LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 57, 31 October 1912, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An interesting table of figures referring to cow-testing in connection with the Midhirst and Stratford Associations appears on page 2 of this issue. Our Parliamentary report is on page 7. A Manchester man has been fined for giving his three-year-old son a drink of beer. The books of the Oddfellows’ Lodg. ■ were burned in the lire which destroyed the Te Kiri Hall recently. The Opimake and Fihama Dairy Companies have agreed to join the Co-operative Bacon Factory, of El tham, and shares will be taken up by both companies. Best apples arc being retailed in Dunedin at 2d each, and pines cost Is Gd. The ‘Star’ writes: “Fruit is very scarce. It would lie ‘rubbing it in,’ af the saying goes, to say that it is not cheap.” At the Waitara Magistrate’s Court yesterday four boys were filled for failure to attend drills under the Defence Act. The fines amounted to ,12s in one case, 16s in two cases, and 17s in the remaining case, in which, by tfio way, defendant said the service was against his conscience. A sister ship to the Maori is now being built on the Clyde for the' Fniou Steam Ship Company. The new vessel, which will bo named the Waihine, will replace the Mararoa on the We!-lington-Lyttelton service. The latter will go into the Nelson-Wellington trade. The Government is now considering whether it will take the necessary steps this session to clear Arthur Wimsett, post office employee, of all financial liability for legal costs incurred in defending an action brought against him. Costs incurred amounted to about £250, and the Judge and jury stated that accused left the Court without a stain on his character.

A ripple of laughter temporarily relieved the solemnity which featured the businesslike meeting of the Christchurch High School Board (says the ‘Press’). The report pi the Buildings and Grounds Committee sug gested that twelve pairs of fowls should be obtained to utilise scraps of food at the Rectory. The Yen. Archdeacon Jacob, suggested that “pairs” was the wrong word. He thought the proper term should be “couples,” as “pairs” might be taken to mean a rooster and a hen

Strathfield, a suburban municipality in the vicinity of Sydney, claims to have solved the problem of ridding public thoroughfares of dust and slush. The Mayor of the borough has < x-n_ eel the manner in which this desired object is sought to be attained in Strathfield. “In order to improve a road,” he said, “so that it will be made practically as smooth as glass and almost entirely devoid of dust and slush, it is first of all necessary that the old metal should be swept clear from the surface of the road to he treated, and the latter top-dressed with cold tar. The road then receives a coating of tarred ashes to a depth of from Tin. to 2in., and it is afterwards rolled level with a two-ton roll or, and covered with Nepean sand. When four or six weeks have gone by the road is once again top-dressed with cold tar and metal screening, covered with sand, and again rolled. In a very short time afterwards the road thus treated becomes as smooth and level as glass, besides being almost entirely free from all dust and slush. It costs in the vicinity of £2O per chain to construct a 24ft. wide road by the new method, whereas the cost of construction of an ordinary metalled road will run into about £ls per chain.”

The animal meeting of the Paten Farmers’ Co-operative Freezing Co., Ltd., was held on Tuesday. The report stated that during the year the number of stoek treated fvas as follows :—Cattle, 4799 ; calves, 632 ; sheep and lambs, 15,125; pigs, 7. The number of cattle treated being less than last year is due to various reasons, which the directors hope to remedy by providing additional working capital to carry out a more aggressive policy in our own district. During the season several contracts were obtained fofr the supply of frozen lambs, sheep and bullocks which returned satisfactory prices to those shareholders v. -1, 0 fille-1 the contracts with their stock. It is to be hoped that during the coming season more of our shareholders will adopt the policy of sending their stock to bo treated at the Works and then dispose of them on a c.i.f.e. basis. Our loss of £629 6s Id is entirely due to the lessor quantity of stock treated, I and with an increase in this direction j we can look forward to a better result ! in the coming season. "Moving' the adoption of the report, the Chairman referred to the wreck of the Hawera. ’The Company practically lost nothing, he said, but the loss of her services during the coming season might prove a serious handicap. The report' was adopted. Mr 0. Ha when has been appointed buyer for the Company. ;

Of the total revenue of France, ov?r 70 per cent, is derived from indirect taxes. At Peterborough a bullock has been slaughtered that had fourteen ribs on each side. It is stated that the demand for oilcarr.lag ships is now so brisk that builders are refusing further contracts with delivery during the next two years. A strong branch of the Political lieform League was formed at Dannevirke last evening. A Press Association message states that steps are being taken to form similar branches|ifi the surrounding townships and anffngst the Maoris.’ 4 Mr. F. E. A. Gordon, plaintiff in the pending case Gordon v. ‘New Zealand Times,’ has instructed his solicitors to take proceedings against the ‘New Zealand Poultry Journal’ for an allegedly false report of the recent Supreme Court trial at Napier. An ingenious method is adopted by the Chicago Telephone Company to lay telephone wires. A rat is loosed in a pipe through which a cable is to bo placed. A string is tied to a ferret, which pursues too rat, carrying the string through the pipe. On the small string a larger one is attached, and on that a still larger, until a wire cable is pulled through. Members of Parliament are stated to have 1 completely abandoned -their former hope of getting away hy the first Saturday in November, happenings have taken so much time without disposing of items on the Order Paper, and many important committee reports have yet to he discussed, that an extension of the session until November 9th is a conservative estimate.

Through the French Consul at Auckland—at the instance of his predecessor in the Consulate—the French Government recently presented the Education Department with a number of volumes for distribution I_o suitable schools in the Dominion, with a view to the encouragement of*the study of the French language in New Zealand. The books are intended to be used as school prizes, awarded for proficiency in the languages. A New Plymouth resident has been greatly annoyed lately by a large numier of strange cats which appear to have made their home on his property. He has known the little pests did not belong to his neighbours, but could not understand where they were all coming from. He lives alongside the main ■•oad, and the other day considers ho discovered a clue. Whilst standing at ins gate a trap came along the road and pulled up close by. One of the occupants of the gig produced a sack, md the contents were deposited on lira oad. The contents happened to be three or four half-grown cats, which immediately rushed to the shelter of the trees in the local resident’s garden. The ‘Taranaki Herald’ says ho is thinking of purchasing a destructor. The ‘Patea Press’ reports that the chief actors in the serio-comic episode which occurred at the railway trestle bridge on Monday, are none tho worse for their adventure.' Later advices show that the affair had more ~f the Element of tragedy than of comely in it, Mr. G. Tinney, one of the actors, just leaping off the bridge in time. So close was the train upon him that as he leaped he felt the warmth of the engine fire. His companion, Miss , O’Grady,* who cannot swim, was almost insensible when he reached her, and had he not been a good swimmer she would assuredly have been drowned. As it was, it took Tinney all his time to swim with his burden against tho strong tide that ivas running out towards the sea.