LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 63, 17 March 1915, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Coursing enthusiasts meet in the A. and P. office to-morrow night to consider the formation of a club to control the sport in this district.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Go., Ltd., are in receipt of the following cable London wool sales opened good. Merino, no change. Market for others, weaker; greasy crossbred, medium and course per cent dearer. France and America are competing.

Though oats have brought Gs per bushel iu Christchurch recently, the price does not establish a record for Canterbury. Iu the early days of the settlement much higher figures were paid for oats. It is recorded that in 1854 an early resident of Rangiora, Mr J. G. Leech, received 7s 6d per bushel for this cereal.

A surprise packet was discovered among the lost and unclaimed luggage •sold' at the Wellington railway station last week. An old bag was bought for a nominal sum, and the purchaser found that it contained two £1 Union Bank notes.

Under the will of the late Miss Hawley, of Leithfield, Canterbury, the death of an aged relative has released over £12,000 to be devoted to the British and Foreign Bible Society and to various branches of foreign mission work. Of this, £4OOO goes to the Bible Society, £2OOO each to the Ramabai Mission, the Poona and Indian Village Missions, the Dr. Harry Guinness’ Regions Beyond Mission, and the China Island Mission.

“Wa’k there any reason for the man using such shocking language?” asked Mr Florence, S.M., during the hearing of a charge against .a man from Matawai at the Gisborne Magistrate’s Court last week. “No, your Worship,” responded the arresting constable naively; “he was only tanglel up in a barbwire fence!”

At the Gisborne Supremo Court yesterday, Paku Peakman, a Maori hailing from Wairoa, was found not guilty of manslaughter arising out of the death of Gerhard Howe, after being knocked down by accused’s motor-car, on February 13, iu Gisborne, Pati, a young Native from Port Awamii, was charged with carnal knowledge, and the jury disagreed. A new trial has been set down for to-day.

A young man named Patrick Lee, who had pleaded, guilty to three char-ges-of breaking and entering and theft in the Wairarapa district, was sentenced at the Wellington Supreme. Court. Lee was committed for two years’ reformative treatment on a charge of, stealing a horse and cover. On other charges he was ordered to come up for sentence when called upon.

Conspicuous among “Life’s” special articles in the March number are the following: “Snapshots of the Australian and New Zealand Forces in Egypt,” by a special 1 correspondent; “How the News is gathered from the Battle-fields,” a review of the book of the month; “How the Germans Laid Their Plans for the Naval Raids;” and “The Infantryman’s Fighting Tools,” being a more or less techinical description of how trench warfare is conducted.

States the Eltham Argus: “At present the down-train from New Plymouth crosses with the up mail train at Stratford. The people of Kaponga are moving to have the crossing at Eltham, said Mr Wilkinson at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce last evening. If the train were to leave New Plymouth earlier there would be no difficulty, in getting the crossing here. It would be of great convenience to the people of Kaponga, and would also benefit Eltham. He did not think there was any valid reason why the train should not leave New Plymouth earlier.” Whore dc 1 ? New Plymouth come in ?

With reference to the meeting of ratepayers in the Town Hall on Monday night, Mr W. A. Hewitt requests publication for one of his questions, which, he states, he asked as follows: “In calculating the profits did you allow for interest on the capital value of the land, which, if sold for £7600, would bring you in a considerable amount of revenue per annum, and should be taken into consideration in estimating the profits.”

At the annual session of Grand Lodge of Independent Order of Oddfellow's of New Zealand, at Auckland, the report stated that there are 68 Grand Lodges and 18,153 subordinate lodges, with a total membership of 2,167,055, and invested funds of a total of £13,784,015. In 1913, £1,243,753 was distributed in relief. Two hundred members had joined the expeditionary forces, and consideration would be given to the matter of assisting the brethren on active service to retain membership. It was announced that the Grand Lodge of Australasia would hold its next meeting in New Zealand. —P.A.

A Napier Press Association telegram to-day states: Four men named Lynch. Short. Fuller and Bnrke, who were acquitted at the late session of the Supreme Court of conspiracy to defraud a Maori by card-playing in the train, were found guilty by tho Magistrate on a charge of gambling on the railway. Fuller and Short were each fined £SO or three months’ imprisonment, and Burke and Lynch £3O or two months. The police objected to time being allowed. Mr Dolan (Tor the prisoners): “It is no wonder juries let people off when things like this happen.” His Worship: “Tt is not a ease v... +; r ,,„ . ~j ' .. ,

Weather Forecast -—The indications are for variable and inoderate breezes, with easterly winds prevailing. Weather probably cool and changeable, but there is a prospect of fate weather. The barometer has a rising tendency. —Bates, Welliutgou.

The Tariki Cricket Club played a return match with, the local High School team on Victoria Park to-day. Tariki batted first, ana scored 74, and the boys were disposed of for 34. In the second effort, the sct’ool made a better stand, making 108, total 142. Tariki was batting when >ve went to press.

Dr. R. E. Paterson, Ko T’ong, writing to the Otago Presbyterian Foreign Missions Committee, says:—“Chinase newspapers give so little information about foreign affairs that interest in the European war seems to have 1 lessoned, though one is asked about it from time to time. One man finished his catechism on Western doings with the question; ‘And believers in.Jesus—are they fighting too?’ If I may bo pardoned the remark: The Chinese appear to regard our struggle with the same indulgent half-amused interest that the majority of the people in the West show in the welfare of tbo Chin-

VI i- A. A. Mcßae, a water diviner from Southland, who has a high reputation for success in .his profession, is now busily employed in locating

water supply sources for farmers in the North Canterbury district. Ho has already visited twelve farms in the -Rangiora county and vicinity and located strains at various depths below the surface of the ground, and he is under engagement to make his tests on some twenty farms.

New rules issued in New South Wales under the Police Regulations Act contain the following:-—“lnebri-ates in charge of friends, or not likely to fall into the hands of thieves or to cause any annoyance to citizens by obscenity or disorderly conduct, should not be arrested.” “The charge of assaulting the police should not bo added to that of drunkenness without good reasons.”