LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 58, 14 July 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Early lambs.have made their f>p pear an ce in the Toko district, oui correspondent writes.

Mr W. Douglas, Wellington manager of the firm of John Fa'.le- and Sons, has received a cablegram from Sydney announcing an important move in the moving picture world. The message was to the effect that Mr Chas. Spencer, of the Australia;! General Film Company, has secured sole rights ,in. Australasia of the following American firms:-t-Luhin, S. and A. ;Ess;>nay), ,and Kalem. This means that an Messrs Fuller and Sons and Haywards' Picture Enterprises are associated with the Australian General Film Company, New Zealand will gL4 the benefit of the new arrangement.

The "Ideal Pen Convertor" is a simple little device, but it is a very valuable one and is sure to come into universal use. Its advantages are that it prevents blots, ensures even inking all the way, and saves time by holding up a fair quantity of ink and with any ordinary nib, will enable quite five hundred words to be written straight off without a second dip in the ink-well. Demonstrations have been successfully given at the schools, and Mr H. J. Hopkins has now been appointed sole agent for Stratford for this useful little invention.

It is strange what a horror somi youths have of using a gun, even in a good cause (remarks the Auckland Star). The other day an Auckland magistrate had before him a youth who applied for exemption from military training on the ground that Ju conscientiously believed in the prii, ciple of non-resistance to evil. Flu ently and glibly he discussed the creed with the magistrate. If a man attacked his mother or his sister in the street he would not use force to bea off the attack, he said, and he would certainly not return blow for blow. but he would certainly endeavour f argue the man from his militant purpose. He got his military exemp tion, and, having got it, he apparent ly put his principles in his pocket with it, for a couple of nights ago the non-militant disciple of passive resistance appeared publicly in the ring at the Boxing Association's championships, and punched his opponent just as often and as painfully as the other chap would let him. Evidently there is a distinction between the principles of self-defence with a gun and self-defence with a pair of Boz. gloves.

Xgaire farmers are to visit Moumahaki State Farm on Thursday, July 17th.

The To Wera Bachelors' Ball, to have been held on July 25th, is to take place on August Ist, to prevent clashing with the Toko fixture.

The severity of the recent cold snap is testified to by the fact that yesterday there was seven inches of snow at the East Mountain ilou&e... Despite the somewhat broken weather recently a fair number have visited the house.

In reference to the recent accident in Xew Plymouth in which two people fell over a cliff, a Stratford resident who recently visited Xew Plymouth reports that the doctors are pessimistic in the case of the lady, fear being entertained that her spine is injured. The gentleman concerned is showing improvement.

Pheasants out at Huiroa appear to bo something of a nuisance. Accordnig to a settler there, one of the troubles lie is crowned with is to protect his root crops from, their depredations. "My turnips are riddled by the pretty things," he affirmed at tho latter end of last week, "and I wish some of those big gun men in Stratford would come out and have a day's sport." Our informant, who happened to be a visitor to the district on the occasion when this bit of conversation took place, assures us that there is little likelihood of exaggeration on the part of the settler, and in support of this he mentions that within a few hundred yards of the homestead he saw at least four birds strutting about nigh to the root crops. "Of course," he concluded, "we hadn't a gun amongst us at the time."

"I go about from house to house, and get to know women intimately," said Dr. Platts-Mills at the Domestic Science Conference in Wellington. "I see their home arrangements, and how unmethodical many of them are. I see children who are ill because their mothers have made them so (not wittingly, of course); I see the number of people who suffer from gastric trouble, and I see women who are laid. up by overwork." The doctor expressed the opinion that a great deal of this was due to the lack of proper training in home-making'. Girls,, also, did not care for the unmethodical methods of house-keeping. If they; Were taught proper , and learnt-fco take a delight in, .their.work, they would not;be so,anxious to go,into offices. ; [

The results have come to hand'of the competition for the Otter Challenge Shield, which is open to all Boy Scouts in New Zealand. The shield is to be held for the year by the troop having tho largest number of badges for swimming and life-saving, and in the event of a tie, goes to the troops having the largest proportion of firstclass and King's Scouts. Of the twenty-four boys of Stratford No. 1 Troop,.which entered for the competition, all could swim and eighteen held life-saving badge®. The result of the competition stands as follows:—Lyttelton No 1 Troop, 200 points 1; Stea-t ford No. 1 Troop, 175 points, 2; Kelburue, 112 points, 3; All Saints (Auckland), 81 points, 4. Seeing that the Stratford Scouts are the only inland troop in the list, and were only able to use the school swimming bath, itfeainonii high place on the list is particularly f i; < . meritorious, and they .thoroughly ,de-, ;, serve the congratulations them by the Dominion Chief Scout. |., ~.

Mathematicians hard up for new problems on the theory of probabilities might tackle one suggested by a letter in the "English Mechanic." In 1886 the writer tried a new steel namepunch by stamping his name on a penny. In the ordinary course he paid the penny away and forgot all about it. That was in the North of England. Twenty years later his son, then is business in London, received the same penny as part of his change in one of Lyson's tea-shops. Added interest is given to the chance event by which the penny came back by reason of the fact that the son was born in the same year in which the coin was stamped. Apparently in its twenty-two years' wanderings that penny never came into the hands of anyone connected with the Mint, otherwise it would have been impounded as a defaced and illegal coin. Some years ago advertisers began stamping their wares on French 10-centime pieces, and so popular did they become as advertising mediums that the Government stopped their circulation.