LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 60, 13 March 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An Irish housewife who recently paid her first visit to Niagara Falls is credited with this delightful exclamation : “Oil, that reminds me—l left my kitchen tap running!”

The Vicar of Barnsley, in Yorkshire, has entered an indignant protest against the exhibition of a biograph picture entitled “Satan.” He says that it is terrible that a representation of the arch-enemy of God should bo used to draw audiences.

During the sermon the other day, a baby bgan to cry, and its mother carried it towards the door. “Stop,” said the minister, “the baby’s not disturbing me.” The mother turned towards the pulpit, and made the audible remark; “Oh, ’o ain’t, ain’t ’c? But vou’re a disturbin’ of ’im!”

Men and alcohol are both rightly excluded from the new home for widows which has just been inaugurated in Havre. It is the fist municipal undertaking of the kind in Fance. The institution is designed as a home for indigent widows, who are expected to pay a- rental of 50 cents, a month if they can afford it; if not, no charge is made. The occupants of the home are required to sign a pledge to leave in the event of their marriage or if their children become able to support them,

A supplier to the Maharahara cheese factory (Dannevirke) received the substantial sum of £124 16s lor his contribution of milk during the month of January. He has a herd of 63 cows, and considering the dry weather at the time, the cheque was a largo one. Tim following cablegram from Loudon appears in the Sydney Sun of March 4th: “The opposition that was manifested by the Admiralty towards New Zealand’s idea of a local navy is weakening, and there is now every prospect that the mission of the New Zealand Minister of Defence will prove successful.”

The Patea correspondent of the Wanganui Chronicle writes: “When the Turakina steamed out of Wellington on her last Homeward voyage, she had on board 14,000 odd cases of cheese, representing a value of £56,000. Of this shipment 10,600 crates were the product of South Taranaki, so that this valuable cargo has been lost as a result of the lire. The loss of cheese from this district by reason of the lire is estimated at £42,400, The consignment was insured.” The master of the school at Taringamutu, near Taumarunui on resuming duties after last holidays, was informed that three of his scholars were not returning to school because they had got married during the vacation. They were Native girls who had been in attendance only seven months, and during that time had made surprising progress, as they hrl reached the second standard, although they did not know their letters when they began. They lived five miles frm the school, and yet they never missed a day, wet or line. They have married young natives working in the Taringamutu ( Company’s sawmill yard.

In giving evidence before the Food Commission in Sydney a dairyman dwelt rather strongly upon the question as to what was the proper time for an inspector to take samples of milk. “Suppose,” he said, “the inspector took a sample of a dairyman’s milk this morning—l mean during these four warm months of the year—and it did not come up to the required strength, then the inspector should take a sample of the afternoon’s supply, and if it is more than the standard, let an average of the two samples be struck. If the average is right, let the dairyman pass, and that would settle ail the difficulties. The inspector generally takes a sample during the morning—very rarely in the afternoon.” The Telegraph stated that the chairman did not express an opinion on this, the latest method of settling a much-vexed question.

The pear-shaped straw boater is on© of the new fashions ' which is to be sprung on men (says the London Chronicle). The advent of this novelty is heralded in a report from the straw hat centre at Luton, which announces that already many of the principal houses are engaged in making boaters with indented circle brims—i.e., brims with an upward curl. With all due respect to the inventor, however, and without any wish to interfere in the business of the straw hat whose ambition it is to look like a plate, one cannot help being struck with the fact that the brim will be a convenient receptacle for rain. One shower and the crown will be as completely an island as Great Britain herself. If the fashion must come, why not an amendment in the form of a neat little overflow pipe? It could.be effectively carried out, say, in light celluloid, coloured or plain, and, jutting out behind, would be highly serviceable in draining off the water.

A packing case that claims the merit of being unpillageable lias been invented by Mr Isaac Davis, of the Ben on i Company, West Australia. The case, when closed, has no visible fastenings, save a recessed padlock. In place of the usual battens there are, inside the case, strips of strong metal, to which the planks are secured from the inside. The sides are held to the bottom by simple metal fastenings inside the case, and the lid “is held in place by a similar arrangement and the padlock. To open a case by prizing off a plank on a side, or in any way except by removing the padlock, appears to be quite impossible. Compared with a packing case of the ordinary type, the Davis case is slightly heavier, but lias a greater cubic capacity compared with the outside measurement. It will cost, it is stated, 25 per cent more. It is claimed for it that it cannot be telescoped, and, as it can be used time after time, that the extra initial cost is more than counterbalanced. The inside fastenings being flush with the wood, the case can be zinc-lined in the ordinary way.

Although it is said that the members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union have declared war on the tramway ticket which bears the whisky advertisement, there are those who have sufficient interest in the matter to declare against the aims of the women workers. An incident which occurred in a tramcar on Saturday (says the Invercargill correspondent of the Otago Daily Times) further indicates that at least one gentleman has ventured to employ satire as his weapon against the suppression of the whisky advertisement. The car was crowded, and the florid face of the corpulent gentleman in question beamed with affability. The conductor on being approached handed the pessenger a ticket and passed down the aisle. Ere he had gone far he was called back by the rotund gentleman, who interrogated him thus; “I say, young man, haven’t you got a ticket with a ’fluenza advertisement on it? This one will demoralise me.” The conductor was puzzled for a moment, but the crowd aboard the car enjoyed the joke, and more than one passenger looked, after the broad figure which retreated into a side street at the next stop--1 ping place,

A meeting in Opunake on Saturday evening decided to form a Defence Rifle Club. A resident of Opunake received a letter addressed, care “Railway” HoJfel, Opunake. Queries the local Times: “When will it be true?” An event of some importance in the of the Tyser liner Hawke’s Bay from London was the birth on board of a baby girl. A batch of 5(30 immigrants was carried by the steamer from London to Melbourne, ana it was six days after leaving Capetown that the child was born to one of the third-class passengers. The Auckland Star states that the passengers took great interest in the baby, and prior to disembarking at Melbourne they presented the parents with £ll, the result of a collection taken up on board. In christening the child, “Tyser” was included as one of the three names bestowed.

A story of a horse which strayed into the uncompleted building of the new ''SJf’irst Church in Invercargill one evening last week, and under cover of darkness made its way through an aperture in the wall into the building is recorded by the correspondent of the Otago Daily Times. The story is that the floor was at that time only partly laid down, and the remainder of the space was taken up with flooring joists. . The itinerant quadruped appears to have attempted to do a little tight-rope walking and came to grief, for the following morning it was found dead in the organ pit, having fallen through the joists. The carcase was carted away in a dray. A light grey horse with blue markings, a la zebra, was being driven in a tradesman’s cart in town a few days ago (says the Feilding Star), and was an unconscious object of attention. The decorative work had been carried out during grazing hours by some inventive joker who surely could be better employed in designing jokes for some picture film concern. He was

also possessed of the destructive turn so dear to such “artists,” for other Vhorses belonging to another tradeswoman had their tail-e Ads lopped off and otherwise made to look ridiculous. The police have now come on the scene, and are carrying out a bit of serious “business” which might bring the joker to book. , The lunar eclipse, to take place on Saturday \yeek, should be observed under specially favourable conditions. The whole phenomenon, including the penumbral phases, will last nearly five hours and a half, and the moon is well above our horizon all the time. She enter® the shadow on March 22nd at 9.43 p.m.y and leaves it on March 23rd at 1.13 pmi.r • The totality) lasts from 10.41 p.m. until fourteen and a half mimites after midnight. At the middle of the total phase the moon's centre is not more than ten minutes’ distant from the centre of the earth’® shadow, so that the eclipse is fairly central, and this is the reason why it lasts so long.

Many are the uses of the übiquitous hatpin. The Kawhia Settler says: “A fracas is reported to have occur,red on Thursday afternoon which has resulted (we understand) in an information being laid to the police for assault. It is alleged that a man and wife, who lately had charge of the culinary operations at a road camp," were on a holiday visit and becoming rather festive, the man proceeded to jump on the chest of a youth reposing peacefully on a sofa. The young man’s vigorous remonstrances elicited the sympathy of another, who attempted to separate the combatants but he was in turn diverted from his good intentions by the careful insertion of a hatpin, judiciously applied by the lady visitor. The effective use of this feminine weapon by the “better-half” to aid the partner of her joys and woe, resulted in a spirited general melee—and probable litigation.

operations in connection with the survey of a railway route from tne Kawhia harbour to the Main Trunk arc proceeding steadily at Oparau undei Mr L. B. Campbell (states the Settler). Mr Campbell is assisted bja party of men with Mr Watkinson at their head and the work of exploring the Okupata, Kauri and Okoko valleys is now in progress. Of course the piece do resistance will natural-

ly be the piercing of the Hauturu range which acts as the watershed between Kawhia harbour and the Waipa Valley. It is well-known that a moderate length of tunnel is sufficient to connect valleys descending to the Kawhia Harbour with those running into the Waipa river, but its actual length and position will naturally depend on the altitude arrived at and on the particular valleys selected as the most convenient and most economical. The time occupied in reconnaissance work on the various routes will extend over several weeks —probably months.

Mr Thomas Holmes contributes an article on ‘Sunday in a London Prijsn’ to the annual report of the Howard Association. “Once,” he says, “I was conducting an afternoon service. There were 1000 men, locked, bolted, and barred in prison, with strong warders to keep guard over them. There they were on their knees singing a vesper;— “Lord, keep us safe this night,

Secure from all our fears, May angels guard us while we sloe]) Till morning light appears. “I could have called out—l almost did—‘Lock, bolts, and bars will keep you safe, and your warders will watch over you.’ It seems very strange to me that in all our prisons the one and only vesper hymn selected for the prisoners to sing should be the one I have given,’ ’

The Denbigh Road is picnicking at the East End beach to-day. The Stanley Road School is also celebrating, and its sports come off this afternoon.

The Tariki Show promisevs to be a very fine one this year. Mr F. Davis, Mesdames Reader, James and Arden are, as usual, exhibiting. i.t air inquest at Battersea, London, on the body of a woman, it was shown in evidence that she broke her neck last June. An operation took place at the hospital, and the break was successfully joined.

A real good time is promised at the Strathmore Bachelors’ Ball in the Strathmore Hall on Monday, March 31st. Messrs A. Curry and R. Meredith will be Masters of Ceremonies, and Mr C. Coulton is acting as hon. sec. Tickets for the ball may be obtained from him.

The Dominion thinks that “the Prime Minister showed more courage than judgment in choosing the City of Christchurch as the centre in which to deliver his policy speech. Christchurch is the stronghold of the antimilitary pro-Socialist element which has ranged itself in opposition to all good citizens who believe that if a country is worth living in it is worth fighting for.”

The Stratford Acclimatisation Society met last evening, when there weye present: The President (Mr W • P. Kirkwood) and Messrs. A. W. Budge, H. Campbell, G. D. Hunter. L. Reira, W. J, Morrison, and J. R. L. Stanford. A long discussion ensued on the question of an open season and the report appears in another column. It was decided not to purchase any pheasants this season. The committee appointed to enquire into the stocking qf streams with perch reported that there were no stretches of open water suitable for perch fishing, and the question was therefore dropped. A further meeting is to be held on Thursday next to decide the question of the shooting season.