GENERAL NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13808, 25 September 1918, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS.

Says the Otago Daily Times: The police at Port Chalmers received a report from the constable a,t Portobello on Sept. 19, stating that a farmer and his wi^j at Hoopier' sinlet' saw what they, believed were j two aeroplane© flying out at sea I about 6.30 p.m. on the 18% The obseiTers" also allege that a smaller object was hanging) from th© sup>posed aeroplanes, to wh'icih, it was apparently attached.

The -Very.' Ite^. Fa.ther Roche, C.SoS.R., for the past six years Superior at St. Gerard's Redenipj tordst Monastery, Wellingitani, has j received word of his' appointment to tba Directorship of the Redeniptoirist College of St.'■• Clement', at' Galoiy, N.S.W. H« will proceed thei'e as eoom as his 'successor- amve® hero. The Very Rev. Father Whelam, C.S.S.R., lias been.apporinted Superior at St. Gerard's, Wellington, and ?s expected during ih& comingl week. "I did it under provocation, sir," i eaiid a defendant at the Magistrate's Qoorb at Christcihuroh, when charged with, having disdhiairged a firearm within the ■ city. "Yes! I admit it was quite & natural thing 1 to do, and what any man would haw done under the circumstances, 1' agreed Sen-ior-Serg|ea.nt OiHniningis, who* explained that the .defendant had been worried by a dog 1 killing some of. his ■■Valuable fowls. Catching tin© dog in the act, hie took him out into a pad-' dock and shot hiiin. The police 'did not press for ai penalty, and the defendant was convicted aaid dischargedl.

Amonigjsib thie mcmi of the Chinese labour companies now in France there exists a> clannisbness thasti shows itself in' many curious ways. Aocording to our ideas-, perhaps owe of the most.:''(remarkable -is their attitude towards money matters. A. numbei' of them will be Sn 4.'"shop eccaminiiijg; the various- goads. .Onfe, wishing, to buy an article, arid find-; ing .pea-haps that he has not enough money, will calmly help liHrnself. from the purse of his neighbour, who lobiks upon this quite as a inaitter, of course and raisesi no objection.

The five-day week espea'i men t which. t>as been inaugurated in the Auckland clothing factories has net found faivioiua" with the booit manu-faict'Urea-s, tind application for the trial oi the system in their workrooms 1 has not met with a favourable responlsia. At a meeting of the Auckland branch,-of ..'the 1 .-New Zealand Federaited Boot Manufacturersi' xVssrvoiation a resoluition was adoptetd by a umnimioius. vote expressing strong 1 disapproval : of the shortening: of the. hours of labour in the clothing" factwies at this period of the war. It was considered that as; all woikers wena being expected' to usei their best efforts to increase prodiucition.; any alteration of hours shiouMi ba in the direction of lemgtheningi instead of shortening' them. An Engiisiij trooper asks' a London, papier whether it is likely any kindof deooraition will be ga*anted to' horses for diistiri^.uished war service. "You eiee," he said, "my old, nmie saved my life and that of iriy: officer. We were ouit at 3 o'clock on© moining; trying H:o get ■comiiittnica.tion, when the, old girl neiglied. She' had evidently soinetihijig!, so we opened oiur eye®, you bet; As. a re suit oif what we saw, we -sweryed round aM returned with tihe news. Coining back -with a. party of twenty, we soon wiped out tfte German seotiony only tihre© being takenr alive. If the old. mare hadn't shomtcol the ofßicer and myself would -have gone on—to death,, or a -prison' camp." The great value of fresh, air .in fighting disease is emphiasised by Lieut.-Colonel Makill in his report on the health of the camps during 1917. "In last year's (he states) it was shown that meningococcal infections were spreaU by men in social contact rather than by the conditions of military routine. Particular attention, therefore, was paid to the institutes at Tauherenikau camp, which were constructed on the principle of the open-air structm-es used in consumptive sanatoria. II is to be feared that in cold, stormy weather they could not be held up as examples of comfort, ye? they were habitable even under the worst conditions, and, though they could not be classed as 'snug' often a room so described would be more truthfully called 'stuffy.' At any rate, the statistical records ifor Tauherenikau camp show that no illeffects followed the absence of 'snug' j retreats, for the sickness: rate was, if . anything, lower than at other camips, • despite the fact that new recruits were involved." i