The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, August 25, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1288, 25 August 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, August 25, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Our Feilding contemporary charges Government officials entrusted with the care of purchasing horses for the Defence Department lor use by the expeditionary force with showing lack of discretion in the prices they are paying out for horses and vehicles (shame on the farmers who make the exhorbitant demands). Every man is limited by the capacity of his conscience, but it is a common experience that the Customs may be evaded without any straining of the conscience, and that Government does things regardless of expense. Here is where patriotism, plus conscientious scruples, should come in. And another section seem to hold the view that what is waste with the individual is not with the Government. It is in this connection our contemporary seeks to shake up the Department. Men who have been accepted for service have been and are being sent up and down and across this coast looking for equipments, being subjected to inspection, and generally muddled up. All this shows lack of organisation, and means much waste of energy and money, and the leakage should be stopped immediately.

Brussels, the historic capital of Belgium, which has fallen to the enemy, lies nearly in the centre of the Kingdom, and almost on the line dividing the seaward plain from the hilly region which runs southward to Luxembourg. In the River Senne is a small swampy island, and a castle upon this is reputed to have been the germ of the city, which in the eleventh century was a walled town and an important stage on the road from Flanders to the Rhine. In the twelfth century the Dukes of Brabant made it their place of residence, and it has ever since been the seat of kings, princes, or governors. Its commercial advantages and prosperity, and its political importance, had made it

grow very rapidly. la 1575 the total population of the “communes” was 385,000; in 1899, 571,000 ; and in 1908, it was 640,000* The city has many worthy edifices. In its centre rises a glorious town hall, whose towers and turrets up till the fifteenth century are said to have been roofed with plates of gold* The Church of St. Gudule, the National Palace, the Royal Palace, the huge Palace of Justice, and the Bourse are notable structures, all of great value, and the National and Royal Palaces are lull of art treasures. In 1605, Brussels was bombarded by the French under Villeroi, who fired red-hot shot into the town. Four thousand houses and sixteen churches were burnt down, and many historic buildings suffered severely. The Grand Place is one of the most historic public squares in Europe. It has been the scene of many feuds, and of many executions ; and where the Dukes of Burgundy and Brabant were wont to hold their jousts, the French Republic was proclaimed. Brussels was completely transformed by improvements effected during the nineteenth century. The old wall was removed, the River Senne bricked in, and several fine boulevards made where slums had formerly disfigured the town. The Bourse and the Post Office were built in an ornate modern style, and the Palais de Justice, begun in 1866, was finished in 1883 at a cost of nearly three millions sterling—a grandise structure in the stvle of Karnac and Nineveh, and visible from great distances. In the cemetery at Evere, outside the city, are monuments to the British, French, and Prussians who fell at Waterloo and in Belgian territory during the Napoleonic wars. At the close of the last century, and since then, further great progress has been made* The city has developed, of course, along modern lines, a fine system of tramways having spread the urban area out into what were formerly purely country districts. Some of the long new roads are extremely picturesque. One avenue, over six miles long, connects the park of the Cinquantenaire with Tervuereu, and traverses part of the Forest of Soiguies. The central railway station, near the “Place,” is designed on a vast scale. Old, insanitary crowded areas have been swept away by numerous large schemes of improvement. Brussels is not usually conceived as being a seaport, but it has been connected with the Ruppel and Schledt rivers by a canal which allows vessels drawing 24ft. to travel on it, and the city has a large regular maritime traffic, including a direct steamer service with London. It is only 33 miles further from the sea than Antwerp. Brussels is the seat of culture in Belgium, and is a favourite residence’ for the wealthy. Its university is popular, and its Conservatory of Music provides as good teaching as can be had in Europe. Art is warmly fostered, and many of the historic buildings contain valuable collections of paintings.