NEWS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9612, 19 March 1917, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Rather vague was the written extras* of a reservist to the Military Service Board oh Saturday. ‘T have gone away as I am sick from my back, was his explanation to the board.

“If things go on as they are at present there will be no excess profits next year. The farmers will simply piut the money into the land.” —Mr J. It. Hamilton "at .Winton farmers’ mooting. The Defence Department, it is understood, has secured for use in the iNew Zealand Reinforcement training camps a supply of the latest pattern rifles used at the front. Those we to bo issued shortly. One of tho most curious plants in tho world is tho toothbrush plant, a species of creeper which grows in Jamaica. By cutting a piece of tho stem and fraying the ends the natives make a toothbrush.

Tho 25th and 2Gth Reinforcements are to he given their final leave during tho Easter holidays. The 2Sths, the next draft to go into camp, will mobilise one week late, so that they may have the full benefit of the holiday period before going into camp. “I thank you ladies so much for your luncheon,' 1 said Captain iDmThompson, at the Town Hall on baturdav, “but you make us all rather nervous. (Laughter.) All the lad"* wo ha vo seen recently have wot« trousers 'and have had masks on their faces, and they are not mte - csting like that, you know. (Laughter and applause.) The conference between tho representatives of the various waterside, workers' unions and the exports ein-, ployed hy tho shipping companies having concluded, the experts will re-,-port to their employers to-day con-, corning the new working conditions to. be embodied in the now waterside agreement. The watersiders’ representatives will resume the conference with, the shipowners to-morrow.

A rumour readied tho police lost night that a youth had been drowned nt Ngahaumnga while bathing during the day. A constable was dispatched to tho locality, but his inquiries failed to elicit any information as to the Identity of the youth. Last night a party of soldiers was engaged searching the rocks for the body of the lad supposed to bo missing, but up to a late hour no discovery wa s made. It. is estimated' that the State Fire Insurance Department, which earned last year a record net profit of-over £53,000, has, during tho 12 years it has been in operation, saved the people of Now Zealand, by the reduction caused- in insurance premiums, not less than £2,500,000. The reduction has averaged 25 per cent, all round. Yet on this basis the department has been able to accumulate a reserve of upwards of £155,000. . There is said to bo a tremendous'do* mand for peanuts in Ncrw Zealand. Tho possibility of cultivating peanuts on a commercial scale in the Auckland districts has already been discussed. According to Mr H. F. Allen, secretary of tho Wellington Industrial Association ,who has just returned from Auckland, an experimental crop has been planted just outside tho city, on tho road to Ouohunga, and the experiment is being watched with interest.

On Saturday a further fall in trfo water level of the Morton dam was reported, tho water heing about_ 17ft below tho lips of the by-Wash. Irtho dry weather still continues the City Council will probably bo forced to take stops this week to compel citizens to heed the reported warnings that have been issued. Tho wastage of water, it is pointed out. could be materially reduced if shower baths wore substituted for the morning plunge, if all leaking taps were repaired, and if washing water instead of , fresh water were used for watering the gardens. Tho Basin Reserve' improvement scheme, tho funds for the carrying out of which were provided by the Citizens Carnival, is now rapidly approaching Completion. The new fence, high-board' ed and with concrete posts, is nearly finished, as also is the concrete work for tho handsome lodge gates on either side of the reserve. The fence follows a line a few feet outside the footpath running round the cricket and football grounds. Tho space, between tho fence and the footpath is now being graded and turfed, while tho scheme for putting in order and extending the present plantation is also being proceeded with.

In an interview, Surgeon-Captain P. T. Putnam, of Palmerston North Hospital, who has returned after eighteen months’ service in Egypt and France, said one of the most astounding featuros of the present war had boon the exceedingly small death-rate from disease, in comparison with previous wars, this being due to the great advance in preventive medicine and hotter organisation of sanitation in the camps. Dr Putnam paid a warm tribute to tho work of the nurses. Ho said he thought that next to the men fighting in the front line, the most deserving of credit are the stretcherbearers and the hospital nurses.

A new bituminous coalfield has been discovered at Preservation, which is some few hours’ steam from Bluff. Something like a thousand acres have been pegged out in the National Park by a syndicate of which Mr G. B. Thompson, who has been engaged in tho district in the hunt after precious motals for the past twenty-seven years, is prominent. Assayists have given a favourable verdict. The strata of the country are similar to those of the Blackball Coal Company’s fields in Westland, and consist of sandstone and fireclay. The party drove on eight seams, opening up several to the extent of fifty and sixty feet, and laying upon seams of tho finest bunkering coal.

At the last meeting of the esecu< tiro of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society at Hamilton the question was discussed of replenishing the fish and game in the society s district. All present were invited to visit the game farm at Cambridge, where a most successful pheasant-rearing season was in full swing, between three and four hundred birds having already been distributed. The curator, it was stated, looked forward to breeding and liberating thousands next season- under present conditions. The meeting was of opinion that a large society controlling a great area of country, such as the Auckland Society, was in every way likely to prove more Successful than smaller bodies; but it requires the active assistance of many local committees, with frequent meetings,_ such as thaw held at Hamilton, to discuss the best methods of working. Every effort was being made to increase the scope of the society’s operations. Donnelly's Hair Restorer.—A real tonic. Cures dandruff, stops hair falling. Chemists, stores, hairdressers, 2s Cd. Donnelly’s, 65, Vivian street. .•