LOCAL AND GENERAL

Waipa Post, Volume III, Issue 124, 2 July 1912, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Talk carnival,

As an indication of the want of cash in Waihi, Fuller’s pictures closed down indefinitely from last Saturday night.

The effect of the strike at Waihi is seen in the attendance at the three schools. Already there is a difference of one hundred and twenty-one in the average number attending, and the numbers are still declining. Over 30 pupils have left the District High School.

Te Awamutu has something of which it can boast. It is not generally known that we are the lowest-rated town district in the Dominion. We give this as a hint to the City Fathers. They will be able to raise the rates and the footpaths at the same time.

The following team will represent the Te Awamutu Hockey Club in a match against Leamington, at Leamington, on Wednesday next: —Silcock, Douglas, Johns, North, Robinson, Parker, Davis, Jack, Sutherland, Verner, and .Moeller; emergencies, S. Bonnar and Solomon. ?'he Brake will leave Te Awamutu at 12.30 sharp.

Mr W. J. Phillips, watchmaker, announces in our advertising columns that he has disposed of his business to Mr C. Kendrick, of Auckland. Mr Phillips desires to thank all his customers for their favours, and desires a continuation of their support to his successor. Mr Phillips will not be leaving the district for some little time.

Mr J. A. Young, M.P., has been informed by the assistant road engineer at Hamilton that the timber for the Mangaorongo bridge No.I has been ordered, and the construction will be put in hand as soon as the timber can be got to the site. He has also been informed from the same source in reply to inquiries made by him that sums will be placed on the estimates this year for bridges over the Upper Mangaorongo and Maihihi streams.

Curie’s pictures had a very fair audience last Friday evening, and it is evident they are growing in popular favour. The pictures screened were very fine, and were seen to great advantage. The lucky winners of the five shillings given by the .management were Miss Moody and Miss M. Clifford. There was no one in the particular seat designated and the audience decided that these two young ladies who were in the next two seats should receive the prize. Curie’s are giving another five shillings to the occupier of a particular seat next Friday night.

Now that the members of the post aud telegraph service have had time to think over the newest regulation against gambling they are not so angry as they were (says the Press). The memory of the oldest servant cannot reach to a period when it was not understood that the department looked askance at the man who made a practice of betting, or when gambling itself was not prnctically prohibited. To that extent the regulation is not new, and so far as it may effect church lotteries, art unions, and the like, all are assured that the regulation will be a dead letter.

The value of a child’s evidence is often a debatable point. At a northern court last week, when a girl of tender .years was giving evidence, the police indicated an accused person in the dock and said, “Is that the man ? ” The little girl replied, “ Yes.” The legal man who was watching the case in question for the defendant submitted to the bench that the tactics of the police were unfair. He said that the child would naturally indicate the man whom the police pointed out in such a convincing manner. Children’s evidence, and particularly that of little girls of immature years brings back recollections of a case once heard in the Auckland supreme court. On that occasion the Crown prosecutor remarked kindly to the infant who was giving evidence, “Now point me out the man who is guilty of this offence.” The child gazed wistfully round the court, pointed a finger of accusation at the foreman of the jury—who, by the way, was one of Auckland’s leading merchants and a strong pillar of the Presbyterian church —and said most convincingly, “ that’s him.”

At the local Police Court on Wednesday last Robert John Cross (alias Davis) pleaded guilty to the theft of a watch and chain and £l 5s in cash from J. Robb, of Ohaupo, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. The Bench considered that there was not sufficient evidence to connect Patrick Hickey (arrested for the same offence) with the theft, and he was accordingly discharged.

There was a crowded attendance at the Presbyterian church on Sunday evening when Prince Gustave Dikran gave a most interesting account of the story of the Albanians in their struggle to free themselves from the despotism of Turkey. The Prince spoke very highly of the work of the American Presbyterian Missionary Board in e tablishing and maintaining colleges, and particularly in reference to the work at Beirut, Palestine, where he graduated. The audience was deeply interested in the person: 1 ! experiences of the Prince, and listened to his story with great attention.

Avery pleasant little gathering of the relatives and friends of Mr and Mrs James Berry took place at their residence on Saturday afternoon last, the occasion being the forty-fourth anniversary of their wedding day. The Rev F. W. Clarke, ih proposing the health of Mr and Mrs Berry, briefly referred to their career in the King Country, and said that Mr Berry nad led a very strenuous life, and had rendered valuable services to the community in the early days, while Mrs Berry had devoted a great deal of her time and skill to ministering to the sick, both among the first settlers and the Maoris, taking almost impossible journeys on errands of mercy, when the old bridle tracks of these days were positively dangerous. Mr Berry was for many years a licensed layreader, and has the honour of having started and maintained the first regu’ar Church of England services in the King Country and also of having, with the aid of his wife, conducted the first Sunday School there.