LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 70, 28 February 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

To-day is the sixteenth anniversary of the relief of Ladysmith in the Boer War. 'l’he date of the Stratford {iuu Club’s shoot lias been altered to Thursday. 9th March. The adjourned special meeting of the Stratford Borough Council vi 1 ie heht this evening at 7.110 o’elocu.

| Another contingent of Territorials I left for the annual training camp at j Rangiotu by special train this niorni ing. Captain W. V. Wilson was in charge of the local men. Intending students in Shorthand and ! Dressmaking at the Stratford Technical School are requested to send their' names to the Superintendent (M.rj : Tyrer), from whom all information may he obtained. The Shorthand classj begins on Wednesday, Bth March, at 7 p.m. ( and Dressmaking on l'’riday, 17th March, at 3.30 p.m. A father at Porewa. between Ilunterville and Marton, gave two youths I 50 acres of land to crop with potatoes j this season. The young men. says a contemporary, got to work, planting, moulding and digging the whole of the crop with the aid of machinery, and they have now sold the crop at A< per ton. As the crop is yielding the enormous average of 15 tons to the acre, these youths will make about £5250 on the season’s operations, and as they have done all the work themselves except the employment of three men in the picking at 8d per hag. they have earned quite a little fortune each with only a few months of labour. Interesting reference to the patriotism of Oddfellows was made at the annual conference of the Auckland district delegates last week (says the Star). Mr F. A. Smith, the Provincial Grand Master, stated that great things were being done by members of the Order in the Old Land. No less than 100,000 Oddfellows were with the colors. In order that these fighting men might not forfeit privileges of membership, those who stayed at home had maintained their subscriptions. This involved the expenditure of no less a sum than £150,000 annually. The Order of Oddfellows had also contributed the sum of £574,000 to National Whir Loans raised in England.

Germans own all +he hotels oi importance in Salonika, writes a, correspondent from that town. When General Mahon, Commander-in-Cliief of the British, came ashore to seek headquarters lie was forced to go to a German hotel. Scores of lesser .British officers had themselves in the same predicament. It begins f° look as if the Gorman proprietors of the Salonika hotels had tried to play a trick on the British and French army men who seek rooms at their hotels. Whenever an allied officer is shown a room he always finds on the walls two pictures, one of the King of Greece and the other of the Queen. Lord Granard, who is on General Mahon's staff, has at the foot of his bed a-j cheap print of the Kaiser’s sister. The French officers, in the main, are billeted in the French sehoolhouse and in French houses at Salonika.

Satan last week found mischief for an idle person with a mental “kink” (says the Dunedin “Star”). On Wednesday afternoon tin’s individual telephoned to the Fire Station that a fire had broken out in Murray. Heberts’s grain store, but upon the arrival of the brigade no signs of fire were visible.' This practical joke was such a brilliant success that, apparently, the perpetrator repeated it on Saturday. At any rate that afternoon another telephone call was received to “a fire at Xo. 13 Maitland Street, near Manor Place.” The reel turned out. only to find that there was no fire, and that Xo. 13 Maitland Street was nowhere near Manor Place. The brigade are making searching enquiries, and it is to he hoped that the individual with such a perverted sense of humour will be traced and severely dealt with. Some instances ot the efforts that are being made by Germany to retain her commercial relations were given by Mr F. W. Manton, of Wellington, at the recent conference in Christchurch, of the United Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association. He stated that just before the war Xew Zealand had been deluged with offers of trade from Germany and Austria, and he knew for a fact that this was one outcome of the presence] of German representatives in the Dominion. For practical purposes every, German firm in Xew Zealand was a) business spy. Mr Manton mentioned that since the war began a German in London had actually had the effrontery to send a representative to Wellington to endeavor to establish a company under the title of the Belgian Trading Company! Xeodless to say that scheme had been nipped in the hud. Mr S. A. Orchard, president of the conference, declared he knew that German goods were coming into the country—goods might ho bought in neutral countries in all good faith that theyj wore of neutral make, and yet theyj would be found to be of German origin. I A party of Xew Plymouth motoristsl had a very near escape from deathj near Inglewood yesterday afternoon. The motor was being driven over the new deviation, when the earthwork atj the side gave way and the car waSj precipitated over a bank about I'ffl., high. Before reaching terra firma the, car turned over two or three time-, and a lady passenger who, it is thought, tried to throw herself clear, sustained a broken leg and was moie or less crushed about the hotly. A litHo hoy was fortunately uninjured, but fbe driver received cuts about the bead ami lace. Mr W. Robinson, of Stratford. who was on the spot a few seconds after the accident occurred, infilled to carry the woman on to the road, and thou went to Inglewood lor a doctor, Some passing motorists took the unfortunate woman towards Inglewood in their car, ami when nearing the town th -v met the doctor who immediately attended to the sullerers injuries. The ear, which was practically i new. was only slight Iv damaged. 1

A heavy downpour was experienced in Stratford last evening and about a-quarter of an inch of rain was recorded. Weather Forecast. —The indications are for southerly moderate to ;.*» n g winds, backing by east to north Increasing haze and cloudiness. Barometer falling alter about 10 hours.— Bates, Wellington. Ihe sale of work in connection with the Church of England advertised to he held in the Parish Hall, will ho opened at 2 p.m, to-morrow (Tuesday) hv Air .1, B. Hine, M.P. During the afternoon ■ tea will hp provided, i lie sale will be continued in the evening till 10 o’clock, when some musical items will be rendered. At a meeting of the newly-formed Recruiting Committee, held on ’Saturday night, it was decided to obtain information respecting numbers required for the 14th Reinforcements, and if short, to endeavor to make up the shortage. The Plunkett Society offered to entertain the men at their function on Friday evening next. " The offer was gratefully accepted. It was also decided to ask the Tradesmen’s Association to close from 8.30 to 9 a.m. on occasions when men are leaving for camp. The committee will attend the send-off to the Toko members of the reinforcements on Saturday evening next at Toko.

In connection with the lawn fete field b\ the Stratford Croquet and Tennis Club on February 17, the secretary (Mr Arthur) supplies the following balance-sheet for publication: Receipts.—Gate: Cash receipts, £4 8s (id; tickets (Mr Dingle £lB 10s, Mrs Biera £2 17s, Mr Arthur £2 10s, Mrs Marshall £1 4s, Mrs Curtis 18s), £25 19s. Games: (Bowls £2 9s. tennis £1 2s 9d, croquet 19s, putting £1 3s 3s), £5 I ts; refreshments (afternoon tea, etc.), £6 8s 9d; refreshment stall and competitions, £6 12s 8d; cash donation (Mr Dingle), 10s. Total, £49 12s lid. Expenditure.—Ticket printing, 17s; advertising, £1 10s; supplies, £1 6s 5d ; cartage, 9s 6d; wages, 10s; balance to (Secretary Serbian Relief Fund), £ls; total, £49 12s lid. The thanks of the Committee are due to Mr D. J. Malone for supplying cordials. and to Mr T. G. Grubb for the use of a piano free of ebareg.