LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 32, 8 June 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The annual meeting of the Stratford A. and P. Association will be held on Saturday, at 1.30 p.m.

The sum of £25 was raised at Eltham on Sunday for the Wounded Soldiers at the Front. Th ree members of the Cardiff section of tlte Stratford Home Defence Corps will he farewelled on Thursday evening. A meeting of the Stratford Auto nohile Association will he held at the Fire Brigade Hall at 8 o’clock this evening. The Hospital Ship Fund now exceeds the amount' originally asked for, totalling £26,149, reports the Press Association. To-day’s list of Volunteers is as follows:—Peter Moratti (Midhirstl, W. H. Wishart (Mahoe), John Matheson (Whangamomona), Lieutenant Foley, Second .Mounted Rifles (Puniwliakau). Friday’s sitting of the local Magistrate’s Court: Ten Civil Cases, one of which will he defended; four Judgment Summons ; four prosecutions for failure to maintain wife and children. A social and dance will he held in the Pembroke Road School on Friday, June 11th, at 8 p.m. The last gathering was such a success that the Committee decided to hold the present social. Weather Forecast.—The indications are for freshening northerly strong winds to gale and veering by west to south. r Phe weather appears likely to he cloudy and unsettled with rain fol lowing. Barometer falling.—Bates, Wellington.

“The Cairenes,” writes a soldier to Ins Father in Nelson, “are very interested in the M'uo-is, end v«ither they nor the Arabs can understand 'why we fraternise with them, and are so friete’lv towards them, while our altitude to.v.irls the native population of Cairo and its environs is one of entire aloofness. In short, the Maoris are u real puzzle to the Egyptians.”

The Stratford Hospital Board, at lids morning’s meeting, resolved to forward a letter of sympthy to Mr Marfell, of Toko, in his recent bereavements.

The Oliura Advocate says: Laud agents are busy in the district just now pvith real and prospective buyers. due no doubt to the advance of tlie railway. Mr T. de vere Hunt has sold out his property at Matiere, at the satisfactory price of £l7 10s per acre. Mr C. McKinder has also sold out his farm adjoining at £l3.

A correspondent writes: Considerable interest was aroused in the vicinity of the Eltham Post Office about mail-time last evening. The cause was, chiefly, the playing of a clarionette by an officer of the Salvation Army with the local Corps’ band. So great was the interest, that from the side-walk one person came forward with a collection of some shillings, which

had been voluntarily taken np, and requested a clarionette solo. This was not on the Army’s programme, but the request was granted, and the officer stood forth and rendered a stirring “March,” at the conclusion of which the crowd, now much increased, heartily applauded. Brigadier Carmichael then announced that Staff-Captain Thurkettle would again render musical items at the Hall and also items on the English concertina and banjo. These officers, it is understood, pay Stratford their initial visit to-night.

A striking example of how the rigid military insistence upon a height -standard debars good men from going to the front was brougnt under the notice of a “New Zealand Times” representative. It was the medical certificate, filled in by one o» the local examining doctors for a recent volunteer, who was shown to be in possession of unimpaired faculties, sound in every particular, free from all traces of disease. The space left for “remarks” showed that some special questions had been answered satisfactorily, and then came the line, “Unfit, too short.” The wouldbe recruit was only 5 feet 2 inches tall, and so he was rejected, though in every other particular absolutely satisfactory. The strangest part of the document was at the foot, where the'doctor certified, according to form, that “this man is unfit for service in the New Zealand expeditionary force.”

To become the unwitting object of the laughter of some 3000 people is not very pleasant (remarks the New Zealand Times), but such an experience befell, in an unusual way, a young man at Sunday night’s concert in the Wellington Town Hall. The night being particularly cold, nearly everybody brought overcoats. One man, on securing his seat, proceeded to divest himself of his overcoat, and, unknowingly—he was engaged in looking up at the gallery—pulled off his ordinary coat also, leaving him before an astonished crowd in his shirt sleeves. The crowd smiled. Then, perceiving that the victim of its collective attention was totally unaware of what had happened, the smile broadened, till a feminine shriek of merriment set the whole house rocking with laughter. This brought the wandering gaze of the coatless one back to earth. But his feelings on perceiving the state of things can far better be imagined than described.

Is a man responsible for his wife’s debts contracted before marriage? This was the question raised at a meeting of creditors in Pahiatua on Monday (says'the Herald). Bankrupt said he had been advised by a solicitor that he would he liable. A creditor said ho had also obtained legal advice in a , similar case, and the reverse opinion had been given. The Deputy Official Assignee said he thought the bankrupt was liable for the wife’s debts contracted before marriage. Another creditor remarked that when bankrupt got married, he took his wife for “hotter or worse.”

Many accounts of Lieut.-General Birdwood’s work with the Australian and New Zealand Forces are coming from Egypt by mail. A Melbourne journalist states that when the general reached Egypt officers were receiving many complaints. Something was wrong. Men were getting sulky, were falling out, were acquiring all sorts of mysterious ills. General Eirdwood soon found out the remedy—more fond, less work. He understood better than most of our officers that men bathed in perspiration from arduous work in unaccustomed circumstances needed plenty of food and plenty of rest, and he saw to it that the troops got both. He is a leader after Australia’s own heart. His office door at headquarters hears n 0 name-plate, and lie is the most accessible Kitchener man ever known. If the troops stand at church parade, he stands, and when they march he dismounts and marches with them. General Birdwood is short-statured —a little taller than Lord Roberts was—fresh of complexion, jovial of aspect, cheery of greeting, quick to champion the side of the men, and, above all, efficient.