LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3, 3 January 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Rain fell in Wellington on 196 days' last year, and the total fall recorded! was 52.U1 inches, or rather over the I average annual fall (says a Wellington telegram).

Following arc the vital statistics for Stratford for the past year,’ the

figures for December being given in parentheses: Births 268 (22), deaths. 51 (10), marriages 64 (5).

The Rev. James Flanagan, who has an established reputation as a lecturer and evangelist, will preach at the Broadway .Methodist Church at 11 a.rn. to-morrow. At the Town Kail on Monday evening he will deliver a lecture and a big audience is looked for.

The system of ventilation adopted for the Simplon tunnel necessira.es the closing of each end. This is effected by huge canvas screens, widen work automatically on the passage of a train. Should the mechanism fail to lift the screen, the engine will tear through it like a circus performer, and no harm can result.

A dastavly act of hooliganism was committed at Oliakune on Christmas Eve. The perpetrators seized a packing case which was lying outside Mr J. A. Butler’s drapery store, and hurled it through one of the large plateglass windows, not only smashing the window, says the local paper, but destroying a lot of goods among the special display. It is understood that the police are on the trail of the vandals.

“They were there ail right, and it didn’t seem possible to me i hat Wellington could escape,” said Mr E. C. Bates, Government meteorologist,, to a reporter, referring to tiie two storms he had predicted for the Christmas holidays, which did not "come oil.” Mr Bates said he could not jielp it if the storms had missed Wellington, or even the whole of i\ew Zealand. It was his duty to forecast them. “1 would rather,” said Mr Bates, “predict had weather and see the weather fine. ' than predict one weather and see the country expo.',once a stonn.”

In November last a young Geiman residing at Kaewieg, ‘ German New Guinea, inserted an advertisement in the columns of the Sydney Morning Herald* desiring someone lo.correspond with mm, and thus Veliev? the monotony of his isolated existence. The result of his application, lie now v rites, was that by .the last mail he received two large postal bags full o‘: letters, papers, and hooks sent by 650 different people. “How can I express my grati-

tude to the .senders,” he writes. “The letters are a splendid manifestation of the Australian character. They came from all classes of the tommunity, and woi-c full of sympathy and encouragement.” The writer concludes by stating that he will endeavour to reply to the letters, but as it will take some time, no psjvs the w i Hers to realise the magnitude of the task and excuse any delay.

So multifarious are the duties of the Mayor of Auckland that Mr C. •) .* i Parr must occasionally almost forgot 1 that he is likewise a member of the 1 legal profession. He was remaindod I of this fact in rather a droll way on [ the occasion of the opening of the I Parnell branch library (says the Star). Arriving a little earlier than those invited to the official ceremony, Mr Purr cast an approving glance at the well-stocked bookshelves. He j then reached out and selected a vol-J nine for inspection. Having read a title ho turned reproachfully to a member of the library committee who had been in part, responsible for the choice of literature in the little building. “Here’s a nice state of affairs,” he remarked, holding up the. book in his hand, and adopting a tone of mock indignation, “Talk about taking the bread out of a man’s mouth!” The name of the book so casually picked off the shelf by the solicitor-Mayor was “Every Man His Own Lawver.”

In his annual report to the Minister for Agriculture for New South Wales, the Dairy Expert (Mr O’Callaghan) makes the following interesting statement :—“I have to-day examined some high-class margarine which has been imported from England, and I must say that I would prefer to use it rather than eat some of the stored butter which I also sampled this morning. Does it not follow then as a matter of

course, that this same butter, v. hicn is now lying in Sydney, will, when exported to England, compare l very unfavourably with froshlv-made margarine of the best quality? It is, in many

instances, inferior to the margarine when the latter lias journeyed from England; so that an additional six weeks on to the age of tin’s second quality butter will increase its inferiority before it .is placed on the English market. I am not hopeful of much improvement until the classification of cream on correct lines is carried out hy our butter factories ; and I do not expect that this latter will he done until legislation compelling it lias been passed.”

The chairman of the Whangamomona County Council notifies that a meetin gof ratepayers of the Central Riding will be held on January 13th to consider new loan proposals in connection with the re-metaning of Ohura Road in the Central Riding.

An officer very much in the public eye at the races was M r Scoble, who had the tiring job of controlling the traffic at the inner end of the Club’s roadway. Mr Scoble, however, managed everything nicely to the satisfaction of drivers.

Dir Selby MortOn died at Wanganui yesterday at the age of 47, after a brief illness. For twelve years lie was secretary of the Wanganui Agricultural Association, and for

many years acted in a similar capacity for the Egm ont-Wanganni Hunt and the 1 rotting Clubs. He leaves a widow and an infant daughter.—P.A.

A man met with an accident along the Mataroa road a day or two ago, ami- when the doctor arrived at the wayside scene of the accident he discovered that tiie victim had sustained a compound fracture of the ankle. The surest way to save the ankle, the doctor found, was to administer chloro. form, and perform an operation. This aas done, the patient being subsequently conveyed to Taihape Hospital. Operations, on the highway are certainly not common.

Mr Coleman is not yet in possession oi complete returns of the gate money at the recent races, hut the indications are that the amount will be in excess o Hast year. Four men Were selling gate tickets in the street—two in Broadway and two in Pembroke Road. The Broadway men disposed of upwards of 400 tickets, which indicates that the public were fully alive to the convenience provided for them in this respect.

Owing to ■ the accidental omission of a line the sense of a sentence in the Mayor’s letter in the last- issue of the “Post” was spoiled. The sentence should read as follows: “The fact of the matter is that Mr Masters lias been driven into a position that is untenable, and throughout the whole of the correspondence he has resorted to subterfuges in an endeavour to got himself out of difficulties.”

Even the precocious small hoy is learning something about the ways of the motor. One of the genus discovered in Wellington a few days ago that a little, knowledge is a dangerous thing. "Whilst the driver of a motor van was refreshing the inner, man at his home in Upper Willis street, a youngster mounted the driver’s seat of the van, and with much aplomb released the brakes, which, held the vehicle stationary on . the grade. Before help was to hand the van, gathering speed by its own weight, hacked suddenly and crashed into a telegraph pole, and was somewhat severely damaged by the impact.

Pain fell on eighteen days hr December, the aggregate fall being 7.51 I inches. r J he only big fall was on the j 10th, when 2.33 in was .recorded. On ; lour days the fall was recorded in hundredths of an inch, and there were only four da vs with over half an Inch —-.69in on the Ist, .51 in on the 13th, •Sin on the 16th, ,54in on the 19th. ! be total for the past year was 71.96 inches. During 1913 rain was recorded at Inglewood on 202 days, the total fall being 93.43 in. The wettest month was Xovember (12.55 in) closely followed by July (10.03 in), the driest being February (2.39 in). The biggest fall for the year was 2.97 in on March 11th. During December 9.03 in fell on eighteen days. Heavy falls were 1.21 inches on the Ist and 2.0 tin on the 10th. There were five days with falls of half an inch or over, .and on two days one point only was recorded. These details are gathered from returns kindly supplied by -Mr T. H. Penn and Miss X. Trimble, the respective observers.