NEWS SUMMARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16099, 13 December 1915, Page 4

NEWS SUMMARY.

Auckland: The residence of Mr. W. Given at Karangahake has been destroyed dv fire. The total of the Auckland Sick ana Wounded Soldiers' Fund now amounts to £343,600 17s sd. "Shirkers" were denounced in an outspoken manner hi a sermon by the Rev. • I icpfr Odder yesterday. Major J. E. Duigan, N.Z.S.C.. has been Miipviiut-ed to command the Tunnelling . impanv of Engineers now in camp at J \ vondaie. An Auckland schoolman Mr. 1':. T. Hart, ha-f received presentations on the. ! • i-.-oasuon of his concluding 50 years of J «ork a 5 a teacher. ] Mr C. .1. Parr has received comp.a'.nts •'-■-.ru soldiers on Gal lip Hi protesting ■i-zaimt an allegedly unfair system of granting commissions. The sinking of the Marquette* is_ graphjt? iiiv described by one of the New Zea J land nurses who was aboard the trans--.'on when she was torpedoed. i The methods adopted by the 'War Pensions Board in considering applications for pensions bv soldiers or their depend.Hits are discussed in an interview by the; Hon. A. M. Myers. Minister in charge* of ;he Pensions Department. i New Zealand 1 The 245 th casualty list, which is published this morning, contains the names of 10 men. The approximate total to date .< 7951. \.-i elderiv woman named Mrs. Mitchell, ■ ' lnveri-argill, was knocked down by a :rain and seriously injured at Petone on v .itnrdri.y_ 1 he wife of J. J. Powelka, who escaped •mm gaol in Wellington after being senp.- Ed to 21 years' imprisonment, has •"-"tn granted a divorce. Iho body of an c.'d settler named , Zaccheus Wells. 85 ytvirs of age, who had been missing for five clays, was found in . the Henui River, near New Plymouth, on ( Saturday. J \ nan named Daniel Casey has been a. ic.-ted at Win ton on a charge of man- - lighter. He struck another man named i.'Oiihman, who called him a German, f Le;chman subsequently died. ' A deputation of members of Parliament 1 "aited upon the Prime Minister and Deii nee Minister at Wellington on Saturday and urged the necessity for establishing ! 'CaJ receiving training camps. The Prime Minister stated that the matter would be considered by the Cabinet. The War: There has been an enormous peace demonstration in Berlin. The allies are still retreating in the Balkans in good orderThere has been a tremendous recruiting boom in England prior to the close of Earl Derby's scheme. Many German submarines, in sections. I are passing through Bulgaria in special j trains towards Tnrkey. * \ In an outspoken statement M. Yenizelos affirms that the Servian treaty "with Greece was binding on the latter power. The Athens correspondent of the" London l)aily News states that the New Zealanders, on .Friday repulsed a Turkish attack at F~ ithia,. Herr Maximilian Harden, the German publicist, has admitted that Germany has not yet beaten one single enemy. He say? Germany must avoid a war of attri- ! tion. A message from Paris states that, fol- : lowing a conference of British and French i statesmen, an announcement was made to ' the effect that there was now no question ! of abandoning Salonika. • Reuters Athens correspondent states j that a portion of the Greek troops at Salonika have been removed, lest they impede the allies' measures to place the town in a state of defence. An outbreak of anti-Greek rioting occurred at Newcastle. Soldiers and a mob paraded the town and smashed the windows of Greek shops. The police were powerless. Finally the men dispersed. An explosion in Eastern Pennsylvania destroyed the Bethlehem Steel Company's plant, which was engaged in the manufacture of munitions of war for the allies. Several persons were killed and 15 others injured. Dr. Dillon, the Daily Telegraph's special correspondent, says that he has good reason to believe that in the event of the abandonment of the < Balkan campaign, Greece and Rouinania would probably join with Austria and Germany.