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Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2727, 23 March 1916, Page 4

, "Are there any 'distressed soldiers'?" asked Mr. J. Hutcheson at the War Belief Association yesterday. "I maintain," lie added, "that our responsibility does not begin till they are discharged." Ulr. Hutcheson's point, no doubt, was that until then tile men were under the control and care of tho military and receiving military pay.

A cablegram from Egypt has been received by the Rev. George Burgess, of Papaktira, stating tliat his son, Major W. L. H. Burgess, N.Z.S.C., lias been promoted to the. roijk of Ijeutenantooloiiel. Formerly, group officer commanding No. 4 ana of the Auckland district, Lieutenant-Colonel Burgess was given command of tlie 9th Battery, Australian Artillery, when the Australian Expeditionary _ Force was formed. He received mention in several dispatches for his fino work with the'guns'whilst .on Gallipoli, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He was wounded by a shell the second week after landing on Gallipoli, but returned to tho front shortly afterwards, and saw six months' strenuous fighting before he was invalided .back to Egypt with a severe attack of fever. He left Egypt for Gallipoli once more in December, but only proceeded as far as Lomnos, the evacuation then being in progress. Ho returned to Egypt, and, according to a letter dated January 9, weut into camp with his men on the'famous battle-' ground of Tel-el-Kebir, where reorganisation and thorough refitting was effected.

There died at his residence in Dunedin, after a sudden and unexpected heart seizure, Mr. James Gilmour, a pioneer citizen, at the age of 84 years. His death came as a shock to his friends, particularly to members of the Dmiedin Bowling Club, of which he was one of the most ardent members for tho past 20 years. Mr. Gilmour arrived in Duncdm in tho 'seventies, and was engaged in the timber industry for about 20 years, when ho was able to rctiro in affluent circumstances. .

Owniff to the drink restrictions, the landlord of it big public-house declared to the Lambeth Guardians his innbility to continuo to pay 25». a week for the maintenance of his two children in an asylum, but promised to do so when tho restrictions were removed. The Guardians reduced the amount to 15s. a week.

The latest Gcrinan statistics show that in twenty-four leading German cities the bivth rate decreased during April, May, June, and July, 1915, by 20 per cent., as compared with the corresponding months in 1014, which Is equivalent to a loas of 400,000 births annually "-throughout the German Empire,