LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 30, 5 June 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A euchre party and dance in aid of the Hospital Ship Funds will be held h: the Midhirst Town Hall on Wednesday evening next.

The Victorian Government statistician estimates the population at the end of last year as 4,940,952, an increase of 68,893 over 1913.

Special collections will be taken up at the Salvation Army ser/icos tomorrow in aid of our wounded soldiers at the front.

Tlie Whangamomona Patriotic Committee this morning forwarded a cheque for £3OO to the secretary of the Dominion Belgian Relief Fund. |

it is understood that the Stratford district is well ahead of its share ofj the contributions towards the Belgian Relief Fund.

The lion. sec. of the Patriotic Committee lias reecived from Mr V. H. Nolan a cheque for £2O as a contribution to the .New Zealand Wounded Fund.

The ha/issaar held last week in Toko Road Hall in aid of Relief Fund, netted over £127. This is a great credit to the ladies' committee, who did so much of the work.

All enthusiastic gathering of citizens oi' Waihi, presided over by the Mayor, last night decided to form a branch of the National Reserve of New Zealand. The Press Association states that a large number enrolled.

By announcement in our advertising columns, it will be seen that the Trocadero Private Hotel, in Broadway South, has been taken over by Mr -Al. Calder, who will be glad to see old and new patrons at his establishment.

Weather Forecast.—The indications are for northerly moderate to strong winds. There is a prospect of hue weather, but misty at times. The night will probably be very cold, with frosts inland. The barometer lias a falling tendency.—Bates, AVellintgon.

The Tramways Carnival Committee of the War Relief Fund in Welling-

ton were anxious to secure a BritiMi

piano,' made by British labor, as a prize for a competition in aid of their "Queen" candidate. They mieniewed the Bristol Piano 00., LI 1., with the result that that Arm his n.ost

generously presented a very line instrument worth seventy-live guineas, made hy William Sanies, Limited, the famous English lnaaufyc tuivrr*. ''his

is merely one (f a number of ha Idsome contributions l>v the Bristol.

A Press Association telegram from Wellington states: Sergeant Gabriel, of I'etone, one of the New Zealandeivs who landed at Gallipoli and lias returned home, having collapsed through illness, describes the firing of the Fleet's big guns a. s deafening. The explosions of the Queen Elizabeth's 15-

inch gutis arc so terrific as to cause distress among our men by the awful concussion. The Turks opposed to the New Zealanders were all big, strong men, but Seregant Gabriel describes thorn as "rotten shots.'' All the damage was done by shrapnel and machine guns, which \\cn> served by Germans. On the royage out, many of the men had to work in the stokehold, owing to trouble with the firemen. The latter were put ashore at Melbourne as prisoners.