LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4, 2 May 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Opunako Railway Commission will sit on 3-lay J lth. in the Borough Council Chaml)crs. A special meeting of the Borough Council will ho held next. Monday evening to Consider the new Local Government Bill. Professor Owen Cardston, who di rcctcd "A Dancing Tour of the World," is at present spending a few days in the district. Lieutenant Baldwin, of the Salvation. Army, left this morning for Rahotn !)v the mail train. He was given a "send off" last evening hy local Salvationists. News has been received from the Moturoa grading store that the Stratford Co-operative Dairy Factory was third 0:1 the list out of thirty-three factories sending butter to the store. with an average grade for the season of 93.82 per cent. This evening teams from Denbigh Road and Stratford will try conclusions at cribhage in Mrs. Brown's rooms. The Stratford team is as follows:—Messrs. T. Lawson, W. H. ftyan, J. .'ones, T. Colson, Mick Harkness, E. Masters, T. Sullivan, W. Coli'ns, R.- Loon, and C. 1). Sole. The stoves for the new school are now installed and are going in full swing. Seen this morning by a representative of the "Stratford Evening Post," Mr. F. A. Tyrer, the Headmaster, said the stoves were working admirably, and heating the rooms splendidly. At present they were burning wood, but coal would be substituted for this to-morrow. ".it's extraordinary a man of hi: age coining into Court and saying he can neither read nor write. WhatV our education system_ worth?" said Mr. H. W. Bishop S.M., at the Magistrate's Court, Christehureh, referring to a witness '!0 years of age ivhc had pleaded ignorance of Court pro cedure as he could neither read no; write. From 1 May Ist to September ;30th the shops in Stratford close half ai , hour earlier on ordinary week dayi than during the months from Octobe , Ist to April 30th. A notification t< this effect is given by the Stratford! ; Retailers' Association. It may not b< quite generally known that thes. hours are compulsory,: and that shop , keepers infringing on them are liahh to prosecution. The Town Clerk has received a communication from the Valuer-General, . forwarding the approximate rateable • totals for Stratford Borough. These are: Captital value £467,092; unimproved value £'216,617. These are cub ' ject to reduction;; on objections, ant' by the Assessment Court. The increases in round figures since the rateable totals were taken out in 1904. are £117,000 on the capital value, and £46,000 on the unimproved. There was a gay scene on the station tin's morning, when the contin gent of hunters arrived from the nort, in preparation for the meet at Ngaer< this afternoon., Some twenty rider; and their horses came in by.the 1( - train, with them the master, Mr. .A. : Cliff, and his pack of sturdy dogs. Tin rim will be over Mr. Sparkcs' proper ty at Ngaere, the country in that lo cality being said to be admirably suit ed for limiting. Upon tiie success- 01 this meet depends very much the mini her of meets which will be allotted t; the Stratford branch of the North Taraiiaki Hunt Cluh. Tlie stair of the Labour Department bade farewell to the Hon. J. A. Millai ' late Minister of Labour in Wellington yesterday afternoon, k and presentee him with an illuminated address,,.sub cribed to by every officer of the depart ment throughout the Dominion. Mr. J Lomas, Secretary of Labour, made tin presentation. The Hon. G. Lauren son was present. The Labour Ministei said that he was sure the workers o: .New Zealand would have no more Joya friend than Mr. Millar. In reply, Mr Millar heartily thankee} the staff foi the presentation and spoke appreciatively of the manner in .which he hai been' supported by his officers. Easter is supposed to be a favourite time for matrimonial ventures, am the Hon. G. Laurenson found this out. if he had not discovered it before, when he passed through the Wanganu d-strict recently, on Jiis way to iara naki, says the Auckland Star. Tin train stopped at Aramoho, the June tion for Wanganui, and here the Mill istcr found himself surrounded b\ blushing brides and _ embarrassee bridegrooms, besides which it snowei confetti upon newly-married and un married alike. There were sixteen couples, so the Minister says, and k< gives Wanganui the palm for beinj t-Jie most enterprising place with tin finest prospects of any town in th- . Dominion, not even excepting Lyttel ton, which is so enlightened in it; judgment as to return him to Farlia ment. Interest In Arctic exploration promises to bo well sustained during tin next few years. At the present tinu Commander Peary, ' "'travel and Ex ploration" states, is wintering on tin northern shores of Grant Land, piioi to making in the coming spring an other "dash" for the North Pole. Mr. Stefan-sson, one of the members of the expedition, under Mr Mikkclsen, whieJ came to grief in 1907 on the northerly coast of Alaska, lias made his waj North again during the past summer, and, according to the latest advices. should be wintering among the Esquimaux living inland along the Colvdk River, soutn-east of Cape Barrow. Mr. A. H. Harrison is maturing his plant for a new expedition, on which tie hopes, with Esquimaux assistance, to puss right across the north polar basin from Banks Laud. Mr. Evelyn Baldwin has come forward with a very similar proposal. His idea is to enter the polar basin through Behring Strait, embark on the ice with provisions for three and a half years, and then attempt to, reach the Pole, not by a mere "dash" in the spring -season, but by a long-sustained journey. It may be sonic time before the officers of the Commonwealth Meteorological Department can ascertain the true value of the daily weather reports from Macquaric Island in coreeasting the wca.ther in .Australia, and it may be found that a station in the Antarctic regions much farther west would be more serviceable. But the Macquarie Island station, and those established by Dr. .Mawson on the Antarctic continent, may do good service (says the Sydney Evening News), not only in connection with weatherforecasting, but also in studying the drift ol icebergs and in giving earning to ships voyaging between Australia and tiie Cape of dangerous bergs which may drift across the usual track of 1 lie ships. For this purpose a wireless telegraph station on Kergueien Island would probably be more serviceaid.l than any other, but that lonely island, on the eon/iues of the Antarctic sea-., is a vei \- geat distance from an;, civilised country, and it inav lie years before a station is established there.