Stratford News.

Taranaki Herald, Volume L, Issue 12439, 17 December 1903, Page 3

Stratford News.

(From Our Resident Agent). IJpccmljer 11th.— An incipient lire in a bedroom at the Trocadero Caiisc<l the Jirebelld to ring out in the hours of Sunday morning. It vas a young man in town from Strathm ue, who read in bed till he started to snore, th^ti awoHe with a choke, U nnd tho room lull of smoke and himself on the vorce of no more. The lire 'V*vS put out before much damage was done to anything but the bedclothes. For reading" in bed the electric Ij?M 'has obvious advantages over a c; t ndle on the pillow. Borough workmen are engaged in metalling the road to the T e c'^rical School in readiness for the Exhibition which opens on the 28th. Among the prizes for competition at the exhibition is one from the Eouitable for the best essay on the subject of life assurance. Should the weather kindly prove complacent we shall have three or foue i rinks of New Plymouth nrvvlers «^n o«r ! green on Thursday. Local fc'lowirs of the ancient pastime are preparing a ! warm reception for the visitors. Interest has lately centred in a "feathers" competition. The "feathers" are four silver fern-leaf badges j'r».M-r>ted to the club by Mr Geo. Smart. They are worn at present by a ink slipped by Mr George Curtis, but ihe holders have to face the "moving accidents " f many a lickl before establishing undisputed possession. The Amateur Choral Society essays the production of "The Messiah" on Thursday. December loth. — Our qnartar-mile of railway platform is still t">o bhcrt. The Prime Minister (as I notice our Richard Ijkes to be called) vas, in a lit of economy, travelling by the ordinary express train this morning and his saloon drew up on the Fenton street crossing. The f.ever failing deputation, headed by His Worship the Mayor, on the platform, found itself on the wrong side of the cattle stops. But it takes more than a cattle stop to baulk a Stratford deputation, a»d its component parts were quickly basking in the genial beddonian rays. Then appeared on the further side of the cattle stop the begaitered limbs, etc., of a iiight Reverend Father in God, a touring bishop (in partibus), who had apparently descended from the State saloon at the wrong end and wished to join the distinguished looking party of Stratfordites. His Lordship negotiated the cattle stop with grace and agility but it was the nearest approach to a vision of a bishop walking a greasy boom that I ever hope to see.