LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2669, 15 January 1916, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

His Majesty the King has graciously been pleased to approve of the convalescent camp hospital for sick and wounded soldiers at Rotoriifi being named King George V Hospital. At the present time the number of men from the Post and Telegraph Department actually on service at the front is 766, said the Postmaster-Gen-eral (the Sight Hon. Sir J. G. Ward) yesterday. The number who are waiting'to be called up is 123 —a total of 889 who have been released, or will bo released during the next week or so. Up to the present the number of men of the Department killed in action is 27, missing- 7, wounded 43. Eighty-eight specialists of the Department have been sent forward for special work, and are receiving half of their civil pay. One lady of the Department lias joined the nursing service, and six others have em listed and arc waiting to be calicd up. The Department will be sending this week some thirtjvthree skilled wireless operators, who will lie required tor special work. Throueh the generosity of Messrs. W. M. Muir and E. Moult, tlic Porirua Mental Hospital has been presented with no fewer than twenty-six pairs of boivls for use on the new green that has been laid down in the hospital grounds. A party of .City bowlers visited Porirua, on Thursday'afternoon and!'participated in some enjoyable games with local rinks. They pronounce the green a first-rate one, which plfiys remarkably true fqr a new l green. Doubtless it will become a custom for one or other of tlio Wellington clubs to send rinks out to. Porirua on a Saturday afternoon. The trip is not a long one, and the surroundings are very 'pleasant indeed. A vote of £250 was made by the Wairarapn. War Fund, Executive on Thursday "in aid of the French Bed Cross Society. A member of a fishing party at the Breakwater on Wednesday (relates the ''Hawke's Bay _ Herald!') landed a sclinapper .weighing just on 161b, The tisli :)vas tlireo feet in length and in. excoilent condition. Thus is /thought to be a record for the Breakwater. An even larger specimen was almost landed when a twelve-foot shark took it off the hook within a few feet from the masonry. The shark throw itself, almost out of the water in seizing its prey and displayed no fear of the onlookers, swimming around for about half a minute before disappearing. Tlio Government offices in the Wellington Provincial District will he closed on Saturday, January '22 (Anniversary Day). An interesting story of the front is related by the Timaru "Post." It states that when. Trooper Munro, now on furlough in Timaru, was wounded, ho asked the lato Trooper Hagerty, who was near at hand, to get his (Munro's) hclcj-all, which was iu a valise somo two miles away. Trooper Hagerty promised to do so, and Trooper Munro was taken from the peninsula, in a hospital ship. Trooper Hagerty was killed in action, ' and liis friend thouglit • there was little chalice of his hold-all finding its way back to Timaru. However, Private V. Wilson, who has just returned from the front, brought back a letter and the hold-all, which were in Trooper Hagerty's possession at_ tlio time of his The letter is dated August 18, 1915, and runs as follows:— "Dear Friend—This hold-all was give.-, to me by Bob Munro to hold for him until we met again. Tn caso anything happened to him I am (if possible) to 'send it to his mother. If by any chance 1' am knocked out, would tlio nndor of it, if possible, send it as I have been asked? "Trusting it will not put the tinder to any inconvenience, and also dcing a fellow comrade a good turn,—l am, yours sincerely, Trooper J. Hagerty, Bth S.C.M.K." Trooper Hagerty was killed the day after this letter was written, but tlio fact that Troopsr Munro now lias his hold-all speaks eloquently of tlie late Trooner Hagerty s faithfulness to his trust." Mr, Harold Asliton has been appointed associate director of J. .0. Williamson, Ltd., in Australia. ' Information lias been received from the Defence authorities by Mrs. Julia M'Donald, of York Street, Timaru, that lier son, Sergeant Gordon M Donald, died of wounds on January 5 in a military hospital at J)evonport. Gordon waa between 23 and 21 years of age. He wont to the Waimataitai School and afterwards was employed in Messrs. Tripi) and Rolleston'3 office. His health requiring an outdor life, ho left tins firm and became clerk to Miller Bros., builders. He was ft prominent member of the Pirates Football Club, and was well known in athletic circles. He joined the First Reinforcements as a private, was promoted sergeant at Trentliam, and was attached to the headquarters staff there and in Egypt. He was wounded in the knee at Gallipoli on August 16, and was taken to Malta. Later, news was received that lie was suffering also from malarial fever, and was in hospital at Devonport.