LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 82, 13 March 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The monthly meeting of |he Stratford Borough Council will be held this evening. In the Tuna schoolroom on Wednesday next a "farewell social will he tendered to [Trooper's Jones and Angus Wright. • j K %,, Chainptaloiip, professor of bacteriology ,and public health, at Otago University,, advises parents to boil or scald all milk given to children during the infantile paralysis epidemic. A man named Robert Henry Quale, who was again .arrested for drunkenness in Stratford on Saturday and liberated on bail, failed to appear at the Magistrate's Court this morning, and was fined 20s.

Fifty applications have been received for the position of Town Clerk of Auckland as a result of the action tak-' en by the City Council following on the special report on municipal administration which was recently prepared. by flie Australian expert, Mr R. McC.j Anderson. The salary offered is £1250 per annum, and the successful applicant will be expected to take up his duties in June next. j

The Harvest Festival celebrations of the local Salvationists will take place next Sunday in the Hall in Fenton Street. An interesting song service entitled: "An Autumn Sheaf," will be given at 3 p.m. The Methodist Church Choir will render a Harvest Festival Cantata on Monday night at 8 o'clock and on Tuesday night the juniors and others will render an interesting programme, to lie followed by an auction sale of produce and other things. Gifts of produce, useful article, or donations of money, will be gratefully received by any Salvationist. I

The Monowai, which arrived at Auckland on Friday afternoon, brought the first war trophies for Auckland, in the form of two ancient mortars forwarded from the New Zealand and Australian Division Ordnance Depot Xo. 2 Outpost, Gallipoli, by Sergt. A. Gilmour, Auckland Regiment, and five other members of the division. Within the barrel of one of the trophies was a note in which the senders expressed a wish that the two mortars be erected in some suitable park—Auckland preferred. The Minister of Defence has forwarded them, as desired, to Auckland, and the Works Committee of the Auckland City Council is to do-' eide where they shall be placed. I

A number of shopkeepers who rlis-. pense milk and light refreshments on Sunday were brought before the Mag-1 istrate's Com-; at Wellington on Fri-' day on charges of selling confectionery on that day. It appeared that aconstable wont round in plain clothes and asked for peppermint lozenges, on the plea that "h 0 wanted something for his breath." In one instance, the owner of the shop was away, the place being left in charge of a girl of eleven. Her mother, on appearing before the bench, expressed the opinion that "it was a wry mean and contemptible thing on the part of a constable to take advantage of her little girl." In this ease the defendant was ordered to pay court costs—7s. In the other cases,, fines/of in addition were in-

Owing to the epidemic of measles in the district, the Stratford Hospital Board has decided not to allowany children to visit the hospital or grounds tfntil further notice. The Opunake Times stated on Friday: A well-known local native named Toto died on Tuesday and the natives are now concluding the tangi, which expires when the beer and tucker runs out. Two Chrisfcchurch solicitors wre each fined £o last week for having failed to have their trust accounts audited by a qualified accountant within three months of the close of the year. The Public Works Department have received the following tenders for the erection of cottages at Taiiora, Stratrfowi Main Trunk railway. J. W. Boon,' Stratford, £2,304 (accepted); A. B. Burrell, Hawera, £2,500; M. A. Ryan, Manaia, £2,700; J. M. Thompson, Stratford, £2,7(53; C. P. Baker, Eltham, £2,840.

I All the Education Board's schools •in Napier commenced their daily tasks.at 8 o'clock last week and completed the day's lessons at 1. o'clock. This course was decided on by the local authorities in view of the spread of infantile paralysis. It was considered that it was better mot to keep the children at school ■ during the heat of the afternoons. | Two novel classes were included in i+lie schedule for the Waikato Central ,A. and P. Association's show. One class was for the lady with the gest number of sons who have enlisted, and in this Mrs S. H. Liddington and Mrs F. Ottole were equal first, with four sons each.. The other class was for the lady with the largest family in the Cambridge district. Mrs S. H. Liddington, with 13 children, being the winner.

"By the very fact that feedom has existed for us always," said Father Goggan, preaching at , Taradale, Hawke's Bay, recently,... "there. ,are some who' yet fail to realise that it can be lost—that victory for the Ger-. mans would mean ; for us, and the democracies Of the world,., the irreparable loss of civic- liberty. .Perhaps.this is wliy some are so unpatriotic in their 'speech, so unwilling to give their personal, service,, so niggardly with their purse."

Last year, when there appeared to be 'every prospect of a serious shortage of wheat in the country, and when Australia was holding on to her supplies, Mr Massey bought a million bushels of wheat in Canada. A quantity was shipped here, and the balance was stored in Canada. This balance the Prime Minister sold about two or three months ago, and got a very fair price for it. The loss on the transaction, said the Prime Min-ister-on Thursday, was not great, and the possession of the wheat for a'period was worth more to the Dominion than 'the sum lost over the transaction.

The importance to farmers of the discovery of a check to the spread of • ragwort - throughout the country will 'be" heartily welcomed, and this, it is ; alleged has been found in the Ngaere district. For some time past a farmer has noticed the gradual dying of many plants of ragwort and the total eradication of others, and investigation , showed that, this was due to the opei» ' ations of a little black beetle, which ! hatches out larvae in the shelter of the I plants, the insects immediately attack- , ing the shoots of the ragwort, and 1 causing its death. Ocular demonstration of the destruction caused by the beetle was given to a representative of the "Stratford Evening Post" this j morning, when a sample of the weed ! in which dozens of the beetles had been found was submitted for inspection. The evidence was quite convincing as a guarantee that a natural enemy of the noxious weed had beert discovered.

At the New Plymouth Magistrate's Court on Saturday, W. M. St. George, licensee of the Masonic Hotel, Waitara, was charged with receiving an order for liquor to be taken into a prohibited area and failing to enter such order on a book kept for that purpose. John Heath, who ordered the liquor, stated that he resided at Mokau, but had been staying at the Masonic Hotel. Prior to leaving for home ho ordered three bottles of stout and nine bottles of beer to take with hib, for which he handed the licensee a cheque. Mr Gray, for the defence, raised a non suit point on the facts of the defence that the entry in the book referred to in the information was only necessary where liquor was to be delivered by the seller in the prohibited area. The Magistrate upheld Mr Gray's contention, and the case was dismissed. Heath was then charged with failing to give a written order for the liquor taken into the prohibited area. MiGray, for the defence, pleaded guilty, and said his client had acted inadvertently. A tine of 20s and 7s costs was imposed.