LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 3, 25 April 1911, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr G. M. Ahier has returned from Hawke's Ba}' after spending a hurried but very enjoyable holiday. -

After a seven weeks' trip to Taranaki, Miss Lennon returned to Te Awamutu by the Main Trunk on Sunday morning.

Raurimu (Main Trunk Line) is to the front as regards fashion. At a recent tennis social the dresses worn ' included a pink silk hobble s'kirt and a white muslin harem skirt.

The committee who organised the social in connection with the Miller Cup competition, held at Pirongia on Friday, desire to thank all those who assisted in making the evening a success.

There are some white slaves in the South as well as in the North Island. A Southland paper states that a farmer's wife in a rural district, not far from Invercargill, had hand-milked twenty-eight cows, night and morning, throughout the presejit season.

Quite peculiar circumstances arose in connection with one census return which was made up by a resident of Gisborne. The schedule was duly filled up at the specified time, but on Monday morning it was found that the family had increased by one, and there was much speculation as to whether- the newly-arrived member should be included. The subenumerator, when collecting the return, was asked for his opinion and promptly pointed out that the Act provided that travellers who arrived on Monday morning, and were not enumerated elsewhere, would liave to be included, and, consequently, the little stranger was duly tallied. •

Two ladies who went to New Plymouth for the day on Good Friday got into trouble on the return journey. On arrival at Stratford they tried to open the door of the railwy carriage, but failed. They endeavoured to draw the attention of people on the platform, but nobody seemed tb hear them, and they were just on the point of resigning themselves to a forced ride down to Hawera when a gentleman saw their distress and opened the door for them.

When the question of erecting the glass house was being discussed by the School Committee the other evening, writes the "Stratford Post," the cost of timber for boxing the cement foundations was mentioned. One member, who had recently erected a glass house, said he bought his timber from a mill, and after using it, sold it _at auction for more than it cost him. Local builders say that timber is scarce. We feel, in view of the above, to sympathise with them.

. At the Waimate West County Council, writes the '' Stratford Evening Post," the following letter from the Normanby Town Board was read: —" Owing to the increased heavy traffic passing over the roads, and the constant strain, upon the finances of the local bodies in attempting to keep these roads in fair order, this Board feels that something must be done —and that early —to get the Opunake railway put through, and would suggest that all local bodies and railway leagues combine and circulate a petition through their several districts, and obtain the signatures of all persons interested in this railway, for presentation to the Minister for Railways by a deputation." Discussion by the Council members showed that there was bound to be a difficulty as to whether the route would go to Stratford or Normanby, but it was decided to prepare a petition, seek the support of all local bodies interested, and co-operate in one endeavour to obtain the railway, leaving the question of the route until a later date. Is it not time that similar agitation was made in this district for the muclv-ncedec railway to Kawhia ?

Mr J. B. Teasdale returned to Te Awamutu on Saturday after a hurried visit to Auckland.

Our readers are reminded of the Athleiic Sports meeting to take place at Kihi Kihi to-morrow (Wednesday) afternoon. A splendid series of entries are in for the various events, details of which appear in the official programme published in another column, and a most successful meeting is anticipated.

Already two candidates are mentioned for the Pahiatua seat in the'Opposition interest, viz., Mr J. C. Cooper, who put up a good fight against Mr Ross at the last election, and Mr H. T. Ellingham, a member of the Land Board. A meeting of the Reform Party delegates will be held at the Borough Council Chambers, Pahiatua, on April 29, for the purpose of choosing a candidate to represent the party at the election to be held this year.

A local fruiterer, says the " Oarnaru Mail." while unpacking a case of fruit recently, disturbed a visitor as unwholesome as it was unwelcome. This was a nine inch long centipede, a lively specimen of the genus Scolopendra from Fiji. No time was lost in transferring the animal to a screw-top bottle, in which it succumbed to the narcotic influence of some methylated spirits afterwards inserted. There are centipedes in New Zealand,' but they are insects compared with the stowaway that visited Oarnaru under the protection afforded by a case of fruit. Tropical centipedes sometimes attain a foot in length, and as many of them are poisonous they are best kept out of the Dominion.

The trouble that the harem skirt brings is not all of one kind. As a rule the disturbance of which news has been circulated have been due to the unkind attentions of the vulgar, but at Kalgoorlie a sensation was caused in quite a different way. A young barmaid was charged with having . been drunk while wearing a harem skirt. It was thought that her harem skirt of crimson hue would be worn in the Court, and a large number of spectators attended in expectation, but she appeared in a skirt concealed by a long grey coat. Her counsel attributed her position to over-indulgence in champagne. She was a muchhumiliated woman, and wept bitterly. The bench agreed that the night's incarceration was sufficient punishment.