MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1920, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

burial QF bunny. A TROOPSHIP INCIDENT

When the troopship Friedrichsruh was some distance aiypy from flip Australian coast the food displeased the soldiers, (says the Sydney “Sun”), and a mock funeral ceremony was conducted over a dead rabbit, which draped in a Union Jack wajs borne before a- crowd of mourners, who tied handkerchiefs nround their noses as a mark of grief. With a band playing the “Dead March” and the mourners wailing songs of anguish, the procession marched into the first saloon. There they were stopped by the adjutant. But the ceremony proceeded. The body of the dead bunny was consigned to the deep, the Diggers chanting:—

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,

The Diggers won’t eat you, so tho fishes must!

Flftp wqnt poor bunny into the water. The ceremony had the advantage of calling the attention of the officers to the food that- was provided,

PAPER SILK

NEW FABRIC FOR NEW ZEALAND

“Paper silk” is the name of a new fabric which is being placed on the English market by Japanese manufacturers, and it will bo shortly placed on the New Zealand market. This new material is a composition of paper and silk, and is suitable for making into blouses and sheetings and for d r P?3. material, ' In appearance it is, very much like a real silky cotton, and trade representatives in London were deceived when shown handkerchiefs o.f “papuv silk”- which Japan intends to put on the European market in large quantities at an early date. The inanufac, turers estimate that the material can be placed on tho English market at only sixpence per length, and millions of yards of the fabric are now in course ot manufacture. Much ingenuity is being (lisplaved by Japanese manufacturers, whose'eyes are now turned to the European markets, and In many lines they are securing the bulk of the business which before tho war, went to Geimany.”