LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 75, 27 November 1915, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Legislative Council in West Australia has passed an Anti-Shout-ing Bill, which operates to December, 191. G. ■ An Adelaide cablegram states that the Government’s firm attitude has proved effective, and the strikers have resumed work' on the old terms. At the Stratford Magistrate’s: Court yesterday, judgment by default for plaintiff was given in the civil case; Joseph McGluggage v. Albert A. Mel-, son, for £9 10s, costs .Bs. , ■ ' * : . I In regard to petitions praying for, the remission of the .sentence on Alice Parkinson, who received a We sentence on a charge of murder at Napier, the W ellington Post understands that the Kxecnt’ve, after renewing the Chief Justice’s report, decided to take .10 action. Mr R. J. Linn, of Norraanby, was most successful with his Jerseys at the Hawera Shftw, taking no loss than three championships, on e reserve championship, 11 first, 3 second, and 1 third prize. The Jersey Breeders’ Cup also becomes his property, he having won three years in succession. iu connection witli tiie -Unitary concert to Ue njfiu in die on Wednesday next (.first Show nigntj, .me management woiutl direct speenu attention to tne item oi laiicy niarciiing Uy the Girts' neague. rne members nave been practising assiduousIv for some time, and tueir item is »aid to be a first-class one. Cable messages may now be accepted at Soldiers’ mssage rates for Soldiers at Gibraltar with instruc- , tioiis reply cost of sender. ; The conditions are the .same .as, inj the case of messages to Egypt.!,;'Soldiers, \ n Gibraltar are also' allowed : to send “collect’ 1 ’ messages to New Zealand up to twelve words without receipt or request. .• » • " ’ "-‘'l . . ,

In view of the increased attendance anticipated ,at the picture iiheatre on Show' Nights, Mr Foley hits, decided to ihave two programmes each, night. The lirs'fc programme, commences at six o’clock sharp, and the second at eight o’clock. Tlie star attraction will be “War in Hell,” a big film .centred round the present world-struggle in arms. ’ . Tlie statement made before the Minister of Education at Stratford recently, that no attempt was being made, by tjie Agricultural Department eo educate the farmer,, hut that, what was being done was the work of the Education Department,,’appears to be very far from the truth. Fiom inquiries made, it is learned from Mr A. F. Wilson, Stratford representative of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, that this season there are fifty-seven experimental plots in the Stratford district in co-operation w.ith tlie Agricultural Department, including one at the school. The experiments comprise Lucerne 24, potatoes 3, carrats 3, mangolds 7, soft turnips 3, swedes 4, oats and vetches 4, green feeds i-, prairie grass 2, maize 1.

When presiding at a YAv.CA. meeting recently, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson (.wife of the Governor-Gene-ral of Australia), remarked that some people were under the impression that because they were doing Red Cross work for the soldiers there was no necessity to bother about the gbls. That reminded her of a lady she knew of, who was so impressed with the loss of such numbers of our men at the war that she daily read the births column in the paper, and Whenever the birth of a girl was announced she groaned. She had evidently not taken into consideration the fact that if no girls were born for some time the men would eventually lie reduced to marrying each other’s maiden aunts.

There is a pronounced shortage in the number of bananas exported for the 10 months ending October 31, 1915, as compared with the .similar, 1 period of last year. The export to Australia up to October 81 was -101.469 bunches, and to New Zealand 206,602, making a total of 671,071 bunches. Last year for the 10 months the total was 1,406.369. The ■shortage, as compared with last year, thus amounts to 735,296 bunches. 'Fhe biggest export of bananas during any one month was in January, 1913, when the total was 208.324. The highest month of this year shown a total of 118,900. The cause of the falling , off (states the Suva correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph.) is a purely temporary ons,! and lies in the fact that in December| of last year the Rewa district was swept hy gale and Hood. :C I A Monster Gift Stock Rale for Wounded Soldiers’ Fund is being organised hy the Auctioneers of Stratford and the Patriotic Committee. Promises of gifts will he welcomed, and every member of the Patriotic General Committee is asked to work hard and make the sale an unqualified success. *

Copies of “The Recruits’ Handbook,” for free distribution, are now forward from the Defence Department, and may be obtained on application to the lion, sac. of the Stratford Patriotic Committee. * Weather Forecast—Tile indications are for westerly winds strong to gale. The weather appears likely to ho cloudy and unsettled. Heavy ram is to be expected, witli rivers rising shortly. Barometer falling.—Bates, Wellington. • The weekly Patriotic Market, conducted by the members of the Ladies’ Patriotic Committee, was held today in. the shop in Broadway, lately occupied by Mrs Brooking, under the supervision of .Mrs Curtis, assisted by Mrs Good and Miss Dingle. The shop was prettily decorated, and was a credit to the promoters of the Market. There was a plentiful supply of provisions of all kinds, and good business resulted. During the day, guessing competitions were conducted for a dressing gown, doll’s house, and a dish washer. ’ The result of the competitions will he made known at 8 o’clock this evening. The shop has boon rented, and a market will he con- m ducted each Saturday, One of the proprietors of a- business not a thousand miles from Invercargill, being a single man and eager to volunteer for active service, , advertised throughout the Dominion for someone to take his place during his absence, the salary offered being something in Ihe neighbourhood of £SOO a ygar (says the Southland News’!. The advertisement attracted nearly 500 applications, over 300 of them being sent in by unmarried men. The advertiser’s volunteering ardour was somewhat damped by the knowledge that, while he was prepared to risk the smashing up of his business in order to fight for his country, some hundreds of men were equally prepared to jump into his job. He has decided to wait a while before again advertising.

Passengers on a train bound from Melbourne to Caulfield one night last week, witnessed a sensational iucident. Mrs Mary Layther, of Hawks- , burn, entered a compartment with her infant son. The child was seated in a go-cart, which the mother left standing between, the seats. When the train had run about a mile, its • ' -‘ > i: ;' -ml’ I \■ . ' , motion set ; the go-part moving backwards towards the open door, and before the astonished , mother could .grasp the liapdle thy cart tilted upwards and disappeared ,through the opening. The mother screamd, and leapt from the train, which was then travelling at a high speed. Those who witnessed the spectacle feared that both mother and baby must have been killed by the fall. When Eichmoud was reached, many passengers ran back along tl,ie line, and, to their astonishment, found the mother tightly clasping her crying baby. Both had had wonderful A s the gO-cart struck the ground, the baby rolled unharmed out of it, and escaped injury altogether. The mother fell partly on her face and partly on her left shoulder. Her face was lacerated and her shoulder joint suffered slight, injury,’ but she 'was able ' to limp off without assistance, carrying her baby,

Some weeks ago a number of. ladies iu New Zealand clubbed together and made up a parcel of clothes for destitute Belgian babies, and, in acknowledgment of this, gift, the organiser (Miss K. Hamerton) has received the following letter from Mrs Bernard Allen, secretary of the Belgian Hospital Fund, London:—“You must have thought me most ungracious about the clothes, when you had these delightful little garments in view. They are the nicest I have had to send and will be of the greatest service. I am sure you jvill forgive me when I tell yon that the last gift from Xew Zealand was an enormous case, which could not even be lifted from Carter Paterson’s van. I had to get men to come and break it open in the van and carry the goods in. They filled a room, and were litterallv rags, and very dirty ones too, and we had to sort them in overalls and gloves, as they were too nasty to touch. So you may imagine the words Xew Zealand. alarmed me, and 1 am afraid T wrote rudely. With warmest thanks for these clothes, which af e exactly what is nice for the little refugee schoolchildren in Calais.”