TOWN EDITION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13602, 6 February 1915, Page 6

TOWN EDITION

Tolaga, Tiniroto, and Morcro coaches leave at 7 a.m. on Monday.

Tho Department. noti'fies that photographs of the departure of tho third roinforcoments arc forbidden to be published until permission is granted.

A new variety of whea-t from Italy being tested at the Ruaknra Farm of Instruction gives evidence of great drought-resisting powers.

The butter exported from Auckland tins season to January 31 amounted tu 331,609 boxes, as compared with 286,756 boxes sent uut during, the sa,me period last year. The recent rain was not heavy enough at Danuevirke to do any good. It merely moistened the dry grass and crops to make them wither more effectively in the succeeding sunshine.

An extraordinary feat of -shipbuilding was announced by the Secretary of Ihe Admiralty on 17th December, says the London limes — tho new light cruiser Caroline was built by Messrs Cammell, Laird and Co. t at jiirkenhead, in ten months.

The Rev. C. F. Askew, vicar of St. Mark's, Wellington, is at present seriously ill at a private hospital in New Plymouth. Some ten days ago, when l\e was at the Mountain House Avith a party climbing Mount Egmont, Mr Askew Avas suddenly taken ill, and he was conveyed at once to Now Plymouth. During the days following his condition was critical, but later news was better. In any event, he will be unable to go home to Wellington for some weeks.

An officer of the New Zealand expeditionary force, writing to a friend :n Auckland, states that the place at which the force is encamped is named Esbet-et-Zeitonn, which means a grove of olives, the principal portion of the name being pronounced "Zittoon." He states -that the Auckland battalion had boon engaged in rifle practice on the Abassieh Ranges, but shooting was handicapped by the glare of the sun on sand, and the fact that morning mists made firing impossible before nine or ten o'clock. Tim ranges are about four miles from •the camp, and the Auckland men have bivouacked for a couple of nights. "One strange thing which makes our camp different from one in New Zealand is that almost anything can be bought in the lines," the officer writes. "The natives have permission to run up rush huts or tents, and we have numerous tailors, barbers, bootmakers, etc., at our doors, while hawkers come round with oranges, "tomatoes, etc., ad lib." Referring to the currency, the officer says that for a piastre^ — a silver coin worth 2^d — one gets ten nickel coins, or 20 copper ones about the size of a farthing. "It is a great game now paying thp men," he remarks. "Sometimes the only change they send along is sovereigns and half-piastre pieces. To pay a man 15* vow must give him 147 of these coins. The men were yesterday — December 20 — paid up to December 1, and in future will be paid weekly. The average drawn by the men was £3 to £4, all of which "goes to help the good feeling between the natives and -the New Zealand and Australian soldiers."