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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 5

~ The custom of "treating" soldiers to intoxicating liquor '("shouting" for soldiers) by the public is, in any excess, .n most mistaken form, of kindness, too often resulting' in tb'p recipients getting themselves into'trouble, losing their self-respect, and bringing' discredit on the uniform. Everything possible is to be done by all ranks to discountenance* and discourage the publio from' "treating" or. "shouting" for soldiers whether in towns or'travelling by ordinary passenger trains or steamers.—(Extract from Battalion Orders.)

Some particulars are availablo of tho operations of the Imperial Government supply Department down to January 27. • The shipments of meat to the order of the Imperial Government began on March and there have arrived at their destinations since that dato in 58 steamers 351,398 quarters of beef, 2,085,438 carcasses mutton, and 2,931,046 carcasses of lamb. There are now en rout® to Great "Britain in : 12 steamers, 77,794 quarters of beef, 233,199 carcasses muton, and 409,363 carcasses lamb. In addition, meat is aboard steamers now on loading berths as followsPaparoa, 3520 quarters beef, 1011- carcasses mutton, 4734 carcasses .lamb; Ruahine, 13,238 carcasses mutton, 88,804 carcasses lamb; Indrabarah, 1501 quarters beef, 13,587 carcasses mutton; 20,460 carcasses lamb; Pakeha, 99. quarters beef. These figures give a grand total of shipments since* the beginning of operations of 434,817 quarters beef, 2,346/473 carcasses? mutton, and 3,404,507 carcases' lamb. The total payments made to date amount to £6,765,508. ' The consignment of soheelite began on September 20, 1915, and there has arrived, or is ea route to, Great Britain 72 tons. The total payments made to date amount to £13,2? . The cheese shipments commence;,' on November '4, 1915, and have been as follows':—Arrived at destination, 162 tons; en Toute to Great Britain, 4209 tons. The total payments made to date amount to £290,110.

Mr. Geo. Pratt, of the P. and T. Department, Napier, ha-3 received letters from survivors of the Marquette, giving particulars of the loss of his brother, Corporal Alf. M. Pratt, after vessel was torpedoed- One letter states: ."When tne torpedo struck the Marquette Sergeant Jones andl 'Corporal Pratt were in the orderly room playing chess. Jones was -thrown down with the force "of the explosion, and Pratt struck the low ceiling. The former was. almost unhurt, but the latter was rendered unconscious for a few minutes, and on coming round appeared to be dazed and weak. The sergeant and others helped him into a lifebelt, and when the steamer sank aid'ed jhim to a raft. They were washed oif the raft several times, and after five hours floating round and apparently suffering from the results of the blow together with the exposure in extreme cold, he was unable to hang oq, and finally became exhausted and disappeared. The rest-.of the survivors on'the raft were picked up after being afloat some nino hours." The information forwarded was endorsed by Corporal Hogg, Dr.' D.Isaacs,' Sergeant Prentice, and Major George Barclay. Corporal Pratt was a member of a well-known Invercargill family.

Complaints from market gardeners and others at Otaki and elsewhere that the Railway Department' refused to carry "returned empties" . free, unless convinced that they were' identical with the packages which had travelled full, have been the subject of representations to the Minister of Railways (Hon. W. H. Herries) by Mesrs. AV. H. Field, M.P., and E. A. Wright, M.P. Mr. Field has now received a reply in which tfie Minister points out that the regulations provide that returned; empty butter, egg, fresh : meat/fruit, nut, and vegetable, packages, . previously carried full over'the; railways,-.would, be'taken free up to 100 miles, and at -the rate charged for "returned empties" for. the balance of .the-journey.. The rates were nominal.:-, The, Department, .said-- the Minister, did.not rigidly insist on each and every jjaolsago being identical, but at the beginning of last year it was found that it was a. practice for Wellington. auotion firms to consign cases, etc., which had never been on the railWay a# "empty returns" in order to obtain free carriage.- The regulations had ljeen_ interpreted in a liberal way, and nothing was known of any complaints from consignees who "were, in the main, Chinese gardeners.

A bottle containing a message from a .Manly boy on one of the transports off the Australian,coast was picked,up recently on'a lonely stretch of beach about a mile .from Tyrendanra East, near Port Fairy, Victoria. The writer (Ted Blakey) says: "I am sending this note by bottle from the.Victorian ! coast. I hope jou will get it O.K. We have' just finished our Christmas dinnor — turkey and pork; Everyone on board is O.K. A girl was found on board dressed as a soldier. She was going to fight with hsr brother at Gallipoli.' On", well, good-bye for the present.—l am, your loving son, Ted." In forwarding -the letter to Mrs. A. Blakey; of Whistler Road, Manly, Miss Maggie Hi Leddin states that the circumstances in which it was found were most remarkable, as the bottle was picked up alongside two others', each containing letters from New South Wales soldiers.

The. 'disability of the 6mall farmer with starving stock in obtaining free railage of small quantities of fodder has long been apparent, writes the Oamaru "Mail." Mr. E. P. Lee, M.P., recognising the difficulties that beset. the ijrmer who could not purchase a' truckload at a time, took up the matter, and in answer to a request received a telegram from the secretary of. the Department of Agriculture, stating that, in response to Mr. Lee's request, the Department is sending a responsible officer to the district, and Mr. J. .Brown, Director of Fields, should have arrived in Oamaru on Wednesday. Mr. Maedonald Is not himself able to visit the district. It is understood that one merchant has offerod half-of his very-largo store as a repository for the fodder if the Depart meat will take the matter in hand.

Our Featherston correspondent states that of 268 ratepayers and freeholders and their wives , on the town district roll, 148 recorded their votes on .Thursday, when two loan proposals were submitted. . The weather was. unfavourable, but considerable aotivity was sliowi by supporters Of the loans, and the* polling was in consequence larger than usual. . For the proposal to raise £3000' for an electric lighting and power scheme to cost'£Booo (£6OOO of tlio amount is being provided from the Crawford bequest to the town), 125 votes.were cast, 20 against, 3 informal: A hundred and-twenty-three votes wero recorded for the proposal to raise £6000 for a drainage scheme, 21 against, 4 informal.

A Mosgicl resident who has interested himself in bee-keeping , for many years, brings under notice a new enemy to the bees (says the "Otago .Daily Times','). He has observed sparrows sit near the hives and watch for bees returning with honey. Immediately a bee alighted on the hive the bird picked it up and knocked it two or three times' against a hard surface, gonerally the hard path, and then flew away with:it in its boak as food for its nestlings. The bee-keeper states that tho birds will not pick up dead bees. He lias also noticed the. sparrows attack either flies or bees on the wing. Poisoned F.raiti was laid for the sparrows, but .without effect.

Southland evidently "holds its own when compared with other provinces in respect to the breeding of horses suitable for military purposes, writes a eouthorn exchange. Since the war broke out something like £000 horses have been purchased by the military authorities, of which number 1200 have been provided by Southland; Of the latter number 1000-were for . artillery ■ and transport purposes, and 200 - for the Mounted Rifles,

In a special articlo written for "Life" magazine, Mr. Carlisle Smythe has a little to say about the hospitals where the wounded Anzacs are. Australian ,are at Hareiield Park, a manor-house and ostate in' a picturesque villago in Middlesex, 17 miles from the city, and the Australians are very comfortable there. • But this is what Mr. Smythe writes uuder the heading of "Tho New Zealand Touch," of our hospital at Walton: "The hospital for the New Zealandcrs, Mount Felix, at Walton-ou-Tliames, is tlie toniest of all the military hospitals in London. As usual, the New Zealand authorities have done the thing in excellent style and taste. They leased the palatial residence of the famous founder of the tourist agency, tho late Thomas Cook, one of the stately homes of England, in ail estate' of over 40 acres, about fifteen miles from the city. The installation is perfect. Harefield Park is, in comparison, a colony of wooden barns. Indeed, the Maorilanders are so sumptuously treated that they might almost bo German officers, for these appear to be the pet guests of the liripenal Government. Our old friend, Alexander Watson, came down one evening and delighted the pampered convalescents with ono of his recitals."

Some letters have appeared in the correspondence columns of The Dominion calling attention to the delaying of the Day's Bay boats owing to the prevailing system of clipping passengers' tickets at the gangway; The Borough Clerk and Ferry Manager (Mr. James Day) states that delays occur but'rarely in connection with the runhing of the boats, but when there are large numbers of passengers at unexpected times a slight delay_ has occurred, through passengers' tickets having to be punched at the gangway. Mr. Day states that, the council has paid a good deal of attention to the ticket system, and has found the punch to be the only effective one under the circumstances. Were the borough allowed to use the •gates on the wharf there would be no • necessity to.clip tShe tickets, but with the wharf open to anyone at all times, it ' has been considered a necessary safeguard to punch each ticket at the gangway.

Last season a considerable quantity of New Zealand butter was imported into Tasmania, says the. Hobart "Mercury," and in view of this, and the prohibition by the Commonwealth Government of the export of Australian butter to England, it is interesting to note the contents of, &■ letter received by a tfell-known firm of Hobart merchants from dairy produce merchants in Wellington, with whom they do business. In this communication is is stated that the New Zealand output this season -is fully 30 per cent, greater than last year. The export prohibition now in force in Australia is described as "certainly very novel," and the writer adds: "The Labour Government in Australia certainly attempts to look after 'the working classes, but it is making a fatal mistake if- it leaves the merchants out of its calculations altogether. We aro glad wo havo 110 Labour Government here in the present crisis."

"Even in a serious business like this there is a comic element sometimes," writes Private H. Turnley to a Melbourne friend, in describing how an apparently dead soldier raced his stretcher-bearers to a trench. "Two stretcher-bearers were bringing in a comrade seriously wounded," he states.' "On the way to the trenches he gave a gasp, and to all apearances died. Just then the shells started playing around them. 'We cannot do any more for him,' .one said 'let us get to shelter,' and they dropped their burden and made off. Imagine their surprise when a figure passed them on the way like a flash. They got to tho trenches,. but the corpse got: there' first.. The poor fellow was badly wounded for all that, and is now in hospital."

. Mr. Robert Cooper, a farmer of Glad-' stone, forty-two, years of-age, arid with a. family of. six,'; has (says our Masterton correspondent)', enlisted for service abroad] and; goes 'into camp next week. In ft letter to a local paper, Mr. Cooper says: "Farmers of the Wairarapa, farmers of New, Zealand, sons of farmers, I tell you plainly .that you are not doing your duty, or anything approaching it. If yoU have no hoys, and are fit for service yourself, join the ranks with myself. If you are too old foi" service, do your bit in .otherways, but do x it at once. I I'm not a martyr or a hero. But I am,doing what I believe in my heart every true Britisher, every patriot, and every good, ablerbodicd citizen should do." ■

. The Eltham "Argus" in a recent issue mentioned that "we had not yet come across any cases in. which recently arrived babies had been endowed with war names, ~ particularly mentioning that "Anzac" was a name, that might be expected. Since writing that .paragraph wo have come across some of the war names that have been duly proclaimed. In Wellington there are now to be found "Dardanelles Smith," "Hamilton Kitchener Jones," "Anzao Holland," "Alsace Lorraine Jamiesou," "lan Hamilton Jolfre Johnson," and "Joffre French Sanderson." We wish these young people long life and prosperity, hoping that the war may scon end and that in their days there may never' again' be such a caVac rem as that which at iih> present momeil staggers the world. •

Mr. J. E. Wall, who arrived in Christchurch from. England a short time ago, disoussing the war (a Christchurch paper states), said that he was somewhat surprised at the. merry-making in which the people of Christchurch aiid other centres indulged. It was very marked to a person who came from England, where all that kind of thing, by public'consent, had been put on one side. He was surprised that sports were lield' in New Zealand, as if no great war was being waged. The people in England were not- downhearted, but they were serious," perhaps even solemn, in tho face of the- crisis. In England there were no excursion trains, no annual holidays, or very few, no race_meetings, no festivities, no merry-making of any kind. The air and bearing of the people in Christchurch' and New Zealand saddened him. Ho did not like to see amusements in full, swing, as if the Empire was not in danger. He was convinced that the New Zealand public did not realise how serious the position had become, how desirable it was to cast aside pleasure,- and how necessary it was to do everything that could be done' in bringing the Empire successfully through its hour of trial.

Messrs. Baldwin and Rayward, patent attorneys, of 215 Lambton Quay, report that they have filed the following application's for letters patent of New Zealand:—L. S. Tarrant, Hawera, paint; A. Burges, Palmerston North, manure distributor; D. L. Perrett, Palmerston North, cake tin; C. J. Danahey, Suva, blotting pad; L. S. Tarrant, Hawera, submarine paint; Nippert and Nippert, New' Plymouth, catching submarines; Hannam's, Ltd., Sydney, water heater; W. W. Phillips, London, boot sole and heel rubber pad; C. J. Danahey, Suva, binder file; W. S. Dudson, Gisborne, wool press; W. H. P. 8011, Sydney, protective casing for coin-controlled devices, etc.; R. W. Ashcroft, To Kuiti, milking machine; S. J. and A. F. GalVacher, Christchurch, fire alarm; H.- W. Price and L. A. Sturrock, Royal Park, Victoria, boxes, wire bound.