STATE AND COALMINES.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3234, 7 May 1917, Page 2

STATE AND COALMINES.

Sir James Allen, approached by n Christ church reporter with regard to the proposal to purchase the State coal mines, said be had had nothing before him officially on the subject. "Whether the Government would agree to sell or not I could not say: but I will say that the Government's experience with the mine so far has not been satisfactory, an<l the conduct of the men has not beon such pr to inspire tho Government with much confidence."

The- present total of the Dominion Belgian Relief Fund is £28,262. To-day is .Accession Day —the anniversary of the Queen's Sovereignty over New Zealand. A large proportion of Germans in terned in India declare that they liavo no wish to return to the Fatherland after the war. A sum of £20.000,000 has been invested in building up an American dyestuffs industry during the past 18 months. A chamber of commerce has been organised at Basrah with a view to protecting and furthering the interests of British trade in Mesopotamia. A non-commissioned officer of the Norfolk Regiment now recovering from severe wounds sustained on the Somme has fallen heir to a fortune of £160,000. ! Among other noteworthy golf courses in Britain which aTe immediately to come under the plough in Mid Lothian and ast Lothian are Braids, Cockenzie, Invorleith, Porotbollo, and Saughton.

"The Suez-side Strollers" is the name given to musical party of soldiers belonging to a regiment now out in Egypt, whoso services are in much demand.

The senior scholars of the West Etui school (Palinerston) intend to put a portion of the school ground down in potatoes for patriotic purposes, if the prposal is approved.

The new agreement arrived at by the representatives of the waterside workers and the employers, which was ratified by a ballot taken among the members of the Now Zealand Waterside Workers' Federation, came into force on May 1.

Toronto's 'medical officer of health declares that more deaths have been caused among the belligerent nations by communicable disease than by war, more than 5,000,000 dying from preventible disease annually, and between 16,000,000 and 18,000,000 fr<*m the Same cause since August 1, 1914.

At the V.M.C.A. Soldiers' ChU) in the Featherston Camp at the present time, no less than 180,000 free letterheads and envelopes are used by the men per week. The average amount of stamps supplied by the secretary nightly amounts to over £6. It cannot bo said that the boys are not writing to their friends.

The Hon. G. W. Russell told a Wellington reporter that last year the revenue derived from the sale of trout at Tokaanu totalled £859, and at Rotorua £964. This year £522 has been received at Totaanu and £955 at Rotorua, with two months yet to go in each case.

A witness at the Masterton Magistrate's Court stated that it was a recognised practice among drovers not to clear stock from tho road to allow motor cars to pass unless tho car driver shows an inclination to steady up. The drovers adopted this attitude owing to the number of valuable dogs which had been killed by fast travelling cars when in the act of clearing a track.