RESTORING THEIR HOMES.

Already there in progress in France a systematic effort to repopulate- those areas of devastation from which the contesting armies have withdrawn. A brief account of the work which is being done has been received by Professor J. C. .Johnson, of the Auckland University College, from Mr. Theodore Rigg, formerly of Wellington, who was an 1851 Exhibition scholar at' St. John's College, Cambridge.

Mr. Rigg is associated with the Society of Friends' Relief Expedition, | which is assisting refugees to restore I their homes. "We have 60 people all i told," Mr. Rigg writes. "We* have a : hospital at Chalons, and at Fere- ; Champenoise, Vitry and Sermaize, the work consists of building shelters, in sanitation, and in inquiries concerning the agricultural needs. There has 1 been awful damage done in this district. Villages absolutely wiped out— Sermaize, for example, has lost 900 houses, and only 20 remain. It is one of the saddest sights I have ever seen —desolation everywhere, people livjng in cellars, without a stick of furniture, and with only the garments they escaped in.

"At Esternay, I had a turn at masonry, carpentry, and water analysis,".Mr. Rigg continues, "but I am devoting nearly all my time now to the agricultural needs of. the' district. It is very useful work, ais the farmers have, in the majority of cases, lost everything, including last year's harvest. I am thinking of starting a small market garden farm at Sermaize, as there is likely to be a great deal of poverty in this place. So far we have had a very busy and interesting time. One is struck by the bravery of the French women in coming back to rebuild their homes. Desolation all around them and the blackest of futures to look forward to in the coming months. It gives one some idea of the lot of poor Belgium. It seems hardly ■ credible that Belgium can ever be restored within the next 100 years to its < former happiness and prosperity."