NOTES FROM THE CITY.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3829, 4 July 1919, Page 2

NOTES FROM THE CITY.

(From Our Travelling Reporter.) SOME GUNS.

Messrs. G. J. Harford and G. J. Fitzpatrick are not the only guns in Wellington at present. Sixty pieces of artillery, captured by the New Zealand Division from the Germans, arrived per s.s. Waimana this week. They wore unloaded on Wednesday, and' some of them are now lined along tho path in front of tho City Town Hall The guns are of several calibres. They look gaunt, nisty, and useless now, though no doubt in their fighting days they were death-dealing weapons. They appeared to be very heavy and awkward to move about and 1 was wondering how many horses or how much .horse-power in tractors were required to haul ono when six New Zealand soldiers c:ime along smd moved them ono by one to their stations with very little trouble. AYellington school boys are having a fine time screwing and unscrewing tho sights, etc. Each gun bears a legend stating that it was captured by the N.Z. Division. THE RAILWAY SERVICES , . Perhaps tho main topic of conversation in the city just now is the curtailment in tho railway service. There is a very general opinion that the authorities have introduced this dro/stic change in order to give a back-hander to Labour. That certainly is tho impression in many people's minds, whether it is correct or not. It is generally agreed, however, that tho Government has only made a rod for its own back. People hero f\ro not blaming the miners for the shortage of coal. They blnme the Government for not having foreseen the shortage, and made provision against it. It is suggested that a partial restriction, spread over a longer period, _ would have been a better way of meeting tho case. Wellington business people are just beginning to discover what tho curtailment means, and there Avill be a big dust raised here about it before tho month is out. [ tried to find out how long tho restrictions were likely to remain in force, and was informed that as loag a term as five or six months is considered not unlikely. COAL SHORTAGE. The coal shortago hero is something cruel. Householders can get only ono or at the outsido two bags of coal at a tinio, and cvory dny a long queuo of peoplo may be seen, standing outside the coal supply offices waiting to receive orders to secure their dole. And the firewood which is supplied the 'householders would bo a joke were tho weather-not so cold. People in Fei'ding, who may have inaire, matai, totara or rimu, may consider themselves lucky when they know that in tho city broken up deal boxes from the grocers 'shops are being sold as firewood. And these poky little grates in tho suburban dwellings! Give mo Feilding, even though we have no Town Hall, trams, or day electric Toad. HOUSE RENTS. 1 am wondering how tjie anti-Bol-sheviks of Feilding would like to have to pay £3 per week rent—yes, ront— for a five or six-roomed cottage with one-eighth of an acre of ground ! This will take sonio believing, but I have it from several sources. I have heard of one family who paid £2 12s a week for three rooms in a flat. There is a good deal of the housing of two'and three families under the ono roof. Buildings are being erected in the suburbs as fast as possible, yet the demand cannot be met. I find that many men in business houses in the city a_re keeping their domiciles as close to the city as possible. Complaint is loud and deep about the ■unsatisfactory train service Upon which tho city men do not seem to be able to depend.