LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 38, 14 October 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Den 1i 1 let, addressing a crowd of pro-Cermans at a London meeting, said: “You poor, miserable rotters; it is good for you that you live in a free country. imi cowards, von are skulking behind the quivering bodies oi our boys at the front, )on ought to bo in gaol.” “I can hit the bull’s-eye at (i()(l yards,” said Mr W. T. Jennings in the House recently. “I have three sons at the front, . . . and I am willing to go and seine myself.” He did not believe we had been told the whole truth about the war, ami we would yet have to make big sacrifices; and il bis services were required thev wore at the disposal of the authorities, as they had been iu ]SG!).— (Hear, hear).

On Friday a very successful social 1 and dance was held in Koliuratalii Hall on behalf of the King Kole Carnival P.AV.I). candidate, under the auspices of the P.W.D. Cricket Club, and Secretary J. lingers will have a nice little sum to hand to a very deserving cause, viz., the local Wounded Soldiers’ Fund. Dancing was carried on until 2 a.in., and during an interval supper was served to everybody’s satisfaction by the lady workers for the cause. Mr P. Hill, in a neat ora-, tion, thanked the workers, musicians, and vocalists on behalf of the Club, j , k

At the Stratford Magistrate’s Court this morning before Mr S. B. Hunter, J. P. a first offender for drunkenness, who was arrested yesterday afternoon, was lined 10s , the amount of the bail. Weather Forecast.—The indications are for westerly moderate winds prevailing. '1 lie weather will probably prove squally and changeable with mild and hazy conditions. Barometer unsteady,—Bates, .An Invercargill Press Association telegram to-day states: The Southland Queen Carnival in aid of Wounded Soldiers’ Fund lias closed, and realised £66,000, with further amounts still to come. Tlie ladies of Lepperton are arranging to supply a number of beds for the Ibid Hospital Ship, and Mrs Lepper, representing the ladies of her district, is in town to-day to procure a sample of what is required from the Stratiord Ladies’ Patriotic Committee.

About thirty men of the Public M orks Department, Whangamomona, arrived in town last night and left for ,I ( eatherston by tlie mail train this morning. The men, with fourteen more from Te Rod. have been transferred to the rauheretdkiui Camp to construct roads, etc.

A private letter from Egypt, received in Wellington, states that on August 5 a lighter, continuing 29 bags of New Zealand mails, was sunk-by Turkish gunfire off Gaha Tope, and on the same day another lighter, with 34 bags of mail matter- from the Dominion. capsized, and ah the mails veto lost.

" A Xew York paper just to hand pnuounces that Rob Fitzsimmons’s fine farm at West Dundee, Xew Jersey, was to have been sold, lock, stock and barrel, on August 18 under instructions from the mortgagee. It is further stated that since the once groat fighter made Ins fourth plunge into the matrimonial sea he had “sort of neglected home affairs and business.”

A long list of civil cases has been set down, for hearing at the Stratford Magistrate's Court to-morrow, there being eighteen cases, of which one is defended. There are five criminal cases, tvo informations for wilful damage, one for insulting language, one threatening behavour, and one obsene language. A by-law case, for driving a motor car at night without 'lights will also be heard.

Flashes of humor occasionally enliven the proceedings of cases at the Courts, and the unconscious qfiort of a leading legal luminary at Wanganui will take a lot of beating, (states the Herald). He was cross 7 examining a Maori witness upon hi s means of living. hat do you do?” asked counsel. “Work on my wife’s farm,” replied witness. “What do you milk, cows or sheep?” queried the solicitor, and the laugh raised was beyond the control of the court crier to suppress.

Mr Bouar Law lias taken some preliminary steps towards giving tlie German colony in South Africa the new name of “Bothniaud.” in token of the national sense of General Botha’l splendid services to the Empire. It is improbable! however, that the re-nam-ing will take place before the end of the war, when a similar service will have to be performed in the case of other conquered territories.. At the same time there is likely to be ian agreement for re-naming the .ocean which sweeps the colonies in southern latitudes.

Complaint is often made of the condition of the kerbing on the footpaths in Broadway. When the new channelling was put in a portion of the footpath was broken away, and now that the new kerbing is installed there are some inches of rough edge to the footpaths which are a danger to pedestrians crossing the street in stepping from the road to the pavement and vice versa. Some evenings ago a young lady was seen to fall in stepping from the road to the pavement. 'The result was a severe bruising and a broken umbrella. Several other instances have been reported. Fortunately no serious accidents have occurred. hut such are quite possible, and then perhaps someone will have to pay and explain.

Referring to the night attack on Rhododendron Spur in his latest communication. Mr Malcolm Ross (New Zealand’s war correspondent at Gallipoli), says that both officers and men had broad bands of white calico sewn on their coat sleeves, and a big square patch of the same material sewn on the backs of their coats—a necessary pret ution in an attack on a dark nigl so that in the general melee in the scrub and the trenches friend should not be bayonetting friend, but only the enemy. . . It says a great deal for the care taken and the secrecy observed that both the concentration and the attack came as a great surprise to the enemy. Many Turks were found asleep in their dugouts, and in many eases they were undressed. Prisoners, of whom many were taken, afterwards admitted that they had no previous warning of our attack.