NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1287, 20 August 1914, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

It is proposed to publish in the next issue of the Labour Journal the prices of various standard commodities in the cities and towns of the Dominion as on August 1 last, just prior to the outbreak of the war. Most of the prices have been ascertained and are slightly lower than those obtaining on Match 1 last. Wellington, however, does not appear to have shared in the reduction. Flour rose from 3s sqd a bag, and sugar from 9s 3d to 9s 6d a bag. Oatmeal dropped slightly, from 4s 3d to 4s a bag.

No one knows the battlegrounds of Europe better than Dr Fitchett, the author of “ How England Saved Europe,” etc.; and his summary in “Life” for September of the events of the present calamitous outbreak among the nations is deeply interesting and instructive. Taking the Austrian attack upon Servia as the starting point, he emphasises the folly of the aged Austrian Emperor in forcing Austria's quarrel with Servia and kindling among the great nations so gigantic a conflagration. “But behind the personal causes of the war stand the two dim vast shapes of a PanSlav League and a Pan-German League,” writes Dr. Fitchett. “This is the real cause of the conflict, the inexpiable feud betwixt Slav and Teuton.” Maps and diagrams add to the interest of this summary, and a powerful cartoon by Nuttalli lends force to it. “ Life ” is devoting a portion of its space to a diary of the war, and announces this as the first of a number of war issues.

A total eclipse of the sun will occur on August 21, when the central line of totality will extend over the greater part of Europe and Asia. Scientists, therefore, will have au opportunity of studying the solar phenomena in districts that are comparatively easy to reach and where investigations can be made with every possible convenience. The zone of totality will reach the Norwegian coast at about x p.m., and, passing across Russia, will terminate in Persia. Nearly all civilised countries have been preparing expeditions for the study of this eclipse, and a number of private expeditions have been fitted out, but probably the outbreak of hostilities in Europe will cause many of them to be abandoned.