LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 97, 7 December 1911, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

“Now, I will get on to Mokau,” said Mr. McCluggage, at his meeting last night. “I’ve been all over the laud, and some of it I would not give 3d a thousand acres for. It’s full of birch ridges and razor backs. If they put sheep on it they would have to have two short legs and two long ones.” A voice: “Put the Opposition goats on it!”

At the General Elections of 1908 quite thirty constituencies had to suffer the worries of a second ballot, and on this occasion the number is more likely to be fifty, so that the elections will not be over until December 14th. When it comes to the popular vote there will be no second ballot for Crescent Tea. It wins outright on the first ballot because it is good, wholesome, honest tea, and is good all the time.*

Syed Ameer AH, writing to “The Times” on October 9th in respect to Great Britain and the Musselman world, and the former’s attitude over the Turco-Italian war, says: A little while ago it was reported that the Pope had sent his blessed rosary to be hung on the Italian Admiral’s flagship as the harbinger of victory over the Turks; and now the Apostolic Delegate speaks in his message to his Holiness of the raising of the Cross of Christiandom in Tripoli; whilst only a few days ago an Italian resident in London, lecturing to a fairly large audience, is reported to have urged the expulsion of the Turks from Europe and “their dispersal over the globe like the Jews.” Similar hopes and wishes have been expressed in other quarters.

Tli© local manager of the Now Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. forwards tho following circular from the chairman of the Wellington Woolbrokers’ Association Strike clause : As a result of a conference held this month between representatives of the woolbrokers and buyers, it was decided to incorporate a clause in the Conditions of Sale dealing with strikes ; such a clause being already in operation in London, The terms of r.o new clause concede to the buyer the option of cancelling a sale if delay in delivery arises through strikes, and it has been thought well to call the special attention of growers thereto. Marking and numbering of bales : Although from year to year it has been advised by brokers that the Wellington Harbour Hoard’s regulations provide for brands and numbers being of not less than three inches in height, Dais has not always been canned out. The woolbuyers now insist on letters and numbers of that size being used, and the Wellington Woolbrokers’ Association have decided that they must in future years malm a charge for this work if they are called upon to do it. the Harbour Hoard’s scheduled rate

s Id per bale; in private stores it will io del per bale.

Yesterday the barometer at the Bind' fell to 23.47, which is the lowest pressure ever recorded in New Zealand.

Mr J. 11. Mackay, who went to Auckland to undergo a very serious operation by Drs. Savage and Paget, uas sufficiently recovered, bis friends will bo giad to learn, to undergo the sea journey from Auckland to New Plymouth. He will come straight on io Stratford and may be expected hero either to-day or to-morrow.

Yesterday’s heavy gale levelled fences, uprooted trees, and played havoc with gardens. The roof of an outhouse belonging to Mr. \V. Lovett, of the Commercial Hotel, was lifted bodily, and carried completely over the roof of some adjoining buildings. No very serious damage is, however, .•eported.

The Crystal Palace Fireworks Company have decided to give a picture entertainment in the Town Hall next Saturday night, in conjunction with the Stratford Lyric Orchestra, which will render some beautiful selections during the evening, and patrons can rely on spending a most enjoyable evening. The Daylight Saving Bill Committee recently sent out a circular to the various candidates for Parliamentary honours throughout the Dominion, asking if they were in favour of the Daylight Saving Bill. In every case,

says the “N.Z. Times,” the committee received a favourable reply. No candidate lias expressed an opinion against it, in the answers so far received by the committee, which now has hopes that the new Parliament will give earnest consideration to this question, with the ultimate passing of legislation in the direction desired.

Two aviators, Lieutenant Battini and Sapper Larrouil, had an extraordinary escape from death in Franco last month. They were flying in a thick fog over the railway at St. Quentin, when their aeroplane smashed through a telegraph wire and crashed into a thirty-foot cutting on the line. The Brittany express train was due at that point in thirty seconds. Fortunately, the Brittany express runs on the Western State Railway, and, of course, it was late. The two men, however, would have been crushed to death five minutes after their fall—for they knew nothing about the train —had it not been for a lucky accident. The telegraph wire they had broken controls the signals for that portion of the line, and when it broke the express train was stopped automatically a- short distance from the spot where the two men fell. They were none the worse for their accident, but the aeroplane was a wreck.

“I had a great surprise in England,” said Mr McjGowen, Premier of New South Wales, at the annual dinner of the Yorkshire Society in Sydney last week. “I had read my Dickens it home, and I thought that there was no man more naturally humorous than die Cockney, and no man less so .han the Scotchman. Well, I was at i, dinner in London, and I said that liter watching the London policemen ind the splendid work they do I was ;uite prepared to believe the story of die twelve French policemen who came jver to study the way in which the London police control the traffic. They stayed some months in London, and endeavoured on their return to put into practice what they had learned. V few days after there were twelve funerals' in Paris. (Laughter.) Would you believe it p A London reporter, in . mentioning this story, remarked that, 1, failed to 1 explain whoso the flinerals swore. 1 (Laughter.) Well, , when 1 [ was in ’Scotland, the Provost ; asked me to attend the Council. I went, ind made a speech, and told them we could tell a man’s nationality in Australia ‘by the way he got out of a train. If he jumped out before it stopped, ’ he was an impetuous Irishman ; if he descended leisurely and walked firmly out of the station, we knew him for the matter-of-fact Englishman. Then, I added, the" other ' man looks under the seat—(laughter) —or on the hat-rack—(loud laughter) k —to see if his companions have left anything behind. The Scotchmen I was talking to saw the joke as well as you do. I was afraid I had trespassed too far on their generosity, so I added: ‘Of course) he is going to return it to the Lost Property Office.’ And I beard a Scotchman murmur, ‘Awell, it a’ depends.’ ”

Chicago’s first suffragist marriage, says the New York correspondent of the “Standard,” took place on September 2Sih between Edward Matt and Gertrude Ellis . Before the ceremony was performed they both visited the County Recorder, with whom Mr Matt officially filed the following affidavit, to be sworn before a notary: “To whom it may concern—l, Edward Matt, agree to allow my wife all the privileges of a free-born American woman. She may have her own way in everything (except in buying my cigars)she is free to go and some when she likes, to choose her own friends, arid I agree not to be jealous. I agree not to go gunning for x fellow because he admires her beauty or because she smiles when he tips his hat. Iwill not interfere in any of her plans. I will be good and kind to her. I promise to spill all my earnings into her lap, and it shall he her privilege to do with it as she likes so long as she feeds me well. When we have a surplus and it goes into the bank, I agree that I will not hold the keys. Cheques may bo signed by both to make them good. I promise not to bo afraid to go home at night, and to be there at all proper times or to make valid excuses. I further agree not to talk about the pies my mother used to make, or to grumble because the buns are soggy. I further agree to let her get a lleno divorce right here in Chicago if I do not behave as a kind, loving, gentle, and considerate luxsband.”

If Dick Turpip had been knight of the road in the year 1911 Black Bess would never have been heard of (says a London paper). He would have used a prosaic taxicab instead of a fleet-footed mare. One of his successors named Joseph Putman appeared at the London Sessions recently, and was said to have adopted this method with considerable success. “For the past two months,” stated a detective, “he has been associated with a gang of South London thieves, who ( engaged a taxicab to aid them in their”enterprises. When one member of the "gang succeeded in snatching a purse or a handbag, or stole om.ething or other, his companions facilitated his escape by holding the door of the cab open for him. They would then jump into the cab after him and give the chaffeur instructions where to drive.” In the time of Dick Turpin Putman would probably have ended Ids career on the gallows. He was now sentenced to fifteen months’ hard labour. “D. S. Winddell,” who victimised a number of banks within a few hours in September, DOS, was one of the first to use the taxicab as an aid to crime. After Mr W. Hopton had been rob--1 -'d ThSOnO '-"vHi of dir>Tm'"'lg the street at Dalston last month, his assailant escaped in a taxicau. (luring September cases of jewel thieves escaping in taxicabs occurred in Nottingham and Wimbledon.