The Chronicle LEVIN. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1917.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 6 December 1917, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1917.

r i ho ii'fw regulations 'invein inic the ■ the raising of fundi-. for ]>ni .l iot.v- purI •poses caused: considerable discission at j yesterchiyV meeting of tlio County Pat. ! riotic Association. found themselves very much in tlio dark a« to the position of branch societies. V; app«m« that for .some reason known only to the powers that bo there is a distinction made between "incorporated" and "approved" soculiies. Tlio only incorporated society in this County in tlio County Association, and some of the branch bodic\s are evidently not even "approved." As was pointed out 'recently the issuing of pornij':s for raising money can only be done by certain persons who are mentioned in the new regulations. Tlio Shannon Society provided an illustration of the j trouble that avaite transgressors. In the goodness of its heart it paid out two small sums of money to assist returned soldier-', but being merely a collecting socie.y and not a. 'distributing one it wa.s promptly battled over the coals by the Department concerned. Il?ev. Mr l'almer pointed out that tho County Association was .':o blame a.s ithad given perniis'eon to pay the money The difficulty is to be got over bv the County Association opening small -imprest accounts for branch .societies to work oil.

Two most important things when you got spectacle.*; a re: firs)':., to bo sure that your sight has been properly tested and that you get the right lenses, and, second, that the sp<V':iac!e frame is correctly fitted. Another important thing is to know that you can rely on ropnir.s properly done if anything goes wrong. If you come to mo you may he sure that everything will he right. C. Remington, Levin. %

) . . ' The spoil of hot dry weather which lia» deseendcd on this const is bcginnfing to cause uneasiness among fanners ninny of whom are already complaining of a shortage of wator. Grass us aho beginning to show signs of the Jry spoil and rain L< badly needed. The Government Meteorologist wire -: li,n.sterl,y winds nioderii!';e to strong ia "d backing by easV;. to north; expect warm and. luimkl condition,*, also weather cloudy to overcast at tiroes.—The bain meter lias a filing tendency.

Ihe dreaded Irish blight has made it- appearance in some of the potato fields down the lino though Che majority of the crops look splendid. Some growers havo dug their potaf:o crops, though far from ripe, owing to their being affected by the blight.

Our attention (savs the Otaki Mail) has l)con called to the fact that, certain local residents are offering for .f-alo but. f.'odi which is not enclosed in a wrapper on which is printed the name and address of the maker, together with the weight of the butter. All such per■sons are liable to a heavy penalty, and we would warn any offenders of the risk they aire running.

The County Patriotic Fund is mounting at a f-atisfactory rate. At yesterday's meeting it was announced that the total was now £3090 Os lOd. • On behalf of the Manakau branch Mr JJn.'ih. gate handed in £275, while Mr .Frank Po.nn announced that about £13 liad been ra;:«ed by an entertainment at Otaki. Applause greeted both annonneements.

The 'anniversary services of the Levin Methodist Sunday School will be held in tse Century Hall on Sunday next, the preacher for the day be;:'ng 'Rev A. Harding, of Foxton. The children liavo been, practising appropriate hymns foi some time and arc wire to give a good account of themselves. A concert and prize-giving in connection with the anniversary will be held on Tuesday evening in the Century H«i!l for which an excellent programme has been arranged. f The ladies of the Levin Corquet (Xub have decided! to give a p;tVriotie tea on the bowling green on Wednesday next, December 12th. The proceeds aire to go to the Trench Comfort)- Fund of the Y.M.C.A., and t-o worthy an object should draw a ready response, from the public apart from the enjoyable oujiing that is promised. There will be cake and sweet stalls oil tlio ground, also a bran tub, while competitions will be held during tlio afternoon.

Mr H. Channings, Borough Overseer, reported to the Council as follows fo:r the past month : As the weather has been suitable, I have done a good bit of tarring in the main street and it has taken very well. I am getting the use of ;.lio steam roller on Tuesday to roll down t-he bit> of metial by the library and will then tar it. As 1 see very l.ttle chance of doing the work at- the Lake this >ido of Chri^- r nias owing to the height of the water I intend to go on with the tarring ot the footpaths phut have to be done over this season. 1 have put in the horse trough and it seems to be wed fairly well". The- trees by the tennis court have been removed. The w«ter tanks have been cleaned out. 'ihe ■ ;ake seen to and the anchor holes pumped out audi lined. I have had a numbei of leaks in the Gin and 4in main.' 5 during the month, but they have all been seen to •wtth very little trouble.

'"Martin Harvey, in the Daily Mail, tells the following incident concerning his recent experiences in France:—One occasion stands out particularly in mj remcmberance. Far up into tlio-danger zone I mounted the rickety improvised platform, and the bronzed and cheerful mass of the greatest infantry in the world settle down as if the "unhealthy spot" were 500 miles away. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once —>> A thud! A sharp, musical scream in the air! A crash! I pause The men watch me with a mysterious grin. "Is that a German shell?" I ask. There is a shout of laughter and "Yes" from a hundred throats. There doesn't seem much else foT me to say but, "Oh, well, I'd better begin again!" "Once more unto the—" Thud! scream! crash! (much nearer). I pause again and say: "It's all very well for you fellows, but, you know, these are'the first German shells I've heard.''

Not only our soldiers, but the Germans, have invented a sort of pidgin French with which to communicate with the inhabitants on whom they are quartered. They make liberal use of a word which the Frankfurter Zeitung spells "Napluh," and is evidently our old friend "Napoo" in Teutonic garb. The German soldier who knows "wang" (vin), "bar" (biere), "pomdetar" (pommo de tcrre), and "delo" (de l'eau). A very useful verb is "mannschee," which is Franco-German for "manger." The French peasants do not lake kindly to the tongue of the invader. Their notions of German arc generally summed up ill the words "nix" (nothing) and "kaput" (killed dead, disposed of, out of the way, "nothing doing"). Un-cducatcd German soldiers from different provinces of ihe Empire use- this Franco-German jargon among themselves.

Aeroplanes "of the near future" are visualised by a civil engineer, in some fro:.: quite a novel standpoint. In a -c' utemporary he suggests what is a perfectly natural evolution, that probably i:i a short time we shall see the advent < c 'planes whose vital parts arc protected with curved plating of some light steel alloy, for deflecting machine gun u<:tl shrapnel, ballets, whilst the pilot a:u! observer will be out of sight navigating their machines and working their guns, etc.. by mean;; of periscopes. I'roirc.live armour would seem to lead at no very distant dale to the use of luavi. r calibre gun-. Again, gas helmets may easily coaie to bo a recognised part o." an airman equipment, together with apparaln - for discharging pniy-.noits gr 'os, su;ok- clouds, etc., hilst for nig':t flying '.raetor 'planes may con'-ei. 'ilily emp'ey trailers of wire or suitable material for 011tanglin, : p llers of borlile aircraft. See Ken Aitkcn's ...V.'t. 011 4. It i,; .a pleasure to make a selection from the C*. M. Ross Co.'s range of washing frocks for girls. Xew design,® to hand inelude a \ erv serviceable range of Gingham and Grope dresses whiieh we price from 2s 'lid. See today's replace advertisement.

t : Major 11. S. AVhiteliorn, very well | known iai Otaki and district, who was > some time ago decorated for bravery I in the iield, is reported as having been i | wounded. 1 A Russian named Kofti Waltemen was arrested at Foxton on Monday, and appeared before Messrs J. A. Nash and Or. I''. Spooner yesterday charged with 1 desertion from the M Turakina 7 ' on i March 24th. Accuscd was remanded to appear at Auckland to-day. In emphasising the necessity for fresh air, Dr. Truby King, speaking at Auckland recently, said that the most essential part of food is fresh air. Half a person's weight is made up of air. AVithout air they could only live - tlu-'-e minutes, without water "three ,v days, and without food three weeks or longer. A. cable message has been received announcing the death in action, on the 29th November, of Lieut. ~\le 1 Pearce, only son of Mr Arthur E. Pearce. ot ) Levin and Co., Ltd., AVellington. He a left AVellington a little over a year ago, being at the. time under age, and so keen was he to do his military duty i_ that immediately on attaining his twentietli year he joined the Grenadier Guards, in which he obtained a commis- " sion. Lieut. Niel Pearce was educated I at AVellington College.

On Saturday night the Christchurcli police found no jiccessity to arrest any person for drunkenness, says the '' Press.'' That is such an exceedingly rare occurrance that it is always the subject of astonished comment among tlie force. It occurred once befqre, about six months ago, but before and since that time Saturday night practically always <produced a crop of persons who had been imbibing not wisely but too well.

About 700 aliens have registered in the Wellington Police District under the law passed last session, which makes it compulsory for all unnaturalised aliens to register on or before the Ist day of -December, 1917. The maximum penalty for failing to register is £50. The police in this district, and in fact throughout the Dominion, who are the officers appointed by the Act to reccive the registrations, have had a very arduous task in dealing with the large numbers of foreigners who have attended the police offices to register.

"Seeing that the majority of the members of Parliament are married men," said a lady at the Hon. D. Buddo's meeting at Marshland on Saturday night, "why not let them take the same rate of pay as is being offered to our men going to the front? Why should not the Government take the lead? The boys in the trenches are doing quite_ as well as, if not better, than those in Parliament are supposed to be doing." The lady's sentiments were greeted with loud laughtei

At a recent meeting of the Feilding Patriotic Society, a letter was received from a returned soldier explaining the difficulty he had in getting arrears of pay after landing in New Zealand. In discussing the matter, Mr Wilson (representing the returned soldiers) said it was a common experience of returned men. Ho would undertake to say that of the eighty members of the Feilding Returned Soldiers' Club, fully sixty would be found to have had their arrears of pay stuck up by the Government. He had been back twelve months, and had net yet had his pay forwarded to him. It was decided to ask Mr Wilson to collect information for use by the Society in placing the matter before the authorities.

The heroes of the Royal Flying Corps are the thousands of pilots and observers on the humble servicc machines who t"i their three 1 , four, or five iiours a day up and down the firing-line on artillery ob.;irvation, reconnaissance work, photography, bomb-dropping, etc. In addition ti flying, the pilot is tapping at lii.s wireless key the whole time, controlling and correcting the fire of the big guns. In advance, dozens of machines hovrr low down over the heads s.f the auvaiicing troops, marking down the ir new positions on a map, and tearing back to infantry headquarters with the information. These servicemachines are the rank and file, so 'to speak, of the Royal Flying Corps, and, like the rank and file of the infantry, they are the real heroes of the war.

An M.P. was the judgment debtor in a case called in the Magistrate's Court at Christchurch on Saturday morning. F. D. ICesteven (Mr C. S. Thomas) sued J. McCombs on a judgment summons for £92 12s. The Magistrate lead a letter from the debtor, from which it appeared that McCombs, who was in Wellington, was unable to attend the Court on account of ill-health. He therefore applied for a fortnight's adjournment of the case. Mr Thomas strenuously opposed the application, saying that time after time debtor had put forward a similar plea. Only a short time ago he had obtained a three months' adjournment. "I ask that an order be made," continued Mr Thomas. "He is just dodging, and keeps on dodging. He has given no reasonable grounds for not paying the debt." The Magistrate: He has given reasonable excuse for not attending Court. Mr Thomas: He leaves the matter until the last day, and then he asks for an adjournment! He could have had this case heard in Wellington if he wanted to. The Magistrate: Well, I shall adjourn the case for a fortnight. Debtor has given valid reason for not attending.