GENERAL NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 195, 15 February 1912, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS

The manager of the Stratford municipal abattoir is to furnish to the Borough Council a detailed list of the stock killed on account of the various butchers. Evidently the Council wants to know which killed the two bullocks for beef during January, Seventy-six cows and 20 heifers supplied.the balance. The Borough Council has an abattoir for dealing with cows, heifers, sheep and other animals intended for human food. Then tliey have another places where horses are killed, quite by accident. Onef was killed there a little over a month ] ago. A committee of the Council sat on it—not on the horse, but upon the matter of compensating the owner, or otherwise. At this time the animal had been dead for three days, and its presence was very easily detected. The committee engaged men to bury the carcase. The matter was mentioned again at, Monday night's meeting of the Council. Cr. Paget wanted to know the value of the animal, saying he had noticed in, the accounts' that it cost 14s '6d to bury it. "Cheap at £4," said someone. <r Why?" queried Dr. Paget, "It took half a day. to get near it, and the other half to do the work." "Phew!" ejaculated the doctor. "How old was it ?" The Mayor said 5 he had tried to find that out, but the owner had been unable to tell him, He > thought it quite likely that the owner wouldn't know, as the horse was prob-: ably born first. (Laughter.) The matter isn't done with yet. During Monday's discussion Cr. 'Morison said he thought the business should have been done in committee,, and he mentioned some of the phrases which had been used by councillors.' Noticing the pencils being briskly pushed at the reporters' table, Cr. Morison gesticulated wildly, but the pencils kept going. The Mayor, referring to ,one of the statements to which Cr. Morison had taken exception, said, "Some councillors can tell when a man is cracking a joke j but others can't, evidently." "That goes down, too, I notice," said Cr. Morison. So it did.

It is mentioned that the supporters of Mr. Joseph 'McCluggage in the recent general election contest will tender him a banquet at Stratford soon. Mr. McCluggage fought a good fight, using tactics that were clean and above board, and his party does only the fair thing in tendering him this compliment. A cheajp advertisement.—The Borough Council, at Monday's meeting, decided that residents be permitted to cut any grass they required from the side streets in the borough. Cr. Boon stated at Monday night's meeting of the Borough Council that it was useless to order a resident to connect his property with the sewers, for tradesmen were so busy that it would be difficult to even get a price for the work. Mr. and Mrs. J. Masters will leave on a holiday trip'on February 28. Mr. Masters will spend a week in Auckland, and will attend the Methodist Conference as delegate. Then they will go to Rotorua, along the Main Trunk to Wellington. and afterwards visit the South Island.

The English Pierrots have booked the Town Hall for July 9 and 10 next. . A girl promenaded Broadway this morning with hatpins projecting fully four inches beyond her hat. This was pointed out to me by a gentleman who had been scratched by a projecting hatpin at the railway station a couple of nights before. The ornamental ends of the pins on the hat of the maid under notice, as distinguished from the "business" end, was jambed hard up against the crown of the hat.

.A couple of informations have been laid in the Magistrate's Court for selling liquor to Maoris for consumption off premises. These are the first cases of the kind to be heard here. They used to , be fairly frequent in New Plymouth when Constable Cullen was "on the job." i The Rev. Father Treacy, accompanied by Miss Harding, returned to Stratford oin Tuesday from Te Aroha, where, I am pleased to say, the genial parish priest 'improved:wonderfully in health. „ Father, Treacy Is .well behoved by,, and by the great body of the public, and

his' smilijag,personality has been much, missed. Father Eccleton, who made many friends here whilst relieving, left for Wellington this morning. Mrs. James Rutherford, who was seriously ill on Sunday, and underwent a serious operation, is making rapid improvement. , . . .

The borough workmen are 'working wonders by raking loose stones, off the streets. To-day's rain will do the roads a world of good. • Mr. T. Herlihy, one of the Public Works Department's overseers, who has lately been stationed at the Skinner Toad ballast pit, leaves on Thursday morning for the Main Trunk end of the Stratford line, Okahukura, to be correct. The transfer means promotion.

Another five trucks of the Electric Light Company's new plant have come to hand. There are 35 cases in all, and there are over 40 tons of it. One little case has six tons weight in it, and a flywheel weighing four tons keeps the six-ton box from flowing away! The "electric light" meeting of ratepayers is to be held on Friday. Last night about 50 people turned up and gazed at the weather for a bit, and decided on the postponement.

Messrs. 'Wilson and Drake, of tfye "Dreadnought" Grocery, advertise the arrival of a big shipment of tinned fish of all kinds for the lenten season.