Western Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1917.

Western Star, 30 October 1917, Page 2

Western Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1917.

The first Military Service. Appeal Bo.arcl will sit at Riverton on Monday, sth November, at 9 a.mi.

The s.s. Kotare, which was tied up at the Dunedin wharf for the past month owing to the coastal strike, has again been manned, and sailed for Wellington on Wednesday. She is due back to-day, when she will load cargo for Invercargill and and Riverton. She may be expected here at the end of the week.

Some idea of the fertility of Bayswater land may be gathered from the fact that Mr E. Preudergast has a forty acre paddock upon which he has been grazing 400 sheep and 47 head of cattle for the past two months, and they can’t keep the grass down.

The ‘ Bluff Press ’ is informed that Mr L. Birk’s, the Government Electrical Engineer, is to return to Southland, and while here will make an inspection of the waters of the Wairaurahiri River whioh drains out of Lake Hauroto and is seven miles west of the sawmill site at Mussel Beach. Readers are reminded of the monthly soldiers’ social to be held to-morrow night in More’s Hall. A good programme has been arranged, and the dance to follow will be provided with the usual excellent music.

Mrs Jamieson Williams, in ,a paper read before the annual conference in Sydney of the W.C.T.U., said the startling statement had been made that it was 'more dangerous to be a British baby than to be a British soldier, and this was verified by the fact that in 1915 75,000 British soldiers fell in battle, and 100,000 British babies perished at home in the first year of their live®.

Private Charles McLean arrived in Riverton on Saturday evening from England. Charlie enlisted with the. Ninth Reinforcements, and went through the Somme Battle without a scratch; but unfortunately met with an accident in the trench, disturbing his knee-cap. He was in hospital in England for eight months. Private McLean, a hardy type of Highlander, was probably one of the oldest recruits in the colonial forces, being 00 years of age when be enlisted. His colour and appearance no doubt gave film the look of a man of 40 to- 45. Notwithstanding his age he went right through Iris training successfully and participated iii the event. His long experience, previous to enlisting, as a gold digger and bushman out west had not by any means impaired his health. We understand 1 he will enter the Riverton hospital to have an operation performed on his injured knee.

Tlie Amusements Tax comas into force on the Ist November, and will be Id on tickets'of 1/- up to 2/0; another penny will be added on each subsequent half-crown or part of that amount. We understand that the Commissioner of Taxes will meet representatives of public halls and secretaries of clubs in Invercargill on Thursday and fix the method of collection.

Nominations for the election of Councillors to the Wallace County Council and members of the Wallace H. and 0. A. Board close on 6th November. So far there are only two contested seats for the nine ridings— Aparima and Pourakino. Mr G. Rodger, of Jacob’s River, announces himself a candidate for the latter, as also docs Mr D. Clark, the retiring member.

When he was well along in years, a farmer said; “ I have grown some big crops in my life; but the crop that has brought me the most satisfaction lias.been the crop which came from sowing kind words and doing good things as I went along. Frost never cuts that crop down; no blight over strikes it; the harvest is sure and big.”

A New Zealand doctor who has had a lengthy period of active service, but who is now attached to a camp in England, in a letter to a friend makes pointed reference to the physical inability , of a number of members of the 25th Reinforcements te stand the hardships of active service. He says that some of them should never have been allowed to leave the dominion. Another New Zealand doctor relates an amusing, if pathetic, story of one dominion soldier who came before him. This doctor had spent many years away from his native land of New Zealand, but when the name of the '.soldier was mentioned to him as having to com© before the Medical Board of which he was a member for examination on the point of “ mental dullness,” a memory of a couple of decades ago floated through the doctor’s mind. A boy of that name had been well known to him in his youthful days as being of weak intellect. When the soldier came into the room he was at once recognised by the doctor as a native of D . The personal information supplied by the New Zealand doctor satisfied the board that no further examination was necessary, and the soldier will, no doubt, by this time be on bis way back to* the dominion.

Sergt. Win. P. Morrin, Otago Infantry, has been awarded the Military Medal for distinguished conduct at Messines. He is also reported to have been wounded on the 13th Got. This is either the fifth or sixth time Bill has been wounded.

An appeal was made on behalf of Mr P. O. Webb, M.P. for Grey, from military service by the coal miners, on the grounds that it was essential for them to have a representative in Parliament. Considerable evidence was taken, but the appeal was dismissed, leave being granted till 12th December. Mr Webb, on being interviewed, said • he would probably resign his seat so that the miners may elect a representative.

Private Alf. Gumming, in a recent letter, said he has been an inmate of Oodford hospital, and has since had leave in Scotland, He mentions that Sergt. Fred Kynastou is in the same camp and, he understood, is coming back to New Zealand again ais an instructor.