LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 15, 2 September 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

C. B. Fry’s record of 3147 runs, ■vhich he acliieved in 1901, has never icon beaten.

Eighty-eight years of age, Mrs. droadhurst, an American resident in London, is cutting a new set of teeth.

A local solicitor has informed a Southland “limes” reporter, that ho is of opinion that, tho Invercargill 1 own Council .cannot enforce the bylaw forbidding keg parties to congregate on reserves. He expressed the opinion that power to give effect to such a by-law had not been granted to municipalities. Now Zealand is to receive a visit early in November from Dr. Kail Kum, a celebrated German explorer, who recently completed a highly interesting journey from tho Niger to the Nile. He is an authority on the Soudan and tho Soundanese. Dr. Kum will lecture on scientific, geological and exploration problems.

In reference to certain alarmist reports regarding the safety of the Kaitangata mine, we (“Clntlia Leader”) understand that a careful inspection of the mine was made this week, and that the result was that the mine was adjudged to have never been in a bettor condition than at present, the recent unfortunate accidents being duo to causes altogether apart from the “scare” statements, and quite beyond the control of the management. Mrs. Hooke, an elderly lady, was driven (on the day of Hie opening of the North Coast railway to Dungog, N.S.W.) in a trap to‘the Paterson railway crossing, and from that spot watched the “iron horse” cross the bridge over the river. “I’ve been nearly 03,years in this district,” she said, “and I’ve never seen a train before. 1 think I would rather trust my old bones to tho mail coach after all. Let the young people travel by train if they like—horses are good enough for me.”

The hatching of rainbow trout is proceeding successfully at Prospect, N. S. W. The ova being received from New Zealand by the Fisheries Department are from wild rainbow front in virgin waters, so that tho weak progeny resulting from ova stripped repeatedly in the same waters is avoided. In the spawning season tiro departmental officers have been talcing eggs from trout trapped in the river near Oboron, and it is hoped that hatcheries will lie in future supplied from, within the State. The last of a consignment of 100,000 rainbow ova lias recently been received from the Acclimatisation Society at Auckland by the N.S.W. department. The anomaly between the low price of oysters at the Bluff and the high railway faro between Bluff and Invercargill seemed to amuse an Australian visitor at Bluff one day last week. “I wont into a fish slibp a!nd" J f:hd ‘'6vei J two dozen oysters,” he said, “and on leaving I was asked to pay one shilling. That must have been just about bedrock. By Jove, I fully expected to have to pay two shillings or half a crown.” On asking for a single firstclass ticket to Invercargill, he was informed that the fare was two shillings. His comment was terse. “Two shillings! Well, it’s a good job I made ,i bob on those oysters.” It is evident that Bluff oysters and their cheapness are highly appreciated by visitors.

The power of eloquence, the poet tells us, “can sway a stubborn mob co one man’s will” ; but even in these enlightened days, if you cannot convince your opponent by argument, you can try to punch his head, Recent proceedings in the New South Wales Parliament have boon imitated much nearer home. A certain branch of a friendly society, the watchword of which is “Unity, peace, and concord,” have a burning question, cays the Dunedin “Star.” Under various guides this question is debated with vigor and directness. At their last mooting one member called another a most unparliamentary name. In the chaos which ensued the offending member was called upon to withdraw the expression or prove it. With the nonchalance of the old parliamentary band, ho quietly withdrew the offending word, and, walking down the room, removing in's coat, he promptly offered to prove it.

“You will sometimes get people who come back from a visit to England,” said Sir William McMillan at a meeting of the British Empire League in Sydney, “and begin to talk about the decadence of the Mother Country, and her relative decline as compared with oilier countries. I believe that this is all absolute nonsense. England is as vigorous to-day as at any period of her history. She is as great as ever and greater than almost any country in any part of the world. Her prosperity is wonderful. Take a few figures." In 1901 her trade amounted to £870,000,000; in 1910 it was £1,200,000,000, about 50 per. cent more than that of Germany or America. In the same year she spent on her railways £1,000,000,000., the deposits in her banks amount to £800,000,000. It is estimated that the amount of money invested in foreign

countries is £2,000,000,000. VtOcrevor i mads enquiry 1 sum no sign of want of employment, no sign of decay. England is going ahead year after year, and is to-day the commercial wonder of the world.

If there is one tiling above oh ors wind’ll Federal Ministers resent, it is an imputation that they are not fincore in their immigration policy (says the Melbourne “Argus”). No one has discovered exactly what that policy is, but Ministers are as quick to defend their bona tides in words as they are slow to prove them in action. Senator Findley, however, with almost his last act as Acting-Minister foiy External Alf airs, has gloriously vindicated the Cabinet. He lias authorised the expenditure, without calling for tenders, of a sum of £3OOO to cover the cost >f design, printing, transportation, and erection of pictorial posters in Croat Britain for a period of six months.. The example ni doing good I)v stealth was set by him by some of his colleagues. The' pictorial pester, which is .to spread itself over (treat Britain and attract in to Australian shores those ‘*,trai vieal farmers” whom the Fisher Ministry are so eager to welcome, represents an artistically draped maiden, standingin a luxuriant bower of wattle bloom. To a criticism of its aptness as a representation oi Hie in Australia, Senator Findley replied at the tinny that the choice ‘of the picture was j nanbod on tiie ground chat it was bcautifullv true and truly heautitul.

Even English metropolitan boroughs show a decline in population for the first time since 1831, according to the returns just issued. All records for railway traffic were broken during Wbit-week this year, when the coaching revenue of 4o companies amounted to £1,217,009 for the week.

In order to combat tho small bird pest in the fruitgrowing district of Hawke’s Bay, the Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association has imported forty small German owls, which arrived by the Ruapehu on Friday evening. The ravages of small birds among tho orchards has readied a rather acute stage, even tho buds being eaten off the trees. The owls will be kept till they become acclimatised. They will then bo liberated in different parts of the district. The owls get among the nests of the birds at dusk and either destroy thorn or frighten them that they leave the district. The Association had to obtain the permission of the Government to import the birds.

Tho consensus of opinion among Federal Parliamentarians and officials is that A ictoria must lose a seat in the House of Representatives and Queensland gain one. Delay in tho preparation of tho official data, based on the census returns, has arisen through doubts upon legal'points. The Attorney-General’s Department has now decided that the residents in tho Northern Territory and tho 'Federal capital territory must not bo included in the total on which representation in the House of Representatives is based. This will lesson New South Wales’s hold on its twenty-sixth member, but will not affect Victoria’s loss of its twenty-second and Queensland’s gain of a tenth. Special provision, it is said, will be made for the representation of tho Federal territories.

A German professor believes he has found a, way to remove the smoke nuisance in connection with factory chimneys. The professor’s chimney is perforated on all sides by little horizontal windows. As tho furnace smoke and gases rise they are mixed with air, both before and after emergence, by the eddy-forming action of the wind passing through the openings. From the time the smoke enters the chimney and reaches the height of the lower openings, which receive the wind from any quarter, the intermingling begins, and in each stage of its upward movement the volume becomes less and less. At the mouth of the chimney tho outpour, it is said, is comparatively small, and so diluted with air that only, a sheet of dark blue smoke is seen.

“Where trees do not grow naturally, hay fever is unknown.” That is the verdict of “A Country Parson,” who lias been a victim of this debelitating fever for thirty-five years. “Whenever able to do so,” ho says, “I form a fishing party, take farmhouse accommodation some forty miles away from the nearest tree country, on the west or* north of Sutherlandshire, and escape all tho attacks. For example, this year, when the ‘fever’ attacked earlier than usual, and has been very violent in its form, two of us just scrambled out of the ‘fever zone,’ with some slight irritatiija, iff time to be passing the six weeks of terror in the far-away moorland solitudes of the Highlands, absolutely free of even the barest suggestion of sneezing or tho other symptoms.”

Lieutenant-Colonel John Fife-Cook-son, who died on July 14th at Lee Hall, Wark-on-Tyne, aged sixty-seven, was a New Zealand war medallist. On the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war he was appointed Military Attache to the British Embassy in Constantinople and accompanied the Turkish armies in tho Balkan campaign, and subsequently at Gallipoli, receiving his brevet of major. He described his experiences in a book, “With tho Balkan Armies.” He retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Later he took by Royal license the additional surname and arms of Cookson under the will of Mr. John Cookson, of Whitehill, on succeeding to the Whitehill Estate. Ho was a J.P. and D.L. for Durham, and a J.P. for Northumberland and North Yorkshire. Of all field sports, especially salmon fishing, he was very fond, and among his publications was an excellent book on “Tiger Shooting in the Doon.” Lieutenant-Colonel Fife'-' Cookson was unmarried. N

An opportunity to indulge In reminiscences was given at the opening of the new offices of the Waimain County Council (Christchurch). It was not seized by many of the speakers, but one of them, who astonished everyone by confessing to the advanced "age of 82, delivered the most entertaining speech the afternoon. This was Mr. E. Blake, who lias had half a century of public life, and incidentally was at one time chairman of the old Avon Road Board. Mr. Blake recalled that' bis first public act in Papanui, nearly fifty years ago, was the removal of a nuisance. Ihe nuisance,‘he informed his expectant audience, was a toll gate, and lie and a number of other young bloods demolished it. After carrying out that public service, they adjourned to a very small building, which had a low roof, was full of flies, and which emitted a smell of stale beer. This, Mr. Blake continued, was his Alpha in public life. He presumed that his attendance at the opening of the new offices would lie his Omega. Most of the present councillors were small boys when ho first knew them, and ho Imped that they would grow up into as good men as their predecessors had been.

The Queen Maria Pia, who died at Turin last month, was the youngest daughter of King Victor Emmanuel, and aunt of the present King of Italy. Site was born in 1817, and in 1862, at tho age of 15, she married King Luiz 1., of Portugal, who died in 1889. A woman of many and varied accomplishments, she excelled in riding, fencing, walking, swimming, and oven billiard playing. Of majestic hearing, she possessed unusual courage. Eight years after her marriage, when tho Duke of Saldanha. marched up to the palace at the head of the revolutionaries, she mot him in the early hours of tho morning with; “If I wore master hero I would order you to be shot immediately in the public square!” On one occasion she was with her two little sons on some rocks by the seashore. A big wave suddenly swept the princes off their feet and carried them away. The Queen plunged bodily after them, but had not a workman swum out and rescued them all three would have perished. That she retained her hold spirit was shown when tho revolution of last October broke out in Lisbon. She was at Cintra, hut hastened at once by motor-car to join King Manuel and the Queen Mother at Feira. The car broke down three times, and in spite of her age, she toiled up a steep mountain path, nearly all the way to Peira Castle. The next morning, in the face of warnings, she was driven in her motor-car through threatening crowds of people. Considerable pressure bad to he exercised before she would consent to leave tho country with the rest of tho royal party. In earlier days, owing to her numberless benefactions, she was called the “Angel of Charity.” Since tho revolution she had resided in Italy.

Tho most expensive Coronation that ever took place was that of the Ivnponir of Russia, which cost throe millions sterling. The sweet pea is the latest ally of th.* health crusaders, and it is daimoi to bo a valuable agent in ifce oicvorition of consumption. Middlesex has grown in population more than any other county, in England and Wales during tiic past ten years, the increase being no less than 42.17 per cent. Diamonds may be black as well as white, and some* are blue, red, brown, yellow, green, pink, and orange; but thSfe is no violet diamond, although in- addition to amethysts, there are samphires, rubies, and garnets of that colour. It least one institution _in Palea (sbys tho “Press”) can claim ,to be in syiupathy with Mr. T. K. Sidoy’a Dliylight Saving Bill, tlie staff of the “Press” having decided to comm once wotk an hour earlier each day in order to enjoy an extra hour’s fresh air and daylight in the evening. Mr Ralph Cox, who has boon attached .to the local postal staff for tho past two years, is under orders for transfer to Inglewood, and will leave Stratford at the end of next week. Mr Cox lias done a considerable amount of counter duty, always with advantage to the public aud credit to the Department. Mr Craddock, from-Inglewood, fills tho vacancy at Stratford. *‘One, of the features of our West Eiitl streets this summer,” says the “Westminster Gazette,” “is the gradual creeping back of the palmist, the clairvoyant, and the seer of all varietiefi—after a term of obscurity. They af'O'on sandwich-boards and on the witidofvs above fashionable shops, and jiimes are always mysterious, appßhlmg .to the West End by way of the .Blast. , It is an appeal to the inherent optimism of human nature—-tho'-fhopo that springs eternal.’ The dopire to bo told that something in the 'future will be splendidly unlike tho past or present. And even tiic merevteller of* character by the hand, the hair or the cranium finds that cultural 'human weakness on his side. Mppt people have learned by everyday experience that they are just ordina%; and it is most stimulating to be told that you have any character worth mentioning. Tho most depressing- fueling in the world is tho suspicion athat you are just, average. From thg character reader comes the antidote. He never sends a client away Without. the encouragement of a spodiifl character.” - prjt plpa for fairer treatment of pedestrians by motorists was ipado at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Automobile Association by Mr. F. W. JoHnston, who said that he had noticed the inconvenience caused to pedestrians by the dust from motordAiLtcaveUing .along dusty roads at a Seed of twenty miles an hour or over. B said that his attention had been drawn, to the matter particularly on Slihday, when a largo motor-car had travelled along tho Lincoln Road, where dust was about four inches thick, at a speed of twenty miles an Hour at least. Ho suggested that motorists when passing pedestrians should hot travel at more than fifteen or ■ sixteen miles an hour, remarking that'whilst an extra four or five miles p'er '.hour made little difference to tho steed of a car, it made an enormous difference in the amount of dust raised/ He said that on the day ho had mentioned cyclists had dragged their cycles behind fences to escape Rom thev clouds of dust on tho road. lie Wafc furp that the matter only needed to 'be’ mentioned to tho motorists to ensure' ifaore 'thoughtfulness bn their ■ j ' I A firm in Karangahape-road (Auckland) is showing a Case, from which befqta delivery, a quantity of valuable'' goods wore extracted. The exhibits of interest, in that it demonstirfvies to what a fine art the pilferer lias-‘brought his business. The hole in the case has been carefully made, and 'is. bo small that the Karanga-hapb-road firm defies any ordinary person to extract from it one of the garments with which the case was originally filled. Yet the thief has been clevor enough to take two dozen of the said garments through the apßrturo. At Thursday afternoon’s meeting of the ‘waterside workers’ conference a delegate stated that although ho had not seen the exhibit, he understood that it was being shown afid. described in such a way as to reflect on the honesty or the waterside porkers. Two officials of the Auckland Union this afternoon visited the shop and interviewed the manager, receiving his assurance, that there was no intention to reflect on tho waterside workers, with which explanation the ufaiori officials were satisfied.

' In giving evidence at the Auckland Supreme Court in a charge of the theft of a case of tobacco from the deamination shed on the Queen-street tvhhrf,' Mr Duncan McDonald, wharf foreman for Winstone, Ltd., staled that there had in the past been :a entire absence of any system of checking of the removal of goods from the* examination shed, but since the disclosure of extensive thefts the Harbour Board had appointed an official, arid'made a charge for storage. It often happened that the amount of Customs duties was disputed, arm while the matter was being adjusted the goods were loft on the floor of the shod/ and could bo removed by anyone'with business about the wharves without let or hindrance. In fact, any person could step in and have goods spirited away, so long as their actions wfera hot too suspicious,_ as to attract ini', attention of officials about the hlhce.!,. Even ,the two or three dilys delhy in taking delivery was not .necessary; the goods could be got away 4tliie readily any time after arrival ahd inspection. “However,” said Mr MeConald, “the examination shod, despite the absence of a system of check, had been remarkably free from thefts, and, was probably tho safest placb on the wharf.” Yet in the other sheds;” put in defending counsel, ‘‘Where there is checking and documents to sign and deliver, the goods virtually walk away.”