LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 89, 3 June 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Yesterday Mr. Kenrick, S.M., granted renewals of six old-age pensions, and granted one now pension. At yesterday’s sitting of the Licensing Committee, Mr. McDonald apologised for the absence of Messrs Malle and Brown, leave of absence being granted both gentlemen. Our readers arc reminded that entries for the competitive classes at the National Dairy Show, to be held at Palmerston North on June 2Uth, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd, will close on Monday next, June sth. Flint Hoad residents complain that the sneak thief is abroad again and clothes lines are being stripped at night. If the “snowdroppers” will call at one house in particular in the daytime tho owner says he will he happy to hand over a few small tilings tho thief loft, behind. A Wairarapa dairyman holds that tho moisture contained in the New Zealand butter is too gi'eat, and that in consequence it cannot compete with the Danish article on account of tho distance that it has to ho shipped. A dry butter, he states, will arrive Home in a ' better condition than that, with a large moisture content. In conversation with a representative of the “Wairarapa. Ago, Mr D. Caddie, Chief of the Dairy Division of tho Agricultural Department, stated that the exhibits of butter and choose at tho Auckland winter show were highly creditable. it was, lie said, quite appropriate that tho CJroytown Dairy Company should have been awarded the championship in cheese, seeing that this was the first dairy factory .established in the North.lsland. Mr Cuddio spoke very highly of the Greytown exhibit, which lie said was a credit to tho district and tho manager. A remarkable dream of death was mentioned at a Southwark inquest on an infant named George McCarthy. “I had so vivid a dream that my

daughter’s child was dead,” said Mrs Hendry, the grandmother of the infant, “that I went early in the morning to her house in Clifton Street, Finsbury. I found her in bed, and asked her what was wrong with the child. She replied, ,‘He is all right. What did you think was tlio matter with him P’ I told her of my dream, and asked her to look at the baby. She looked, and the child was dead.” Death was stated to have been due to convulsions.

Tho employees of the Shcchita Board, the organisation responsible for the supply of kosher meat, have been informed that tho wearing of a board is now an essential (says the London “Daily Mail”). The edict is to apply to young and old alike, and is thought to be an outcome of the resolutions passed at the recent Rabbinical conference at. Leeds. The new rule (writes a Jewish correspondent) lias created a certain amount of indignation among the younger employees. .inasmuch as nothing may be done that will retard the natural growth of the beard. Hitherto the authorities have countenanced tho periodical clipping of the board, but it has now been decided that this practice is to cease. Owing to the extreme heat and long duration of tho last summer, succeeded by tropical' rains at the end of March, vegetation of all kinds' made a wonderful recovery (says the “Wakatipu Mail”). Grass is as plentiful now as it would be at the beginning of any summer season. Spring bulbs and and other flowers not seen at. this season of the year are to be seen peeping their heads above tho ground everywhere. Wo have heard of second crops of strawberries still in several places, but more remarkable still is a second crop of apples which is to be seen on at least one tree in Dir A. Simson’s orchard. The apples are not mere marbles in size, they are very fair samples—about the size of an egg—and very little more heat would have matured them. This circumstance is surely unique.

A letter from Mr J. T. Stewart, which was read at Wednesday’s meeting of the Wanganui School Committees’ Association, showed tho educational establishments of tho Dominion in a rather poor light, as compared with the Scottish parish schools of a hundred years ago. In those days no “fancy” accomplishments were allowed to encroach on tho time devoted to what was then the most important subject on the syllabus—writing. The steel pen was then a thing unknown, and the art of penmanship was carolully and thoroughly cultivated, with ithe result that there were no complaints as to illegibility when the children left school—usually at the ago of 111 or II years. A little of tho old Scottish system in our New Zealand schools would, Mr Stewart considered, do much to improve the calligraphy of the presentday scholar. An officer of the Public Works Department was in Waitara on ’i uesday making various enquiries towards assisting him in carrying out work to which ho has been assigned, viz., the making of a flying survey for a railway line between Waitara and llrenui, as a lirst instalment of a connection with Mokau, thence onwards to the Main Trunk line. The matter of relieving the road by rail lie I ween Waitara and Ureniii was brought under the notice of the (Minister of Public Works during Ids recent visit to Waitara, bv Mr C. O’Sullivan, but tho idea being suddenly sprung on tho bon. gentleman, lie did not seem to take the proposition very seriously. Nevertheless, a number of settlers believe the work to bo most essential and the Minister has probably heard something of the great amount of traffic that passes over the road. Wo don’t know, but wo venture the suggestion that the Government are preparing a statement of tin* cost ml making a number of branch lines with Iho idea of raising a loan to build them. Meantime, we hope the idea of a railway will not Mock such nn urgent want as the Mokau bridge.

The new railway time table roaches ns from the statioirnastcr at Stratford. U. qir.tration of those liable for n ilit.iry training was particularly heavy dining the past week. The Stratford school will ho open on Monday, hut will close on Friday on account of the Taranaki winter show. Messrs. E. and C. Jackson have on exhibition at their promises in Broadway a turnip weighing 17ihs, taken from a crop of four acres in Pembroke Road. It is a second crop, and only two hundredweight of manure per acre was used, but it stated that tho majority of tho turnips are about tho si/.o of the one on view. One of tho parishioners who <ittonded the reception to Bishop Crosslev held ia the Town Hall last night was followed into tho hall hy his dog, which was in groat bodily or mental agony—at any rate, it lay under a seat and groaned terribly. The Bishop caused considerable amusement by opening his remarks with tho words': “Ladies and gentlemen, and the dog at tho back who doesn’t seem to like mo.” A man named Bradley was yesterday admitted to the Hospital. It appears that lie was working at a pit head at Whangamomona, when a fall of earth occurred. He was forced down into the shute, receiving sevcic .injuries to the head and shoulders, one ear being almost torn off. Bradley was at once conveyed by the ballast train to Skinner lioad, being thence conveyed to the Hospital. On enquiry at the Hospital this morning it was stated that Bradley was very much improved. At the meeting of the A. and P. Association executive last night there were present: Messrs. Dingle (in the chair), Hobbs, Malone, Masters, Pori Kirkwood, Dobson,' Healv, and Morison. The president of the Ayrshire Breeders’ Association wrote stating that the championships in Ayrshiros could not be granted Stratioru next year, as they had been granted to Carterton, but that if next voar s Ayrshire entries were sufficient the championships would be given to Stratford in the .following year. It .was decided to instal the telephone at file Show Ground and to lay on water to tho caretaker’s residence. Conversing with a press representative, a Christchurch medical practitioner stated that the X-ray treatment for rodent-ulcer was no now thing in medical science. The successes attained by an Auckland doctor were not unique, as the value of tho treatment in question had long been recognised. It was practically a certain cure for the form of skin disease mentioned. Eighty per cent was tiic approximate average of cures, and in his own practice ho had used the X-rays treatment on some sixty or seventy patients affected with ro-dent,-nicer, and had met with gratifying success.

A gentleman who has a wide and practical experience in the drapery business states that Christchurch ladies dress better than the ladies of any other city in New Zealand,, better, perhaps, on the whole, than the ladies of any city in Australia. He finds that costumes worn in Christchurch are the nearest ho has seen to those of the West End of London. Modern fashions, ho thinks, have run riot, and have in many cases succeeded in producing the grotesque. From an artistic point of view, ho woidd like to see the ladies go back to the plain and simple coat and skirt, garments which no describes as graceful, serviceable, and becoming. A laudable effort to please everybody, led to something like a contretemps at the Coronation Exhibition in Wellington on the first day. Just as Mr Thomas Ballinger, as chairman of the Executive Committee, was about to deliver the opening address, the Tramways Band, located in the main exhibition, commenced playing. The speaker continued, but all that could be heard was the brassy sound of lustily-blown cornets, and the bang of a distant drum. After a few minutes of this unequal struggle, Mr Ballinger gave up, and waited until the band had been silenced. It broke out afresh during the singing of the “Soldiers’ Chorus” from Faust by the Wellington Liedertafel, with most peculiar effect, and this time there was a good fight to a finish. Honours were even.

Records of police proceedings, printed and imprinted, make curious reading, says a Melbourne journal. Among documents drifting through the Chief Secretary’s Department has been found a police report which, it. is considered, calls for some explanation. It relates to a man who sought to assuage his thirst with a draught of methylated spirits, and was taken by a policeman to the watchhouso. There he was seized with a fit, on recovering from which he was charged with “offensive behaviour,” the entry on the sheethaving reference to his deportment during the paroxysm. The constable is to lie called upon to say whether, in his opinion, it was humane or proper to make such a charge. Some new provision to regularise temporary detention of persons in their own or the public interest but against whom no charge should he laid, would simplify police practice.