LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 65, 22 July 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Phil. Melloy, of Dubuque, low's, i a gastronomic wonder. For a wage he recently ate .85 raw eggs in les than 10 mintes.

In Belgium, by recent regulation all bulls and cows are to wear eai rings as soon as they have attaine the ago of three months.

New York’s Post Office will be bud of pink granite, live stories high, am two blocks long. It will 1)6 the great est building of its kind in the world and from the kerbstone to the tophus pinnacle of granite will be 101 feet Its cost will be £1,200,000.

Races first! Representations- hav ing been made to Mr Justice Dennis toh'iri Christchurch that as,the Gran National: meeting would require ,fp its 1 regulation,, the .attendant’ of all available members of the polio force, and especially detectives, i would l)e a serious inconvenience t have the criminal sittings of the Su preme Court in the same week, hi; Honor has therefore decided to ad journ both criminal and civil sittings

There have "been instances, it i understood, v;here employers have os' regarded orders from the .Magistrate’. Court attaching the wages of employee under the Defence Act. It is state* that the Defence Act will be put : n to operation shortly against an cm plover of a lad who has been fined The action will be taken under seitio 11, sub-section 12 of the Defenc Amendment Act, 1912, which is as to! lows :—‘ ‘lf and as often as the cm ployer makes default in the payment of any money in satisfaction of am such charge that money shall beconu a debt due by him to the Crown, am recoverable by action accordingly it any court of competent jurisdiction.'

“I can guarantee that nine out o ten bicycles the police do not recove are altered beyond recognition by dis honest dealers,” said, a police office to a Christchurch reporter. The re mark was apropos of a suggestion tha.

it would be opportune this session fo Parliament to amend the Second-ham

Dealers Act to include cycle dealers He said that if a cycle dealer wen compelled to keep a record of all cycle bought or exchanged the police woilh have no difficulty in tracing the num lawless lost cycles reported daily ii Christchurch. Two or three losse.

wore reported every day, and th> police were continually on the hunt The suggested amendment would pro tect honest dealers and uncloak thos who were making a business of stolen cycles.

A splendid illustration of the re sourcefulness of the average New Zealander was witnessed at a townshij: not a hundred miles from Patea on Saturday (says the Patea Press). A football match was to be played, and one of the players chosen had a journey of about four miles to make over a more or less sloppy road. Having only a bicycle with no mudguards,

lie might have been pardoned had hi allowed his place to he filled by an “emergency” player. Instead of this. I however, he determined to make if more or less comfortably. With this end in view be cut a couple of blades from a nearby flax bush and out of these, with the aid of a penknife, lie fashioned two excellent mudguards —one for tin l front and one for the back wheel of his bicycle—and went on his way rejoicing, reaching the football ground in a clean and dry condition. One can readily understand why Britain succeeds as a colonising nation, when she has such resourceful sons in her midst.

Up to noon yesterday the number of persons vaccinated by Dr. Steven bad reached 550.

All Territorials are reminded of the meeting to be held in the School Gymnasium next Friday night, 25th inst.,

to further discuss, arrangements in connection with the military ball which is to be hold on 28th August.

An emergency meeting of the Taranaki Rugby Union is to be held this evening, the chief business being the re-arrangement of the championship matches. This is made necessary through the Saturday competition ending in a draw.

A local resident woke up the other morning, and not being able to locate his bicycle, got on the first convenient housetop and cried out that some low person had visited his place of abode and removed it. The bereaved party will rejoice to learn that the bicycle was found standing on the railway station platform and is now in the hands of the police awaiting a claimant.

All officers of the reserve of officers and on the retired list are kindly requested to communicate their names and addresses to the officer commanding the district (Palmerston North), in which they reside. Any officer who fails to communicate his address in writing, to District Headquarters, by Ist May each year, will be liable to have his name removed from the list.

Mr J. Masters moved at the last quarterly meeting of the Stratford Licensing Committee that in future no conditional licenses be granted in the district. Mr Spence, who was present at the meeting, urged the committee not to take the step without due deliberation, and asked that time 1)6 allowed for those principally affected to place their views before the committee; and it was decided to hold the motion over till the following meeting. Yesterday Mr Masters, after consideration of the arguments as to probable effect of the change if brought about suddenly, decided to withdraw his motion (with the consent of his colleagues) and to bring it forward at some later meeting. Plis idea is to allow the coming show and races to be held under the same conditions as heretofore as regards licensed booths.

Mr IV. D. Snowball has given notice to rescind the resolution which > commits the Dunedin Society for the Pre- . vent ion of Cruelty to Animals .to a prosecution of the Dunedin Coursing Club, and he proposes to move the, following in place of the resolution, if it is rescinded ; “Whilst the practice of coursing within- enclosures,shopld not be encouraged,; the committee consider that it is inadvisable for fheip to .institute a prosecution against, persons ■who take part in Plumpton coursing, as were they to do so they could not consistently refrain from instituting similar prosecutions against persons who engaged in the sports of angling, • doer-stalking, the shooting of our native faunai, etc., and it is obvious speh action would militate seriously against the usefulness of the society’s legitimate, functions.” ,

Three farm labourers who arrived from Ireland' by the Arawa last week, tell a story of how they were‘Victimised by a shipping agent in a town'in County Armagh (says the -Wellington correspondent of the Christchurch Press). They inquired for assisted passages, but were told that the lists were all full, and that they would have to wait about two years before their turn would come, arid it would be better to pay the full fare, £l9 10s. When aboard the steamer they found that nearly all in the third class were assisted immigrants, who had only paid £B. They consider that they have been victimised, and have writen to the Immigration Department, asking for a refund. They complain that the Dominion is not advertised in Xorth Ireland. If this were done hundreds of farm labourers would come out. In fact, they are the advance party of 100, who are awaiting their report. They intend to act as selfconstituted immigration officers, and are forwarding information which should lead to depreciation of the business so-called shipping agents.

Answering a question as to whether whale flesh can be utilised as human food or whether it is too rank for that purpose, Mr Stead, the New South Wales fisheries expert, told a Sydney ' interviewer that he had several times eaten whale steak, and that it was “as delicious as the best stewing steak,” especially that of the saltbottom and finback species. The humpback is not so good. In appearance the flesh is red, and is scarcely distinguishable from beef; indeed, when cut in certain ways only an expert could tell that it is not beef. Mr Stead considers that there is a great future for it, and deplores the fact that so much is wasted at present. Last season alone 160 whales were caught off the New South Wales const, and that number could have been more than doubled, so that there is apparently no lack of. whales. On the Continent and in America whale flesh is manufactured in what is known as “whale meal” and “whale cake,” and is fed to cattle, pigs and other live stock. It would make splendid “canned” meat, he thinks. Owing to the enormous hulk of the whale, however, it is necessary, to use it or treat it quickly, as its own weight soon causes decay to begin.