NEWS OF THE DAY.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13732, 22 March 1915, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY.

In a civil claim, the Court, at Chmtchurch, awarded Olive Buick, machinist, £200 as. damages, with costs, against John Whitty, taxidriver, and Whitty's father, part owner of th© car. Buick had been seriously mjuredasa result of a collision between Whitty s car and a motor cycle and side-car in which she was a passenger.—Press Association.

All members of the Nelson College Old Girls' Association are informed by advertisement in this issue that an At Home will be held at "Fairfield". on Friday, the 26th inst., at 8 p.m., in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund. Tickets (price 2s) are obtainable from the secretary and the committee, and contributions of cakes and sweets may be left at "Fairfield" on Friday afternoon. The co-operation of all members is invited by the committee.

The body of the lad Henderson, who, as previously reported from Westport, drifted away in a boat on the Mokihinui river on Thursday, was found in the river on Sunday morning.—Press Association.

"It's not so long ago that a farmer could stock his land at £8 or £9 per head," remarked Mr. E. Newman at Rongotea. "Now I don't think he cau do it for very nearly double that sum."

The rather novel sight was witnessed near Masterton last week of a flock qf sheep being driven by a couple of drovers who were seated in a motor car. Petrol (says the "Age") is evidently cheaper than horse feed.

Owing to the shortage of sheep in Hawke's Bay (says the Hastings "Standard"), stock buyers are operating freely in the Poverty Bay district, several large deals having already been effected.

A great deal of interest is being shown in th© Hibernian concert in aid of St. Mary's Orphanage, which is to be held in the School of Music on Wednesday, the 24th inst. The musical part of the programme is in the hands of Mr. W. T.-Ward, and, as on previous occasions, he may be relied upon to arrange an attractive selection. The names of the performers will be advertised to-morrow morning.

The directors of the Colossus Goldmining Development Company, Ltd., have adopted a comprehensive scheme for the development of the property. This will mean 3100 ft. of tunneling, and the machinery for the electrical portion of the plant required is now being manufactured. Mr. Bernard Chambers, of Hawke's Bay, accompanied Mr Arthur McCarthy, of Napier, secretary of the company, on a visit to the property at the end of last week.

There is a great scarcity of barbers in London. The "houses of call" in the trade are empty, and employers are coming up from the country towns in vain attempts to pick up a journeyman. So many foreign barbers have been called back as reservists that ono city .shop which had usually six assistants has now only one.

A recent visitor to the State farm, Momouhaki, was an Australian farmer, who is in a big way, having some 20,000 head of cattle alone. His herd of dairy cows are allowed to run in a paddock which is just iseven miles long by five miles wide. He was most interested in the crops of lucerne, and intends giving this plant a trial.

A minister named Steenkamp has been sentenced to six months' imprin*onment on a charge of treason at Calvinia, Cape Colony, and Piet Grobler, a grandson of the late President Kruger, and a Hertzogite member of the Union Parliament, hats been committed for trial on a simliar charge.

What is claimed to be a New Zealand record (says the "Southland Times") took place at Ocean Beach recently, when, in one day, 105 cattle were killed and frozen. The daily rate for sheep at present works out at about 1500, which is good going considering the number of cattle handled.

M. Gustave Herve, the Socialist writer, replying in the "Guerre Sociale" to a German newspaper which alleges that Perfidious Albion let loose the present catastrophe, says: "The proof that Great Britain is not the originator of this war lies in the factthat this calamity took her unawares, and unprepared. She was not ready except on the seas, and only her Expeditionary Force and the Indian Army could be mobilised. We should not ignore the fact," says the writer, "that Great Britain had to create in their entirety six armies, to equip them, and to manufacture rifles, guns, and ammunition, while at the same time she was feeding Sir John French's army, and working for the French and Belgian armies as well. This is the giant's work which Great Britain alone was capable of carrying out. We should, therefore, not grumble at the slowness of the British reinforcements. When they do arrive, it will be the beginning of the end for Germany." Concluding, M. Herve says the perfidy of "perfidious Albion" simply consisted of demolishing successively all governments of the peoples who attempted to treat the rest of Europe as a conquered country.

Money continues to flow into i)e country from the realisation of our season's produce to a very considerable amount (says the "New Zealand Trade Review"), while our imports are on a lighter ecale than for some time pass; consequently the banks' ©offers are well replenished and there is an ample supply of funds available for all ordinary trading purposes. Many farmers and others have big credits now, for which they seek investment; as a liquid form of security is desired in many cases, good sound shares, are in demand and values of all good investment stocks are firming. With the end of February we completed, five months of the current export season, and the value of our exports' for this period reached £12,750,154 as compared with £9,458,158 for the corresponding period of last season, which is an increase of £3,291,996.. lt> must be remembered that we are enjoying a very early season, and the .returns from now on may not maintain last year's level, still a record .total for the season is confidently anticipated. The outlook, therefore, is decidedly satisfactory, and the supply of funds for all general purposes should be ample for some time.

Entries for the Tapawera dog trialswill close on the 27th inst.

Mr. G. J. W. Boundy, returning officer, advertises the result of the poll for the Motueka Licensing Committee election.

To prove that war is wasteful, economically unprofitable, and inconclusive, is to make war less probable. It will not "avert the peril of war," even when all statesmen and nations accept the prooof, because war, except to the shallow theorist, often is a clash of wills which has its source deeper than considerations of mere material profit. —Chicago "Tribune."

Anglophobia has^ reached its zenith at Tientsin and the authorities of the German Concession have ordered the Chinese shopkeepers to obliterate their English signs from their shop fronts, failing which they are called upon to pay a tax of three dollars a month. Tientsin is one of the Treaty ports at which the European Powers were granted concessions by the Chinese Government.

A soldier at the front in Belgium writes: —We have been pushing the Germans rather hard here lately, and they don't like it. But they have surrounded themselves with such a veritable birdcage of barbed wire that it is difficult prodding them out. Our men are beginning to call them the "Canaries." It is snowing now, and bitterly cold. The trenches have no chimneys, and it is too cold to take one's stockings off.

Grand Admiral yon Koester. whose influence in the German Navy is only second to that of Admiral yon Tirpitz and who recently commanded the High Sea Fleet, has declared at Kiel that the German Fleet must not risk combat unless it can count ori success. As it is not at all likely to be able to do this, in view of the steady increase in the British and Allied Fleets, all chance of a great naval battle has passed for the time being. The High Sea Fleet has become a High Canal Fleet, useless for the purpose for which itwas constructed.

It is significant tha at this moment for the first time Gi- -nan correspondents in Poland are ing allowed to hint that air is not g; % well, that the position of the Gen; ■ s is very difficult, and that som^ .f the Russian counter-attacks have '.een most successful. Major Mora. I, the "Berliner Tageblatt's" militar expert recently declared that tl - Russian A ray was beaten and bro; i. Now he hae modified.his view anc ;.-3 not so certain that German is goin.; to win.

"The Times" (London) learns from a trustworthy source that the relatives of German soldiers killed in Belgium are now allowed by the authorities there to enter the country to search for their dead with the help of agents, and to take coffins with them for the avowed purpose of taking the bodies back to Germany for re-interment. In many cases, however, the coffins are brought back full of plunder. On Saturday, January 30th, one of these coffins fell off a truck, the lid came off, and silver teapots and trays fell out.

Writing from the front, a regular officer, captain of a company in a famous infantry battalion., narrated a pathetic incident to show the harsh fortune that fate deals out to some men. His battalion had suffered severely, having been in the thick of it at La Bassee, and a few weeks ago a new subaltern was sent out to him from home. He was a splendid youngster, good-looking, upstanding, welldrilled, bright, and twenty-two. His people must have spent thousands of pounds on his education at Rugby and Sandhurst, for he was destined for the army, and he had received six months' training in the O.T.C. before being drafted to the front. He joined the battalion in tho trenches at 11.30 one morning. By 12.10 he was dead and buried. All that youngster saw of the war, to which he went with such high boyish spirits and zealous anticipation and sporting zest, was 40 minutes of murder in the mud.

People ask "What is No. 10?"*

Messrs. Dalgety and Co. will hold a stock sale at-Motueka on' Wednesday next.