NOTES AND COMMENTS

Te Aroha News, Volume XXXIII, Issue 15706, 6 December 1915, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS

It is worth noting that there is a better mind in Germany than the one which finds such easy and noisy expression in the Press, and that this better mind is prepared to do battle with the worst mind for the soul of Germany. In a world of many nations and states, there can be no security for peace except in mutual recognition of right, and the manifesto of the 82 is one of the very few signs during this war that there are Germans of authority and influence who understand this elementary fact. —Manchester “ Guardian.”

The military services which India has rendered in this war not merely in France but in Mesopotamia, in Egypt, in East Africa, and at the Dardanelles, have been very great indeed —only when the war secrets are told shall we fully realise how great. Great too, have been the loyalty and devotion to our cause shown throughout the Indian population. These memorable' events cannot be without their effect on India’s status.— London '‘Chronicle.’'

There is not the faintest doubt that the spring of 1915 was one of the best the Hawera district has ever known (says the correspondent of the “ Dominion ”). Some farmers d. chre that they cannot remember such a season, and others say that th'y have to cast back 20 to 25 years to call to mind another iike it. Grass and crops are abund ant, and the stock is in great condition. Moreover, prices are extraordinary. Butter and cheese pric ;s are higher than ever before, and the figure for wool is excellent. VVocl growing is not the chief industry of the district, but there is sufficient raised for the increased price of the clip to be left.

An excellent illustration of the advantage gained by sprouting and greening potato seed before plant ing may be seen at the Weraroa Experimental Farm (says tbe“Horowhenua Chronicle.”) Four rows of potatoes from seed so treated, at pre sent growing alongside others, are several inches above the rest, though all were planted at the same time. The seed was of medium size, and had been spread out on a loft exposed to air currents, with the result that the shoots became very tough and strong, and when planted came through the soil some time before the others All the potatoes are in a healthy state, and quite free from blight.

The war has proved the value of tobacco in case of nerve strain ; but in that it is only reaffirming the experience of 1870. In that year, in connection with the Franco-Prussian war, the Lancet said : “ The soldier wearied with long marches and uncertain rest, obtaining his food where and how he can, with his nervous system always in a state of tension from the dange s n 1 excitement he encounters, finds that his cigar or pipe enables him to sustain fatigue with comparative equanimity. For the wounded it is probable that tobacco has slight anodyne and narcotic properties that enable the sufferer to sustain pain better during the day and to obtain sleep during the night,

Sir George Paish, one of the. editors of the Statist, has a very confident article in that paper on the financial strength of Great Britain. He is a great authority on the subject, and declares : “It is evident that the British people, with their seas open to their commerce, and with their income and their wealth by the war, are able to meet their great war expenditures, however long they may last.”