LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 33, 2 October 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At the Court this morning, i'rank Roberts was convicted and lined 10s for drunkenness, in default twentyfour hours.

The following advertisement appeared in a Washington paper:—‘‘Wanted a man to thrash wife-beater; £2 re-

ward; easy work.” A by-law enacted in Toronto compels sellers of vegetables and poultiy to drape them in such a way that Hies will nut attack them.

On September 21 the New Zealand Dairy Association, Ltd., distributed among its suppliers £15,943 13s 3d. These payments cover butter-tat, which was supplied to their several creameries during the month of August. Tho corresponding payments last year were £13,627 10s sd. Thus tho increase for the month, as compared with last year, is £2316 2s lOd.

The loss of some money some months back by a boarder in the Langholm Hotel, Mangaweka, was brougnt against the licensee by the police at the meeting of the Rangitikei Licensing Committee, but the committee, after hearing an application, advised the police that the Police Court was the place for such complaints.

Applications continue to be'received from farmers in all parts of the district for shares in the Taranaki Fanners’ Co-operative Freezing Company in accordance with the new arrangement come to by the directors. There seems little doubt now (says the Fa tea “Press”) that the institution will shortly be on a better footing than ever it has been in its history.

The argument in favour of a separate Court to deal with waterfront cases in Auckland is steadily growing stronger. Last week the waterside workers in blue had a strenuous day, and their captures included live stowaways, three defaulting sailors, and three drunks. All the stowaways came in a bunch from Hobart, and comprised a varied assortment of young men with a collective cash value of fifteen pence.

Prizes for labourers who have been in the service of one employer or on the same farm fpr the longest period, offered in connection with the Hunts Agricultural Show,, have dischoed some wonderful records. One, man of dd, named John Laxton, has, a,record of ,72 years’ service, and another man of 60 years has a record cf 53 years, in the'prizes for sheep-rearing one shep herd had 153 lambs .from 104. ewes, ■and, another 118 lambs froip 78 ewes,,

i A Wellington ' lawyer was engaged in some litigation 1 at i Grey mouth recently. He was due irt theiMastertou Supreme Court 'sessions on a - given date, but through ins steam* becoming bar-bound it looked at first as though ho would be several days overdue at Master ton. There was, however, one way out of the and this the ; lawyer' unhdlitatihgly adopted. He applied for and was granted a position on a collier leaving for Wellington, and was duly signed on as a stoker. As he is now the possessor of a discharge which shows his conduct on the voyage t< liave been “y,G,.,” it is safe to assume that he wielded the coal-shovel in a quite satisfactory manner. i -.i-.'l

This ’ morning a member of the “Post” staff appeared with a huge grin on his face, and during the forenoon' he .periodically broke into chuckles. When asked the reason, he said he had been privileged the evening before in being allowed to attend a ■ e bear.sal of the St. Andrew’s Nigger Minstrel Troupe, and had not managed to stop laughing. He says the costumes and make-ups are a feature of the entertainment, which promises to eclipse anything of its kind yet seen in St-at-ford. The first part of the evening is a concert, in which such well-known singers as Miss’ Sangster and Miss Loft, and Messrs. Hale, Jones and JBabone are taking part. All playgoers should secure tickets early. The Safarang (Java) Colonial Exhibition is to be held from August to November next year, and is under the patronage of the Government of Notherland Indies. The circular issued states that the main object of this exhibition is to demonstrate the present prosperous condition of the DutcJi Indies, and draw attention to the marvellous development that has taken place during the last decade. In 1900 the total exports of the Hutch East Indies was £21,410,000, and in 1910 it hal reached £37,580,000. The exhibition grounds will comprise some 40 acres of ground in Samarang, the most important town of Central Java.

Two miners, John O’Connell nad W. Kitto, came into Shepparton (Victoria) recently with specimens of golden quartz, which they reported having obtained from a reef a mile and a half from the township of Caniambo, eighteen miles from Shepparton. They submitted to a jeweller specimens which showed well-defined traces of gold. Two lots of specimens have been sent to the Ballarat School of Mines. O’Connell tells a remarkable story. For six months he had been in the Moroopna Hospital, where he underwent three operations. He was discharged seven weeks ago, and two nights after he dreamt that he had discovered gold at a certain spot not far from Caniambo. After having had the same dream five nr six times, he. with Kitto, whose acquaintance he had made in the hospital, went to the place indicated in the dream, and there discovered a reef. Several leaders were worked in the neighbourhood about thirty years ago, but the reef was missed.

Some of the recent immigrants have not impressed the men who were delegates to the Industrial Corporation which sat in Wellington, Mr. J. B. Lanrenson, of Christchurch, said thal one immigrant who was over fifty years of age. went into his office to borrow a shilling with which to buy r meal. The man had offered a small tape measure as security, ‘‘..mat arc you?” Mr. Lanrenson had then ask cd. “A nurse,” was the reply. “A what?” ejaculated Mr. Lanrenson. “A nurse, a nurse of the sick,” the man had answered. “Ho carried the measure,” Mr. Lauren sin exp’aired to the conference “to mea-ure with rf+er he had finished his nursing.” Another immigrant who had gone to him, Mr. Lanrenson said, was a man of do years, who had been “dumped out here without kith or kin, and truly helpless.” This man had served thirty years as a driver on the Great Northern Railway] in England. ‘

The Court list for Friday’s sitting of the Magistrate’s Court included e.oven civil cases, two judgment summonses, one information for maintenance, and two for breaches of by-laws. A Territorial who had been fined £2, with costs 12s, for a breach of tho Defence Act, surrendered himself to the Hawera police yesterday morning, to accept the alternative of seven days’ imprisonment. Mr. Whare Gray, an Otaki native, who forwarded a piece of ambergris to England, has received word that it realised £2OO, at the rate of £2 per ounce. Owing to decomposition, it only realised a quarter of its original value.

“To expose fraud and imposture, if there are reasonable grounds for believing it to exist, is the privilege, nay, the duty, of the press', -and if wo find the press fail to do this, then they at once sink to the level of American journalism, which Heaven forbid.”—Mr. Justice Edwards, at the Supreme Court at Napier on Saturday. The Molls Dairy Factory will this year send ts output through Messrs. A. Clements and Son on open consignment ; the Normanby and Ararata factories through Messrs. Lovell and Christmas, and the Hawera' and Mel- ■ rose through Messrs. H. A. Lane and Co., all on open consignment (says the Hawera “Star”). “That’s the truth as understood by poultrymen,” declared plaintiff amidst an outburst of laughter at the hear* ing of the action for alleged libel at the Napier Supreme Court, when under examination. There was still greater merriment when his Honour enquired of the witness: “Are poultrymen to be classed with fishermen?” Sir John Findlay then desired to know if it was the truth as it was understood by horse-dealers, but the witness did not vouchsafe a reply. Despite the wonderful advance of exploration in various parts of the world, the Royal Geographical Society of London have recently declared' that no fewer than 20,000,000 square miles of the earth yet remain unexplored. Africa has the largest unexplored area, nearly 6,500,000 square ' miles; while North America contains no fewer than 1,500,000. square miles'of, virgin territory. The largest continuous stretch of unexplored country is in Liberia, Africa. The tract consists of about • 20,000 miles, all of which is within 200 miles of .the sea. Regions adjoining the Congo, the basin of the Upper Nile, parts of Morocco, Airy.ssinia, and Somaliland have yet to be surveyed, mapped out, and coramer--1 daily exploited. Wo have to acknowledge receipt of the second number of the magazine of the New Plymouth Boys’ High School. An excellent little volume of seventyfour pages, copiously illustrated, well written, and nicely got up, The publication is a credit to the school, whose phenomenal progress it ably records. The establishment on a sound basis of the agricultural classes: will be received with gratification. by many, who believe in a more practical education than that provided ,by the usual classical course. : It will be, remembered that the new Principal (Mr. W. H. Moyes) stated 'publicly in August last that he hoped to have next year thfqb courses—classical, agricultural, and ’ commercial—established.. .in the school, j Abundant evidence'(is given that this goal js jnow o ; n,,a jjcair way to attainment} and thpi-e jls nq-reason why the, : school. should , pqt ~|egdjtlie way among our' ‘j secondary : ihstijtutions in the hitherto, almost ‘.neglected field of rural education. ‘ v " Some time ago, a party of male bargain hunters not 100 miles from Picton, says an exchange, were persuaded to f ‘i3end 'Hdfiib‘'fora.iU gssorfcment of clothing, attractively advertised by a firm in an English journal. Visions of “boots at 4s Id, overcoats 7s lid, trousers at 2s 3d,” etc., etc., “guaranteed satisfactory by the suppliers to the Atm.V ang NhVt,’, pfoded j;oo great a'temptation to resist, ahd a'Complete list urns made up 1 and the 1 pash for•AVarded. Report states parcel came to’ hand the 1 ' 'dtlier';day, and ivlifeli 'opened 'befohe'' 'Tlid 1 'expectant clients, disclosed an array bf secondhand goods which Avere ttiore or less

'absolutely l ■ worthless to the purchasers. There were several • ; pairs of boots in the last stages of disrepair, trousers both tattered and "torn, and overcoats very much thh worse for wear. - The disgusted look on the faces of those bargain hunters calx better be imagined than described. The secondhand dealer at Home evidently considered a good chance had arrived to work off some dead stock upon the uncivilised natives of New Zealand! There is a moral to’ the story, of course, and that is support local industry every time. Speaking at the opening of a Sydney bazaar last week,’Archbishop Kelly said that Australia wanted more

churches, and he said this specially to the members of the Federal Government, who sot forward a programme that they called liberal, enlightened, and progressive. And he would say it to the members of the State Government, who said they had at heart the welfare of the people. Unless the people of Australia maintained religious sentiment, all their social and political structure would fall down like a house of cards, or prove like trees rooted in unhealthy soil. What, in the name of Providence, was the use of administering an oath in courts of justice if the man who took it had not in his heart the fear of God and the certainty of God’s judgment after death? It was a mockery and worse—a snare. Those who sat on the bench told them it was not justice that presided in their courts of law. They might have the best case in the world, but by clever swearing they might be worsted. If anything could bring down discredit on a nation it was the presence of perjury.

There is being circulated throughout New Zealand at the present time a world’s peace petition to the next Hague Conference in 1914 or 1915, originated by Miss Anne Eckstein, an American lady, who is making it her special mission to obtain 100,000,009 signatures. A couple of years ago Miss Eckstein, who was the principal oPa school of languages in Boston) had achieved the surprising feat of obtaining two million signatures in five months to a peace petition to the second Hague Conference. Her ordinary duties commenced at 7 in the morning, and this • extra task she set herself meant that each day had to begin at 4. A wealthy Boston publisher, becoming interested in Miss 'Eckstein’s project, and being himself an enthusiastic friend of the peace movement, suggested that she should devote her whole time to getting up a world’s petition, signed by the people of all tbo chief nations of the world, in time for the third Hague Conference, She agreed, went to Canada, then to Gernanv, Denmark, Switzerland, Aus'ria, Sweden, France, Belgium, Holland, ■he United Kingdom, ad again to Germany. At present over six million signatures have been obtained. The Auckland branch of the International Arbitration and Peace Association are supplying the forms for signature in New Zealand.

Consumption prevented by taking Ton'king’s Linseed Emulsion on the first sign of a cold. Obtainable everywhere, M

New York spiritualists have decided to build a temple that will cost £60 t OUO. i To-morrow evening in the Parish Hall a farewell social is being given j to Mr. E. W. Lewis, Mr. Lewis has been one of the most energetic church workers in Stratford, and his well deserved popularity should insure a good attendance at the social evening given in his honour. Mr. R. J. Hogg, secretary of the Midhirst Co-operative Dairy Company, informed a representative of the “Post” this morning that the company had disposed of their output i#hrough Messrs. Joseph Nathan and on ooen consignment from September to January, inclusive, and by straight-out sale from January to May, inclusive. The price is “satisfactory.” The advent of Tiny Town into our midst has been made the most of by Mr. “Bert” Burgess, of boot auc, shoo fame, in a very neat window display. The centre of the design is a miniature village, with toy soldiers and little wooden dolls. All around are dainty little boots and shoes for the youngsters—“tiny shoes- at tiny prices.” The total loss caused by fire throughout the Dominion in the last eight vears amounts to the large sum of £4.540.116. Taking the population ofCjs ew Zealand as 1.009 000 on 31st December last, the fire loss for the year averaged 12s Ofd per capita, against 10s 2d per head in the United States of America, and a little over Is 4d per capita in Europe. One of the best lines of yearling steers that have gone out of the district this sason. was loaded on last; night’s train for Mangere Road, to the order of Mr. A. McCutchen < t Whangamomona. The line consisted of 150 head, and was sold by the-Strat-ford Racing Club, who have fanned, them for the winter months on tur-, nios grown onJJio Club’s property. In taking part in a recent German lottery a lady in South Africa insisted upon obtaining, and eventually did obtain, a ticket bearing the number 2i. Two months later she was informed that this ticket had won her a prize amounting to £2OOO. Asked why she had selected No. 27, she answered, “You see. I dreamed on three successive occasions that No. 7 had drawn a largo prize, so I said to myself, “three sevens are 27,” and immediate-, ]y wrote for that number.” Which would appear to indicate that shak:iness in regard to the multiplication table rnav not always prove a bar to a bit of luck.