Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2463, 3 October 1914, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

To-day's Anniversaries. Leyden relieved/ 157-1. Treaty of Limerick, 1691 Melbourne University opened, 1855 Wellington chosen as the seat of Government in New Zealand, 1864 Austro-Italian Peace signed, 1866. di d 1896 Morris ' tlle British P° et >

Germany's Great Appetite, . Earl Kitohener, who is one of the most economical of word-users, and who does not say things which he has to take back, tolls us that tho food supplies of our enemy are running short. If K. of K. says 80j it must be so. And no wonder that the German is on short rations, for his army's appetite is simply appalling. Here are the items in a week's standard m i°Q n Anml tlle Raiser's army: Bread potatoes 120,830.000----nn,V meat coffee 2.009,OpOjJw. sugar salt 2,009OOOibs. It is estimated that the daily cost of provisions alone for the combined armies would run into £3,750,----OUO (exclusive of coet of transportation)—truly, an enormous daily bill rrom the war butcher, baker, and grocer.

England the Unready! In an editorial article on "the supreme, importance of the comman3 of the sea," in which England's prompt bottling up of the German fleets in the first stage of the war is emphasised, the Scientific American says: "To our minds, the most convincing proof of the cataclysmic nature of the present upheaval in Europe is to be found in the fact that the opening of the war found both the German navy and its vast merchant marine totally unprepared for the emergency. If it does not prove that, at least it proves that Germany had not the slightest expectation that the British navy would be brought into the conflict." We think the latter expectation touches the spot, although. the Kaiser has always been on the side of the Little Englander who boasted about England the Unready.

What Not to Say and Print. Wo take tho following item from last night's Evening Post: "The Minister of Defence informed Mr J. C. Thomson yesterday afternoon that the services of the National Reserve had not, as suggested, been declined. On the contrary, he said, their enthusiasm and good work is fully appreciated by the Government. 'The supply of rifles,' the Minister added, 'is limited, and I regret not being able to supply them to the National without taking thorn from the Senior Cadets, who arc undergoing training, and this I do not think advisable.' " We would not use such an item, excepting (o poinfc out that Mi - Allen was wrong in making such information public and the city paper erred in patriotism in publishing it. What is the use of the Government censoring tilings for the safety of the Empire and New Zealand and its own Defence Minister gives us away like that?

The Marsden Centenary Celebration, The Marsden Centenary Celebration Commisrion has very wisely revised iia programme to cuib conditions arising out of a. state of Tar, and if:. general secVeiarT (the Rev. Wm, U. Wilson, of Auckland) asks uc to dratv the attention of Anglicans and ofcherr. to the-changes. The proposed Cliuroh has been abandoned, but the special celebration of Holy Communion at the Marsden Cross,, oa Christ-

mas Day, 1914, is to be held as arranged. Special thanksgivings are to , be offered in ©very Anglican Church ; throughout the Auckland province next Christmas Day; and we do not see why the celebration should not be made in every Anglican Church in the Dominion, for it is a red-lettered event in colonial history. A public meeting is to be iield in the Town . Hall, Auckland, on December 11, as arranged. The Commission adds: "While the raising of the Marsden Thanksgiving Centenary Fund is impossible at present, in consequence of the war, yet, in the opinion of the Commission, it should be proceeded with, if circunistanoes permit, after . the Declaration of Peace." We trust this will be so—and soon; for the , mission of Marsden was a fine feature , in the early settlement of New Zealand by the British race.