LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 82, 11 August 1913, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

I A special budget of Sporting Notes jby “Cicero” appears on page 2 of j this issue. I The monthly meeting of the Borough i Council will be held this evening. Early on Saturday evening a runaway occurred in Broadway, a horse driven by Mr N. B. Fryday, of Ngaere, getting out of control. It turned eastward down Began Street, but was pulled up before it got very far. No material damage was done. There is a possibility that the remains of Christopher Columbus, which are now in a leaden casket in the West Indian Republic of Santo Domingo, will bo taken to America in connection with the exposition with which the opening of the Panama Canal is to be 1 celebrated.

It is a little over three weeks since the Gisborne borough banking scheme commenced, and already the large sum of £14,946 has been deposited with the borough. An inquiry reached the Mayor (Mr J. 11. Kirk) from Timaru, asking if he would accept £2090, and on the Mayor replying in the affirmative, the depositor notified him that the money was being forwarded. It will not be long before the limit of £20,000, which the borough has made, will be reached.

A head master recently set a test to 35 boys, of normal spelling ability with a view of illustrating the Londoner’s difficulty with the final “aw.” These five words were dictated with the utmost care and without context: —Sore, paw, daw, tore, caw. For “sore,” 8 boys wrote “saw”; for

“daw,” 16 wrote “door”; for “saw,” 16 wrote “core” ; for “paw,” 3 wrote “pour,” 2 “poor,” and 1 “pore.” Dr. House’s contention that the “r” ought to be restored to Southern English speech would take away many of the difficulties.

The Hospital Board will hold its monthly meeting to-morrow. To-night, as announced elsewhere, tiie larnous “lied Dandies” give their larewell performance in Stratford. Everybody who Inis seen them will want to go, and everybody who has not seen them ought to take the opportunity of being present at one of the best and brightest entertainments ever brought to this town.

A Christchurch Press Association message this morning states:—“Sir ■Joseph Ward, in an interview, declined to talk politics. Referring to the money market he said he looked for an early improvement. Large sums of moiiiey were available in England every year for investment. The United States demand was falling off, and with improvement in the international position there ought to he an easier market.”

The Waitotara County Council is evidently not anxious to undertake the responsibility of paying for tho burial of destitute persons who die in the area under its jurisdiction. At the last meeting an account of £3 was received from an undertaker for committed suicide at Raorikia last month. “This is the first case we have had,” said the chairman, “and 1 think we should get legal opinion as to our responsibility.” A motion to that effect -was passed.

A good story of retributive justice is told by an Invercargill doctor at his own expense (says the Southland News). Recently he was returning from a professional visit to' North Invercargill, and was waylaid by some individual with a poor sense of discrimination. Two fists followed one another in quick succession, and the doctor jumped on his bicycle and rodo off. At 2 o’clock next morning, when snugly tucked between the sheets, a call came to him from North Invercargill to attend someone who had been hurt in a row, and he had in all decency to pack his bag and hasten forth in the chilly morning air to mako good tho damage he had done.

A contract has been let by the Public Works’ Department for the construction of a tunnel nearly a mile' in length at the northern end of the Stratford-Okahukura railway, which will connect, the provinces of Auckland and Taranaki. The tunnel, which is about two miles from Ok'ahukura (on the Main Trunk line) will he c 5 chains in length, and the contract price is in the neighbourhood . of, £IOO,OOO. The exact aipount is npt ; yet ascertaining (says the Auckland Herald). Three years are to be allowed for the construction of the tun- I nel. The formation work from Okahu-n kura, where , the Stratford line i now joins j tho, Main Trunk-railway, nats now reached (the spot at/which the. tun- 1 nelling will commence. It is not likely that much work will ho done on the Ohura side of the tunnel until the tunnel itself is approaching completion.

In the police report presented to Pariianiebt this week, Superintendent Ellison, j Wellington, makes the following observations“l am not disposed tgjl suggest any additions to statute law at present. The number of Acts passed since the statutes were consolidated in 1908 indicates that we have about enough law to go on with for a few years. When an opportunity does arise for amending the licensing laws, I think -some attention should be given to benefits for the general public who make use of licensed premises as a necessary boon and convenience, so that a better scale of accommodation might be ensured in cases where such is required. I understand the difficulty of opening the question owing to the divergent opinions of the two parties who take such keen interest in the subject, one desiring to destroy and the other to . defend the existence of licensed houses, so that travellers, tourists, and the general publioywho desire to use licensed hotels for legitimate and necessary purposes have been ignored altogether.”

By the Waimana, which arrived in Wellington on Wednesday, Mr R. D. Darkness, Ngaere, one of the wellknown . Taranaki Jersey breeders, brought with him a very high-ejass consignment of Jersey cattle, direct from the island of Jersey. The shipment consists of two cows, eight heifers, and a ten weeks old heifer calf. A bull calf was included in the shipment, but unfortunately ho died on the voyage out. However, one of the heifers made good the deficieniy in numbers by giving birth to a promising bull calf while at sea. All the cattle were personally selected by Mr Darkness from the best Jersey «tuds. A glance at their extended pedigrees shows that they are an aristocratic collection, many of them showing a close relationship to some of the most famous parent stock that has been produced, both as utility and showring performers. With the exception of two cows, which were in full milk during the whole passage, all the heifers are in calf to proved sires. They, with their prospective progeny, will make a valuable addition to the studs of Taranaki, where they will be taken after having served their term of quarantine on Somes Island. All the animals have arrived in excellent condition, after a moderately rough voyage. i