STRATFORD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1191, 28 December 1894, Page 20

STRATFORD.

Stratford, December 21. A very welcome rain fell on Tuesday evening, and continued till daybreak. The Stratford Cheese Factory has hadja busy month, judging from the fact that the pay-sheet for milk supplied totals over £9OO.

Messrs Elliott and King are erecting, in the south part of Stratford, a very handsome nine-roomed house for Mr Climie, the county engineer. The timber is, on the ground for the four large and handsome shops which Messrs Curtis Bros, intend to build on the site of their late fire.

At a representative meeting of the business people of Stratford to consider the Shop Hours Bill, it was resolved to adopt Thursday afternoons as the general weekly halfholiday next year. It was also unanimously decided to close all retail places at 6 p.m. every day except the holiday and Saturday. The local school concluded its present session yesterday, when a successful concert in connection with the distribution of prizes took place in the public hall in the evening. Constable O'Donovan, the newly-ap-pointed officer for Stratford, is expected to arrive to-night. He is already well-known to many in the district, who are pleased to learn that so excellent a choice has been made by his department. Mr J. W. Kelly, of the Egmont Hotel, Hawera, intends presenting to the Hawera Mounted Rifles a very handsome silver cup, as a prize for tilting-in-the-ring.