TO-DAY'S PAPER.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2308, 16 November 1914, Page 5

TO-DAY'S PAPER.

SOME LEADING FEATURES. 'BEADING ARTICLES- Page. Criticism and Foots i The Passing of a! Great Soldier ... 4 Progress o£ tlie War ...u 4 Kotos of the Day 4,. "GENERAL— . . "Humpty-Dumpty" 3 i Boy Scouts Honoured B •, r Civil Service Appeals 8 The Elections 6 and 7 OCCIDENTS AND FATALITIES .... 8 LAW REPORTS !l ENTERTAINMENTS 3 LOCAL AND GENERAL i PERSONAL 5 SHIPPING AND MAILS :.... 8 Leather '...... i and 8 ■WOMAN'S WORLD 2! SPORTS— ' The Turf 3' 'Athletic Sports 9

The name ot Thomas Bracken may now be mentioned without shame, says the Dunedin "Star." The neglect of sixteen years is repaired. Our paragraph as to tho Dominion's forgetfuln'ess in respect to the national poet was copied into 'many newspapers, north and south'. Dunedin was freely reproaolied. Most of the writers were content, to reproach and do nothing. A Dunedin man who has since shifted to Wellington did something. We refer to Mr. H. Bi M. Fildeg, of tho Post Office Department. He personally verified our statement as to the forlorn condition :of tho grave, and thereupon wrote to a Wellington journal, calling attention to the .'facts, with the result that committees wero formed in Wellingon and Dunedin to collect subscriptions, and the money came in so freely as to enable the late Mr. Bracken's friends and admirers in-these two cities tc erect tho monument which is now in position in the. Northern Cemetery. The war> stopped tho canvass, but it is intended to-resume.it when the Kaiser is beaten, and the Government will then be asked to subsidise the fund, the idea being to found a literature scholarship to perpetuate Bracken's name. That part of-the project is at present in tie air. Meanwhile we have the memorials It is of solid concrete, with marble faces and a grey granite pillar.. On one of, the slabs, facing westward, is the inscription: "Sacred to the memory of Thomas Bracken, poet, journalist, legislator; born in Ireland.in 1843, died;at Dunedin ,1898.". Then follow two verses from his poem .'Not .Understood.' The situation is one 'of the' best in the cemetery, near a junction of paths overlooking the harbour, and as the memorial covers the whole aTea of the allotment there is no need for either a fence or provision for upkeep.. ■

• The flightless duck of 'Auckland: Islands from all accounts seems etill to he-fairly plentiful (says the "Bluff Press"). This is a true duck, tut its wings are so short that it can fly a very .short distance. There was a belief for many years'that it was absolutely flightless, but Captain Bollons, of the Hmemoa,'who bas had many opportunities of observing these dufcks, states that they can. fly to their nests, which are made in holes. These holes, sometimes, are in the face of a cliff, often between fifteen' and l twenty feet above sea level.' He has seen the ducks rise from the ground at thefootof the cliffy and with the use of their wings go into their holes, ■ a performance which an absolutely flightless bird could not attempt.' He had tried to reach the nests with a ladder, but had not been successful. To' compensate for tho partial loss ,of flight, the Auckland Islands duck has learned to climb very skilfully. Captive -specimens never tried to use' their although they had ample opportunity to do so. A male regularly climbed back and forth over a netting wall, going out in the "morning and returning to its mate .inside the enclosure in the evening.

Mr. H. Holland, the Social Democrat candidate for the Wellington North seat,'addressed a large meeting in the old' Opera House last night, the' subject being - "Fisher an<J_ the , Shipping Act;" Mr. Holland claimed that the Government was"' incapable of opposing the shipping ring, and he declared that •theV shipping ring's -.gratitude to O-.the farmers for entering'into the strike of ,1913 and forming bogus unions " was to put. on increased tariffs on exports.