General News.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 5 January 1918, Page 1

General News.

The totalisator docs not appear to catch oil in New South "Wales. At the Rosehill meeting on December 10 the investments totalled only £2600 on eight raccs, while at Kensington i'lMfi was invested on twelve races. At country meetings the tickets are as low as 5s each. , In 1903- the income tax in New Zealand represented 6 per cent, of the total taxation collected. This year it'represents 40% per cent. The enormous increase in income tax this year is partly due to the tax on mortgages being changed from the heading of land tax to income tax, and consequently land tax shows a,heavy dcciinc. The death is announced in Sydney of Captain W. George, Bentley, Brigade Bandmaster to the New South Wales Forces, and formerly admitted to be one of the finest judges of band music in Australia. He was tendered a military funeral, with a firing party of fifty, and the massed bands of Sydney played at the graveside. According to advice received from the front, Plight-Lieutenant George Hood, son of Mr F. Hood, of Upper Plain, Masterton, fell a distance of 2000 feet and sustained such injuries as necessitated the amputation of one of his legs. Pte. J. A. ("Barney") Ryan has received the D.C.M. for gallantry in the field. Pte. Ryan left New Zealand , with the 10th Reinforcements, nearly two years agoj and has been on active service ever since, having acted as runner during the whole of the period. Prior to his enlistment he was engaged in bush work at Taumarunui. A young lion, about nine months old, escaped from the Onehunga Zoo on Tuesday. It entered an adjoining paddock, where two cows and a calf were grazing. One of the cows chased the lion, which took refuge in a hedge, where it was found about two hours later by a search party. A returned soldier, who was with the party, lassoed the beast, which up to the moment of capture had been tame enough, but when caught showed fight. The lion was taken back to its cage. The following paragraph appearing in the '' Daily Mirror'' shows that prisoners of war escape in other places besides New Zealand: "Lieutenant. Otto Tlielcn made his fourth escape from internment camps recently, but was recapturcd. With 21 other Hun officers, including Captain von Muller (late eommandcr of the Emden) —a pioneer of modern piracy—lie disappeared through a tunnel at Keyworth, near thr i:\mc.us Donnington Hall. Of the 23 Gernint. officers who escaped, 12 have been recaptured. The German prisoners v. ho cscaps'cl from Handforth Camp seven ago arc still at large. This means that 3 2 of the escaped prisoners have — caught and 11 officer — at large, and have to pcrrd. in the t e