LOCAL AND GENERAL

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 January 1915, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Haymakers are busy cutting and stacking. Tlie fragrance of the fresh mown hay is enjoyed by travellers, excepting those wlio every season take -in "hay fever." Tiie case in which lan A. Mackay. late editor of the Taihape Daily Times, sued the Taihape Printing and Publishing Company for £60, representing three months' wages claimed in lieu of notice was decided at the Taihape Magistrate's Court, before Mr W. R. Haselden, S.M., on Wednesday. Judgment was given for plaintiff for full amount claimed, with costs according to scale. Says the Opunake Times The fruit crops in this district are reporEecl, generally, to be larger than usual. The fruit crop in. Taranaki has never been large enough to assume an exporting line and is hardly sufficient for local consumption. Still, it is an increasing one. Sufficient practical proof has been shown that the district has been capable of producing with profit the large fruit. Small birds , and small j boys are the only troublesome conditions.

The secretary of the Aged Merchant Seamen's Institution, London, writes making an appeal on behalf of the aged seamen at present destitute in England. Ho points out that at tlio present critical moment, when our national supremacy is more than ever dependent upon our armed forces on land and sea. there is one important unit of our Empire, who, by the very unobtrusiveness of his services, is liable to ho overlooked, viz., the merchant sailor. To hin: we turn in peace and war f<#r the very necessaries of life, yet thore aro hundreds of these worthy seamen in s bitter distress —old, blind and crippled, who cannot obtain employment, ami whose case is hopeless in the extreme. For nearly half a century the Royal Alfred Institution has provided a home or pension for aged and destitute , Uritish merchant seamen. An appeal - is made for assistance, and contributions can be sent to the Royal Alfred Aged Merchant Seamen's Institute, 08 Fenchurch Street, London, E.G'. , At the sack of Louvain the Germans seized fifty men, whom they bound and told that thoy were going to be shot. I'lle firing party had already raised their rifles to take aim, when one ol " the fifty, «. Freemason, made one of the -Masonic sign. The German, officer in command of the squad, was himself a Freemason, and ordered the Freemason. to leave the ranks and toldi him to go away. "No," replied the Belgian, "my fellow citizens are 110 more , guilty than 1 am. If you are going to ' kill them I shall not go away, and 1 shall bo killed with them." Touched by this act of devotion, the officer ordered the release of the fifty unfortunate men. The greatest asset to modern armies outside what is commonly looked upon as munitions of war, is, pertol, the oil that supplies the motive power of the r airships, aeroplanes, armoured cars and submarines of up-to-date armies and navies. The supply of petrol is therefore an important factor with a nation ) that is contemplating Or is engaged : n a war. Germany has taken full ad- , vantage of this practially new motive power, and with characteristic thoroughness, she has turned it to account in • perfecting her war machine. The rapidity with which she moves her armies from one position to another is due largely to motor traction and machine guns mounted on motor cars ha.ve . time after time decidod an engagement in Germany's favour. Hut with all her pre]);iredness and her recognition of the warlike virtues of gasoline Germany is in the mf&nviabl© predicament of being cut off from her petroleum supplies. Her principal oil wells are situated in Galicia, and Russia threatens these, and it is impossible tor Germany to receive fresh supplies through neutral countries. "Vou meet many queer chaps out there, but I think the (interest of all was a Highlander from Perth that we came 011 one day," said a soldier who has returned home wounded from the fiont in France. "He had got knocked out, and was unconscious when we picked him up. At some risk and inconvenience we carried him to the base hospital. There he recovered consciousness and began to take stock of things. He also began to swear, and it was pointed out that this was a strange way of showing gratitude i.o men who had most likely saved his life. '.Maybe ye have and maybe ye haven't saved ma life,' he said in his dogged, dour way. 'A'ni no saying onvthing aboot that, av a : but what A want to hear is what did ve do wi' ma wee cap? It's lost, it is, and' A'll line to pay for anither oot o' ma ain pocket.' " Australian papers publish the. following extract from an application to the Hush Fire Relief Fund. Its merit : s that it is perfectly genuine. Life must have been full of surprises for the lady and also for her first and second husbands. The extract is as follows:—"I have a family, four dairy cows, two pigs, a horse and three little children, all these being by my first husband; two goats in full milk and -i baby by my second husband; all these animals were lost in the bush fires." Mr Thomson, the mine manager at " -Mount Radiant (Karamea) and two cadets with him—old boys of the Waitsikj High .School—being interested in meteorological observations, constructed a rain gauge. The figures recorded are alarming (says the M'estport Times), but are accurate to within an eight of an inch. The valley here forms aV, headed by high mountains and facing two narrow valleys. Records were first taken on November 24, and for th'j last seven days of November 11.6 in of rain fell. From December 1 to 19 the record was was fi-3.lL', or a fall of 74.75 in. in 26 days, which possibly helps to account for the recent devastating floods on the coast. Tho heaviest fall for 24 hours was lGin or the 13th when Karamea experienced the biggest flood for 14 years.