Page 6 Advertisements Column 4

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 93, 18 October 1915, Page 6

The following contributions have been cabled through the Government to the Officer Commanding New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, Base Depot, Alexandria: — To be handed to ChaplainCapt. Angus M'Donald (or, in the event of his having been moved from Egypt, to some other responsible officer), for the benefit of sick and wounded New Zealand soldiers in Egypt : — From Miss Nona Thomson, London (per Miss Thomson, Lennel, Southland), £40. For Lady Godley's Convalescent Home ai Alexandria : From Rangitikei Patriotic Society, £8 10 Collected by Mrs. Russell, Hastings (wife of Brigadier General Russell), as a contribution from Hawkes Bay, £150. Total, £158 10s. Plans for the formation of a mutual aid society among employees in the retail soft goods trade have been completed. Membership is open to all persons employed in or about a retail soft'i goods establishment, and including dressmakers and milliners. In the past there has been no uniform practice in the trade as regards sick pay. Some employers have never paid it, and others dis> continued it when -an award was made in the industry. It is hoped thaf the scheme will substitute certain benefits for the present system of uncertain aid. On being granted his usual honorarium at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Amat«ur Rowing Association, Mr. A. D. Bayfield, the energetic secretary and treasurer of the association, said that he desired the money to be given instead to the fund for the providing of comforts for our troops at the front. The other delegates present ap plauded Mr Bayfield's generous offer, and one gentleman, Mi A. Gray (Wanganui) stated that it was the intention of his club to forward comforts to the value of £10 to the members of their •club now at tho front. Lssy Smith, the Jewish soldier who recently won the V.C., was well known in Auckland, but under his ring name oi Jack Daniels, says the Star He wah employed working 'the toboggan at the Exhibition, and, satisfying the Northern Boxing Association as to his bona-fides, was matched to box Jim Hagerty, who was killed a fortnight ago, for the lightweight championship of New Zealand. The arrangements, however, fell through, and Smith left for Australia, where he had several fights, with varying success. The last heard of him was that he bad left Australia for London, so evidently he enlisted there. "War is dreadful, but yet it does good," says Capt. A. J. Cross in a letter received in Wellington a few days ago. "It certainly brings out what is best in a man The selfish become unselfish, and I could write you books on the noble deeds I have seen done. These men are t just the men whom you see every day in the streets of Wellington— farmers, labourers, clerks, shop assistants, schoolmasters (quite a number) — all sorts, rich and poor. Yet daily I see them sharing a last cigarette (and cigarettes here are worth their weight in gold),' or putting aside the best of their rations for a sick chum. I have seen a wounded man •wait patiently on one side till another's wound had been dressed, and heard a last cheery message to his chums from a lad who knew he was being taken away to die." An unexpected contingency has arisen, which will probably affect the shearing industry in New Zealand to some extent this season. Several months ago Mr M. Laracy, the secretary of the Shearers' Association, ordered from England over £100 worth of blade shears, which have arrived in such a rusty condition that they are practically not fit for use. The trouble has arisen through moisture penetrating the "waterproof" packing m which the shears were wrapped. Some of the blades were sent out by Mr. Laracy, Who has received several complainte about them, and has decided not to distribute any more of them. The difficulty arises that it is impossible to communicate with all the hand shearers in New Zealand, and many of them will be annoyed that their blades have not ar rived. Shears which" arrived two years ago properly packed are still in an ex cellent condition, and free from the slightest suspicion of rust. In proposing the toast of "Labour and the War," at a smoke concert recently, Mr. E. J. Carey gave honour to the British aristocracy for the part which it was playing in the war ' Another tribute is paid by the American Socialist writer, Charles Edward Russell, in a recent magazine article. "Only the aristocracy, the well-to-do, the old families, and the landowners seem to care," he says. "To them the crisis is of terrible import. There are 176 members of the House of Lords now serving at the front in the battle line That is more than one-fourth of the total membership, an astonishing fact when we come to consider the number of very old men among the peers. A recent London newspaper contained a casualty list four columns long. I ran down the names, and was amazed to note how many came from well-known or prominent families. The great houses of England are in mourning, the' blinds closely drawn, the ropms darkened, and the women in black Outside the merry crowd streams to the races. Ir is a strange contrast." . "It is hard and cruel, this war," writes a lance-corporal with the Main Body of the Expeditionary Force, who wa6 wound ed soon after the landing, "yet once you have tasted it, there is something that grips and thrills you, and makes you long to be back at it. It's hard to see your chum killed or a pal you like badlj wounded, and to see the dear old com pany being gradually thinned down, to see the old regiment that was once so spick and span, and you were so proud to be in, .being filled with reinforcementa, who are strangers, while the lads you knew lie under the sod or are being invalided home unfit to serve any more. Why don't those who can come, come? They can't fully realise the terrible struggle that is going on. Surely they are asleep or do not know that it is 'foe •home and loved ones we are fighting. God, but they muet be asleej/. One cannot, does not like to say they are ! ! But whether they come or not, we will win. It's fourteen weeks now, old chum, since I was wounded, and I'm tired of being a sick boy. It's just rotten having to stay here, and 1 wish that I had the full use of my arm so that I could get out." The "music" of war is graphically described in a letter written by Capt. A. J Cross, late of the Wellington College staff, to Mr. J. P. Firth, Principal of the institution. "Our ears have become trained to the different noises," says Capt Cross. "We can tell the whistling j rush of the Krupp shell, the whine of the 'Jack Johnson,' the murmur of 'Gentle. Annie,' the hiss of the 5-inch howitzer, and the buzz of the 'Lizzie's' 15inchers. Then there is the 'boom' of the bomb, the 'crrrashh-h' of the high explosive shell bursting, and the bellow of the bomb-gun. Add the ear-splitting smack of the mountain -gun, the moan of the shrapnel, and gently stir in the crack of the Mauser with the deeper note of the Lee-Enfield ; and, when the mixture comes to a simmer, carefully pour in six or eight belts from a Maxim, according to taste, and you may include the cough of a destroyer's 12-pounder, and the sharp bark of the French 75. There you have the recipe for the nicest pandemonium of sound the most enthusiastic American could wish for on the 4th of July." The first climb of Mount Cook this season was made on Tuesday by Mr. H. , Hanna, of Christchurch, who ascended Hochstetter Dome, 9258 ft, with Guides Young and Murrcll.