OTOROHANGA NEWS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4233, 19 January 1940, Page 8

OTOROHANGA NEWS

WEATHER CONDITIONS. (Oui* Resident Representative.) Steady rain at the week-end, accompanied by strong gales, did considerable damage to the ripening fruit of local orchards, but conferred decided benefit on the parched earth, as no rain had fallen for the preceding three weeks. The downpour was a penetrating one; the pastures will benefit exceedingly, and the value of butter-fat will be increased as a result. RECRUITS LEAVING. During the past week numerous recruits have offered their services for military operations overseas, and farewells are the order of the day. Mi- A. C. Levien, of Otorohanga (formerly a well-kown farmer of the Maihiihi district), who gained officer’s rank in the Great War, has again joined, and was farewelled at a very large a!nd representative gathering of district farmers at the Maihiihi Hall. Many speakers, including returned soldiers, spoke eulogistically of the worth of Mr Levien as a soldier and as a settler. He was the recipient of a wristlet watch and a shaving set as mementoes of the occasion. Other Otorohanga recruits to be farewelled during recent evenings were Messrs W. R. Smith, M. Merrin. C. TaytoV, K. ,W. -Kemble, and F. Hyde .. ..... WHITE - FEATHERS. Some irresponsible person has been freely distributing through the mail white feathers evidently collected

from a White Leghorn poultry run. All classes of the community are receiving these “ emblems of reproach,” among them being returned soldiers and men who have exceeded the allotted span of life. The perpetrators of these silly, underhand insults have even sent what is evidently the tail feather of a male White Leghorn fowl to a well-known resident at Otorohanga who owns to 82 years upon this troubled earth—and has been through many wars. Another recipient of the feathers is a returned man who has been an in valid since the last great * scrap,” and is justable to keep body and soul together. There is a movement in the district to endeavour to ascertain who is sending these feathers, with a view to using many of them, mixed with warm tar, for his or her or their personal adornment when relieved of their normal clothing. The soldiers who are joining the forces are not at all pleased to think that they are leaving the white-feather senders behind—as they will assuredly have to do. , It is a despicable action to insult worthy men under the cloak of anonymity and revolting in the extreme to decent people.