LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 138, 3 August 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The new railway timctabl; for Augast is t > Uaud. Ilia Stratford Co-operative Dairy Factory, Skinner lioau, Toko, toko Load, Borden Hoad, and Hobson Hoad ci canneries will open to icot-.ve milk oa Monday next, me 7tn imst. A Dannevirko gentleman t as ciUrc l tl.o• Department of Agriculture sin acre of l uui lor use as an • •xporiuumiing ground I'orJVuit culture. 'June is cvi-ry probability that die (ffer will ho accepted. A Chinaman named Ah Liu was recently arrested in Bathurst, New South Wales, for taking delivery of three tins of opium from the local railway station. .Lie was tried, convicted, and sentenced to three months’ hard labour, ft afterwards transpired that the tins contained treacle, and not opium. Ashburton is coming to the front as a hare-exporting district, and it is understood that several thousands of them have been frozen for export. Sportsmen have been making as much as £6 per week clear of expenses ia snaring and shooting them, as they arc in unprecedented numbers. A christening has taken place at Davos (Switzerland) in unusual circumstances. in addition to the parents of the child, there were present the following relatives;—Four grandparents, one great grandfather, and four grcat-graudmcthers. Their united ages were nearly 800 years . There is a growing demand for goats in Northern Taranaki at the present time, especially those having an Angora strain, says the “News.” As much as three guineas has been, paid, though the average price is much lower. The goats are found very useful in keeping down weeds and blackberry. A farmer within easy distance of New Plymouth has kept a tally cf the sheep-worrying dogs that he ri d his men have shot, says the “News.” L p to data they number sixty-three. Only two were registered, and the owners were traced and compelled to pay for the damage done. From this it would scorn that during the past few years there must have been a large number of collarless canines straying about the environs of the town. Kcw is it possible to discover whether a cow is suffering from milk fever or contagions mammitis? This was a question put to air. J). H. Unit in Master ton on Saturday last. The veterinarian replied that samples of the milk should be placed in bottles, sealed, and sent to the Government Laboratory for analysis. When cows M ere suspected of contagious mammitis they should at once be isolated. At tho Mangaweka Magistrate’s court recently a man named Joseph Pit turn was charged with killing ami selling impoited and native game without taking out a license. 'There wore six separate charges, dating between 2nd and Ihth July, and iu this time accused had supplied a Wellington dealer witJi two pheasants, twentyhares,, seventy-live quail, and 176 native pigeons. The Magistrate commented strongly on this wholesale and illegal slaughter of game, and inflicted lines totalling £1 J. 4s. In the Invercargill Court on Friday last six men pleaded guilty to 'hav ing trespassed on the railway'liner The police explained that the accused had iicGii members of keg parties in tne vicinity of Pug by Park, and on coming away they had walked along tho railway line. A number of men had boon in the habit of using tho railway lino as a nice clean patmvay. to get to a Hiding place where they finished up the contents of their kegs. The accused were each convicted and lined £2, with costs, 14 days being given in which to pay, in default seven days’ imprisonment.

The eight hundred and five nair.es which appear on the Barmaids’ Jh'gistcr as gazetted last week (says the “N.Z. Times”) do not represent tire total number of barmaids who will be registered in the Dominion, as many. <T the certificates issued by the Labour Department have not yet been returned signed by the various agents. A supplementary list will be issued shortly, when the whole of tiro registration is complete, though, of course, no more applications are being taken. It is expected that when the register is complete it will contain just ever one thousand names. The Acting-Premier of Victoria, Mr Watt, speaking at a. Commercial Tiar oilers’ Chib dinner in Melbourne, said the Premier had during the last month been making careful investigations in England into the matter of the electrification of railways. There bad, ho said, been some difficulty in deciding whether the special system recommended by Mr. Merz , was the best according to the experience of modern nations. “1 think,” lie added, “that we are now almost in a •ocsition to dissolve that doubt, and from information that lias readied us by letter and by cable, I can say that/ the Government will have a policy to announce as to the conversion of the metropolitan system, or .rather, sub-, urban system, almost immediately.” Andrew Miliar was charged in tmic Invercargill Court on Friday last worn Having on duly 12 set a spring gun in nis nome in sucli a way as to cause grievous bodily harm. Millar In ea .aone in a hut, and finding that mon -y was disappearing in his absence, he set a pea-rifle m the house with a string tied to the trigger and to the uandle of the door in such a way that it could not possibly do any barm to anyone entering the house by the door. On the uate mentioned in tne information a boy who had since lien convicted of stealing money from M illar's place entered oy tne windowrhd was shot in the thigh. -Millar > peuly confessed at the time wiiat he i.ad done. The hoy in his evidence ..dmitted having got into Millar’s house by the window in search of money, and and done the same thing before. .Miliar was committed for trial. The archaic reconstruction of a crime, which is a feature of French judicial procedure, outlives all ridicule (writes the Paris correspondent of the ‘ Daily Express”). And yet an extraordinary ease which happened a .ew days ago at Scales should of itself suffice to make the reconstruction of the crime an impossibility in tire future. A man had a quarrel with a friend, and had shot him dead from ids window as he was passing in too street. The other day the murderer, with handcuffs on .his wrists, was taken from prison to the room, from a ‘window of which he had shot and killed Ids former friend. On the way idem prison the crowd had hooted and ycll,d at the murderer, and the man was all of a trolyble when he got up to ds room, lie was given an unloaded gnu and told to show the Magistrate just iiow lie had cnmmiitcd the'muvler. Me took the gun, climbed on the foot of Ids lied, and, standing on the rail, as he had stood when he shot down into the street, leaned forward and took aim. But lie was very nervous. Do was hampered by ms handcuffs. His foot slipped and lie toppled ead first out of the window into the ; tree! below, and broke bis neck. 1

Mr. A. Cooper, of Palmerston North, says an exchange, has been successful in inventing a lifting gear, attachable to any plough, by which the .implement can be adjusted to lough deep or shallow, or lifted out •>f the ground altogether without stopping or flowing down at all. The invention promises to be a boon to farcers. On Monday the Post and Telegraph Department introduced at Wellington, by way of trial, a new form and envelop combined for received telegrams. This form, which is folded by an ingenious machine, boars on tho face of it, just above the address, tho words “Xow Zealand telegraphic message.” The form is closed at the back by two gummed and perforated tabs. On the tabs are printed the words. “New Zealand telegraphic message,” and to open the form the ends must be separated at the perforations. “1 don’t like a man coming before the Hoard,” said the Commissioner (Mr. James McKenzie) at tho meeting of the Wellington Land Board on fiiursday last, "with a view to trafficking in Crown land. You got a section, ” he told an applicant for a transfer, “a year or so ago, and after Holding on to it for a few months you ;;oid out at a rise. And now you want to do it again. You propose to take this land and lease it to somebody else. That is not the purpose of the Land Board. There is too little Crown land for that business nowadays.” The application was refused. A narrow escape from serious injury was experienced by the manager of the Carterton brick and tile works last week. He was helping to remove section of tho belting, when the belt suddenly kinked. He attempted to step out of. the way, but the kink got round his foot, and in a flash he was whirled up towards the shafting. Luckily, before reaching the shafting % the belt passes through a guard, and the momentary break in the flight enabled tho manager to grasp a post. The-strain loosened the kink, and he was enabled to withdraw his foot, the only result being a stiff leg and a severe fright.

As :i result cf the discovery that in the past medical practitioners have neglected to report cases of infectious disease occurring among natives they attended, the Health Department obtained the opinion of the Crown Law Office upon the subject, and the Department has now been advised that it is obligatory upon medical practitioners to report such cases, as in the case of a European suffering from an infectious malady. It might- also be pointed- out that it is equally obligatory on tire natives themselves to notify. Maori patients must at once notify tiro Hospital Board and the District Health Officer of any infectious disease. Wo have been shown a very neat rad handy contrivance tiiat has recently been patented by Mr. H. H. Cilshnan, of Kakaramea, says the f’atea “Press.” It is termed in the Specification “an improved method of fastening whips to handles,” and consists of a small looped piece of aluminium split up the centre and fitted with a thread and band for fastening t) the whip handle. The whole is simplicity itself, and can he adjusted or taken off practically instantaneously. Being made of aluminium, there is not the woigth at the end of the whip handle that would ordinarily bo ex-pected'-with a metal top, and 'in addition, it has the advantage of both a Length and durability. We felt sure ■that Mr. Gilshnan’s clever invention has only to become known to he in general use. In the Wellington Magistrate’s Couit this'week an unusual prosecution, probably unique the world over, is likely to be heard. The case is being taken against a settler, and arises out of the sale of an area of 1400 acres of Crown land in the Rangitikei district. It is alleged that an attempt was made to “bear” the market, and the defendant is to be charged with having offered to accept a bribe to refrain from bidding. This is an offence under section 69 of the Land Act, 1908, which lays down that a person who offers to take a bribe to refrain from bidding in a Crown lands auction is liable to a penalty hot exceeding £IOO, or twelve months’ imprisonment as the alternative. For accepting a bribe under similar circumstances the maximum penalty is £290 or two years’ imprisonment.

, i( “In my travels round the Wairarapa this year 1 have seen more grass grub in one paddock than 1 have, known to exist in the whole district in any previous year,” said Mr. ’Wood, agricultural chemist, to a Wairarapa pressman. In some instances, Mr. Wood added, farmers had lost very heavily through the ravages of the grub. He knew of one who had 150 acres of grass completely stripped. The ravages of the grub had been brought under the notice of the agricultural chemists of New Zealand, ar.d they were in communication with each otner on tho subject, and. giving it every possible attention. If farmers could detect the grub in its early stages the application of agricultural salt or lime would do much to check The longest street in the world is undoubtedly Western Avenue, Chicago, which stretches 22 miles, going from one end of the city to the other; Electric trams run the whole length of the avenue, the journey, allowing for stops occupying close on four hours. Western Avenue is nearly 10 miles longer than Broadway, New York, which formerly topped "the list of lengthy thoroughfares. In one respect, however, Broadway' still holds tne record. That portion of IT which lies next to Sixth Avenue and is traversed by six electric tramway lines, in addition to the overhead railway, claims w itii justice to ho the noisiest spot in the noisiest city of- the universe. An unpleasant experience befel one of the workmen engaged upon the additions to the Wellington Girls’ College recently. It was found necessary to send a man underneath the old school lor a job in connection with the gas pipes. The apace hf-uoath the school did not permit of Ins standing up, so the examination had to bo made on hands and knees. In a short time the man returned to the light of day “with much less colour than when in he went,” and questioned, said that he had stumbled in the dark, and found his arms and head over a brick-sided hole. Lanterns were requisitioned, and a search party sent in. What they found boro out the man’s story. Under the floor of the main passage was a brick well about 20ft deep, with some feet of water and mud ia the bottom. It transpires that this is the old hospital well ,for on tin's f ire that building once stood, and the builders of the school had not bothered to fill the bole up or board it over. Some years ago a somewhat similar occurrence took place in the old house owned by Captain Johnson, i" Goldie’s Brno. One evening a leg of tho grand piano suddenly disappeared throngli tho drawing-room boor, and on investigation being made : ! war found that there was a well beneath the house.

Mr! R. Spence loaves to-morrow on a hbliday- trip to the South. Tte Toko Oddfellows have decided to hold a ball in the Coronation Hall on Friday, the 11th inst. A cable message from Melbourne today ■■ hhhounces the death of Mr. W. G.'vWlUoughby, the well-known riflemaA dr Bisley team fame. Messrs John Body (Flint Road), A. Reid, (Monmouth Road), !•). McMillan (Stratford), and Hart (Huiroa) left Strpfcfdrd yesterday morning with their families for the Thames Valley, where they.' intend to take up farming. At. h special meeting of the School Coriltnlttee held yesterday, it was decided to close the primary school until Monday week, owing to the prevalence of measles. Dr. Rnget last night concluded his lectdldß on first-aid to tho Boy Scduts jby examining the boys on tho ledilirps given. He intimated his intentrdn or Continuing instruction to a dozer! of tho boys showing the it ost koogtlefis for the work.

A; Special meeting of the Borough Coiixlcll will be held on Tuesday next to decide tho question of the publicanot of all resolutions come to by . the Borough Council sitting in committee on July 17th and 25th, whidh, dealt with the matter of the purchase of the Stratford Electrical Supply Company’s undertaking. ■ • j , ; . •, Thh influx of visiting cyclists for the big; Rbuhd-the-Mountain cycle race has commenced, says tho “News,” the first of tho competitors, accompanied by idiiS: trainer, arriving in town yesterday. . Competitors and trainers will htirv bo arriving in batches for a few dkys, as most of the eighty riders frotn beyond New Plymouth have intimated' their intention of spending not less than a week here to familiarise themselves with the route. Slhce ,A, number of ruffians In the sttpbi}6 of PaTis have victimised bank mpsiepgefs and others imprudently carryings fabulous slims of money yho .banking authorities have beefi.' trailing dogs to protect these walklHg treasuries. These clogs of high finatlco are on the alert for the suspicious gesture on the pajir'df strangers who approach their mastbrijipnd any attempt to get rich quifekw by violent means would cerfrustrated by the faithful ahinifili Aho is also usually able to hold]the Assailant until tho arrival of thtiipbiice.; -

Alradcidfent of a somewhat amusing natufft nhpptmed to an Ashburton chatmburlast week. It appears that his iiiotofrear got stuck in a creek, and. a with his trap was jiiit, being roped up to pull the oar out) Vnieti the expert slipped off the bohrlet of the machine head first into „ the), crefek, whilst his legs got caught ift tho':splash-board. From this predifcahiCtlt ho was rescued just when iriattofs wore looking very serious, although in the meantime, owing to his pbfbefidicular, position, the water relieved liim of his monetary belong- . .. , . A jhdle of considerable Jmlk visited the Sunday afternoon and entertained the residents of Opunake to a series-of tumbling evolutions, says the “Times.” His Majesty was first sebn .bff the mouth of the Waiaua, atid Hi announced his presence by rising th,,tbo > surface at short intervals and throwing up a volume of water. Oil amVil ibuly, a few hundred .yaxtls off tlie j.otty he appeared to adopt a plajrftil bloody and went through the pehfotlhdUce aforesaid, much to the amdscnient, of a fairly large audience thdt /qtubkiy- gathered to watch the antics. About 2 o’clock the King of the ipeejl continued on his voyage northi, It is surmised that Mr. Sperm ' Whjile: iviia in search of his deceased brptbit who was recently stranded on the Seriot Beach, and whose body is no#’.Undergoing a post-mortem examihatwtl ht the hands of a working bee of MfibriSi

' Fparfe ' have been entertained by some people here that the Egmont Box Coihptiny was likely to transfer its bilsjliess from Eltham to Ohutu, whitß they Have large bush rights, and , ivhSre they are erecting a factor jq sdta the Eltham correspondent of tnbHawora “Star.” Whilst, however jjthtv company will transfer some of ltd hhfeinesa to Ohutu, the Eltham fact-dtr will still be kept up to its full caprtdity:. Indeed, the' Box Company bought and taken posshimbh of the yard and premises adnrhs occupied by the New Plynidlith Sash and Door Company, the initttittib in the business here necessitate jjTffll'tlier extension i f pimmscs. THii.ialfbctdts’ annual report will show allowing £1366 for depreciSrablt bn buildings, plant, and leasehold), tubne remains a balance of £1631 to .be debit with. The directors recdfnitietld a : payment of 6 per cent, per adfahlij on the paid-up capital, absorbing £1166, :tho balance to be carried forward-: The directors, after referrihd jto work done during the year, menMj&hy that they have acquired a considerable amount of milling bush. influen?a take Woods’ Grout Penpfetinint Cure; never fans. Is 6d ana 24 Bd *