LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 12, 8 December 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Consumers of electric light are reminded in another column that no discounts will be allowed on accounts paid after Monday next. Persons intending to send Christmas greetings and cable messages to soldiers for delivery in England or France, should lodge messages not later than 12th December. Owing to the restoration of one of the interrupted cables, the posting of deferred traffic between London and

Gibraltar has ceased; and the delay has been materially reduced.

Reporting on the Stratford railway from Te Kowia to Matiere, the commissioner of the Auckland Railway League says; “It is now six years since this ten mile section was started and the finish is not in sight yet—a poor record for any Government. Auckland is losing hundreds of pounds yearly through stock going to Taranaki that would otherwise go to Auckland. If the lines were completed to Matiere there would he thousands of fat lambs leave this district, whereas now they have to be kept as stores. The same remark applies to pigs, so this matter closely affects Auckland almost as much as it does Olmra.” ,

Visiting horse-owners who have been here in past years, and racegoers generally who take the trouble to' observe such matters,' will be agreeably surprised at the alterations and ' improvements to the Stratford Racing Club’s track which have been effected since the Club’s last meeting. In the first place over six thousand yards of soil have been removed in the process of regrading and levelling, this being done by the Whangamomona County . Council’s roadgrader, hired, by the Club for the work, the machine being under the capable control of Mr AI. Gall. The whole of the race-track was then regrassed and as this was done under most favourable weather conditions for sowing, the result was what the farmer would term a particularly good “take,” and in clue course a perfectly smooth and velvety turf. The Stratford racecourse is now as safe as any course in the Dominion, for besides the levelling and re-grassing the turns have been properly banked on the outside of the track. The course improvements are a great credit to the Club and to Mr E. C. Robinson, who, as Engineer, planned and directed the work. %

In Broadway south, close to the railway line, a well-built workshop bears in plain letters “The Excelsior burnishing Company. It has been erected to meet the demands of the Company’s trade. The building is (iUft x TOffc, and reflects credit on the workmanship of the builder, Air X. J. King, it is fitted with up-to-date machinery, electrically driven, the electric motor of 71 h.p. having been installed by the Stratford Borough Council. One improvement, which had it been more universally adopted, would have prevented many accidents , is that the dynamo and all the shafting and bolting is located under the floor, access to the dynamo being obtained by trap door. The plant in-;

eludes all the latest machinery in use in the trade. The building has boon provided with twenty windows, and together with every regard lor the health ot the workmen, it is well lighted. At the northern end is an upholstering room (20 x 18) and a polishing shop (Hit x 12ft), each room being supplied with a concrete bed for a stove. The building is arranged so that the timber can he brought in at the south end. and the manufactured articles taken out at the opposite end. With such 'modern appliances under the-supervision of Mr J. Vt , ston (manager), furniture is being made which cannot fail to please those who take a pride in a well-furnished home.

Irish Linen Hemstitch and Initial ■ Handkerchiefs for Xmas. Presents* at 1 the Kash in great variety.-—A. 11. Hillock.

A meeting of the Taranaki War Relief Association will he held in the Municipal Chambers'on Monday nest at 10 a.m.)

A London cablegram to hand to-day states that from the beginning of February, the prices of the illustrated monthly magazines will bo increased one penny.

The new offices of the Farmers’ Cooperative Organisation Society in Bridge Buildings, Broadway south, will bo open all day to-morrow to >eceive entries for sales and tram act general business.

The Methodist Sunday School hold their anniversary services in their Church, Regan Street, on Sunday next. Special hymns will be rendered by the children and. choir, and in the afternoon the children will supply solos and recitations. The annual meeting of the Ngaere W.C.T.U. was held on Tuesday. Parcels of clothing for the Red Cross were received. Airs Phillips (secretary) read a report of the year’s work, and Mrs Wliitham • treasurer) read the bal-ance-sheet. Officers were elected for the ensuing year as.follows: President, Mrs X. Jones; vice-presidents, Mesdames Ellis, Morison and Phillips; secretary, Mrs K. Tarrant; treasurer, Mrs Whitburn. The first rehearsal of the children’s items for the picture concert in Hiis Majesty’s Theatre on Friday next in aid of the local Convent School prize fund was held yesterday at the Theatre. The youngsters are set down for hoop drill and action songs, and their initial efforts on the stage were such as to promise a highly efficient aerformaneo on the night of the concert. “Chatterbox” is stated to he a captivating item, the little tots having entered into the spirit of the part with real childish glee. Another pretty scene is afforded by a group of girls dressed in Japanese costumes. The cinema pictures and the concert pro-

gramme are additional to the youthful performers’ items.

Is this a libel on the recent performances of the pantomime, “Beauty and the Beast,” at the Stratford Town Hall last week? Yesterday’s Eltham Argus - contained the following paragraph : How easily, says a casual correspondent, the British public are gulled. It happened at a performance in a Taranaki town, not a thousand miles away from Eltham. Chocolates and sweets in dainty boxes wepe handed to the performers, seemingly by the cart load, and beautiful bouquets by the dozen, till the audience were sick and tired of the business. And now the truth has leaked out. The sweets and bouquets were handed up, and then passed through a door back to the front part of the house again, and again handed up, the process going on during the greater part of the performance. But the most annoying part for those concerned is the name of the traitor “who blew the gaff.”

The work of erecting the Stratford Racing Club’s new and up-to-date number board is now nearing completion, under the personal supervision, of Air Stabart, foreman for Afessrs Turnbull and Jones, electrical engineers, of Christchurch, who are supplying the board. It consists of a specially designed iron frame standing thirty feet in height, and is being placed on the far side of the training track, in an admirable position to enable it to be seen from any part of the racecourse- or enclosures. It is proposed to have telephonic connection between the Secretary’s office and the board, so that all information regarding horses starting, their jockeys, and the places drawn, will be hoisted for public information immediately it is available. This board (one of the latest designs yet erected in New Zealand) ought to be much appreciated as a very necessary and valuable improvement. It was certainly time that the Stratford Racing Club got beyond the chalk and black-board stage of posting current information to the public, and the work now undertaken is in keeping with the Club’s progressive policy.