LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 32, 13 January 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

! The Mayor (.Mr J. \Y. \iqou) acknowledges receipt oi' the sum ol CO from Mr A. Meredith, of Strathmwiw for the Soldiers' Tobacco Fund. The monthly meeting of the Stratford Comity Council will by held at ihc Ounty diets Stratford, on Wednesday next, at LI a.irf. The lirst meeting of the Taranaki War Relief Association will be iiekl in tin Stratford Patriotic Committee's rooms ut 10.30 a.in. to-■ii , »no>\. A meeting of creditors in the banknipt estate oi Fj,«nk Edward lieiinier, laborer, Kohitratahi, will be held in the Courthouse, Stratford, on Tuesday, •January 20. A whare clo.se to a railway station down the line bears the legend: "Here lived German Charlie. Got rest his soul!" further information' as to bis whereabouts arid utlimat© fate are not disclosed.

Weather Forecast.—The indications are for westerly moderate to strong winds with a southerly tendency. Weather cool and changeable, with scattered showers. The barometer ha s a rising tendency.—-Fates, Wellington.

A New Plymouth message this morning states that L, Jensen, second mate of the schooner C. S. Holmes. which recently arrived from I'uget Sound, was drowned in the harbour last night. It appears that he missed his footing when going aboard.

On the motion of Mr Samuel Sperice; of Messrs Spence and Stanford, solicitors, Stratford, probate of the will of Edward Frank Browning, late of Stratford, .farmer, deceased, was, on the 20th December, granted to the executrix therein named by His Honor the Chief Justice.

An Auckland Press Association telegram to-day states: An old age pensioner named Markwick Ashdown Sivycr, committed suicide at Swanson by jumping into the creek. He left a letter indicating his intention, and stated that lie had come to the conclusion that life way not worth living.

The Town Clerk is in receipt of the following letter from Mr G. F. Campbell; State Advances Office, Wellington, relative to to the raising of a loan of £lb',ooo for local electrical supply: "I have the pleasure to inform you that" no objection has, been taken' to the borrowing of the loan, and the matter will be submitted for the Governor's consent at an early meeting of the Exective Council./

A Press Association ' message from Wellington, says that it bus been decided to take action for an alleged strike against six men. wiio ceased work on a collier on 30th December. It was reported at the time that the men, who were engaged shifting oOiu, complained of a noxious smell m one of the holds, and refused to continue work unless the extra rate was paid. The demand was not conceded, and the vessel left Wellington without completing discharge.

London has installed six women 'bus conductors on a suburban route. Their

uniform is picturesque, and is composed of grey'Melton cloth piped with scarlet, and finished with leatherbound cuffs and collars and brass buttons. The skirt reaches the tops of the boots, and is also edged with leather. All the material is water-proof, and the rap is a modification of the male conductor's peaked headgear. The women are being paid the same rates as the men conductors, with an average working day of ten hours. Th s 'bus company has, futhermore, 30 additional women in training for future service. They must be British-born ami between 21 and 40 years of age.

A Refresher Camp for Officers and N.C.O.'s of the Wellington District will be opened at Palmorstoii North on Saturday evening. One officer and three non-commissioned officers from the Xlth Itegiment will attend., Lieutenant Clarke. Sergeants B. Malone, C. Till and Corpora] Kelby. These men will undergo seven days' training. It speaks well for the keeness of the Stratford Company that two of the three non-commis-sioned officers attending from the Xlth Regiment are Stratford men. There arc in addition several mounted men to attend the camp, so that Taranaki is well respreseuted in both arms of the services. The following Cadets will also attend the cam]) ; Q.M.S, U. Hunter, Sergeants A. Betts. M. James. C. Lawn, L. -Marfell. A. W. Petersen, A. Petrie. L. Robinson and ('. Rogers. The Southland Times reports that it is expected that the drawing of the Queen Carnival Art Union of Southland will shortly take place. The numbers are in the hands of Tattersails, Hobart, hut the task is made rather complicated by the fact that the numbers, instead of being "consecutive, as in the case of their own sweep-.. are broken, many odd t'ekets in books not having been sold. This means that the marble will] the number corresponding In Ihal < ticket will lia\ e to he withdrawn. Some idea -A lh<: magnitude of the task oi 'f'atteysalb can he gained when it i-- said that then' wen.' 17 sheets of fofltseap with numbers closely written sent to Hobart, The drawing, however, .vii! he concluded as soon as i ; . is poss<i>le for the machinery' of TattcrsalK to do it. The drawing was entrusted to Tattersails, as they -any have marbles enough to make a draw of Mich magnii tide v, ii h p.real or appa > > i! iaiino \ than i-. por: i*e when bulls: of ticket arc used,

Preparations are being made to exhibit ni Melbourne sonic of the articles taken from tho German cruiser Emdeii. A nit'i'iier of £uns was shipped to Sydney, where they now lie, awaiting a completion of the plans lor a 1:11 display of all the relics secured. An interesting exhibit is an eightfoot mode) o! the Kinden, which was found in the cruiser shortly after she went to her doom. The model is skeleton framework, showing engine rooms and other compartments. Its destination may* be discussed at a meeting of the Federal Cabinet. Queen's Hall, at Federal Parliament House, and the Public Library have been mentioned as likely places. In addition to the model of the Knulen, there are at the Navy (b'lice a binnacle and a number of charts which were used on the cruiser.

j At a recent feast at Matakula, near : Rerun, in Fiji (writes the Fiji correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph), a special feature was the contribution of some bags of berries oi the Sathatl, one of the hardwood timber trees of Fiji used for piles and work requiring a similar class of timi bor. These berries make their appearance at ii'iegular intervals, and it is said that they have not made their appearance for more than ten years. When they come* it is generally accepted by the natives as an omen of an attack and the downfall of so"me means that the tight will he a small affair, but if a large one the contrary is the case. The crop has been a heavy one this year, and the natives in some parts are said to be very greatly concerned about it. as they consider it means there will be a great disaster in arms, which, applied to this war. concerns either the downfall of Germany or Britain.

i Canberra or Anzac?—The "Man- ' chester Guardian" writes :—"Canberra (name of the new Australian capital) ' may well give place to Anzac, the most illustrious-made name in history. Surelv there was never so happy a J concourse of letters as these initials j of the men who did the impossible on i the cliffs of Gallipoli. They make a , word with a Homeric ring that speaks i pride and strength in its swinging ' syllables, a lifting word to mark the ' capital city of a young and lusty nation. The suggestion to immortalise Anzac and all it means is a symptom of the fine spirit in which Australia and New" Zealand have taken the 1 evacuation of the dill's and gullies ' where there are thousands of their 'dead. With a lesser people grief might well have turned to anger. In 1 these it bred new pride and sterner 1 resolve It will be well if the word enshrining these qualities is given im- - mortality in the name of what must 'some day be one of the world's chief cities." .The Panama Exposition was by no Hieans an effective "draw." in an inter viev with Mr Niel Nielson, the Commonwealth representative. had with the San Francisco correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, he made this clear. "Some figures have been. compiled by the railways with terminals at San Francisco," he said. "showing that while the total'atetendance at the Exposition ran to over IS millions, the visitors from outside a radius of 800 miles from San Francisco only numbered LOO.OOO. \ Even the visitors from points within the 800 miles radius area who travelled on the railways comprised but 500,000. These significant figures plainly demonstrate that the attendance at the Exposition has been chiefly confined to the population resident in the vicinity of San Francisco itself. The Exposition failed to attract Europeans or even Easterners of America to any appreciable extent. This 800 mile radius would include the country west of the Rocky Mountains, and from this area the attendance was but 500,000. ■ These figures largely support the ideas expressed on the outbreak of the war to the effect that that conflict would prevent the Panama Exposition bearing the originally-planned international character and scope to any noteworthy magnitude."

Several rumors relative to incidents connected with the hospital ship Maheno are in circulation. One is (says the Otago Daily Times) that on various occasions officers in high command at the Dardanelles went out to the ship and were entertained on board, and that by some means this fact became known to the Turks, who iit once notified the captain of the ship that if such visits were to he allowed they would fire on the vessel—that they would respect Maheno as a hospital ship, but would sink her if she \vas to be a restaurant! Another story is that during one bombardment by the "grey birds," as the warships are called at Gallrpoli, the bombardons cniue in too close behind the Maheno, which was promptly signalled to by the Turks to clear out, or they would not be responsible for the consequences. Some people, also, are asking why the hospital ship, which all observers state did invaluable work in carrying the wounded from Anzac, was allowed to come hack to New Zealand with soldiers who could, no doubt, have been brought over by other vessels, and that if it. was absolutely necessary to refit lea,'why this could not have been done at »i port nearer to Gallipoli? !t is said in this connection that when the doctors on board the .Maheno saw the vistbla traces of strain and overwork on the face;; of the doctors attached

to the fighting forces, the thought appealed to them that it would have been a first-class idea had some of llu'so doctors been transferred to the hospital ship, and their places taken in the staff on the Maheno. A reason Riven for the return of the Maheno is that there was considerable friction between the seafaring staff and the medical staff, and that when the vessel ,\:i>- in Eiudand a definite announcement was obtained from the Admiralty as to where authority actually rested