LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 94, 4 December 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Loiters to the Editor advocating party views can only ho accepted as advertising matter until after 'lluirsday next. Albert Edward Burgess, of Stratford, boot and shoo importer, lias lilod a declaration of insolvency.

iho weekly hatch of notes on dog mutters, by' Laverock, will ho found in another part of this issue. An interesting exhibition of fancy and plain cooking was given on the promises of the Taranaki Hardware Jo. on Saturday, when Lady Clarke demonstrated to a large number of people the capabilities of the Perloction oil stoves. Lady Clarke lias given exhibitions all over the North island, and she has astonished many people ehy the ease and rapidity with which she could turn out dainty dishes from the ■ Perfection stoves. Lady Clarke is, of course, an expert, hut such scones and cakes which she made here could only have been cooked in an oven in which the heating arrangements were in closest proximity to perfection.

A well-dressed man was hurrying along the Hue de Passy, Paris, recently, when he slipped, and, falling forward, dashed his elbow through the window of a wine shop. The proprietor rushed out to claim the price of his window; and a large crowd gathered to see fair play. The man who had broken the window protested that ho had no money. “Search him!” shouted someone in the crowd. There were no policemen about, so the wineshop keeper and a few friends took the law into their own hands, searched the man’s pockets, and found a £2O note. The crowd advised the wine-shop keeper to pay himself well for his broken window. He took £2 to pay for bis broken glass, and the unpopular man who had broken it went away with a torn coat and £lB change. The £2O note was a forgery.

The journal “Canada” relates that a young man in Canada who had pestered his father for money in vain, at last wrote that lie had started ranching in earnest, and he had then a piece of land “with live hundred head of gophers.” Could ho trouble his father for a sum of money to enable him to develop his business? The father partially accepted the statement, believing that the gopher (a species of ground squirrel, which is regarded as' a pest on a farm), was a local name for cattle, but doubted the correctness of the number of head his son had acquired. So lie wrote to the Bishop of-Calgary that he was glad to hear his son was at last acting the man, and if it were true that lie had live hundred head of gophers on his land, he would he glad to again extend financial assistance to the boy. The bishop, so rumour hath it, was so tickled by the effrontery of the young man, that ho felt a disinclination to spoil a good joke, and replied that the boy “undoubtedly had five hundred head of gophers.” And apparently, the ingenious youth once more “came out on top.”

To appropriate to one’s own use anything found is in French as well as in British law an act of theft, as an ill-advised carriage-cleaner employed by an automobile company in Paris has found to his cost (writes the Paris correspondent of a London paper). Last summer a Madame Payer took a taxi home, and on entering her dwelling found that she had lost a valuable pearl attached to a platinum chain. It had undoubtedly been lost in the cab, because Madame Payer, remembered noticing it while in the yehicle. Unfortunately, she did not take the number of the taxi, but she recollected that it was yellow and had a blue flag, so she went to every garage in Paris seeking to find the lost pearl, but without result. jSo one hid seen it. The police were iiformcd. and made chhge.nt lut equally fruitless enquiries. JRecmidy the pearl turned up in a most unexpected fashion. Paris is a very large city, and it has numerous jewellers, but by an extraordinary chance the person who had found the pearl went to the verv man wn:i Inc >Jid it to Madame Payer The. jeweller rcc •$. n<*! it at 'me. an I the thief, win • employed as a cleaner of taxi-cabs, was handed over to the police. He was sentenced to eight months in gaol, and will have plenty of opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary coincidence which led him to the shop of the one jeweller in Paris who was able to detect Ids wrongful possession of the missing pearl. Marquis 'Komura, whose death was recently' announced, was born in 1855, and in 1875 lie was one of a batch of thirty young Japanese who were sent to America to he educated in Western ideas, his time of study being spent at Harvard. On his return to Japan in 1879 he was at once appointed a Judge, but, feeling that he was unqualified for the position, he resigned, much to the natural annoyance of Ids friends, who regarded the stop as the throwing away .of a fine career. He was absolutely penniless, and the only position that could he found for Idm was that of a translator in the Foreign Office, where he remained in a purely subsidiary position till 1894, an inconsiderable, unconsidered Government servant, for whom high promotion seemed a wild and impossible dream. In 1894 it was necessary to send a secretary to the Japanese Minister at Pekin. Komura was sent, and proved his worth by his conduct of negotiations and his writing of despatches in a critical period. He became Minister at Washington and St. Petersburg, and in 1901 was apnointed Foreign Minister. At the close of the war with Russia he was the Ad of Japanese Envoy at the Peace Conference held in America, and shortly' afterwards wont to England as Ambassador. It is said he shared with Lord Lansdowne the honour of initiating the Anglo-Japaneso alliance. Viscount Hayashi, at that time Ambassador in England, declared over and over again that all he did was done on Komura’s instructions

According to a London paper, all the indications show that this year’s epidemic of influenza in England is unusually severe. Although the deaths at latest advices were not above the average for the season (threq in the week ending 30th September, nine in the following week, and fourteen the next week), the suddenness with which the victims are assailed and the noticeable tendency of the disease to undermine the heart’s action are not encouraging signs. “When heart depression is the out-standing symptom of attacks, as is the case this year.” a West End physician said, “the public should remember that influenza, even in its mildest form, is a very dangerous disease. The only safe rule is to go to bed at once and give yourself up wholly to lighting the disease at the onset. When the heart is struggling against a virulent poison like the influenza toxin it must lie relieved from all unnecessary fatigue.

Therefore, stay in bed, at any rate until every trace of fever has passed

off. To relieve the sometimes terrifying irregularity of the 1 eart-beat live drops of sal volatile in a little but milk often act like a charm. But if the patient sots aside nil business or other worries, keeps quiet in lied, and rests the digestive arg-ms, as well as the heart by keeping to a light milk diet for forty-eight hours after the onset of the attack, few medicines are needed. It is only when the patient refuses to acknowledge that lie is ill and insists on going about his business or down to the office that serious heart trouble need be apprehended in an otherwise healthy adult.”

Business men arc reminded that the adjourned annual meeting of the I radesmen’s Association will take Ijiar-,' in the Municipal Chambers at 7..J0 to-night. As the Saturday halfholiday question will he fully discussed a full attendance is expected of all tens' interested.

A visitor to Stratford, who had keen conducted over the local reading room, expressed surprise at the number of editions of each paper filed. “Of course,’ ho said, “you can’t expect to have every paper in New Zealand on the files. But of the ones you do Like, you might keep at least fourteen or fifteen back numbers so that travellers may .know what has happened in their native city since they left.” This is a matter upon which residents have equally strong opinions. It is a small matter, and could he easily rectified.

in connection with some musical competitions held in the Wonthaggi (\ ietoria) Town Hall, last week, several laughing jackasses were introduced into the action song competition by one of the competing teams. Tne, song chosen was the “Kookaburra, ’ in the chorus of which the laugh of the jackasses is introduced. The birds, took the part well, and assisted every time the chorus was sung. The judge and audience wore convulsed with laughter.

Some relics of the ill-fated Papami i were brought out by the Opawa, now at Wellington. Some of the wine glasses, twisted into weird shapes and burnt to strange colours, were recovered from the wreck, which, by the way, was still burning at the time of the Opawa’s visit. A breakfast cup was nlpo found, burnt quite black, but with not a flaw in it. On the journey rrom England to St. Helena the Opawa’s men, together with a number of extra carpenters, were hard at work erecting additional accommodation ior the castaways. Some of the officers paid a visit to the house where Napoleon spent the last six years of Ins life. The residence is quite empty of furniture, and the garden is inclined to wildness. There is, however, a 1‘ rench resident-Consul, whose duties include the care of the house.

Aii interesting fqct not generally known in regard to the Macquarie Islands is that cats have been introduced there at some time or other, and that their descendants, which have grown to a very large size, have worked havoc among those birds of the island which were not gifted with flight. The flightless rail, it is thought, has disappeared, as it is many years since a specimen has been seen, and the same story has to be tu',! of a semi-flightless parrot which used to feed on kelp on the beaches, and which could fly about a hundred yams in one flight. No specimen of tins bird has been sighted for a long time, and it is feared it has also fallen a victim to the cats. There are also plenty of rabbits on the islands, and these will be available as a means of food supply for the members of Dr. Maws on’s expedition, should they be required.

A : recent issue of the “Northern Mail” (Whangarei) says:—Various and wonderful are the theories advanced by the “man in the street” to account for the five incipient fires started in Whangarei last night. One welldnown business man expressed his firm conviction that the fire-fiend was none other than the notorious Powelka* and added that anyone or everone bearing an resemblance to that enterprising young man should bo at once clapped into the lock-up pending inquiry into Ins past and present career, and particularly his business in Whangarei. Whangarei is beginning to wonder if the elusive Joseph J. Powelka has descended in its midst. The cases of incendiarism last night had a parallel only in the Palmerston North outbreaks, and the mysterious- recurrent fires in Auckland some nine years ago. The latter epidemic was traced to two small boys who had developed a ™ania for setting buildings alight. Their reward for a crime that is in the immediate category to murder was in each case seven years’ imprisonment.

t One of the significant features of the hard times is the appearance of noblemen seeking ready-m ide fortunes witn wives attached. The demand for heiresses, American and otherwise, was never so great as now, from princes downward, and even the staid newsmper ossiche Zeitung” contains the following advertisement: “Prince, 38 years old, of noble appearance, wishes immediate marriage; condition, £15,000.” This is typical of many other advertisements. :It would seem also that there are almost as many heiresses looking out for titled husbands, ns witness the following tempting announcment: “Refined, handsome young lady of 24, milti-millionaire, seeks count in military service.” “Countess, possessing millions, but divorced, seeks a second marriage with a gentleman bearing a noble title.” Here is a rather witty advertisement: “What family with a good looking daughter will enable a young man to complete his studies?” The almost insane desire of German women to marry lilies will lie fully brought out in "a second trial of Count Gisbert Metternish, nephew of the German Ambassador to. London. He will call as a witness Mrs Wertheim, wife of the owner of a big Berlin department store, and attempt to prove that he contracted debts for which he is now in gaol simply because she promised to give hhn her dar.ght-r in marriage.

“It if! a great tragedy. In all grades of society there is a revolutionary movement taking place. Young women will no longer consent to be inactive, and, so far as the stage is concerned, there really is not room 01 ' however capable they are.” This was a prominent London f-tage manager’s comment upon the disposition of many aristocratic young ladies to seek theatrical engagements. The secretary of the Ladies’ Employment Guild, questioned on this topic of unrest amongst the leisured classes, throw some interesting sidelights upon the question. “There certainly is a growing unrest,” she said, “and the stage offers the excitement for which many girls clamour. This unrest is due to our methods of education and tlie less insular conditions of English home life. Girls arc no longer willing to accept the conditions of fifty years ago. Greater variety is creeping into life. There is plenty of work for noblewomen and women of all classes, but the great trouble is that so few are trained. From various causes girls have been ••Toatly handicapped until now in their desire to fit themselves for some real wrrk. The gir] lias not the same facilities as the boy for entering commercial life, and here lies the tragedy. Women want more courage in taking nn a useful occupation, but, genci” ally speaking, the ‘revolutionary’ voung lady is not prepared to undergo serious, and for a while unremunerativo, training. Her idea is to get, ind not to give. The craze for the stage is rivalled to a degree by a de- : ire to travel. Large numbers of voung ladies of social position apply ■ o us for posts as travelling comnanHut there is nothing intellectual in travel for its own sake. It leads nowhere. On the other hand, there is a large field for lady private secretaries, but so few arc qualified to enter.”

For tho fifth year in succession Sirs M. Brooking has been entrusted wit] the catering for the Axemen’s Canu val at Eltham.

The annual meeting of the Stratford Swimming Club was sot down toi Wednesday evening, but it lias been found advisable to postpone the meeting until next Tuesday (December 12th).

At the Magistrate’s Court to-mor-row, before Mr. W. G. K. Kcnnck, S.M., an enquiry will bo hold on the matter of tho election of Mr. John Diggins to the office cf Councillor for the Strathmore Hiding of the County of Whangamomona.

Late on Saturday n:ght Constable arrested a man whom he Pound sleeping in a railway carriage. "The sequel come out this morning when Charles Miller, alias Smith, alias Ncilsen, with a long liso of provious convictions against him, pleaded guilty to a charge- of vagrancy, and was sentenced to New Plymouth Erison for one month’s hard labour, [r C. D. Sole, J.P., occupied the bench.