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King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1133, 5 November 1918, Page 4

There is probably no more mysterious thing connected with the war ithan the censorship. > A resident bf Mangaweka recently received a letter posted on a certain hospital ship (relates the correspondent of the. Advocate) and the censor had most faithfully cut out every reference to the ship in the letter, and even certain towns in New Zealand which had been mentioned in connection with purely.personal matters; and the irony of the whole thing was that the outside of the envelope bore an official stamp giving the name of the ship in broad letters. The recipient is wondering whether an enemy would find it more difficult to read the name stamped on the outside of a letter, or written inside. An American writer give the palm as to soldierly appearance among the brilliant groups-of. officers now to be'seen in the streets of Paris to two widelydifferent .races. As to sartorial get-up, the British officer is supreme. With him- "soldiering is a lino art, so thoroughly mastered that he can spare time for every detail of dross. He is a fashion-plate of neatness, glossy leather and shining metal. However "carefully one lias groomed himself, one feels fairly out at heel when a British colonel passes. .... . Bub the paslmastors wore not of the Continent of Europe. Down the Bois de Boulogne would come a quartet of great Sikhs; handsome as etchings, proud as only Sikhs can he. unconscious as camels with ttirbah_onds swinging, patrician descendant's of forbears who were warriors when Britons and Gauls roamed as nomad tribes." "Since I last wrote lo you I have had temporary command of 'another corps in the battle which had jugJL started to relieve Amiens," says General Sir A. Godlcy, in a letter to the Minister for Defence (Sir .lames Allen). "You will have followed the progress of the battle, and it may interest you to know that the corps 1 am commanding has driven the Boche back east of Amiens. We have taken 1100 prisoners, advanced about 25 miles, and killed a lot of Huns. We hope to continue .... There is no doubt the enemy is in a state of great disorganisation at present.. Divisions are being chucked in anyhow. Against the four—now five—divisions that I have had in my corps, we have had 17 enemy divisions find wc have I handled them very severely and have, in fact, broken them all up." I

No fewer "than 80 New Zealand soldiers who have returned to the Dominion within the. past week brought back English-brideß. The auction sale of section 10, block 7, Mapara survey district, will take place on November 16th. Particulars are now available at Mr Graham's mart. Deferred cablegrams are no good—at least rot when they re sent from the othsr end," said a returned soldier. "A friend of mine sent a deferred cablegram on the day he was leaving England for New Zealand, and it reached its destination only' o:ie day before he stepped aßhore at Auckland. That's 'deferred' with a vengeance." At Mr Bell's sale on. Thursday, particulars of which appear in our issue to-day, Mr Graham will offer a nice pony, harness and gig, a lot of well-bred fowls, unci household goods. As Mr Bell is leaving the district every line must go. A car for. ladies will leave the mart at 1.45 p.m. Te Kuiti has not "celebrated" on the receipt of the recent good war news as other towns have done, but yesterday, upon the receipt of the news that Austria had capitulated, it was quite refreshing to hear the firebell pealing forth and the engine whistles blowing, It is wondered by many who it was who showed sufficient interest in the great news I to arouse public interest by ringing the bell. Wit'a the award of the last batch of V.C.'s the number bestowed since the decoration was instituted reached a thousand. The chief significance of this figure is that there are not more of them. But the standard of the supreme reward "for valour" remains as high as ever. There mßy be many heroes who deserved it without winning it; there is rone upon whom it has been bestowed without incontestable proof of undaunted courage. .In four years of war 478 crosses have been gazetted, a sadly large proportion of these are posthumous awards. 1 . . ;#;. •■■•*'

According to the United States Consul at, Dundee, Scotland, an reports, the possibility of aerial hospitals for the cure of tuberculosis and other diseases has been discussed by British medical men, and a special study is to be made of the effects of great altitudes on the human system. One physician is reported to have said: "It is poesiblo that freedom from germs, lowered atmospheric pressure, and the complete sun-bath obtainable in the air may lead to the creation of aerial hospitals for specially early cases of consumption. "Personally, I look forward confidently to the day when aerial hospitals will be an ordinary equipment of every city."

An indication of the work that will remain to be done by*the men at the front after peace has been declared is contained in' a letter from a Chriatchurch boy who is with the Motor-boat Patrol. Be writes: You must not forget this, that should tha war end to-raorrr.v,it will be ths beßt part of two years before the boys over here get home again, and, speaking for myself, probably longer. A. Bill hsß been put through here authorising R.N.V.R. men to be kept on for five years after the war, if need be. In France, trenches, etc., have to ba filled in, towns squared up and a thousand and one jobs finished before troops are dismissed. With us, v:e have millions of minen to sweep up, and my opinion is that all R.N.V.R. men will be drafted to sweepers on the declaration of paace. One minefield I know of took nine months to lay, and it will take as long to clean up

The fluid which issues from the rubber tree when tapped is known as "latex" in the loaalities where it is produced. It is sli«htly alkaline and contains small quantities of resin, traces of sugar and mineral Baits, and about sixty pir cent, water. In colour it is a creamy white. It is solidified or coagulated by acetic acid, tha action being something like tha souring of milk. On the ruhber plantations of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company, in Sumatra, the lat"X is collected from the trees each morning and poured into a Lrge vat. In the evening acetic acid is added and the latex allowed to stand overnight. By morning tha rubber particles have scpurated from the water and are ready to be transformed into large rubber eheets.

Mr Jennings is to ask thn Minister in Charge of the Tourist and Health Resorts Department, whether, seeing that the Tonqariro National Park will be one of the great assets to the whole of tho North Island aa a pleasure and heatlh resort, he will take steps to idelude in the park, which at present consists of Toisgariro, Ngauruhoo, arid Kuapehu Mountains, and certain areas around their bases, the area taken for miiltary purposes, and which lies between Waimariuo railway station and the mountains? Note.—This area should be included in the pork, as it is the area that will be most used by the public later on. Waimurino is now the place where tourists will arrive and depart from Tokuanu; and a Government accommodation house is urgently wanted there, as well as a couple of huts on Kuapehu for those who want mountain-climbing. Mr Jennings will also aßk the Minister of Defence, whether he will inform the House what privileges are granted in this Dominion to members of the British Empire Imperial Forces, which include a number of New Zealanders, in the way of concessions on railway travelling and other compliments ttiat are allowed to all i soldiers in other portions of the Empire? I