LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2, 29 April 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A meeting of the Executive of the Stratford A. and P. Association will be held in Messrs. C. and E. Jackson's rooms this evening at 7.30 o'clock. At a meeting of the Stratford Liberal League on Saturday night, it was decided to ask the Hon. George Laurenson to deliver an address at Stratford on Wednesday, May Bth.

A postponement to Wednesday, Ist May, has been made in the date of the welcome .social which is to be tendered in the Foresters' Hall to the Rev.i A. Header, who succeeds the Rev. Mr Harrison, in charge of the Stratford Wesley Church. Addresses will be delivered by the Rev. Richards, of Eltham, Rev. B. Metsou, and others. Admission will be free, and all are cordially invited.

Mr. Barney Fcaron, who has been for many years associated with Stratford, and who is well known in sporting circles as a footballer, w;is, on Saturday afternoon iast, the recipient of a presentation made him by the members of Mr. Newton King's staff. Mr. Fearon has for some years past been well known and popular as one of Mr. Newton King's staff, from wliich ho has now severed his connection, on the occasion of his appointment to the post of secretary to the Stratford A. and P: Association. Mr. W., Webster made the presentation, ■which, was a handsome case of pipes,, 'and. wished him all success and prosperity in his new undertaking.: ■ Mr.' Fearon' will have his office in a few days, and the date will be announcedin due course.

The forthcoming emigration season promises to be a record one, writes a .London correspondent on 'March" IsT,' all the countries interested reporting heavy bookings. As far as New Zealand.is concerned, the winter bookings have been excellent, all third-class accommodation being engaged:for fully two months in advance of sailing, and that condition continues. The emigration and shipping department of the High Commissioner's Office has had a busy winter attending to verbal and written requirements for information about New Zealand. On one day, for instance, there were over a hundred callers at this department, all making enquiries as to the passengers and prospects. The pressure of work in the office has been so heavy that during the two and a half years Mr. T. E. Donne, head of the Government Tourist .Department, has been here, he has not taken a day's holiday. At the trial in London on March 28 of the suffragettes wdio took part in the recent window-wrecking, one of the defendants Mrs. Alice Green, who resolutely refused to be bound over was sentenced to four month's imprisonment. Addressing the Judge, she said: "Since last Thursday, 1 have given up home, husband and child, in orded to go with the movement and J will not return until we get the vote." Evidence was given to show the big sums that had been paid by the Women's Social and Political Union for the hire of halls. In one instance as nine]] as £9OO was paid. A witness representing one of the London banks testified that cheques had been drawn by four of the accused on behalf of the union, whose credit balance in December last amounted to £23,000. After the arrests in connection with the present case £2,000 was withdrawn by a single cheque. The balance now at the credit of the union was £3OO. 'lt is not often that a witness in a Court case so far reverses the usual order of tilings as to bombard the cross-exam'iiing counsel with a volley of questions. Phis, however, was the ea.se at the Magistrate's Court, Wanganui, when the following dialogue Took, place between the defendant in an application for a judgment summons' and the plaintiff's solicitor:— Counsel : "But surely the fact of your having five children would not prevent your wife keeping an account of what was spent each week?" Witness: "Are you married?" Counsel: "Yes." Witness: "Got any children ?" Counsel: "Yes." Witness: "Do you pay cash

for what yon get?" Counsel: "Yes." Witness; "And your wife can keep an exact account of what she spends?" Couriscl: "Certainly." Witness: "Then I'd like to bet you couldn't prove it." The Court smiled, and ice examination came to a rather abrupt close.

Australia and New Zealand, in common with other new countries, have been wasteful of their timber resources, and in many ways the Australian public is effected by the increasing scarcity of wood. Wood fuel is getting dearer, and timber lor building purposes is steadily advancing in price. Apparently the day is not far distant when some substitute for wooden railway sleepers will have to be found. Mr. -lames Eraser, En-gineer-iu-Chief for Existing Railways, in New South Wales, stated last week

that his Department rcqu'rod about 700,000 sleepers a year, but was only able to get half the supplies needed, though practically all the sleepers offering had been secured. The timber w;;;; becoming rapidly exhausted, but the main trouble at the present time seemed to lie that there was not sufficient sleeper-cutters to keep up the supplies. They would have presently,

;e said, to seriously think about usiiifj steel or concrete sleepers, unless mor< nood sleepers were available.