LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 96, 20 November 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Lieutenant F. N. FusseU, of Stratford, formerly stationed at the Featherston Camp, has been transferred to A>vapuni. t

A Mokoreta lad, a son of Mr William Beange, farmer, did useful service to the district when the last +wo snowstorms occurred (says the Wyndham Herald). While the ground remained covered with snow he saw his opportunity for making a raid on small birds. A bag of sorrel seed, refused from the seed-cleaner, was his bait; and a sieve of small mesh, with a long piece of string attached to a pe<r which propped up the sieve on one side, was the trap. By this primitive .method the boy adcouiiited m two days for 887 linnets, sparrows etc. His biggest haul at a pull was. 56.

The Department of Lands and Survey sets an example .of frankness to land salesmen when it is putting 1 land upon the market. the ..department's unvarnished description' of the means of access to a block of endowment land in the Tutanioe district: "Full width dray road to A'rowhana station; remaining eight miles by roa'd up bed of Wairangiora Stream for one mile (at present in very bad state', and by eight foot track for seven miles, on which there is now a number of slips" The building on another block is described as "the remains of an old seven-roomed house.

As an examfle of the %enents to b<J from .physical .training, the head master of the .Nepier Boys' High School, Mr W. A. Armour, reported to. the Board of Governors (says the Hawke's Bay Herald) on the results obtained in the case of 20 boarders. The average increase in height for the second term was 7.10 in, and, jthe greatest increa.se ljin. The average increase in chest measurement was 4in #mp^g4h/^pe| r sck boys, and fin for juphior boys; the greatest increase being . : l£in-„ The average increase in weight was 51b, and the greatest 81b". •

Farmers in the district are troubled, strange to say, as a result, of the al* normal growth of grass on their land;, says the Hike's Bay Herald. The difficulty lies in the fact that the grasp is getting away from the sheep ancr as cattle ar«> hard to obtain to keep the grass down the sheep are not thriving too well. It is perhaps not generally known among townsfolk that sheej> will not thrive nearly so well on grasp that glows high and thick as they da on fields that show a normal grassy covering. Out Hastings way there is about 1000 acres of grass that is growing over two feot high. The sheep grazing there do not appreciate this; it is altogether "too much of a good thing" for them.

A,t a meeting of the Christchurch Fire Boa,rd on: Tuesday night Superintendent 'Warner reported, (says the Press)- on the. call from the Metropolitan Trot ting Club. He . (Superintendent Warner) happened to be on the course, and ordered the No. 2 Dennis out, and it did good work in saving a more serious conflagration, as the other stand and, totalisator building were in danger. He attributed the origin of the fire to incendiarism, and asked the board to approve of bis action in turning the brigade out. The action of the superintendent in turning out the brigade was approved, it being.agreed that this action undoubtedly saved a large amount of valuable property and possibly some human life.

Mr F. J. Wylie, Oxford secretarj of; the Rhodes Trust, in acknowledging a communication from the University of New Zealand, makes reference to, the loss of New. Zealand Rhodes scholars:—"l had seen also witli not less distress—indeed, inevitably witli

more, for I knew him well—the an-

nouneemeut of the death of Alan -Vlac- ~ dougall, our 1909 New Zealand .scholar. It! is terribly-sad tlio way these young fellows are falling over there in France. You have suffered disproportionately in your Rhodes scholars; for, out of eight serving, three have now lost their lives. Wallace is, ot : course, the third. I heard from Colin Cilray recently. Hi? wrote from. France, but he had not. when he, wrote, been up in the filing H"c> yet,* 1 do hope he comes through all right. Ho would be a tremendous loss."