POLICE FORCE.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2464, 5 October 1914, Page 2

POLICE FORCE.

No successor has yet been appointed to tho vacancy in the police staff in Feilding caused by the transfer of Sergeant Bowden to New Plymouth.

The rainfall in Feilding for September was 1 inch, on six days, the heaviest fall being .48, on the 26th. For the corresponding month of last year the rainfall was 2.15 in, on 12 days, reports the local meteorologist, Mr Wm. Walpole.

A conference of officers and N.CO.'s of the Permanent Staff was held in Palmexston last week to discuss the reorganisation and training of the territorials for the ensuing year, and to give effect to Sir lan Hamilton's proposals. Officers were present froni all parts of the military district.

The s.s. Niagara, which sailed from Sydney on Thursday for Auckland, has Australian mails only, the Feilding portion of which is due per Main Trunk express to-morrow. The s.s. Manuka, which sailed from Sydney on Friday for Wellington, has an Australian and English mail via Suez, which is due in Feilding to-morrow afternoon or Wednesday morning.

Farming prospects throughout the whole district round Ot-ahuhu (says the Auckland. Herald's correspondent) are exceptionally bright. There is an abundance of grass, and all the crops are doing well. Potato blight has appeared in a few instances, but generally the crops of potatoes are entirely free from it. The dairying industry is very prosperous, and likely to continue so. Altogether, the farmer", never had a better season.

A warm tribute, to the Russians as lighters was made a few days ago by Air 11. W. Daidley, a Sydney consulting engineer. Mr Laidley spent a year in Russia as a young man, and lias a great admiration .lor the Russians. "They are men. of magnificent physique, but very slow in movement," he said. "I have always taken a very keen interest in Russian affairs, and have followed events there as closely as one can do from here- I know that the Russian Army of today is a very tough proposition. They have been splendidly drilled, and have remedied the defects' exposed in the war against the -Japanese. As for personal courage, tlio Russian is not one whit behind the British officer, and that is paying him the highest tribute I know."

Some interesting reminiscences of his recent tour through Austria and Germany wero given by the Hon. George Fowlds at a welcome-home "social" at Auckland. ""When I was in Vienna, the capital of Austria," said Mr Fowlds, "I was going round with a guide one day, Avhen, passing along a city boulevard, our party noticed a large gang of women diggins-: with spades and shovels —doing the kind of work which, in all civilised countries, falls to the lot of men. In reply to my enquiries, I was told that in all probability these women were the mothers and wives of men who had been called away under the S3"stem of conscription. We, who had come from more civQised parts of the world, could not help remarking what a terrible system it was that treated the women so, while the men were beinf prepared to kill their fellowmen."

The Belgians treat their captured foes (a correspondent writes) with generous consideration. Many of the German prisoners were very hungry when gathered"in by Belgian patrols. On one occasion a sergeant and threo men brought a tired and disheartened young Uhlan into the town of Landen. He ate voraciously of bread and meat set before him in the nearest cafe ,and his captors watched him compassionately. "I think," said tho seregant thoughtfully, "that the way to disorganise the German army is to lay down traps in the fields of Belgium and bait them with sausages." When the siege of Liege was commenced a strikingly worded article appeared in the Belgium newspaper Oorniere Heure apropos of the reports of German atrocities. The writer, after earnestly appealing to his compatriots to restrain their anger, sinco vengeance ia a bad counsellor, says: "Let us observe, without fail, the laws of war. But you, Messieurs the Prussians, remember that like ourselves, you have homes, and that in these homes you have, left old men, your wives, your children m the cradle. And if hatred blinds you, it blood has obscured your brains, if you aro now only outside human laws, remember, °af least, that the Cossacks are at your doors.