not only had he not registered a "bull," but he had not even hit the target! In this case, surely, applies the old proverb: "Masters should be sometimes blind and sometimes deaf!"