Untitled

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13754, 13 November 1916, Page 4

The usual weekly sale will k lie:; at AVaiareka to-morrow, ■ Train arrangements for the North Otayo Agricultural and Pastoral Association Show on Thursday and Friday next; are advertised in this issue,

The Tcntn Hegiiueut Band played the following programme in the Municipal Gardens yesterday afternoon: March, "Automobile" (Gambctta); overture, "Lc Macon" (Auber); andante, "Pilgrim's Song of Hope" (Batiste); fantasia, "Scenes of Beauty" (Le Due); paraphrase, "Oh God Our Help" (Eimmcr); march, "Concordia." A large number of townspeople visited the Gardens and thoroughly enjoyed the corcert.

At Takaro Park oil Saturday morning a presentation was made to Mr W. Council from the boys of the school*' football teams for 1915. Mr McLaren, president of the Schools' Sports Association, in asking Mr Council to accept a token of their appreciation, expressed; satisfaction with'Mr Connell's services as referee in the schools' matches—services which were keenly appreciated. Mr Council, in replying, said lie derived a good deal of pleasure, from refereeing the school matches.

All arrangements are well forward for the farewell luncheon to be tendered the Reinforcement draft leaving ucxt Thursday. The function, as previously announced will be held at the show grounds and will be given by the Waitaki-County Council. The Defence Department has notified the Coulity Clerk that the troop train will stop at the show ground and the departing soldiors wilt entrain there, The following speakers will propose the usual toasts: "Departing Soldiers," Rev. 11. Sholto Bishop; "Soldiers at the 'Front," Rev. Father o 'Council; "Returned Soldiers,' Rev. P. C. Rcnnic. Mr Ji P. Lee M.P., will also address the departing men.

Although the regulations governing the issue of armlets provide for the prosecution of men who wear armlets to which they are not entitled, there was one man in Christehureh who had the audacity to wear a red armlet and pass himself-off as a returned soldier, although he had never bothered . about enlisting. lie bought the,material for the armlet at. a drapery shop in Christehureh, and had it made lip for him. But Nemesis overtook him. Some genuine returned soldiers got on his trail, and offered, hiiir the option of enlisting or being prosecuted. When he chose the first, tliey escorted him In the recruiting office, and a military doctor saw to it that the impostor was accepted. Now he is iu Trenthaiu, -and report has it that his work there is not of the, most pleasant.'

Tho bakers of Oamarii have decided to advance the price of bread by one halfpenny as from to-day.

The estimated population of NewZcaland and its : dependencies on, September iJOtli, 1010, was 1,154,9-14, But for the absence of more than 50,000 men on active service the total would have exceeded 1,200,000.

Tho Ashburton Technical School Board of Directors, at- its last meeting, authorised the purchase of a lawnmower, but stipulated that the machine should be of British make. An extensive investigation of,-, the hardware shops established the fact that there was no. mower of Britisli manufacturer to be obtained in Ashburton. Since tho grass (lid not meantime suspend its growth, it was finally found necessary to check it with the aid of an American production.- . .

Sixty-three old boys of Christ's College have been killed in the present war. It is proposed as a memorial to them'to rebuild Mr Flower's house, and ways and means are being devised by tho Old Boys' Association. Two Hawke's Bay sportsmen (Mr E. J. Watts and Mr T, H. Lawry) offered to subscribe £2OO a year each until the work is completed.—Dunedin Star,

A novel suggestion was made by the Chief. Justice (Sir Kobert, Stout) in the Supreme Court at Wellington on Tuesday, He referred to the increasing numberiof cases coming before him in which men were charged with stealing litpior from ships' holds, while under the influence of drink, "I think," said his Honour, "that the.Waterside Workers' Union should prohibit any man from membership who is not a teetotaller. This sort of thing is a. great slur on the uniou, and I do not know where it is [going to end."

The Department of Lands and Survey sets an example of frankness to land salesmen when it is putting land upon the market. Here is the Department's unvarnished description of the means of access to a block of endowment land in the Tutameo district: "Full -width dray road to Arowhana station; remain-, ing eight miles by road up bed of Wairangiora Stream for one mile (at present in very bad state), and by eightfoot track for seven miles, on which there is now a number of slips. The building on another block is described as "the remains of an old seven-roomed house."

A shock was received recently by the Old Age Pensions Department iu this Dominion, upon noticing that a pensioner. 07 year? old, had not drawn his money or over a year. Wlien it started to enquire if he had come into a fortune, or was merely 'dead, it was, according to an exchange, discovered, that the ancient had enlisted as a youth of *ll, had got past the doctor, scrambled through the training camp at Treiithain, and gone away to light at G.allipoli with the."Fifth Reinforcements,, ,Ile lasted through the famous peninsula until' flic evacuation, and is now probably in France fighting the Germans.

Some ol' tlie soldiers who are under treatment at Rotorua are desirous of spending the coming Christmas .with their families. At a meeting of the executive of the Auckland Patriotic Association Mr Wesley Spragg read a letter from a soldier who is at present in the Rotorua Sanatorium, aud who expressed the desire felt by many soldiers in his position to spend Christmas at their homes. The writer said that two years ago lie was in the trenches at Christmas, and that last Christmas lie was in hospital in England. He therefore was anxious to spend this year's Christmas with his family. Mr Spragg said that lie knew the writer, and was satisfied that his desire was deserving of sympathetic consideration, He moved that the Minister of Dcrence be requested to grant extended Christmas leave, with free railway passes, to all men in hospitals and convalescent homes who are fit to travel. The motion was carried unanimously.

An illustration of the kindly spirit of the French women toward British soldiers is contained in the latest number of the Victoria League's official publication. In the cemetery set apart for British soldiers at Rouen, every grave is said to have been planted with forget-me-nots, through the care of a French lady, who sowed the seeds aud raised the innumerable plants for men not one of whom she had known in life. This lady, on many occasions, has followed to the grave a soldier's funeral, "to represent," as she expressed it, "the mother, or wife or sister, and to say the prayer they would have said." Some of the graves are beautifully adorned, tended by this Frenchwoman, who will never see her own son's grave, for no one can tell her where it is. So, as she cannot care for her son's grave, she takes those of ( British soldiers to care for instead.

One of the worst uses a man tail be put to is to be made a convict. They are. realising this in America. The New York Evening Mail, in an editorial article, has the following account of an interesting and successful experiment in the scientilic use of rriminai-s:

:f Quietly. with no blast of trumpets anil no writing of text books, Henry 'Ford has performed great modern achievement iii sociology. The J'ord factory to-day employ!) !15.000 men, nearly an entire army corps. Among these are (|OO picked men. 'They are picked convicts. They are mainly men -who came direct from prisou, paroled by the authorities to work for Henry Ford. Six hundred of them! Everyone said that jit could not be done. Ford was crazy. I But of the COO only one lias failed to make good, and has had to be sent back to prison, and that man was sent back, not for being criminal,, but for being immoral. There is 110 fuss and talk about it. None of the ox-convicts' fellow-workmen, and not five persons in the Ford plant know who w. of those 000 are,"

"• recently authorised the raising of a loan of £4OOO for the construction of tqlii baths. The .bqroug}bcngineer has just vcpoi ted tliat owingjto tho rise in, price of, the necessary .Materials the work will cost £OOOO.

A Christcliurch message that the carnival week recruiting campaign was only fairly satisfactory. Up to last night the Christcliurch area \y« still thirty-five men short of the nuijil bcr required to fill the Beinforccmeiits draft. A great recruit: in g rally held in the Colisseum on Saturday night only produced' flv e men. There is' a considerable shortSglf in most of the other Canterbury areas.

The annual meeting of the New Zealand Cricket Council was held in Christcliurch on Saturday night, when lit 1 was decided I ,,,that the affiliated associations should-not be called upon for their subscriptions during the : ensuing year. It was suggested 1 that every cricket club throughout the Dominion should keep a honours board, contain- / iug the names of all their members who have fallen in. the. war. / - ■

'' In Canterbury wehave women doing Hie work of their sons and brothers who are at the front, grubbing gors.e, hoeing tunrips, attending to stock, and keeping the 'Home Fires Burning' in real • earnest, '' sAys/f correspondent of a Christcliurch paper. A day or two ago in the Carew district two enterprising young women, whose brothers aro in France, were to be seen, in male at- / tire, on the topmost branches of large iir trees, plying the axe.

Current rumour about, the wharves is to the effect that when the Julia Luckenbaeli conies to Dunedin the waterside workers will refuse to touch her cargo. This is not an official statement .-from the.union—in fact,.it is not known tlrat the union have formally come to any decision on the question—but inquiries lead to the belief that the watersidcrs individually arc resolved to leave the vessel alone, this beiug their way of intimating that iu spite of all disavowals she is a German steamer, or in some way running' in German interests. It was slated on Friday by Mr J. P. Ridings, Collector of Customs, that a considerable number of Hindoos had left Auckland for India within recent months, iu order to enlist for service. Mr Ridings further remarked that by the last mail from Suva lie had received a letter from four Hindoos, anxious to return to India to enlist, but unable to pay the £IOO required by the Union Steam Sliip Company in the ovent of their being refused 1 permission to laud at Auckland. The matter was satisfactorily settled by cablegram, and presumably the patriotic four will soon be on their way to join one of the Indiau regiments.