LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 54, 28 October 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A picturesque incident was witnessmi in London, says a delayed cable. The city was enveloped in a thick, stifling fog, which was so dense that King George had (o be accompanied by a procession of torch-hearers while on his way to attend a matinee performance at Wyndham Theatre.

One first-offender was convicted and discharged tins morning lor drunkenness. Mr. Joseph Met'luggage, J.P., was on the Bench. The .Stratford Hoy Scouts have undertaken to distribute advertising matter in connection with “Our Regiment.’ A man who attempted to steal a bicycle outside a shop in Paris, pleaded that lie was in love and consequently so absent-minded that ho had mistaken the machine for his own. The Palmerston Show will he well patronised locally. Among those leaving by the mail to-morrow for the show are Messrs B. Fearou, Robert .Masters, Vaughan, Harkness, and K. Jackson. Messrs Jackson and .Masters are exhibiting their ponies, and Mr Harkness his Jersey bull. A course of matrimony has been included in the curriculum of the Gardens Agricultural High School, Los Angeles. Five classes of girls are daily taking advantage of instruction in courtship, matrimony, the care of babies, motor-craft, aand domes; ic science. ■Napoleon’s old “homo” at Elba, up for sale by auction, brings to remembrance the palindrome the fallen Emperor is alleged to have perpetrated —the acrobatic sentence that reads tho‘ ■.same backwards as forwards. J.t is: “Able was I ere i saw Elba.” Now try it backwards. .out it is certain that Napoleon, whoso French even was not of the best, could never have invented that perfect palindrome in English.

Mr. W. M. Hallpy, the owner of the race horse Leapuki, used the wireless last week at \\ ellington to engage the services of Emmerson, a much cove tea jockey, to ride his horse at the Masterton races, The jockey was on board, the steamer coining to Wellington when he received the wireless, and sen. an answer accepting the mount. When the rider landed on the Wellington wharf he found live horse owners naiding to engage him for the same race. He won tlio race on Leapuki, and thus recorded another triumnh for wireless. In Denmark, the greatest dairy country in the world, the dairy business thrives on land valued at Lion to £4OO per acre. How many lines of farming are there that would spel. continued prosperity under such conditions? Denmark is not the only country where the dairy cow has mad, farming on high-priced land—intensive farming—possible and profitable. Holland, parts of Germany and Switzerland, the Channel Islands, and so forth, all are depending on the dairy cow for profitable returns from them high-priced land. According to ‘Les Nonveils,’ at leas,; one man is peacefully existing with only half a brain, the other moiety having been removed by a surgical operation. The man in question is a Swedish ex-soldier, who received a bullet in his head as the result of carelessness during manoeuvres. The surgeons de cided to trepan him, and to remove the injured portion of the brain. Five weeks later he reported for duty again, but it was noticed that he had lost some of his mental faculties. His memory was gone so far as letters and figures were concerned, and ho could no longer read or write. The doctors determined to re-educate him, and in live months lie was again able to read and write and reckon. At the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court a witness told a stirring story of fast driving on the part of a motor cyclist. He had a lady in a side car, a man standing on the back of the cycle. His Worship* expressed surprise (says the ‘Press’), and the Suh-ln-pec-tor laughed as lie added: “You’ll see them in a different position l presently,, sir.” The witness went on to say that the party approached the Shag Hock cavern at a rate of about thirty miles an hour, and nearly shot into the sea. The driver took a sudden pull and saved that; but the wheel of the side car collapsed, and they found themselves in the road, cut and bleeding. The incident closed with a fine.

“I do not like that word,” remarked Bishop Crossley when at tlie protracted close of the four-days’ Synod this week someone proposed a vote of thanks to all who had “hospitised” ’delegates from the country. “It liar, been a, custom to use it in this parish from time immemorial,” commented Canon Mac Murray. ‘‘We are going ‘to alter some bad customs _ in this parish,’ replied the Bishop, in a determined tone. ‘‘l should like to add, my Lord,” facetiously remarked an elderly delegate, ‘‘that it was used in Bishop Selwyn’s time,” and there was hearty laughter among those who had noted the accentuated respect which had been paid throughout the Synod to the opinions and actions of the first‘and only Bishop of Xew Zealand. The resolution was amended. A good story is told at the expense of an Irish farmer up the country, whose knowledge of Latin was not his strongest point, but who did not' believe in admitting his ignorance. A pair of jovial souls, one of whom had not made the best use of his Bachelor of Arts degree, were travelling the country the other day with a farmer’s line, and called on the Irishman. After the usual opening observations about the weather, butter-fat, and the iniquitous price of postage stamps and sausages, the conversation naturally turned to cows. Suddenly (says the Waverley correspondent of the ‘Patea Press’) the degree man focussed his eyes on a sickly looking beast, and adopting the air of a man who knows, said; “That cow has got ‘Tempos fugit.’ ” “That is it,” said the tanner, “and a bad thing, too, but Oi’m get-I ting her to rights.” “Ora pro nobis j is a bad tiling,” continued the wag. “Finnerty down the road has two cows down with it.” “Has he, then y It’s a plague of a thing. Oi lost two with it last summer,” rejoined the farmer, and thou wishing to shift the conversation off so dangerous ground, remarked : “That’s not a bad lump of a horse.” “Indeed, he isn’t,” said the 8.A., “but he’s got a touch of ‘Semper Fidelis ’ just now.” As the pair drove away the fanner could not account for the unrestrained merriment which went up from the gig. An incident occurred on September Ist at the municipal bathing beach on Lake Michigan, which caused immense amusement to thousands of spectators. A party of Chicago “hoodlums,” who were disporting themselves in the waters of the lake, had overstayed the time allowed for the use of public bathing suits, and refused to come out of the water at the request of the bathing master. 'Threat and persuasion being of no avail, the bathing master called on the police to assist him, hut their demands were treated by the “hoodlums” with dorisibn and foul language. A dozen of the police thereupon donned bathing clothes, ard entered the water to enforce their demands. To the vast amusement of the crowd the police appeared with their police badges pinned to their bathing costumes. They also wore their helmets and carried tlicir truncheons. The valiant dozen swam out to the bathers, who led them a merrv chase. Amid the cheers of the crowd on the shore, who shouted with glee at the unwonted sight of men swimming in police helmets, the oflleers finally overtook the “hoodlums,” and after a-i struggle captured them, brought them ashore, ami marched them elf to the police station on the lakeside, 1

The Hon. Clifford Si ton’s horse Confidence broke the world’s record for high jumping at Cobourg, Ontario, on August 18. The gelding cleared 7ft login. Montreal proper now has a population of 530,437, having added 64,C00 in a year. With suburbs the figures run up to 602,427. The growth lias been 100 per cent, in ton years. The Supreme Court of Leipzig has decided, in the case of a waitress who was dismisesd for flirting with customers, that flirting was not criminal, and was necessary for a waityeW. “This scat is provided by the vicar for old people and children, and not for men who are born tired,” is the inscription on a public seat which has just been placed in the pretty Sussex town of Midhurst. An unusual sight was witnessed off Capa Moreton, Queensland, recently, when an enormous school of blue sharks, estimated to be from 12ft to 15ft in length, and at least 2000 strong, came from the south, headed in round Cape Moreton towards the bay. Shortly afterwards another school of sharks of smaller size came along. “If wo have not fought for onr freedom to drink what we like with sword and pistol,’! said Mr. O. T. J. Alpers at the Licensed Victuallers’. Association’s smoko concert at Christchurch, “wo have fought for it with motor cars on polling day. If we have not hied For it, we have certainly been hied for it.” The solemn rites gone through by superstitious people in carrying out their code of charms and omens are frequently irritating (says the ‘Gisborne Times’). Picture the feelings of i well known carter in Gladstone Road on Friday afternoon when a lady crossing the street seized upon ahorse shoe and threw it over, her shoulder with the result that it struck the hitherto disinterested carter on the head. A novel claim was heard recently at the Ashburton Court, when Mathew

Paterson claimed from Patrick Crowe the sum of £5 for damages caused to the plaintiff by the defendant, who was alleged to have cut the hair and beard of the former without his consent. Albert John deposed that he pad cut the hair and beard of plaintiff at his request at Blackburn’s camp, and had done the best he could. Judgment was given for defendant. Specimens of the opals procured j from the Tairua opal beds were exhib.t----1 ed at Marton Junction to several interested, and the precious stones in their natural state were greatly admired. The opal gems are of considerable value, and if the company now in course of formation to exploit and develop the field can successfully extract the gems from the hard quartz the prospects of the Tairua opal mines are very great indeed. The machinery of the War Office in Whitehall may work smoothly and surely, but the proof that it does not always work swiftly is afforded by Mr. A. Mathesou, of Dunedin, who received a communication from it by the English mail last week intimating that the South African war medal, which should have been awarded to his late son, will be forwarded to him upon application in the prescribed form (says the ‘Otago Daily Times’). Trooper Matheson, who was a member of. the Johannesburg Mounted Rifles, died in active service in May, 1902—over ten years ago! A lineman for the Philadelphia Electric Company was recently saved from death after his heart action had stoplied for three minutes. He was trim- ! ming a lamp, when he touched a live wire,., ami,, he jyas.ihm’led unconscious to the ground. The accident occurred only a few feet away from a police station, and a police surgeon happened to be there attending a- prisoner, The surgeon began Sylvestef’s method or artificial respiration, and succeeded in restoring the patient after, working over him for more than an. hour. The case is regarded as showing that many deaths from electricity misfiit be | prevented if artificial respiration bo i used immediately. To illustrate the small-minded ways with which home missionaries are faced, the Rev. C. T. Maclean, of the Bay of Islands, referred as follows at the Auckland Anglican Synod 1 , to a certain township in the Far North. The community, he said, was divided into three distinct sets. Class A was composed of people who/had been born there and ban never left the place. They were the. elite. Class B comprised the natives of the township, who had become nar-row-minded through travelling abroad. Those had lost caste. Class C came lit at the foot of the social ladder, and to it were relegated all those who had come as strangers to the district. Needless to say, the parish priest was regarded as in the last-mentioned category. A statement has been published that a new company has been floated in Dunedin with the object of putting to a practical test a new invention of a South Otago resident, who has been successful in oil and water divining, and has now developed an invention which it is stated will locate gold-bear-ing lodes, both quartz and alluvial. It is said that tests of a most exhaustive scale have been carried out, and proved successful. The officials of the company in Dunedin are very reticent over the matter (states tho ‘Star’) although it is admitted that there was a meeting of shareholders on Monday. They merely state that the company is a private one, and that business transacted at the meeting was done in confidence, so that there is nothing to make public at present.

A spirited protest against tjio use of billiard tables in Y.M.C.A. institutions was made by the Rev. J. F. Jones, of Gore, at tire Baptist Conference at Christchurch on Monday night last. He had been dealing with the subject of gambling, and said there was another idling against which he must enter an indignant nrotest. He knew he would incur the charge of being narrow and puritanical. but he felt sure ho was right. “We are,” he said, “building fine costly buildings all over the land for our Young Men’s Christion Associations, and splendid institutions they are. But in these handsame buildings are well-fitted-up billiard rooms. Is this right? I have nothing to say against billiards in itself. It is a game of skill—n game in which eye, and band must be well trained. But though billiardmper se may be very commendable, the associations of the game are at least questionable (1 was going to use a stronger word). What will be the result of this innovation? Scores of young men win otherwise would not even know bow to nlay the game will learn. under Christian patronage, and with a Christian environment, a game winch they will very likely be invited to play under different conditions, and for money, before they are many years older. Are we sure they will be strong and firm enough to refuse P May this not be the first step towards the gambling fever, to warns the suicide’s grave? Cards is an intellectual game. Why not have a card-room with tables for whis 1 . hesirjne. baccarat, and poker ?_ Why on earth should we stop-at billiards? Brethren. I protest. Tf T were a wealthy man 1 would not give a sixpence to .a professed Christian institution which included a billiard room,”

Owing to the New Zealand Cadets staying a day later in Rotorua, they will not arrive in Stratford until tomorrow night. A remarkable occurrence during the prevalence of the strong winds of a tew weeks ago is reported by the ‘Wyndham Herald.’ A largo implement shed on Forestvalo was lit ted bodily and carried a distance of several'chains, landing in a gully. The piles were drawn out in such a way as no human force could accomplish. In its flight it cleared fences and a roadway, and was deposited practically intact. The building rests securely on its new fftte, whore it is of no use to the owner. The problem is to get it back to where it is required. A constable who was giving evidence in thei Magistrate’s Court at Feilding on Saturday in a case in which a woman was charged with vagrancy, said that when he arrested ttie accused she was with a man. The man told the constable that he had struck up an acquaintance with the defendant whilst it was dark. They wore going for a stroll. The asked the man whether he had seen the lady’s face. The man replied that ho had not had the pleasure.” “Well, strike a match, and have a look at it” said the constable. The man did as he was bid and immediately bojtecl. The constable did not explain to the Court that he bolted because he did not wish to be implicated or because the vision ho Saw upset him.