Stratford News

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 193, 4 January 1913, Page 3

Stratford News

DARK, DARK, AND DISMAL. ISroadway central is a disgracefully lighted street. This was particularly noticeable on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and the fact was unfavourably commented upori by visitors to the town. In the whole of the main business block there are only three 32-candle-power lamps, which don't illuminate the street, but just make the thoroughfare look deadly. Broadway is about ninety feet wide. Why not erect lamp-posts, or poles, in the middle of the street, and fix clusters of three 50-eandle-power lights on each? Suppose we had one at the Loan and Mercantile corner, one opposite the Post Office, and another at Newton King's corner. The cost to the borough should not be enormous. It is a matter that should lie earnestly considered by the municipal authorities. But since the council has taken to a loan scheme other matters have been passed over. The loan discussions have been going on for ages, and the authorising of the loan spems to have become no nearer. The public 'have grown tired of hearing about it. They know -that item after item was pitchforked into the schedule, although councillors knew full well that they would have to be forked out again. Even now the carrying of the loan means borrowing about £40,000. There will be fun over the latest suggestion to submit the proposals in a whole scries of separate issues. This course was first proposed in regard to the * bridge loan, and the extension of the J idea is evidently meant to disprove .the 1 old assertion that "two wrongs don't make a right." Suppose the loan is side-tracked for a while now, and the lighting of Broadway attended to?

STRAY PARAGRAPHS. 'Die big show crowds arid race crowds in Stratford recently have had the effect of again bringing into the realm of discussion the suggestion to erect public conveniences. The necessity for them is admitted, but the difficulty arises in selecting a site. Mr. C. R. Stannard, of Hawera, a former resident of Stratford, spent New Year's Day here, and was lucky in getting out alive. Driving down the Pembroke road into Broadway his horse shied, and the vehicle capsized. Mr. Stannard and his son sustained some severe bruises.

Messrs. Ward and Dunlop are dissolv- ! ing partnership. Mr. Dunlop rejoins | Messrs. W. 11. H. Young and Co. Our bowlers leave to-day for Auckland. Two rinks from the Stratford Club will make the trip. There has as yet been no reply to the petition of local tradespeople asking for an alteration of shop hours in Stratford. The wheels of the Ministerial office want oiling. Fancy taking four or five weeks' to fix a little matter like that! General Goilley is to arrive in Stratford on Monday night, and will spend Tuesday here. Tie will probably be glad to meet those who have any grievances to air concerning the defence system, and has been given the use of the Borough Council Chambers as tin audience chamber. A Stratford business man has recently received direct proof of the value of advertising in the " Daily News" Stratford page. That advertising pays is generally admitted. That the "News" is a good advertising medium for this district has been, and is being, clearly proved. It is not always that an advertiser takes the trouble of informing the newspaper people of the good results of his advertising, although a certain section is ever ready with the remark that "Advertising doesn't pay!" John Wanamaker, the famous American store proprietor, with perhaps the biggest retail business in the world, reckons that to cease advertising is practically to cease business. He says, though: 'To make a success of advertising one must be prepared to stick to it like a barnacle on a ship's bottom. Adverti.-iiig doesn't jerk; it pulls: it begins very quietly at first, but the pull is steadv; it increases <lav by <lav and year by year until it exerts an irresistible power."

BERNARD'S PICTURES. Undoubtedly "The 1 Tragedy of the Desert" is a wonderful cinematograph film. The story is strong in every detail, but it is in the very fine pictorial pn sentntion of the sandy waste.? of the great Sahara that the film is so interesting. The desert is to most of us an unknown country. We picture it. for ourselves, but pfctnrc is wrongly. Children at school are asked to imagine its desolation. They, too, gain a false impression very often from letterpress description. Bat Tiere the great desert passes before our eyes. It is a. great education. This wag the general opinion of th« huge crowd of people who witnessed the film on Thursday night. His Majesty's was packed in nil parts—a real holiday house. "The Tragedy of the Desert" is not the only attraction. There are other fine dramas, a bunch of comics, and the Pathe flazetle. Parents are reminded that the great desert film will be shown L:j-niaht for the last time.