LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 67, 24 February 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Press Asosciation sates that an Auckland citizen offers to give £doo to an aeroplane fund if there are tom other donations of the same amount.

Thirteen cases of infantile paralysis were reported in Aneklnd since yesterday afternoon, making a total in the city ami.country of 2(54.—P.A.

Once again the Department oi Labor is sending a fairly large number of carpenters to Keatberston .Military Camp, where they are required tor special work. The Wellington .office hopes to despatch about thirty this week.

A large number of women workers are wanted for hop-picking in the .Motueka and Nelson districts. Ihe Labor Department is endeavoring to engage the required number (about 200), and it is possible that a special steamer will he secured to take them across to the scene of operations.

A man said to have been victimised by means of drugged whisky, appeared before Mr George Brownlee, J.P., at the Oamaru Court, charged with having been found drunk on a train on February G (says the Mail). Ihe police said that the man’s condition was serious when he was arrested. Medical aid was summoned, and after an hour’s work he returned to conconsciousness. He was brought before the Court on Monday week and ..remanded tor treatment, since when be has been in the hospital. The prisoner pleaded guilty. He said that lie bad brought no liquor ou the train with him, but on coming out of the dining car a man. whom lie did not know, proffered him a bottle of whisky, of which he drank a mouthful. The= next thing he knew was that he was in the hands of the police. The sum of £7 was in his pockets when lie left the dining car, but had vanished since. He was sober when he got on the train. He was on his way south after some months in Trentham camp, where he had been discharged for heart trouble. The Bench imposed a fine of os, the prisoner to pay the medical expenses, £1 I s '. in default forty-eight hours’ imprisonment.

Mr A. W. Telfer, of Hillcrest, Mataura Island, one of the severest sufferers in the South district by the thunderstorm last Friday afternoon, gave a Wyudham “Farmer” reporter some account of his experience. “The first sign of something unusual being about to happen,” said Mr Teller, “was a deafening,roar of wind..on top of which came vivid flashes of lightning and terrible peals of thunder. It was quite impossible to go outside and face the storm during the brief tune it lasted—some eight or nine minutes, I should judge. Lumps of ice two feet in depth heaped up on the exposed sides of my house; a 400. gallon tank which had run, empty was filled amt overflowing; and the surplus from the spouting was like a deluge. The ice cut the oat and turnip stalks in my fields as if I had gone through them with a reaping hook. It was a magnificent crop of oats, well headed, and standing six feet high; ami now the cows have been turned into it to eat it off. Jn my turnip fields four or five acres of very forward plants, thinned nine days before Christmas, were all cut down, and are now a patch of desolation. A similar fate ihefell a fine clover field. In my vegetable garden, the* peas, onions, carrots, etc., were all topped clean off by the swiftlV dropping ice. The only redeeming feature about the visitation is that weeds like thistles and tansy suffered as badly as the cultivated plants.’ Mr Teller, who estimates his loss at upwards of £2OO, added that his neigh hour, Mr George Heath, is also a heavy sufferer, ya 10-acre patch in a field of oats being practically destroyed. Mr Heath also bad lambs drowned in a swollen creek.

Boot-cleaning, one of file milder recreations that Salonika offers, ranks among the national industiies of Greece. To sit drinking little cups ol thick Turkish coffee and having his boots cleaned at the same time is the Greek’s ideal of a pleasant afternoon. The “bistros.” as Greek shoeblacks are musically, called, though usually of tender age, is a true artist- (saVs Mr Ward Price, the' well-known correspondent). and is by no means content with the dull burnish that satisfies the English boot-hoy. He first meticulously scrapes your hoots clean of the smallest fragmentiol mud, then wipes it carefully so as to have a perfectly clean background to work on. After that he applies the blacking,.not by dabbing the blacking brush "Mo the tin, but with a variety of little metal implements and sponges. When he has brushed this to a bright polish yon imagine that your shine is ov ' er . I,ut ifc has reallv only begun, tor the ‘ bistros” now goes on to bring out the bhdi lights b v smearing your boot over with a colourless cream, which bo brushes again t<> groat brilliance, and finishes off bv two or three minutes friction with a velvet cloth. He completes his work by painting the edge of sole, and bool with a sort of varnish. If you attempt during all the time to withdraw vonr foot before lie is satisfied with the effect produced, the ‘‘bistros” knocks imperiously with the hack of ibis brush. Successful “bisimi” oven have ,a little nickel-plated hell which they ring to call vonr attention when they are ready for the other foot, as it is the etiquette of the profession’nover to speak to a client after first attracting bis attention by hammering non., their little woodep boxes. For all this yon my the “bmI r „v” ton lent as, or one lymuv, and n a Ik away with a r lf-cmiscious fed- ; - -.flint your foot are glittering.

On Saturday night the Feilding Post Office clock was lighted by electricity for tlie first time. Blulf has been swept by potato I blight, and every grower Iris been vi.cicd Even soni- second smogs have been killed off. At the Te Kniti Racing Cinb’s meeting on Saturday a number of Natives were perched on the rails near the winning post, excitedly watching the horses coming up the straight at the 1 finish of the Rohe Potae Welter. .Inst 1 as the excitement was at its height the yail gave way, and some -0 or ! more of the spectators were thrown on * to the course, right in front ol the galloping horses. It was very amusing to the crowd standing in safety on the opposite side to watch the Maoris scrambling back out of danger, but there was a very narrow shave of a comedy being turned into a tragedy.

At the Auckland Supreme Court (states the Press Association to-day), Charles Harden, who was found guilty of forgery and uttering, came up Uv. sentence. It was d. ited that the accused was for fifteen years Crown Solicitor at Westport, but gave wry to drink. He made a fiesn stmt at Palmerston North, and wa turn struck off tlie rolls for two ecais lor not accounting for £ls ( ).’ His good conduct subsequently enabled him to be re-admitted to- practice !’> Auckr land. In tlie present case tbe-e was no intent to defraud. Justice Iloskmg said he believed the offence was not due to criminal disposition, and he recognised that the priso ler would probably again be struck off the n ils. Prisoner was admitted to probation' for three years, conditionally il at bo does not enter an hotel unless on business, and not drink any intoxicating liquor unless by the duel r’s orders. —F. A.