LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 84, 12 July 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A statements is widely .current that a company lias been formed iu Christchurch, wiih a capital ol £R)O,000, to erect theatres in the four centres of the Dominion that will be capable of accommodating 2,000 person;* each.

A- Press Association message from Christchurch s.ates: Nurse Elsie

Crichton, aged 20, whoso, pareifts iVrd residing iit Raugiora, left the nursing home last night, and when crossing the Papanui Road was struck by a train. Her skull was factored ami she died shortly afterwards.

Weather Forecast. —The indications are for variable and strong breezes, but southerly winds, moderate to strong, prevailing. The weather will probably prove cold and showery and the night be very cold. Expect high barometric pressure.—Bates, Wellington .

Figures quoted in the House of Representatives by the Minister of Public Health show that in March last 322 cases of infantile paralysis were reported. In April the mimhdr* was reduced to 190, and has further fallen until last mouth there were only 10 cases, of which 11 were in the Wellington province.

Tlie following team will represent the Stratford Senior Cadets against Tariki, at Victoria Park, to-morrow; Lehmann, Kivell (3), Sharrock ("2), Shotter, Nolan, Collins, Neal, MeAloon, McCullough, Vickers, Chard, Clemow. Emergencies; Simmons and Budding. Play commences at 1.30 p.m.

Sergeant-Major F. Crompton, a returned “Anzac,” now attached to the Defence Department at Hawera, was early last week conveying a German prisoner to the railway station en route for Wellington, when the prisoner assaulted him on the 1 face and leg with a stick. His face was cut open, necessitating several stitches, and the leg, being the seat of a wound inflicted at Gallipoli, was also badly injured. Needless to say the prisoner was in turn severely dealt with by his guard, who eventually conveyed him to Wellington in a somewhat 1 limp condition. The Sergeant-Major on his ■return complained of .feeling unwell; ■lmid; being sent to the Hospital, it was found .that blood'poisoning had set in front the -log wound.: >"'*•

When Mr .Lloyd, Geprge,, ,w4s a young country i solicitor in Wales he was riding home, in his dogcart one day and came, upon a. litiJe . , Welsh gijl trudging along so weary that he offered her a ride. She accepted silently hut all the way along the, future statesman, although he tried to .engage her in conversation, could not get her to say anything more than a timid “Yes” or “No.”, Some clays afterwards the little girl’s mother happen-ed-to,-meet Mr Lloyd George, and said to him smilingly “Do you remember that my ,Jittle girl rode home with you the other day.?. When she got home, ,she said, ‘iVJamma, 1 rode homo from, school >yith .Mr , Lloyd George) ,tiny lawyer, and; he kepttalking , to ipp,;and, I; .didn’t J>npw whatever to doy foryypu,.; Lloy4 Goorgt, charges,, yon, whenpvexr;.you talk, with him, and I hadn’t any money!’ ”, j-oj

A very good story is told of the Maori, that puts Bret Harte’s Heathen Chinee completely in the shade. The story runs as follows:—A Maori who was a bit of a chieftain died and was about to be buried. His relatives not having any greenstone or other valuables to bury with him hit upon the happy expedient of burying twenty sovereigns instead. This would have been alright had not the natives who had been entrusted with the actual burying of the body been imbued with a spirit of, loyalty far above that possessed by the average individual. Quoth Henare to his male Wiri as they lowered the body plus tho twenty sovereigns into the grave, “This no good. This te war time. No good bury te gold. This te tiling—me got te pally banking account. Kapae we make te cheque for twenty pound and bury him and me keep te gold. Wiri agreed and the exchange was forthwith made, the cheque being placed in , the. coffin and the twenty sovereigns extracted. So far all was plain sailing. Some days afterwards however the two patriots met and a stormy scene ensued, Monaco accusing Wiri of not playing the •game for ho, Henare, had found to his disgust on examining his passbook that the cheque which he had written out and buried in place of the 20 sovereigns had been cashed.