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Levin Daily Chronicle, 11 April 1918, Page 1

A former pupil of Newton West public school, Auckland, has written to his parents from Switzerland. He had been a prisoner of war in Germany, but was amongst those sent to Switzerland ai the end of last year. Ho writes moat eulogistically of the warm reception of the prisoners in Switzerland. They were met at the station by people with flags, chocolate, cigararettes, who cheered the men to the echo. '' Some of the chaps nearly broke down at the warm reception.'' At the time of writing the Auckland boy was in an hotel at a place 5500 feet above sea-level, within sight of Jungfrau. He also mention how the representatives of the Y.M.C.A. met the men upon arrival in Switzerland and advanced each of them a few pounds. An interesting of a case at Patea in which a native" was lined £5 for being drunk and disorderly, and £10 for using obscene language, was the evidence of a native witness who stated that another native who had taken part in the disturbance had been summarily dealt wtih by the womenfolk on his return to the pa (says the "Press"). The spokeswoman, he said, had pointed out to the accused that the people of Patea had always treated the natives well, and it ill became any of them to return thiß kindness by disturbing the people. At the conclusion of the speech the native women, it is stated, danced a haka of derision and contempt before the offender and followed this up with n sound flogging. Similar treatment, the witness declared, would be meted out to the prisoner when he returned to the pa. The Eltham "Argus" Telate that a New Plymouth resident who has recently been visiting Opunake was heard telling a strange Btory a day or two ago whilst travelling by train. He said that round about Opunake there are several utterly disloyal shirkers who openly declare their dis loyalty to the British nation. He further said that in Opunake it is common knowledge that there is a little batch of deserters living in the Forest Reserve and that they had the daring coolness to leave their camp in order to attend the Opunake races. Some ol these men ho says, are casually employed by settlers who know tho class of man they are employing. ' The narrator of the, states that there is intense indignation in the town at the laxity of the police and the Defence Department in not having these men arrested. A letter received in Wellington from a Y.M.CJL representative at Eaetihi. contained the following interesting information:—"Last Thursday was the first wet day at Raetihi since the party got to work, and unfortunately it so happened that the bulk of the beds and bedding came .to hand that morning, and had to be distributed during the day. Quite a number of people were seen carrying away big mattresses and bedding in the rain to their tents in various parts of the district. The scene in the drill hall at Eaetihi last Thurs day was one not likely to be forgotten in a hurry by the onlooker. The huge floor space was covered with cases of clothing, wire stretchers of all sizes, pots and pans, and wash basins, axes brooms, meat safes, lanterns, cutlery crockery, clocks, cases of fruit, sackF of potatoes, great bags of oatmeal, and so on. Added to all this conglomeration of stuff there was a small army ol men, women and children, waiting to be served with beds and household utensils, in place of those lost in th( fire. With all the bustle there was system in the distribution of the goods. A list of people who had been burnt out had been made up, and the good.put up in lots according to the size oi tho families. Each person had to sign for goods received."