LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 23, 25 January 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Austrian who created the disturbance in Dargaville on Monday night was committed to an asylum. A full report of the proceedings at the anniversary Burns supper last evening will be found commencing on our second page. A man charged at the Sydney Central Police Court with having obtained a meal at the A.B.C. Cafe on the previous Saturday, and endeavouring to leave the premises without paying for it, was sentenced to 14 days’ hard labour. Three more Stratford land agents successfully negotiated all the pitfalls of incorrectly worded and incomplete registration papers, and were duly licensed yesterday. They were: Messrs Campbell Jackson, J. B. Richards and Joseph McCluggage. Two applications were adjourned till next Friday. Quite, we should say, one hundred and fifty people attended at the Town Hall last evening on the occasion of the anniversary supper under the auspices of the Taranaki Provincial Scottish Society. The scene was a gayone and must have gladened -the hearts of our brother Scots. The gathering was conducted with splendid decorum and reflected great credjt upon all present. Next year, it is understood, the anniversary will be celebrated by a “mixed” gathering. The reference yesterday ill our Whangamomona special notes to the very successful trip by motor to Kohuratahi on Wednesday morning last, .should have stated that it was done by a car belonging to Mr A'. C. MaH'J the well known proprietor of the Crown Stables, and was driven by Mr Man’s son. As the road was in a bad condition, the successful journey is highly creditable to Mr Marr, Jun., showing him to be a very capable driver. From the December issue of Night and Day, it appears that 9000 boys and girls were to keep their Christmas under the kindly wings of Dr. Barn-ado’s Homes. In a Christmas letter, the Honorary Director, Mr William Baker, states that in the past four months only three deaths among that large number of children have occurred. “Wo lost in July only one boy, a chronic case, who had practically been dying for months. In August we lost one little fellow boarded out in the country, and in September one girl, who for years had been in one of our Homes for Incurables. In October we had no death to report.”

It is clear from this issue there is plenty of work for these Homes still to do, and that they are doing it. The cases which are given, with details and photographs, amply prove the need. “The Homes are manufacturing good citizens,” says the Bishop of Knaresborough. “Nothing can adequately express the debt we owe 'to Dr Barnardo,” says the Earl of Hardwicke. “Wherever I went in Canada,” says Sir Edward Clarke, “there were Barnardo children, who were turning out well.” The Young Helpers’ League announces its twenty-first birthday, to be celebrated in the Albert Hall on 11th January, 1913. The League has now 48,000 members, and it contributed £23,000 to the funds of the Homes last year.

A resident of Timaru, who has an extensive garden in which he takes considerable pride, mentioned to a Herald representative that the ladybirds had been very useful this season in clearing the garden of blight. The chrysanthemums, he noticed, were covered with blight, and he had intended to spray them, but last week the ladybird put in an appearance and cleared the plants of every sign of blight. The same gentleman mentioned that on a recent morning he noticed thousands of these useful little insects washed up at Caroline Bay, dead. He did not know the cause of this, but it was on a hot nor-westerly day, and he could only suppose that they had been blown out to sea by the wind and drowned.

It is not often that a cheque for an amount running into four figures is to be found lying in the street, to be contemptuously trodden on by numbers of passers-by. This was the fate in Auckland this week of a cheque for £2175, which was sent out by one legal firm and made payable to another firm carrying on legal business in the city. The cheque in question was apparently lost in the journey between the two offices. A crippled hawker named Harry Mason saw a crumpled piece of paper lying at his feet in Queen street. Picking it up, he discovered that it was a cheque, and he was astonished to note its value. Losing no time, he promptly handed his find to the police, and the cheque was soon afterwards delivered to the rightful owners. The prompt action of the hawker is to be commended, for, although the cheque was not negotiable, its speedy delivery probably saved some anxiety and expense.

The heather and real Scotch thistles which were so prominent at the Burns’ dinner last night were kindly supplied by Mr F. P. Gorki!!, of New Plymouth. The Sacred Heart High School at Stratford will re-open on Monday, January 27th. The Rev. Mother Prioress also notifies that St. Joseph’s Schools at Stratford and Eltham reopen on the same day. “Pigs pay better than calves,” remarked a local farmer to a reporter this morning, and supported his oon- j|» tention by stating that some time ago f he bought a sow for £3 10s. He sold tliis animal’s litter of eighteen when they were seven weeks old. Eight of them fetched £1 6s, and the whole lot netted £l2. One of the most impressive ceremonies of a Burns’ Dinner is the ushering in of the haggis, “wi’ a’ the honours.” Last evening the savoury dish was brought in on a trencher carried by Messrs J. McNeill Adams and Duncan Ferguson, with Pipers Songster and McGowan supplying the musical element. The address to the haggis was spoken by Mr Tom Smith, of Stratford, and judging by the expression on the faces of the old Scotsmen present, justice was done to Burns’ famous lines. The comment an American paper makes on recent excesses of the bellicose minority of suffragists may be an exaggeration, but it is the exaggeration of a truth, comments an exchange. “The English suffragette,” it says, “complains bitterly that women, idiots, and criminals should be classified as electoral incompetents,” but judging by the recent antics of the Pankhurst section, “the English public may come to the conclusion that the enfranchised idiot and the enfranchised criminal would be insignificant evils in comparison with the enfranchised suffragette.” Ihe Tiraaru Herald says: A writer in the Manchester Guardian helps us to understand something of racial feeling in the Balkans. His wife engaged a nurse girl who happened fo be a Bulgarian. Coming on the girl unawares while she was crooning songs to her infant charge, the mother had the curiosity to listen, and this was the song; “Oh my darling! Baby Effoudi! Thou art an apple, thou art a rose. When thou art grown thou shalt slay many Turks.” The words were chanted quite unconsciously of the peaceful English scene’s incongruous setting. To “slay many Turks” is probably the fondest ambition for the young Bulgarian, Servian, or Montenegrin, just as to slay many infidels * is a natural satisfaction to the Turk. , A resident of San Francisco told a Press reporter this week that New Zealand had before it a great opportunity of becoming the playground of rich Americans. Already its many attractions were becoming known, being advertised best by those who had been here. The exhibition of 1915, ■to be held in San Francisco to.com--momorate the opening of the Panama Canal, gave the country a great opportunity, for if New Zealand made a worthy display there it would attract the attention of many who want a good place for a holiday and at the same time would likely lead to business between the two countries. The time was ripe, too, for already the ’ shortage of wool in the United States ; was being felt, and as the sheep were pushed further back, the want would grow more keen, and conditions of trade would have to be alleviated. ' r* {•>' ~,) Touching on the subject of the Te Rerepahupahu falls in the Waitaanga river and the claims to be their discoverer, Mr James Lander, vof New Plymouth, tells the Herald that in LSJI he and Messrs D. F. Hellier and Charles Smith, now of Inglewood, were working for Messrs H. Brown and Co. In March they obtained a holiday and started off on a prospecting tour into the King Country. Going in from . Tongaporntu they reached Hie Tangarakau near the western entrance to the gorge on the Ohura road. They followed the river up, passing a small fall by the way, past the confluence of the Mangakahikatea, above which the main river is now called Waitaanga. About a mile or so above the confluence they came upon the big fall. This was on March 15th, 1891. They estimated the height at about 300 feet, while the stream at the top appeared to be no more than nine or ten feet wide. The fall was a sheer drop into a pool at the foot, where the weight of water caused waves about two feet high te rise. Right under the fall and at the back of it was a ledge of rock forming a footpath along which they walked, and they cut their names deeply in the rock. They then climbed up through the bush to the head of the fall and waded a river a mile or so above. Here it had a flat rocky bottom, the stream being about a hundred feet wide and four or five inches deep. Mr Lander considers that the falls are more accessible from the Ohura road than from the Mangaroa-Okau side.

Excavations in Christchurch have revealed the success of a tarred macadam thoroughfare, which has not only stood the test of time, but has given indisputable evidence of its solidity. In Hereford street, at the junction with High street, the city authorities have been making excavations to carry a conduit over the road, and the workmen have found that the roadway is difficult to pierce. It was laid down some years ago, tarred macadam being used, and later, more tarred macadam was placed on the top of the first construction. Over this was placed a film of asphalt. The tarred macadam is nine inches in ~ depth, and with the traffic that has gone over it during the years, it has been pressed into a solid mass as strong almost as concrete. The workmen found it impossible to break up the mass with picks, and had to gouge their way through it. It was seen, too, that the second layer of tarred macadam had welded on to the first perfectly, and that the whole was a concrete mass. Speaking to a reporter, the city engineer said that the excavation proved the worth of tarred macadam. It would be possible to lay down construction on similar lines, though not with as JJ much as nine inches of metal, for iJ 2s 3d per superficial yard. He also referred to the roadway opposite the Council Chambers in Oxford Terrace, which has stood for twelve months under heavy traffic, including traction engines. The surface of the road had held up without showing any weakness, lie said, and had proved itself under a severe test. Tarred macadam in Christchurch had succeeded, and the experience in Hereford street, in which the traffic was fairly heavy, should convince people of the possibility of the method of construction.