LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 83, 12 April 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Stratford Borough Council hold their monthly meeting to-night at 7..‘J0. The “Recital of Travel” to he given by Adjutant Cook, at the Salvation Array Hall, Stratford, to-morrow night, will be followed by a “Scotch Pie Supper.” The opening day of the Stratford Golf Club is Thursday next, and entries close with Mr Cecil Wright, tomorrow (Tuesday) at o o’clock.

The annual general meeting of the Stratford Football Club' wil be held in Messrs C. and E, Jackson’s office to-night, at 8 o’clock. Intending members are invited to attend.

The hold-up in shipping facilities is stated to be affecting the pay-out of one Taranaki cheese factory to the extent of at least lid per II) butterfat. With the product in the ship’s bottom and not at Moturoa, the directors of the Makahu factory, it is understood, could pay out on a shilling rate instead of lOjd, but in the present, uncertainty they do not feel justified in doing so. It is expected the season wil! average about Is 3d per lb. The .seriousness of having in one’s possession arms, ammunition, accoutrements, etc., which are the property of the Government, is pointed ont in a circular issued by the Defence Department. The Government has decided to take very stringent measures against anyone holding such property. Where any such property comes u to the possession or keeping of anyone not entitled to it, the nearest de-fence-office or police station should be notified.

“Dreaming of home and mother.” An amusing instance of tiie stuff that dreams are made of is given in a letter from a trooper in Egypt. He writes: “By the way. I dreamt some nights ago that the Turks had attacked Toko, and that after severe fighting, during which yon (the writer’s sister) proved yourself a heroine, and a waster, the enemy was driven off, leaving behind two sick horses and some fowls! Ha! Ha! f blame the cheese!”

“The new Sultan has applied to the authorities to leave the Xew Zealanders here as a garrison until the end of the war.” writes a Stratford trooper

from Cairo. “So far, nothing lias been definitely arranged, although new uniforms have arrived for tlio Australian troops, which to my mind is a reply. We will all he sadly disappointed if this happens to bo the ease.”

!u these days, when one of the biggest problems confronting local bodies is reading, both arterial and subsidiary, a discovery which is claimed to be of no little importance to the Stratford and Wliangamomona Comity councils has been made at Makabu. Recently, while fencing, Mr .1. O’Connor struck a layer of shingle, and in face of the fact that previously there had been no evidence of a similar deposit in those parts be determined to prospect. In this Mr O’Connor was rewarded, as he found a seven-foot face extending a distance of eighteen chains, lie lias no doubt, however, that the bed extends much further. Curiously enough, the shingle, which is of first-class quality and free from clay, was found between two layers of papa, and crosses the hon ml ary line of the Whangamoniona and Stratford counties in a direct line between Mounts Kgmnnt and Xgaurnboe.

Classes for training teachers begau at Stratford on Saturday last, ant*' wore well attended. Notice to make returns of land under the Lands and Income Assessment Act, BIOS, is given by the Commissioner ot faxes. A child named Cecil Rhodes _' va3 scalded by falling into a tub of boiling water at Dcvonport, and died at the Auckland hospital, states a Press Association telegram to-day. A sad fatality occurred on the Waiwera Hoad on Saturday afternoon. A daughter of Air J. M. Paulgcr, aged 21 months, by some means fell into a well and was drowned. An inquest is being hold this afternoon. Weather forecast. —The indications are for freshening northerly strong winds to gale, mild and hazy conditions with increasing haze and cloudiness for an unfavourable change in the weather. Storm appears to bo approaching from the west. Barometer falling.—Bates, Wellington.

At 8 o’clock to-night at the Town Hall, Mr T. H. Began will deliver a lecture on wireless telegraphy and its use in the present war. 'I he lecture will be enhanced by numerous slides, and will be under the patronage of the Committee df the Stratford District High School.

Tho Pahiatua County Council has decided to vote £25 monthly until further notice for the Belgian Relief Fund (states the Press Association). The Council also voted £1 per month to their permanent surfacemen in lien of an increase in wages which had been applied for.

In the Public Service Junior Examination, the detailed results of which are just to hand, two Stratford school boys did really good voik. Edward Taylor gained highest marks in the Dominion in mathematics, and Gordon Saunders highest in botany. In all, 9b7 candidates sat for examination.

At Christchurch a public meeting was held on Saturday to consider the advisability of instituting a “K of K” pledge campaign (states the I ress Association). The Mayor presided, and it was resolved that those present form themselves into a committee to do all in their power to further the movement, and to call further public meetings at an early date.

In these stirring and anxious times, there is very little satisfaction in being informed that the boys in toe senior cadets do not attend a rales with that regularity which might De looked for. This, however, is the complaint made by the local instructor, who states that some of the boys absent themselves from parade without leave. Drastic measures are promised if matters arc not improved quickly.

jn (he telegraphed report of Air JVI hsswv’s speech at the Cheviot Show, lie was made to say that he advised the farmers to out their “stacks” into chaff and sell it to Australia. The Press Association to-day telegraphs as follows: —Air Massey now states that his reference to stacks was to stacks of straw, and he expressed the hope that the farmers of Canterbury and elsewhere would not follow the usual practice of burning the straw, bpt would cut their stacks into chaff, because he felt certain this straw chaff could lie profitably sold in Australia.

At the Rangitikei County Council’s meeting on Saturday (reports the Press Association), letters were received from the .Minister of Finance and the mayor of Wellington inviting co-oper-ation in raising subscriptions for the Belgian Fund. Councillor T. Duncan and large landowners spoke strongly in favor of taxing land and large incomes. It would be a credit to the present Government, he said, if they faced the situation boldly and taxed those reaping benefits from the war. Those remarks were endorsed by all the councillors, and the following resolution was carried unanimously - “That it be a recommendation to tho Government to levy a war tax to meet all extraordinary expenses in connection with the war, such tux to he levied on land and large incomes.

The, Borough stables and pound at the corner of Celia Street and Swansea Road bridge have been completed, having been designed by the Borough Engineer (Air T. D. Sullivan), and erected by the contractor (Air .1. Alartin). From the main entrance there is a well-built 5-stall stable and cartshed (15ft by lift), harness room 14ft by 7 ft), with loft running over the whole building, measuring 66ft by 14ft. This loft is capable of storing twenty tons of feed, and the feed room (14ft by l it) has been made vermin-proof. By an economic arrangement, the wall of the stable makes one side of the pound. The shelter shed measures dfifi by Oft. The pound yard (measuring 66ft by 66ft) is divided by a strong fence into three divisions, the larger part of which is 66ft by B,'lft. The Engineer brought into use the material which was taken from the old channels in Broadway, and used it in bagging the pound yard, the whole arrangements presenting a substantial appearance. A concrete water trough provides a supply for the stock in either yard. A separate entrance to the stables has been provided. A well built shed (18ft by 12ft) is provided for the use of the poundkeeper for feed storage purposes. A cow bail has also been erected providing for the milking of any cows impounded. Electric light is installed throughout, and all the buildings are roofed with corrugated iron. The general arrangements are 'distinctly creditable to the Borough Engineer.