LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 24, 27 September 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Home Defence' Corps and |(w tioiial Reserve will parade at ■]■< 7.3 U o'clock this evening. The Committee will meet at 8.30.

In the dogs' cemetery at Marlborough House, which is under the personal supervision of Queeii Alexandra, there has just been erected a small tombstone over the grave of Caesar. King Edward's favourite pet foxterrier. After King Edward's death Caesar was always with Queen Alexandra. He even accompanied her to Denmark.

The secretary of the Stratford Bo.lt gian Relief Committee has received a letter from Mr R. W. Shallorass, general secretary to the Fund, in which he states that further donations of clothing for the-relief of tk* Belgians would be greatly appreciated, The Department of Internal, Affairs is looking after all donationslof this character, and will at first hand meet all expenses for railage .and. provide free transport to London.

Excellent business is reported 'to have been transacted at the "Patriotic Market" held by Mesdames Skoglund and Malone in the C.B\"A. Buildings on Saturday when about £l6 worth of goods were sold and a large amount of tobacco, cigarettes, etc., collected. From the day's business the Stratford boys at the front will benefit to the extent of nearly sixty Christmas cakes and enoiigh tobacco tb allow them to smoke all Christmas Day.

The Times (London) correspondent in Mesopotamia says that students of divinity will he interested to. know that two important actions 'hAvti'oec-n fought on the actual site of the (harden of Eden, which is'locally stated to lie Korna, at the junction of, the Tigris and Euphrates risers. The British troops who are garrisontd there express doubts as to the authenticity of the, statement, tlunTgh' Vhty/have, pandered to local opinion so far as to dub the most impor:int. thorp'nghfai ,s "Serpent's Corner,',' and "Tempt'ition Square."

The. fishing season opens on Friday, and it may be well to point out that, licenses are procurable frorii the secretary, of the'Stratford Acclimatisation Society (Mr R. 7<\ HarknessV. Men's licenses (available, all oyer ihe Dominion) cost 20s; women's and boys', ss; day licenses (ava.ila.bl? for the Stratford district only) 2.5 ; . Gd; half-season licenses (local) 12sj Od. The rivers are reported to r be jn. splendid, for the disciples Isaac. Walton,., and; spine,, good sport can be, lopke-d forward to in )lthis(.djß- - ;.-..■ ~.;.. iJ , • ;■{,.■;., |1 j

Arrangements are well in .hand for the military concert to be held in the Town Hall on Tuesday, October 12, by Mrs Gray in aid of the Sick and Wounded Soldiers' Fund. Up to the present over five hundred tickets' have been disposed of,' and .competition is Very keen for the Lee-Enfield rifle presented 'by Lieut. Gray, of the local Defence office. Tn addition'to the rifled, Captain Ke'eve, of the Senior Cadets, has donated £1 Is for the second prize. Mrs Gray a fountain pen for third prize; 'and.Lieut. Gray' a pocket book for/'the Territorial or, Senior Cadet who 'sells the fourth largest'number of tickets. The concert programme will be contributed jby Stratford's leading artists, and svery indication points to the evening's entertainment being a marked success.

Lieutenant Gray, of the local De- ! fence Office, stated this morning that a number of men are required for the Army Service Corps. The men most urgently needed are those who are I used to pack work, and as there are many in Taranaki who have had such experience it is thought that the appeal will ss|fte made in vain. Experienced packmen can in most cases make improvised repairs to their waggons so that their services cannot be over-esti-mated when it comes to taking ammunition, etc., in to the firing line. For this kind of work big, strong, hardy men are needed, a s the duties to be undertaken are of no mean character as far as weight-lifting is concerned. a

How an Australian officer, l>y the use of a slang phrase, discovered an act of German treachery is related by Lieutenant Hunter Bolton, son of Lieutenant-Colonel W K. Bolton, of Ballarat, who was wounded in June, and is.-now in Victoria recuperating. Lieutenant Bolton has been on leave in Bendigo, where he Was employed before enlistment, and, in the course of an interview there, he,said: "On the Sunday night after the memorable landing, an 'officer' came up to us and told Us not to fire to the right, as there was a patrol party out there. Captain Cooper, who was in command of our section, asked him who he was, and he said he belonged to the 31st Battalion. He had taken the numerals off a dead soldier of the 13th Battalion, and had placed them on his uniform in reverse order. Captain Cooper was suspicious, and said to the supposed officer, 'Are you fair dinkum? Ignorance of this Australian term proved the downfall of the officer,' for he innocently replied, 'Yes, that's my name. T'm Dinkum.' That was the end of the German. Next morning his dead body was picked up outside our trenches."

A meeting in connection with the raising of funds for the pursing Sisters wiil be held in the Midiiirst Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon.

The proprietors of the Medjna Tea Kooms have generously • offered to hand al] takings to-morrow (Tuesday) to the Wounded Soldiers' Fund.

[ Last Saturday between 4.30 and 8 o'clock. Miss Freda Hewitt, of Stratford, sold button-holes in the streets on behalf of the Patriotic Market run by Mesdames Sangster and MflQuay. securing the sum of £T 12s fid, while Miss Bessie Smith sold lss-6d worth, thus making a total of £2 8s 3d. Miss Hewitt was so pleased with the evening's business that she wrote to her friend. Mrs Thomas Anderson, for a donation of flowers, and these duly arrived on, Friday afternoon in splendid condition and excellently arranged. •Master Ivan Hewitt disposed of the lot by 7 p.m. for the sum of £l,7s 3d. In one second-class carriage on the Hawera train. Master Hewitt realised the sum of 7s 3d for two small, buttonholes on behalf of the Wounded. Soldiers' Furfd. The little felbw then informed, would-be purchasers that Ins flowers were all gone, hut the soldiers were not!

. There was a very fair 'attendance last evening at the Foresters' Hall, when the subject of, ; "Spiritualism through i Scientific Snectacles" was dealt with by Mr F. G. Blake. An analytical survey-of the Society for Physical Research was made, and the views expressed by prominent members were placed before,the public. The influence on modern thought of the results by their research, was great, and undoubtedly their religion and true science were one. The speaker contended that modern science was every day" corroborating .the very core of the Christian religion and quoted F. M. Myers: "That in consequence of the new evidence,'all reasonable men a century ..hence will believe in the Resurrection of Christ.';' The speaker took up no dogmatic attitude." and Was not in sympathy with what is frequently placed before the- , public as under the name | of spiritualism. The view of „Sir Oliver Lodge and Alfred Russ>f Wallace wa,s tut consistent with what might be classed as humbug. The speaker spoke for over an hour, and the lecture will hk finished at a future date. - i • j '!i j |' / 1 -''J A *•• G ' UMttj s In! a recent ,G"The ■ Navy") commented on Colonel ' RVpington's garrjility.j .jA, .corres^)nden^ T us,. saying that we were wrong in saying that' ''The, Tones'' only j a talker. We do not' wish to wrong any, pian, ; po ( we• give jhis, .ser-j | vices! according,tP, o " l ' correspondent,! who '' says: "He has plenty of war service—Afghanistan, Burma, .Soudan, and Boer War.; wtas military attache at Brussels and the Hague. Employed by War Office to edit the Army Review, l Sent • the report from French's headquarters that army was short of high explosives; and that Lod Haldane ha s stated he was one of:ithe most brilliant writers on mill'-, tary subjects in the world." We are quitei willing to .record,these services;,hilt a's we have read the "Tipies" for years;ahjLhJs they flipst? .j ly consist of girding we are nofe surprised that. Lord Haldane. spoke, of him as a *hrillia?it. writer. for the "Times" supported Lord .Haldane in : his military policy,, although a. ; greater than he, Lo,r,d .Roberts, con-.,.., 'demned.it as being inimical tp our . ; safety* Who was right ? , While quite willing to give everyone his due,' we cannot say that we feel any contritioi/ in writing as we did about this military correspondent-.