STRATFORD NEWS

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 9951, 12 March 1894, Page 2

STRATFORD NEWS

» [FROM OUR RESIDENT AGENT] March 10. — The cases of interest at the S.M. Court yesterday, included one in which the Town Clerk prosecuted Henry Brooking for causing an obstruction to the street by leaving a number of carts and drays thereon. The defendant, who ] is a wheelwright in Page Street pleaded guilty, but protested against being singled out for prosecution when his business competitors on the main street were equally guilty of a breach of the bye-law. Mr T. C. Fookes, solicitor to the Town Board, who conducted the case, pointed out that if this were so, it made Mr Brooking's offence none the less. The gentlemen referred to would no doubt be prosecuted in their turns if they took no warning from the present action. Mr Brooking had been warned more than once, and it was necessary to show that the bye laws were not to be regarded as a dead letter. A fine of 55., was afflicted with costs, amounting to £1 18s. J. S. Greig was charged by the police with attempting suicide by taking ladanum. Constable Leahy conducted the prosecution, and Mr J.McDavitt defended, The evidence went to show that the overdose had been taken by misadventure and the case was dismissed. A number of civil cases were heard. A well attended tea-meeting was held last evening in connection with the Primitive Methodist body. The occasion was a change of pastors, the Rev. Mr Clover giving place to the Rev. Mr Hayward. At the after-meeting, presided over by the Rev. Mr Rawles, valedictory speeches were given by the Salvation Army captain, by the Station Steward, Mr Collmgwood, on behalf of the local preachers, by Mr F. James, on behalf of the Sunday school teachers and scholars, by Mr Clover's colleague, the Rev. W. C. Wood. A presentation of a purse of sovereigns was then made to Mr Clover, and suitably acknowledged. The Rev. Mr Hayward was then formally welcomed by the Chairman, who was followed by Mr E. Burgess, Sunday School Superintendant and by Mr Reedy, of Midhirst. Mr Hayward made an excellent speech in reply, and tlie meeting terminated at a late hour. A number of hymns were sung at intervals, the choir leading and being heartily followed by the meeting. Apologies were made for a number of clergymen and prominent laymen. The whole evening's proceedings were enthusiastic in the extreme, and speak volumes for the success which has attended the labors oi Mr Clover during the time he has been in the district. Mr Hayward, too, appears during the week or two he has been in , the district to have made many frienda, and may well look upon the expression of goodwill that greeted him last evening as a happy augury of the future. It was a parson who said it, or I should hesitate to give it a place in this column : ■A reverend speaker at the meeting bade the people be of good cheer, for although they were losing their Clover they were getting Hay instead, and the provender would be as good but in a more compact form — concentrated sweetness as it were. As Mr Hayward's proportions are not exactly Brobdignagian, and Mr Clovei has, as one of the speakers remarked, found Stratford air agree with him remarkably well, the joke told. It is an article of faith with most of ue that Taranaki is the finest dairying district in the universe, and it goes without saying that Stratford bosses the Taranaki show. Yet there is an article of consumption, intimately connected with the dairy industry, that is as rare among us a receipted account. I allude to bacon, and more especially to thai highest developement of the porcine gluius, the well-cured well-fed ham. Foi a specimen of the latter a caterer for a recent public festival scoured the district ill vain.