The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, MAY,, 27, 1912. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 25, 27 May 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY , MAY,, 27, 1912. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Correspondence and other matter is crowded out of our present issue. Invitation holders are reminded of the Foresters' dance this evening. Notice is given by (lie Tien. W. T). S. McDonald of intention to lake laiid in Block 1., Malioe Survey District, for a police station. V,v. H. Trotter is at present an inmate of the Hospital, suffering from a poisoned hand caused by running a rusty nail into one of his fingers. Mr. W. Hathaway, chairman of the Stratford County Council, returned on Saturday evening from attending the local bodies' conference in Welling-

The committees appointed by the Borough Council and the Stratford Electrical Supply Company to confer on street lighting matters meet on Wednesday night. During the past twelve months, forty building permits have been issued by the Stratford Borough Council, the estimated value of the buildings being £IB,OOO. hi nearly every instance the houses have been erected by people who intend to res'de in them themselves. The applications by the Stratford Borough Council for tenders for the purchase of a crop of turnips on the Abattoir grounds was well responded to, the prices indicating that feed is none too plentiful. Diss L. A. Nielsen's tender of £l3 was accepted. What is considered by most people who have seen it, to be the finest cabbage ever grown in this district, is now on view, and has been for some days, at the Stratford Co-operative Store. It is of the Drumhead variety, weighs no less than 221 b., and is thoroughly sound throughout. The unveiling ceremony of the Old Soldiers' Memorial at Norman by is to be performed by the Hon. T. Mackenzie on Wednesday next, May 29th. A luncheon will take place ai 11.30 a.m., the ceremony in Waihi Cemetery at 1.30 p.m., and ceremony in Victoria Park at 8 p.m. Particulars appear in another column. Blascheck, the popular society entertainer, who created such a favourable impression in Stratford, some months ago, intends, if the pencilling of a date on the Town Hal! engagement book can bo taken as an indicative, paying us a return visit shortly. The Newbury-Concert Company have cancelled their -date. Mr. J. ii. Uine, M. 8., nil deliver a political address at Rowan on I'Yiday

evening next. Mr. Hi no stales thai lie promised Rowan people he would give them an address soon after the general elections, not being able to devote an evening to Rowan during the campaign. The public accounts arc now available for the year, and mattors of interest v. ill be introduced by Mr. Himo, which ought to ensure a largo attendance. In connection with steamship propulsion the average man is apl to speak very glibly of so many hundred or I buns,'.nd horse-power. Bui it is extremely doubtful if one person in a hundred roall,\ has a due appreciation of what the phrase actually means. On this point some very interesting remarks were made by John Heck, the Glasgow engineer surveyor. He s;;id that, calculating the strength of twelve men to be equal to one horsepower, it would require 8-10,000 men to produce as much energy as the 70,000 horse-power developed by the turbine machinery of the express Cunardor Lusitania. Then, if the men were to work on the eight-hour day svstem, those figures would give a total cf 2.<?_'o,nooJ that being the number of '••in whose strength would be neeessa,;. to drive the vessel across the Atlantic Ocean. So it would take all the men in Scotland to supply the energy produced all the day round by the wonderful turbine machinery of this groat ship.

Wo have to acknowledge receipt of !i- Municipal Handbook cf New Zoaiaiid lor I'JJI. from the !•"• dstrarUenoral's ofih e. Tiie Taranaki Province' '•■ 'Jttish So-civ-iv's doings and tilt- success of the recently formed Society, have /'.ached Scotland, and a report of the Society's operations, together with (ho names of us officers, are published in the "Wockh Scotsman" of Saturday, April 6th. Mr. C. Grace, of Dunodin, has patented a simple contrivance, which, if its action is what he believes it will In-, should be of greal help in establishing the oil industry on something more than an experimental basis. He has had very many years' experience in-the refining and testing, etc., of mineral oil, and his visits to Taranaki have convinced him of two things—that the oil deposits there are of exceptional quality, and that they have not yet been really located. Bores put down over a considerable area have indicated the presence of petroleum, biu in his opinion none of them liastapped its source. The gas for which the here holes provide a vent conn s from a depth of about 3000 ft. at considerable pressure. Mr. Grace proposes to ascertain at each bore hole the direction whence this gas finds its way to the bore hole. The direction of the flow of gas underground, ascertained from a number of observations, could then be traced back to a common source, which would be where the oil

is present in quantity—or, as lie puts it, "the lake or river of oil." His invention is an attachment to be screwed to the first length of rod—i.e.. the length which penetrates to the bottom of the bore hole. The attachment is much the shape of a bottle, freely perforated all round. Inside a metal vane is fixed to a vertical axis in the centre. The rush of gas enters through the perforations and sets the vane pointing in the direction of its course. The axis being set to revolve not too freely, this direction would be preserved and noted when the indicator is withdrawn from the here hole. Mr. Grace claims that his appliance would save all the trouble and expense of putting down bores in the wrong place.