Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2734, 4 June 1915, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

The Vote of the Alien Enemy.

We British are the limit, really. A message comes from Kawakawa, Bay of Islands, where an election taking place, to the effect that objections have been lodged against the enrolling of a number of Austrians, on the ground that they.are not'naturalised. Just look at the position square in the eye: Here we are at virulent grips with the two worst Hunnish foes that ever faced us—Germans and Austrians—and we are actually permitting them to have a say in the choice of representatives for our Parliament! Not ever again in the history of New Zealand should a German or an Austrian,- .naturalised' or not, be allowed to vole iv New Zealand. The Germans are even out-Turking the Turk in devilish tricks that havo resulted iv the violent death of many Now Zealanders in the Dardanelles —and we are allowing tho alien enemy to voto in the Tauinarunui and Bay.of Islands elections. Can you imagino the German/ the Austrian, or the Turk allowing a Britisher to voto in his country ¥'

Our Boys iii Hospital

There has been some uneasiness amongst the relatives of New Zealand's wounded who are- in hospital in various parts of the Old World, a rumour having got about that they were not receiving pay whilst in hospital. We submitted the question to "headquarters, and received the following reply frc«n the Commandant: "As to the report reaching you that men do not receive pay whilst wounded in hospital, this may quite easily be correct in fact, but arrangements are made that advances are made to these men by the hospital authorities, which are entered in their personal pay books, and in that way really become paid, the accounts being'afterwards adjusted in the Pay Department." Colonel Robin courteously adds: "We aro always glad to afford every information in our power in connection with our troops that have gone abroad."

Yesterday's History

The first female convicts arrived in Sydney, from London, 1790. King George V. born, 1865. German Emperor inaugurated the Kiel Canal, 1887, and thus provided a bottle for his fleet to be corked up

m. N Australian Federation carried by Tasmania, South Australia, and Victoria, 1898. .

Santiago Harbour . blocked by U.S.A. Navy, 1898.

Samuel Pliiusoll, who put bis mark on ships for the safety of sailors, died, 1898.

King George is 50 years old to-day. God save the King! ' He supplies the third instance in the history of England of a second son-immediately succeeding his father on the throne. Henry AIII. and Charles 1. were the others. The King and the Kaiser are the only grandsons of Queen Victoria who are European Sovereigns, but, through his mother, our Kiug is lirst cousin to tho Czar and the King of Denmark. Great-grandsons of Queen Victoria will, unless the unexpected happens in this war, ono day rulo in Great Britain, Germany,, Russia, Spain, Roumania, Norway, and Sweden.

To-day's History. Mexico declared war with U.S.A., 181,5. Battle of Magenta, 1859. • Abdul Aziz,, ex-Sultan of Turkey, committed suicide, 1876. 111. was born on Juno <J, 1738, ami his birthday will be celebrated to-day by the Fourth of June festivities at Eton, which consist of

;: cricket match, "speeches.," and a procession of boats. England, even the, England' far remote from public schools, takes amnions and characteristic interest in Kloii, although the Battle of Wateerloo was certainly not won on its playing fields. George 111. was an amiable, well-meaning, virtuous, and obstinate Sovereign. During hi.s reign England lost her American colonies, the French Revolution occurred, and Pitt and Napoleon struggled for the mastery of Europe. All these things must have astonished George 111. immensely. Henry Grattan, the famous opponent of Urn Union between England mid Ireland, died on June 1, 1820. Grattan, like Isaac Butt and Charles Stewart Parnell, was a Protestant. Lady Blessington, I lie Beautiful, who at Goro House, Kensington, London, had iv the 'forties of last century the last literary salon in England, died in Paris on June 4, 1840. She was" an Irishwoman, tho daughter of a small , Tipperary landowner.