LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 83, 4 November 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera is to have a lady accountant and commission agent, Miss Beamish, who for eleven years was confidential accountant to late Mr J. A. Turton, having decided to continue business on her own account.

As already announced, the Farmers' Co-operative Organisation Society of New Zealand, Ltd., have purchased Messrs Webster and Dobson's interest in their saleyards at Stratford, and have decided to hold their first Stratford Stock Sale on Tuesday, November 14th. Entries are now invited for the sale.

A handy little booklet entitled "Patriotic Societies Handbook (No. 2V has been .received from the Minister of Internal Affairs. -It is explanatory of the War Funds Act 1915, and is calculated to be particularly useful to those who experience any difficulty in the administration of patriotic society affairs.

Mr S. H. Knight, of Hastings, who is interested in a patent for dealing with seedy* wool, submitted samples, of blankets 'treated by the new pro-i cess to Mr R. Dalton (Trade Commission) on' Wodnesday (says the Hawke's'Bay Tribune). This patent 1 is a very valuable one, simple and conomical, and Mr Knight's object is to induce the New Zealand Government to take over the patent rights, so that all wool growers will have the benefit of the new processs, which will tend to enhance the value of this class of wool. Mr Dalton was- greatly interested in the patent and promised to bring the matter before, the New Zealand Board of Trade. ,

A special appeal to all Britons has been issued by the United Workers, London, with the approval of The Right Hon. A. Bonar Law, Secretary of State for the Colonies, asking that much self-denial be exercised by all Britons Overseas for the conservation of our resources. Everyone should contribute the money they can afford to the War iLoans. The present struggle is an economic one, because Britain, who must buy her food and raw material from abroad and lend her Allies more than a million pounds a day, has at last realised that every single citizen must be called upon for his or her maximum effort. Britain has, through her Cabinet Ministers, appealed for help, and the subscribing to the War Loans enables Britain to conserve her interests. The appeal is to subscribe to any local loan so that we may by this means support Britain in her gigantic struggle.

A judgment debtor at tho Te Awamutu court on Friday was' stating his reasons why an order should not be made against him. He pleaded indifferent health, the uncertainty of his employment, the lowness of wages, the increased cost of living, and paraded all the stock excuses common to the circumstances. "And I have two children,' Your Worship, but they take a lot of 'feeding and clothing; I'm sure they eat quite as much as anybody's else's four." When the laugh which greeted this remark had ceased, tho magistrate said he had previously heard of all manner of reasons why pafment could not be made—of extravagant wives and so on—but never previously bad poverty been pleaded because of voracious families; and, after telling the defendant that he "had no time for him," Mr Bawson made an order as requested by the claimant.

Ail ingenious device has been hit upon by one of the railway locomotive drivers at Tiniaru, the object of which is to combine a packing receptacle for goods for soldiers at the front with utensils that can be used as buckets and as a washing-up tin. It is concocted out of old benzine and petrol tins. Handles are provided to bo attached to the benzine tin, and the "petrol tins (which are a shade larger) are cut in half and have handles, rivetted on. The idea is to put the goods for the soldiers in the large tin, and to use the smaller as a top, or lid, by pressing it down on the larger tin. The device, is in use by the Lady Liverpool Fund in Timaru.

The Farmers' Co-operative Organi-

sation Society invite farmers and supporters of the Organisation to meet a delegation from its Board of Directors on Saturday, November, 11th, in Stratford, to discuss matters in connection with the holding of fortnightly sales.

Weather forecast.—The indications are for freshening northerly strong to gale winds after about twenty hours. The weather appears likely to be cloudy and unsettled with rain following. The barometer is falling. —Bates, Wellington.

Many and varied are the excuses tendered by parents for the non-at-tendance of their offspring at school. A teacher in a school not far from Balclutha recently received a note from a parent which (says the Leader) read as follows:—"Please excuse

Mary for being absent from school yesterday. She got her feet wet to the knees. The roads are awful and are not fit for pedestrians, except those on horseback."

"He generally rakes the baby out on Sunday, but I gave him a day off," declared the mother of a 15-year-old boy. who was charged in the Auckland juvenile Offenders' Court, before Mr F. Y. Frazer, S.M., with breaking the top off a punga fern in the Domain. The Magistrate, in discharging him, told him that next time be got a day off and wanted to "let off steam" when suffering from an excess of exuberance of spirits he should "take a few turns round the track" instead of damaging citizens' property.