STRATFORD NEWS.

FEOM CUR RESIDENT REPORTER

I) ECCLESIASTICAL BISHOP CROSSLEY IN STRATFORI His Lordship the Bishop of Aueklam arrived in Stratford on Sunday evenini and is the guest of the Vicarj the Rev XV. A. Butler. Preaching at Holy Trinity Cluireli 01 Sunday evening (Whit Sunday), Hi: Lordship took as his text. "And the Lori added to the church daily," vide Acts ii. 47. The. discourse, dealing with tin birth of the church and the courage given the early disciples to stand foi the church and preach Christianity, was forcible and edifying. That spirit ot courage, His Lordship regretted, was not prominent at the present day, when men who were professing Christians refrained from voicing Christian sentiments publicly lest they draw the ridicule of their fellow-men. The failure to grasp the real conception of prayer was. to the preacher's mind, responsible for this. The apostles had "prayed unceasingly," and everything was possible with prayer; but "saying prayers" was not the same thing. Concluding his sermon, the ! Bishop asked the congregation to join in united prayer for "the Chinese, the "greatest nation on earth." He mentioned that the Chinese had sent out an appeal for the prayers of all Christians, and this from a nation which had once tortured and crucified followers of Christ. His Lordship, commenting 'on this evidence of the new spirit dominating the Yellow race, said that the British people were now at the parting of the way*, anfl. there was a possibility of their'being overshadowed by the great .Eastern people. He attributed China's rapid rise to Christianity in a great measure to-the inborn, reverence of the young for age and authority, a habit which was regrettably uncommon amongst us. ■ ■ At the end of the service Bishop Crossley licensed to the office of lay readers Messrs. E. L Harvie, W. V. Wilson and A. D. Stanley. A DENIAL I ! Upon reading the Taranaki Daily News i on May 5, Mr. W. Ogier, president of! the Inglewood Football Club, wrote as follows to the secretary of the Taranaki Rugby Union, and Mr.' Skoglund handed your representative the letter to give effect to his wishes:—"l notice in this morning's paper that the Rugby Union passed a vote of thanks for the Pitman Cup for the Taranaki schools championship. This cup was donated by Mr. Pitman at the annual meeting of the club, it was left entirely to me to decide what to do with it. In consultation with my committee, we decided to endeavor to work a competition amongst •the schools in the Inglewood football district, but no response was received ■ from any of the schools, except one. It has now been decided to use this cup for competition amongst teams from different parts of our football district, and I to play games on Thursdays, so that our town will have some Thursday football; j and it is almost certain that'we cannot , J raise first and second juniors. You will j please contradict the statement that this cup has been donated for the Tara- • naki schools competition." ! STRATFORD OPERATIC SOCIETY \ c The Stratford Operatic Society holds \ its annual meeting in the Council Chambers to-morrow evening. The Society is ' in a healthy position. The rehearsals of ''The Pirates of Penzance" are being well attended, and good progress is being made. The annual meeting presents an - excellent opportunity for an increase of • gentlemen members. The cast of "The Pirates" needs more men, and now is i the time to join in. J FOOTBALL IN THE SCHOOLS Our Stratford primary school football team, champions for three years past, opened their. 1013 fixtures on Saturday: by defeating the Inglewood school team by 15 points to 3. The Stratford boys put up 12 points before their opponents , drew blood, and then scored again just before the call of tims. The Stratford try-getters were S. Simmons, T. Dobson, J. Nolan and X. Kivell, who, Kivell-like, scored a couple. Inglewood's try was notched by R. Hopson. GOLF Saturday was anything but a pleasant v ' golfing day, and the Saturday players were handicapped thereby in the May ( medal handicap, the Thursday golfers 1 having had splendid weather for their ( games. There were twenty-three competitors, and the match was won by J. R. L. Stanford. The eight best cards returned were:— Gross. Hp. Xett H. E. Abraham 102 10 02 J. R. L. Stanford 08 0 89 , S. Spence lOC 13 93 . P. Wright 108 13 95 R. B. Anderson 110 19 97 F. W. Fussel 11l 11 100-' L. Curtis 1-24 20 104 W. J. Crawshaw 115 10 105 PERSONAL Mr. .Tames Fredric is at present rather j seriously indisposed, and was unable to attend last night's meeting of the Borough Council. Mr. and Mrs. F. Finson were passengers by yesterday's afternoon train to New Plymouth. Mr. Pinson has represented Messrs. Burgess, Fraser & Co. "on the road" for a number of years, with conspicuous success, but latterly his health has been none too good, and he will take a turn in the office for a spell. 5 STRAY PARAGRAPHS Mr. IT. XV. Climie having failed to obtain any satisfaction from the railway authorities, has again approached the Borough Council in reference to the danger from fire arising from the stacking of large numbers of empty fruit cases on the railway reserve adjoining the premises leased by Mr. Climie. The danger is a very real one, and there should be some means of minimising the risk. The Bayly Scholarship, instituted by the Taranaki Rugby Union as a memorial to the late Mr. Alt'. Bayly, has not hitherto drawn very large entries. The winner of it has to be a top-noteher in the athletic as well as the scholastic world. Mr. Skoglund, secretary of the Union, expresses gratification at the receipt of a letter from Mr. T. Thomas, . the well-known headmaster of Eltham District High School, asking for a copy of the scholarship prospectus. Mr. XV. H. IT. Young having resigned . from the odice of secretary to the Vestry i of Holy Trinity Church. Mr. Ceo. Lid- h dington has been elected to succeed liim. 1 A motor-car and motor-cycle collided j in Broadway North on Saturday night,

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i but as the cyclist was only mount: ; his machine at the time no great danii ' was done, the front wheel being buck] iD - a bit. | The Press Association in Wellinsrl 1,(1 I telegraphed yesterday that the teiit |S> j of Mr. Bunvll, of Ha'wera. had been i - v - [ cepted for the erection of new Pub j Works offices in Stratford. This fa n } l I was chronicled on this page weeks :i< '>* as was also the fact that the contract ■; <l was getting along with the job. '•> The following letter might be e !le I peeted to reach a county council, or =' l! backwoods board. But, as a matter 3r fact, it was read at last night's Boron; >s Council meeting:—"Re a little improv 3t ment that is most seriously wanted 5t that portion of Portia street southwai •n from Romeo street, about five or s id chains in all, so as to make it passab > for cart traffic. It is now almost ir >r possible for me to get'in or out fro: e my stable with, an empty dray.. M e neighbor has to get permission from nr 5- self for his grocer, butcher, baker, an even coal and firewood dealer to cai ; through my section, on account of tli e street being impassable. So we woul e ask your Council to do something a ii once 'towards giving us better access t e our property. ... I offer to assis - in the forming and gravelling of tha t portion leading to my stable by givin, - the use of myself and'team of horses fo 1 two days gratis, and also one day's cart f; ing of gravel for the same part of th i street." The Stratford Football Club's secre - tary (Mr. Woods) has forwarded th. f names of fifty-eight playing members o f the club to the Taranaki Rugby Union ; Mr., Dewar, Taranaki rep. and ex-Sta: i player, is the captain. ; Anglers will be interested in the new: ! that the Stratford Acclimatisation So ; eiety has decided to hatch out 100,00( i trout ova (or as many of that nurabei as possible) this season. Miss Jones the curator, is preparing for the reception of 50,000 brown trout ova this week . An exceptional winter concession is offered by Mr. J. McAllister, Stratford's popular photographer. For a few weeks , only he will photograph any sitter, do six postcards, four cabinets and one enjlargement, all for ten shillings; or, if preferred, will do three enlargements for the same price. Groups will be charged slightly extra. This is far lower than ever offered in New Zealand. This special offer is open from May 17 to June 30. An advertisement appears on this page. Mrs. McPhee invites tenders for felling bush at Matau. Tenders should be forwarded to Messrs MeCluggage & Co. The following will represent Stratford I. in their match against Clifton 1., at Stratford on Thursday: Stewart, Wood, Dewar, Sullivan, Boon, Fearon (2), Bonner, Spratt, Dobson, Olliver, Tocker Brown, R. Woods and Kivell. The team is asked to attend shed practice tonight.