LOCAL AND GENERAL

Horowhenua Chronicle, 3 April 1915, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

* The Chronicle will not be published on Easter Monday. Good Friday services wore held at St. Mary's, Levin, the Rev. H. T. Stealey officiating. The ladies of the church are busily engaged to-day in decorating the edifice for the Ea.ster Sunday services.

Everyone who heard the Oherniavskys on Wednessday night will be glad to hear that they are likely to pay a return visit to Levin in a few months' time. Those people who tailed to heai them this week should not miss the next opportunity. Seldom, or never, has such music as was played by the Cherniavskys been heard in Levin. A nip of winter is in the air to-day (Saturday) and the mantle of winter already is oil the hills. Heavy hail lell in Levin between 2.30 and 3 a.m. today (Saturday), but the morning broke fine though cold, and the various games arranged for the holidays are going on merrily. The Mayor (Mr Ji. R. Gardener) is calling a public meeting tor Tuesday evening, at 8 o'clock, in the Century iiall, for the purpose ol discussing t»lie (j u est ion of providing sports and organising entertainments tor the troopers who will be camped on the racecourse next week for their annual training. The matter of the formation of a Litesaving Society will be discussed at the same meeting. Some of the rabbit trappers in Southland are making £7 a week at the calling. The market is brisk though it is early in the season, and approximately between 2UOO and 2500 rabbits are being sent away daily from Wyndham railway station to the wool and meat preserving works, that proprietary having extensive orders to lil) for "the front." Occasionally one hears of a remarkable number of seeds being produced from a single grain (writes the Wendon correspondent ol the "Mataura Ensign"). The writer had brought under his notice an increase of Gar ton oats produced from a single grain grown on Mi - George Tayler's farm here. There were five stalks of corn, each stalk averaging over 200 oat pods or a total of over 1000 pods. As each pod contains two or three oats—that is. a first second, and sometimes a third—it will be seen that from this single seed were obtained between 2000 and 3000 oats that would grow. A new scale of pensions for British soldiers and sailors and their dependents bns been recommended by Select Committees on Naval ' and Military Service, of which the Right Hon. D. IJoyd George was chairman. The new pensions will be a pension of 2os a week, to be worked in conjunction with the Insurance Act, in cases of total disablement, with is (id extra for each child. The childless widow is to have 10s a week (instead of 7s fid), 12s f)d when she is thirty-five, and 15s when she reaches forty-live years. Pension rates for children (including illegitimate children) are to be 5s a week for the first. 3s (xl for the second, and 2s a week for others. Widows on remarriage will get a gratuity equal to two years' amount of the Government pension. Nearly all the soldiers belonging to the warring armies have to carry about with them in the field a kit which ranges in weight from 381b to >611b. The equipment generally comprises a rifle and bayonet, with rags and so on for keeping them elean. an entrenching tool, and, of course. a number of rounds of ammunition. Then there are various articles of clothing, with changes, and a first aid outfit. \II the soldiers, with one exception, can' - a knife, fork, and spoon, water bottl-.' and mess tin. The Russians, who are the exception, carry a wooden spoon only, which they keep in their hoofs. The Russians carry most, the weight working out at 611b. while the British. French and Germans come next in order. carrying weights of -171b. 4411). uid 381b respectively. Though slower off the mark than the price of foodstuffs the price of clothing is apparently on the up grade as a result of the war. In the fighting in Europe much, clothing is torn and destroyed by shrapnel and holed by bullets and bayonets, consequently the cloth weavers are hard pressed to keep pace with the demand. The mills in England are fully occupied, the Australian Government has taken over all the Australian mills, and in addition has placed large orders in New Zealand. 'J"he Dominion mills are busy turning out clothing for our own expeditionary forces, ami a Chronicle representative was informed by lceai drapers that some ol i.ie local nulls already are ignoring private orders, and Hie prices in some lines, at least of woollen goods, have advanced alleady, and all lines are likely to show a liuther increase of about 20 per cent. The price of leather and boots also is rising, of which fact the aforesaid Chronicle representative had proof tile other day. Purchasing a pair about a month ago, lie ordered another pair of exactly the same description. When they came to hand a few weeks later, the increase in price was Is in the fcl. J hese rises must be expected, because the wear of boots in Europe is tremendous just now. For instance, the Russians ljave worn out so many chasing the Germans round Poland and hunting Austrians in tlio Carpathians that the Hussian Government has placed an order for 1,000,000 pairs in Australia. The ordinary trader has no chance in bidding against such orders and he has to go without.