LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 9, 7 January 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

As a Minister of the Crown under a Labour regime, the Hon. W. I). Johnston, Minister of Public Works in the Wcstraliaii Government, is interested in ascertaining why the New Zealand democracy has taken what he considers to be a retrograde step with regard to its land tenure. As a New Zealander .he had been wont to point with pride to the laud nationalisation policy of this country, and was at a loss to understand how this fundamental principle of democratic reform was being disturbed. The Federation of Labour, through Mr P. H. Hickey, has issued the following circular inviting unions fo send representatives to a conference called by that body. The terms'of the circular are as follows:—“The conference of unions called by the Federation of Labour to consider the chest means of meeting the common danger threatening organised Labour will, as previously intimated, be held at The Worker office, Wellington, on Tuesday, 21st January, 1913. As suggested in a previous letter, the chief business of the conference will be to consider the difficulties and dangers confronting trades unionism, and to agree, if possible, upon a basis of combined action that will strengthen each and all while making for consolidation and emancipation of the great working class.”

A gentleman who saw an old horse so illtreated in Hungary that it rushed down a steep bank and drowned itself in a river has opened a discussion as to whether there is such a thing as animal suicide (writes the Wellington Post’s London correspondent). The press correspondents seem to agree that there is. A trek ox worried by flies lay down in a pond and held his head under until he was drowned. A pig, which had been ailing for weeks, took similar steps to end it all; and Mr J. J. Page, of Warwick, tells of a very old Maori pony which he saw deliberately walk into the surf bn the East Coast of the North Island (about two years ago) and lie flat on its side until the advancing tide covered it, apparently not making the slightest effort to regain its feet.

Wellington’s irrepressible Bodley finds time to air his opinion on the Maori steamer stoppage in a letter to tlie “Times,” as follows:—“Sir, — The s.s. Maori incident is the first ray of light in the darkest chapter of commercial history. The men claim , to ,be out on honour, and being men —and perhaps gentlemen, the same as ourselves—have a perfect right to their claim until proved otherwise. The proof is, and it is the only way, • the production of the author of the rumour. All else is but evasion—a sop to placate the aggrieved party. It only remains for the journalists to cast up their Jonah for peace to be regained and a new regime inaugurated, when a man may be a man, though a fireman.—l am, etc., Henry Bodley.” One can fancy the firemen’s chorus of: “Good old ’Enery!” There is historical as well as prophetic warrant for expecting that the present year will be a fateful one in the history of the nations (says the N.Z. Times). It is pointed out by a contemporary that in the past, as the thirteenth year of a century occurred, Europe has seen a great tinning point in her affairs. Four hundred years ago, 1513, saw a gallant King of Scotland and the flower of Scottish nobility perish on the stricken field of Flodden. Three hundred years ago, as the date came round, Germany was in the opening agonies of the Thirty Years’ War. Two hundred years ago, 1713, witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht which put a period to the hard-contested war of the Spanish Succession, and proved conclusively to that theatrical “Grand Monarque,” Louis XIV., that the Pyrenees and many other obstacles to French ambition did after all exist. One hundred years ago, 1813, saw flic battle of Leipzig, and the deliverance of Europe from the domination of France, and the iron rule of Napoleon.

Tho danger of spreading various ailments by sneezing is emphasised by the bacteriological experts of the Xew York Health Department, who have recently been making scientific investigations. That measles and scarlet fever are spread by the sneeze and not by falling scales of skin, as used to be imagined, has only recently been learned. One of the most conspicuous symptoms of measles is a “cold,” which causes much sneezing and coughing. By this means the germs of the disease are scattered about, and other people take them in with the air they breathe. Common colds are distributed in the same way. One person in a family who happens to be thus afflicted is likely, by sneezing, to fill the whole house with germs. They float about in the air, and it is mere chance* if every member of the household does not catch the complaint. One often nolices how a cold “runs through” a family; now wo know the reason why.

Among the prospects for Ul3 the New Zealand producer may, it appears, reasonably include the possibility of a reduction in freights on produce carried to the British markets. The recent tendency has been decidedly upward due to the growth of trade between distant countries exceeding the growth of available shipping. For Australia and New Zealand there seems to he some ground to anticipate that this condition will be reversed in the year just horn. According to Mr Austin Wilson, special trade commissioner of the port of Hull, a keener rivalry for the carrying trade of Australia and New Zealand is imminent. Mail contracts are falling out / and in spite of the ease with which freights can ho secured in other parts of the world it is only just reasonable to expect that shipping lines hitherto' excluded from the profitable long-dis-tance trade of Australia and New Zealand will readily seize on an onport.une time to hid for a share in a trade which is not for to-day hut for the years to come, and which is certain to ' show enormous expansion.

The mysterious disease that is a£ footing fruit trees in parts of Otagi this year has so far baffled the officer of the department as to its exact na ture. The aggregate amount of money put through the totalisator at a scon of Christmas and New Year meeting! was £586,000,an increase of £IOO,OIK -on the investments at the same meet •sings twelve months ago. S A remarkable surgical operation has been performed at Hamilton, Ontario A youth had his hand shattered in t mill. A bone was taken from a fresh-ly-slaughtered sheep and grafted intc the hand. It is expected that the operation will be a complete success. The Mayor of South Melbourne whr is now a visitor to Christchurch, states that mixed bathing is allowed on the beach there, and so far no objectionable incidents have been associated with it. At first there were decidedly objectionable features, but strong measures and firm administration stamped them out. Now there is no trouble whatever, and large numbers of citizens appreciate the removal, of restrictions to the two sexes bathing together, Speaking at the “housewarming” ceremony at the Patea High School, on Friday, Mr Pirani declared that during his recent travels through the Dominion with' the Education Commission, the district that appeared to have the worst equipped schools was one with a credit balance at the bank of £I4OO. He told an official of this Board that he considered this balance was “as disgraceful to them as were their schools.” “Possession is nine points of the law, and the buyer is entitled to all contents of a package purchased,”! was the decision given by Mr E. .) j Stevens, manager of the Hotel la Salle at Chicago, in handing to Mrs C. F. Kennedy a pure white pearl she had 1 found in an oyster while diningyin the hotel. The assistant manager had argued that the pearl belonged to the house, while Mrs Kennedy insisted that as her husband had bought the oyster containing the pearl she was entitled to it. The pearl was valued at £35 by a jeweller. Friday (says the Patea Press) was undoubtedly a red letter day in the history of the Patea school when the new and handsome structure that has lately been erected for the benefit oi scholars in the Patea district was thrown open to the public for the purpose of a “housewarming” to celebrate the completion of the building of the school. A concert and dancewas held in the evening. Mr F. Pirani, chairman oi the Wanganui Education Board, presided at the concert. The longest speech on record in a court of law was concluded in London on November 22nd by Sir John Simon 1 the Solicitor-General, who for the! best part of ten days addressed theRailway Commissioners in the tele-| phone arbitration proceedings. Previous to that Sir Rufus Isaacs held the record of having spoken for ninej days in. the Wyler case. 1 When it ir-j remembered that Sir John Simon had. during the period' been speaking in, the House of Commons, and also at political meetings, the feat of endurance in respect to his vocal organs becomes all the more remarkable. Declaring that the habit of smoking cigarettes or cigars, while in charge j of motor cars, was responsible for many accidents, the municipal authorities of the city of Berlin have for bidden chauffeurs to smoke while ou duty. The order applies not only to all chauffeurs driving taxi-cabs,’''blit" also to anybody, whether prince or peasant, who sits at the steeringwheel of a motor car. The rule has caused extraordinary excitement, but is enforced with impartial severity. A fiendish case of cruelty is reported from Terowie, in South Australia,! where the police were informed that! an Indian hawker named Pal Singh,| had cut the tongue out of a horse { which had been drawing his van. Two 1 constables arrested the offender. They found the horse in a terrible con-j dition. Five inches of its tongue was discovered in Pal Singh’s “tucker-! box,” in his van. The Indian was! charged before the local magistrates! with horse-maiming, ahd was commit-! ted for trial. It is said that he was' drunk when he took out the animal’s tongue, in which operation a bluntj knife was used. i

The Maniototo (Otago) Early Set-, tier©’ Association proposes to celc-j hrate the jubilee of the discovery of: fold in the Mt. Ida District next I laster. The celebrations will bej held at Naseby on Easter Monday and; Tuesday, 24th and 25th March, 1913.1 It is the wish of the Association to ; get together at Naseby on that occa-i sion as many of the pioneers of the j District as possible, and to entertain j them during their stay. If funds, will permit, the Association purposesi helping to pay the expenses of those pioneers who wish to attend but who cannot otherwise do so owing to adverse circumstances. The Government have granted concessions as follows :—Pioneers who are old age pensioners will be granted free passes on the railways, and others will be carried at second-class excursion rates. Any persons desirous of obtaining thej above concessions will kindly com ran-j ideate with the secretary, Mr Robert E. Indcr, Naseby.

: “There isn’t a man In the world I’d ever marry, and there never will be,” says a restaurant waitress in one of O. Henry’s brilliant books. “Do You know what a man is in my eye. He’s a tomb. He’s a sarcophagus for the interment of beefsteak, pork

chops, livers, bacon, ham and eggs. He’s that, and nothing more. For two years I’ve watched men eat, cat,

eat, until they represent nothing on earth to me but ruminant bipeds. They’re absolutely a knife and fork and plate at the table. No; I’ll mafry no man and see him sit at the breakfast table and eat and come hack to dinner and eat and happen in again at supper to eat, cat, eat.’ During last year there was export's d from New Plymouth 83,996 cwt but%ter and 84,756 cwt cheese (says the Taranaki Herald). 'At Is per lb for butter and 6d per lb for cheese, this would represent a value of about £707,695. The exports from Patea were not far short of this total, so that if the butter and cheese consumed within the province are added, the total production of the province probably exceed® the production of the Auckland province, which the New Zealand Herald estimates at £1,340,220, of which just under a million’s worth was exported.

Women as a rule are the most consistent tea drinkers, and the multiplication of tea rooms and tea kiosks throughout the Dominion affords striking evidence of the increasing popularity of tea. The women of New Zealand may bo classed as connoisseurs, as'they show a decided preference for Crescent Tea, which is rich and strong and of delicious flavour. Sold by all grocers at 2s, Is lOd, and Is Sd per

General Godley and Mrs Godle; were entertained at luncheon to-da; , at the County Hotel by Mr J. B Mine, ALP., Mrs Hine and Miss Him | also being present. | A visitor to Riverton during tin holidays went for a stroll along tin ’ river bank towards the bar, when in j was surprised to see a dog swim mint j round a trawling net pulled by twi |or three men. On asking one o 1 the men what the dog was for, he was assured (says the Western Star) thal i ttie dog headed the fish into the net. - Mr Alfred Coleman, secretary ol the Stratford Racing Club, to-daj paid into the Public Account at the Bank of New Zealand, the sum ol £571 11s, being taxation levied by the Government upon the receipts of the club at its recent race meeting. A very tidy New Year contribution indeed, towards the Consolidated Fund from Stratford. It was stated some time ago that the term of appointment of fourteen Legislative Councillors terminated in January next. No one took the trouble to contradict the statement, but now one newspaper goes one better and says that “the fact that the term of fourteen members of the Upper House appointed by Sir Joseph Ward in 1906 will expire in January is evidently being considered by those concerned, and already they have obtained work in the avenue which they had followed before having the transitory title of honourable bestowed upon them.” As a matter ot fact (states the Eltham Argus) the term of the fourteen gentlemen referred to does not expire until January, 1914 —50 the newspapers are just 12 months too previous. There is only one Councillor whose term expires tins year; he is a Taranaki representative, and his term is up in October. A New Zealand actor-pony, Sandow, is creating a great tleai of interest in London just now. Sandow was train 1 ed by Mr Ernest O’Neill, a New Zealand buckjuraper rider, under whose direction he performs a series of amusing and clever tricks. He demonstrates his powers, as a mathematician, readily answering problems in the simple rules of arithmetic. When his trainer assumes the character of a wont-get-home-till-morning reprobate, Sandow shows how he would get his dissipated friend home. He some children coming home from school who want a ride. All the boys are bucked off, but when a little girl mounts, Sandow walks demurely round the stage. It is said he can perform for 25 (minutes without ■repeating a single trick. Sandow has already appeared before Queen Alexandra. An intricate problem of division engaged the ingenuity of the immigration officials a few days ago (says the Melbourne Argus). They have ■been endeavouring to find employment for half a dozen married couples with families, and they have only just succeeded in disposing of one family. One married couple possess eleven children, another have eight, and the other couples from two to five children. The father of the family, of eleven at the outset expressed him-, self as anxious that his older children should obtain work in the same dis trict as himself, hut, like the other couples, he was averse to being parted j from any member of his family. Inc bureau, however, has been unable to make the arrangement wanted, and is perplexed by the task of dividing the families in such a way that the various members may be closely in touch with each other. j An event of great interest and im-, portance to the Methodists ot New, Zealand occurred on New War s Day. For some years there has been a, movement for the separation ot the. New Zealand Church from Australian Methodism. Before this could come into operation certain legal formal-1 ities had to be complied with. Ihe sc have all been completed, and, as autn- | orised by the several Acts providing for the independence of the New, Zealand Conference, the President of the General Conference has signed the necessary document declaring that from the first day of January 1913,1 the Methodist Church of New Zealand, comes into existence as a self-govern-ing church. The public celebration of this new departure will take place when the first independent conference meets in Wellington on February, sth It is expected that the General Conference will lie represented by its president, Rev. H. Youngman, D D., and Rev. W. Morley, D.D The latter of these is well known in New Zealand, where he spent many years of his ministry, and in former yeais was a foremost advocate of New land Methodist independence. Some striking changes have been made in the revised edition of the Bible just published by the American Baptists’ Society, states the New York correspondent of a London paper The names “Adam and Eve , are excluded, and the words substituted “man” and “woman. IHe changes, and they are rather numerous, are based on a claim that the substituted words are more direct, translations than the version author-, ised by King James In the new Bible the story of Jonah and the whale is changed, so that the words “great fish” take the place ot “whale,” “carved” replaces _ graven,” and the word “immerse” in par-j enthesis follows the word “baptise' in every instance. The Baptist ministers in New York' admit the alterations may spoil the charm of the o.d English phraseology, but they say that charm is only a secondary consideration to accuracy. Some members of the Baptist body suggested that the new Bible should be printed in simple spelling, but answer is returned to the effect that the time is not yet ripe for such a step. - Neglected colds kill countless women and children every winter. Tonkng s Linseed Emulsion is a sovereign ana irn mediate euro. Is 6d, 2s 6d, 4s id