AUCKLAND SPECIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 73, 1 April 1901, Page 2

AUCKLAND SPECIAL.

SPORTING WAGER. (Special to Times.) Auckland, last night. A wager of JXjO to £25 was laid about the Taranaki mare Okoari for the Easter Hand'cap diu’ ig the week. COLONEL PORTER. The appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel Porter to the command of the Seventh Contingent has proved one of the most popular appointments the Government has made. During the absence of Lieu-tenant-Colonel Newall at the front, Colonel Porter acted as Commanding Officer for the Wellington Volunteer District, and as such became well known to and popular with our Volunteers. The Colonel has long been a prominent figu-e in our colony’s life, and, when holding the rank of major, he took a leading part in both the East and West Coast wars against the Maoris, and was twice wounded. He also spent several years in the hunt after To Kooti, after that chief’s escape from the Chatham Isles. Colonel Porter, who settled in Gisborne for several years, occupied that town’s mayoral chair, was adjutant for his district, and was for some years Native Lands Purchase Commissioner. The selection of Lieut.-Colonel Porter to the command of the Seventh Contingent is, I understand, owing to the necessity for appointing an officer qualified to command in the event of certain contingencies arising on the arrival of the relief forces in South Africa. RETURNED TROOPERS. From AVellington I learn that Colonol Pole-Penton, officer commanding the forces in New Zealand, has issued a circular to the officers commanding the volunteer corps throughout the colony, instructing them to keep a register of all returned troopers from South Africa, with a view of finding light employment for men who have become unfit for manual labor. Employers who are in want of that class of workers are requested to communicate with the officers commanding the various volunteer corps. ROYALTY. The AVellington City Council (a special message states) have followed Auckland’s . example, and resolved to expend 1:1000 in i the decoration of the city and on other • matters connected with the reception of i the Royalties, conditional on a pledgo by l the Premier to promote an Indemnity ■ Bill in Parliament. ; TOMMY’S DINNER BEER,

A correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes as follows in regard to the “ treating ” of soldiers : —I sec by last mail that there were 30,000 troops in London on the day of Queen Victoria’s funeral, and that there was a pint of beer provided for every one of them except abstainers. Now I wonder what our friends of the no-beer veto who made “ Bobs ” their scapegoat will think of this. Hero we have it plainly demonstrated, even to the satisfaction of Mr Spragg, that neither Lord Roberts nor the authorities at Home, nor the Home public took Lord Roberts’ appeal as literally as those faddists who turned it and twisted

it and (in my opinion) wilfully misunderstood it so that they could use it for their own advantage. Lord Roberts is too wide-minded to attempt such a small, miserable thing as to deprive “ Tommy ’’ of his dinner beer. He loaves all such to faddists who want to diet peoplo by Acts of Parliament, and resolutions of committees, etc. Lord Roberts has a happy knack of striking a medium in everything, hence his popularity with “ Tommy.” He is a little down on drink certainly, but not to the extent of willy-nilly depriving “ Tommy ” of his dinner bcor as our friends of the no-beer voto did ; in fact, he does not think dinner beer is “ drink ” at all; neither it is.