LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 27, 15 January 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The ordinary meeting of the Stratford Borough Council will ho held this evening. Previous to this a special meeting will he held to determine the statutory half-holiday fo* Stratford for the year.

In Java,,tho temperature is always over DO degrees or thereabouts during the day, and yet people are able to put up with it. The usual dress :’s a tliin cellular vest and a white duck suit. There the sides of a house are nearly all windows surrounded by large verandahs. Consequently there is plenty of ventilation, as the windows are never shut. Dr. Thomas Henry Pullin, whose death was recently announced, achieved some marvellous triumphs in surgery. He was medical officer to the Government Board of Health at Portsmouth during the cholera epidemic -in 1849, and he contributed many re- 1 markable cases to medical journals, including that of a patient who had had asthma for five years from impaction of a cinder in the rbonchns. Dr Pullin was able to successfully expel the foreign body, and the patient made a good recovery. Another recorded case is that of a man who fel a distance of 52+ft. from a cliff. Here, again, Dr. Pullin was able to' announce the recovery of the patient. Amongst other of his cases may be noted those of two girls: one totally lost her hearing powers by! 'shock in a dream, whilst the other, in striking contrast, made a sudden, recovery by

shook tin dreaming whilst suffering from ichronic spinal < disease. • . , I A liniitary lifter has just helm patiented' by Dr. Frederick Alexander, the medical officer of health for>’ Poplar, the idea for I which, he' 'says, was first given him by a lady’s hat. ' The filter consists of four or live coneshaped bags like pierrot hats, suspended upside down, one above the other, in an easily portable pyramdial frame made of four uprights of wood or metal. Muddy or dirty water, which is frequently the only supply available to troops on active service, can thenibe poured l ‘into the topmost hat with the certain knowledge that by the time it has trickled through all the straining hags it will be perfectly clear. “Directly the upper bags become choked,” said Dr. Alexander to a reporter, “by deposit from very dirty water, they can quickly be replaced, for they are hung by hooks and eyelets to the frame. Coarse dirt and mud, though not itself causing infection, sets up conditions favouring infection, and many of the deaths in the South African and other wars were due to the soldiers having in emergencies to drink muddy water. The- idea of these cone-shaped bag.v was given to me by my sister-in-law’s pierrot bat after 1 had been reading a book on military requirements.”

In connection with the new discovery of the value of electrifying tobacco in order to ensure its flavour and keeping qualities a most curious experiment has been made by a German chemist. Enquiry showed that the flavour of the tobacco leaf is largely due to the peculiar • fungus or “bacterial flora” with which each variety is associated. Electricity kills this fungus but preserves its flavouring quality. But the German chemist has gone "a step further. He has taken the peculiar mould of 1 110 best Havana tooacco and transferred it to the more coarsely llavoured Bavarian tobacco; and it is alleged that good judges could not afterwards tell the difference. Whether the effect is quite so thorough may be doubted (says the London “Daily Hail); but it is unquestionable that science is making many discoveries of the properties of these mysterious moulds, it is now possible to standardise the flavour of cheese and even butter by making pure culture of moulds. Experiments are being made with the bloom of the graps, i:i waich largely the flavour resides; and

there is no reason why the principle should not ho effectively extended to the tpbaceo loaf. Mr. .Dr 0. Collins, who this year strokes the Cambridge eight, is* the son of Dr. Collins, M.L.C., of Wei lington. He is a very successful cricketer who has played for Cambridge University, but InV appearance on the river is somewhat of a surprise. Could Mr. Collins attain a double-blue, for cricket and rowing, ho would achieve a new record, as cricket and rowing, being both summer sports, arc almost irreconcilable, and of late years, no one has obtained the highest d'siinotion in both. As the University boat race does not take place till Easter, the fact that Mr. Coll ins is stroking the boat now does not by any means necessitate his being a member of the eight to row against Oxford, but bo must be a good oar to bo put at the strokes thwart even at this stage of practice. If Mr Collins succeeds in smurhig a place in tire boat he will join the list of celebrities who have attained double and triple blues. The best known of these is Mr. C. B. Frv,

who got his bine at Oxfoid far cricket. Association football and athletics (the I eng jump). Air. Orferd late a master at Wanganui College, was also a triple blue at Cambridge, for rowing Association football and athletics (hurdles).

A gum tree, which was cut down at Opawa,’ near Christchurch, by the engineer of the Heathcotc Road Board, was found on measurement to be 20ft in circumference and Of ft in diameter. A striking example of the need for a universal half-holiday for Taranaki is furnished by an announcement in another column of a cricket match between Stratford and Manaia Clubs, to be played next Wednesday. Hitherto Thursday has been the day appointed for cricket matches, but Manaia -observes Wednesday as its half-day off,

rad consequently the day has bean altered to suit the visiting team. It is unnecessary to go into details as to the inconvenience caused—any member of the Stratford team, and those who are unable to play can wax quite eloquent on the need for holiday reform.

There is at present on a visit to Stratford a disciple of Izaak Walton, in the person of a southern gentleman who has fished most of the rivers of both islands, and has recently add’d tiie Patea to that long list. His record for several days of river-bed tramping is “Seen four, caught one.”' If his holiday permits lie will doubtless wait till those- 50,000 rainbow fry, just liberated, have attained years of discretion. As it is, he is now admiring the many natural beauties of •Stratford, and revelling in the glorious weather. “The Patea,” he says, ‘‘makes hard walking but noor fishing.”

Wo might remark that there is a growing feeling of interest, in the movements of the Opunake Harbour and the authorisations under the Harbour Bill, says the Opunake, “limes.” The interest, which has been brought into the conversational itage on account of the heavy and congested traffic up/ and down the Main South Road, and relief is expected to come from Opunake, besides i big saving on the cost cf haulage. Whether this interest will be quickeud into activity depends to a large 'xtent upon the settlers themselves. When, their interest is moulded for jlioapening their own imports and experts assured success will follow closely on initiatory efforts; American papers give details of a prairie tragedy such as is rarely chronicled. A family was travelling overwind to. California from Utah with ‘die.r stock. Seven weeks out from their home town, the first symptoms ,f poisoning, believed to have been caused by tne water of a treacherous spring, developed in a cow among the live stock. It died. The horses were stricken the next day. Then .tiie husiaud fell ill and six days later died, rbs wife searched the desert for miles for water in an effort to save his life. She then became ill, and, with the body of her dead husband by her side, and five helpless children clinging to her cot of blankets, she was facing death, when a party of teamsters stumbled into the camp. The poor woman is unlikely to survive. There must he something in the general belief that tne hardness of skulls of the black race is far in excess of those of the Caucasian (says a Philadelphia paper). Following an altercation over a woman at a party o-iven in the home of Henry Lewis, 36 years old, of No. 2402 North Alden Street, Lewis (a negro) was shot four times in the head at a range of less than five feet. After penetrating the flesh, the bullets flattened out and dropped to the floor. Lewis was taken to the Samaritan Hospital, but was soon permitted to go to his home. The man \yho shot him escaped. -While harnessing a mule in a stable at No. 418 East Rittenhouse Street, William Biffin (a negro), 33 years old, of tho same address, was kicked in the head ■and knocked down. Getting to his feet, Biffin discovered, the, niule lying on the ground. Examination showed tliat'the fimmal’s leg was broken.-Biffin was ■taken’ to >the'; ■ Germanfown.j where six stitches 'were taken -in his head. The mule was shot.

Sir George Eeid is'to all appearances thoroughly recovered after his accident, except that his right hand is still visibly swollen, writes the London correspondent of the “Sydney Morning. Herald.” * He has only just begun to shake hands with the flight• hand again—-for some months -he,Him been performing this ceremony 'with his left Inind only. When anyone—it does not matter who, from an outback squatter to the Lord Chancellor of England—comes up to shake hands with him, Sir George usually startles •him in these days by glancing at him •warily, and drawling, “Are you from Glasgow?” When he receives an assurance that the visitor is not from Glasgow, Sir George gives him his hand. At the launch of the “battle-' onrser” Australia, at Glasgow, Sir George unwarily offered his hand to one of the local men to shake, and the “lasgoAv man shook it. The High Commissioner can feel that Glasgow hand-shake still.

The following incident is related by the “Poverty Bay Herald” ;—An inquest was being held at Waikaremoana some weeks ago, and for a long while the jurors waited for the to appear before them. At last their impatience forced them to go in search of the expounders of the whole truth, who were discovered in a river bed dancing slowly with hands joined, and giving vent to a mournful and monotonous chant. Wondering what strange rites they had stumbled on, the enquiring jurors crept closer to get aural evidence, and at length a cadence familiar to their childhood brought with it the knowledge that the mystic chant was nothing less than the multiplication table. The natives had reached “four twos are eight” when discovered, and, despite the urgent entreaties of the Coroner’s Court, they refused to bring the ceremonies to a conclusion until the grand climax of “ton tens are a hundred” was •cached. Truly, education spreads apace in the back-blocks, and it was an original mind that conceived the idea of making a ceremonial service of the multiplication tables.

At a recent congress of Borneo in London a Danish woman stated that if a woman in Denmark wanted a house there it could be built almost entirely by woman’s work—from architect to insurance agent. Certain it is that in no country in the world is there such a land of equal opportunity as Denmark. There are city mothers :r, well as city fathers, while the country, with its rural high schools, ■vets an example to every agricultural centre in the world. It is in relation to her homo, however, that the Dan-

ish woman is specially interesting. After a girl is engaged to be married she usually passes two years in preparing herself to be an expert housekeeper. She frequently leaves home and takes i position as assistant-housekeeper, or else she attends one of the many schools of domestic science. At the s 1 mo time, domesticity does not mean the absenting herself from the active work of the world. Quite recently a woman who was an official stenographer in ParPament, married a man who was elected Prime Minister. She never oven thought of resigning the position, hut took down her husband’s speeches just as she took down the speeches of the other politicians for the achieves of the State,

The annual meeting of ihe Stratford Gun Club will bo held in the County Hotel at 8 p.m. on Thursday next. Mr. Thos. Aylwardj of Whahgamomona, who has been spending a short holiday in tlic South Island, returned home last evening. The Misses Blick/of Kilbirme, W ellington, who have been spending a short holiday in Stratford, as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Sanders, left for their home by the mad train this morning. Miss Little, who has been for tho past six or seven months in the employ of Messrs 11. Hannah and Co., Stratford, has been transfered back to Wellington, and left by the mail train this morning.

Mr. F. G. Styles, Flnnerty Road, has purchased lire acres ox Mr. H. S. Sanders’ property in Marwick Road. We understand that Mr Styles intends building on his newly-acquired land, and making it /his future home. The Executive Committee of the Stratford A. and P. /Association will meet on Thursday evening next. A meeting of the Programme Committee (Messrs Dingle, Hoaly, Kirkwood, and Porritt) will be hold this evening in the secretary’s office. The usual monthly meeting cf the Stratford County Council will be held at the County Office, Stratford, on "Wednesday, at 11 a.m. Cr. smith will move: “That £6O bo granted from the "West Riding Special Fund for remetalling a pare oi the South Hastings Road, on the grounds that it is practically a mam road and that a factory is situated thereon.” Cr. Hathaway will move: “That Denmark Terrace be declared a main road. The "Wanganui River tourist steamer pronrietors report excellent tourist and holiday traffic. Their beautiful and large Pipiriki House and unique houseboat’s'' accommodation are taxed to their utmost, Pipiriki house frequently having to provide for over a hundred visitors at a_ time. At present the river scenery, owing to the wet spring, is looking its best. The hillsides are at present, with the magnificent rata in full bloom, in many places, a blaze of scarlet colour. 'The company’s new advertisement appears in this issue. A well-known Stratford resident had his bicycle removed from his business premises the other day, and it is still reported as missing. Perhaps the thief, if such it is, has been inspired by a recent paragraph to the effect that ’four inotor-bicyclcs had be stolon'in Christchurch, and no arrests made. 1 ..,' Or was it some painstaking individual who doubted Mr W 7 L. K. Kenriok’s announcement the other day that “the roads of Stratford do not appear to be bad—on the contrary, thoy are very good,” and determined to put the matter to the test—with somebody else’s machine. the lettering of the show cards in a local draper’s, window? For a long time past visitors to Stratford, have pointed, put, as a sort of tribute to their.; superior education and keener observation, an obvious mis-spelling. "We ourselves would not dare to mention the matter, lest the fable about glass-houses and stone-throwing he applicable. ■■. i But this morning another.; card appears. Three of them now road “Your Choise,” and one .“Your As the voting is three to .one, we should pick the former as the winner, though ; the lato Mr Webster 1 might disagree with us.