LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 54, 2 November 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

1 In the published list of Makahn snbi scrihers to the Red Cross Fund, ow'ng .' to a printer’s error, the name.* of S Martin, J. Manning;, W. Bellamy, and A. Coyne, each donating ten shillings , were ominted, while .1. O’Connor >as included twice. Dr. Fitchett, in the November issue of “Life,” writes interestingly to show that the Allies’ position is growing stronger, whilst that of the Germans and their forced friends is not nearly as strong as it looks on paper. Dr. Fitchett’s account of the fighting of the month is, as usual, vivid and picturesque, whist his summing up of the moral factors in what he terms “a spiritual balance sheet of the war,” is at once a mental and moral tonic. In to-day’s issue is published particulars of Stratford A. and P. Association’s Show, which takes place on the Ist and 2mi of .December, In looking through the schedule, just to hand, and comparing il with last year’s, it will he found (hat the Committee has added several new classes, and increased the prize money. The Donation Committee lias met with singular success in the canvass for donations, having been promised which will be allotted to the various classes. Several improvements have been made on the show grounds, for the convenience of those attending, and these will no doubt be much appreciated. The membership has increased over a hundred since lasi ( show. The various committees have all their work well advanced, and, given line days, the Stratford Show ol 101 o' should be a record one.

Patriotic Committees and Dairy Factory Companies not represented on the Stratford Patriotic Committee are kindly asked to nominate a member and forward name to' the hon. sec.. .1. W. McMillan. The Patriotic {"lift Stock Sale has been postponed (ill date to l>e advertised. x

An invitation lias been extended td all local bowlers to attend the opening of either the New Plymouth or Inglewood greens on Thursday next. The treasurer of the Belgian Relief Fund acknowledges with thanks from an anonymous donor through the Post Office, receipt of postal notes for six shillings. The .Metropolitan Abattoirs Board (Adelaide) lias definitely adopted the “stunning by hammer” method of killing stock in preference to “pithing.” The board has given instructions for the system to lie wholly adopted at the abattoirs under its control, and the necessary alterations to the slaughtering pens have been made. The interesting ceremony of “Saluting the Flag” is being arranged by His Worship the .Mayor (Mr J. W. Boon) in connection with a parade of the School and Senior Cadets on Victoria Park on Thursday afternoon. Lieutenant Gray, who will be in command, requests a large muster, including the Toko and Midhirst members, comprising the 94th, 9-jtli and 97tb Companies. The Municipal Band is to be asked to attend and supply appropriate music, and a patriotic speech will be given by a leading citizen. The function will take place at three o’clock, when it is expected a large gathering of the public will be assembled.

A bold then was eltected on board the steamer Wodonga, lying at the A.L.S.N. wharf. Sydney, on Tuesday last, the sum of £BB in notes being stolen from the cabin occupied by Miss Mattie McClelland, a member of the Graham Moffat Dramatic Company. .Miss McClelland went to her cabin at about 11.80 on Monday night, and when she woke up early next morning she discovered the cabin door, which she bad closed overnight ,was open. This aroused her suspicions, and on making a search she discovered that a box in which she had four £2O notes, a £o note, and six 10s notes, was missing. She'then went to another cabin, which some of her friends occupied, and informed them of her loss. They raised the alarm, and, after a search, the box which contained the notes was found empty, with the lock farced off, in another part of the steamer. The police hate the matter in hand. lu the course of conversation yesterday, Mr L. u. Goruon-'inoimiSj of , jJougajiuvJily, isoioi'noii isianus, ue told a. representative of the "Stratford .Evening Post A the experiences’ok the planters at the commeucenfeut of the war. Mr r nomas, uuo is accompanied by his "He, is oh a health trip through New Zealand. Altei 'travelling .through the Pest part of Canada, ! Australia and New Zealand, he stated .that New Zealand, in his opinion, was "truly God’s Own Country.” Air Thomas is a. planter at Bougainville, Solomon islands, which was, till the declaration of war, a

■ German dependency out is now in oet: cupation oi Australian, soldiers. Alt * Thomas was m- the newspaper husi's: ness for a number ol years and held ‘ positions on a Vancouver daily, and s was for a Considerable time manag- '* ing editor of the “Camrose Mail,” 1 Canada 1 . Asked as to what kind of 1 a time the islanders had had at the commencement of war Mr Thomas implied. they had an anxious time, not a *1 Dad time. .New Britain was'acquired by the Australians in September, anil Bougainville in December: 1 Those . four months were like lour years. “The Germans are unexcelled at telling lies,” said Mr Thomas.” We did ! not know Germany was up in arms until three weeks after the declaration of war. They got the wireless message in -New Britain, 2UU miles away, but news travels very slow in the islands and so we did not know until the island trading steamer came along. The first intimation we had was gleamed from the messages ■ which were smuggled in by the steamer to the effect that England was beseiged and had eight days to hold out; the English licet was bottled up iu the Thames; India was up in arms.” Mr Thomas said lie saw the messages in black and white and that was the kind of war news they were “fed up on.” “In October of last year,” said Mr Thomas, “we receivceived a message that the Lusitana was sunk and one thousand five him- * dred or one thousand six hundred lives had been lost. We were cut off from all communications with Sydney. and we just had to swallow tales of that description, thinking that the war was only ‘medium,’ The Englishmen on the Island were well treated by the Germans, and at the commencement of the war we were all put on our word of honor not to escape or do anything else that would lead to trouble. At present there is a wireless station on the island, which was erected by the Australian soldiers after they took charge. The troops are garrisoned in the Government offices lately occupied by the German and everything is under martial law.” The planters experienced a very dry season last year, which was a very unusual occurrauce for the Solomon Islands. This season, from present appearances, should prove a profitable one. The war was slightly decreasing The price of copra hut not to any great exton 1 .

Some fine prices were realised at the t Stratford stock sale this afternoon, as high as £lB 10s being bid for milch cows of no particular merit as far as pedigree is concerned. The Mayor (Mr J. W. Boon) received a telegram from the Defence Office, Hawera, this afternoon, stating that the next Reinforcements will go into camp on November 16. The secretary of the Stratford Hospital Board has been advised to have a bed in readiness at the Public Hospital for an invalided soldier, who returned by the Willochra and will arrive in Stratford this evening. A meeting of ladies who are willing to assist in preparing supper at the social to be tendered to returned soldiers and the 11th Reinforcements in the Town Hall on November 11, will be held in the Town Hall to-morrow afternoon, at 3.30 o’clock. In a report of the Taranaki Education Board’s meeting, published the other day; it was incorrectly stated that Mr T. Boyle, Pembroke Road, had donated a silver shield for competition amongst the schools for agriculture. “Mr BoyleV should have read “Mr T. Cuthbert.”

At the special meeting of the Stratford Borough Council held last evening, it was decided that the Council and its employees hold a social in the Town Hall on November 11. The evening will take the form of 'a reception to returned soldiers, and a,send-off to the next botch of recruits who are expected to he dratted into camp at an early date. - 1 T. Wilford, M.P., has been invited to speak. .The Mayor (Mr J - "• Boon) the Chairman of the Stratton County Council (Mr W. H.Uw), and the Member for the District (.-D J B. Hine), will also deliver short addresses.

‘ An Australian private, writing from the tiring line, says:—“The war is not all fun; but with- all its hardships, 1 would not be anywhere but here i think any man who is medically tit and is staying at home, unless prevented bv some reasonable excuse well, he is nob fit company for anyone. I think these cold-footed shirkers will t find that out when our war is over, and those of'us who are fortunate enough to bee left return home. It makes one ■ bore to- pick .up a Newspaper or weekly .picture paper and read ''here six thousand men attended the hght in •Sydney, ,or five thousand the Hotmail niatQh in Melbourne,, while we are hei fighting for their lives and our!*, and S taedom. for -M ««* ■to-be under a German {big. j

Smuts and rust take heavy toll from the grain chops’ grown in Canada, and the viriilerice of these plant pests is; said to be increasing. In Ontario alone the animal financial loss caused by smut is estimated at more ttupi _ £500.000, and the loss from rust is still greater. This is a state of things the Government of the province will not submit to, and extensive arrangements are being made to fight smuts and rust.t All 1 over ■'the .world (cpntirtues this' agricultural authority) man’s struggle 'with; nature j|in the form of insects, fungi, aiul other pestp seems to.be growing in intensity,,^ By intensivei cultivation we are upsetting the balance of nature, and must wage; fcrmtipual warfare to- naicl ofl iThe future warfare, it is propbesiec , will be, not man versus man, but mankind versus insect and other pe-ts.