The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, September 22, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1300, 22 September 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, September 22, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The present spell of dry weather is causing a shortage of water in nearly every household in the borough. The residents depend almost entirely upon house tanks and in many residences the storage capacity consists of one sixteen hundred gallon tank. In such cases the water is carefully husbanded, but during a dry spell such as the present great, hardship is imposed upon them. If rain does not fall soon matters will be serious in many homes. It is at a time such as this that the necessity for a water scheme hits up the residents, but when the rain descends and the tanks are overflowing the question is put aside. The demand lor a borough water supply is again becoming insistent and there is some talk of the Council being petitioned to submit a modified scheme for a pure water supply. Something will have to be done to remedy the present state of affairs. Is it that the hoarding up ot a few pounds by a number of ratepayers of more importance than the health of the community ?

English court officials are reported to be considering whether the Kaiser and the Crown Prince shall not be deprived of the honour of being members of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. This is not the only English honour that has been conferred upon our enemy. He also wears the Grand Cross' of the Royal Victorian Order; his name appears on the Navy list as an honorary Admiral of the Fleet, and so far as has been heard he has never relinquished the Colonelcy in Chief of the Ist Royal Dragoons. King George, on the other hand, resigned as honorary colonel of the Ist Prussian Dragoons on the day after the declaration of war. The Crown Prince held, and may still hold, the position in the British Army of Colonel-in-Chief of the 11th Hussars. It will be remembered that early in the war the Kaiser and several of his relatives were reported to have sold their foreign orders and given the proceeds to patriotic funds. If that were true, it was a contemptuous action, which should help the Court authorities to make up their minds on the point that is worrying them.

A most confident view as to Germany’s prospects in the event of war was expressed by Admiral Breuslng, a prominent member of the German Navy League, in the course of a lecture delivered at Stuttgart a few months ago. So far, the Admiral’s prophecy has proved to be very inaccurate, “When war comes, Germany’s position will be very favourable,” he said. “Onr destroyer and torpedo craft cannot (ail to cause tietnendous damage to the British ships, fcr we are used to night attacks. Further, the enemy will have great difficulties to provide themselves witn ammunition, while we shall have ours on hand. The moment will then come when many British ships being destroyed by our guns, many others detained in far distant seas by the protection of British trade, the two fleets will be equal in numbers. From (bat moment I can confidently say that the advantage will be on our side. Our torpedo boats, our guns, our shooting, are far superior to what is done in England at present. Our guns can do terrific harm at 10 miles’ distance, and the British fleet will be disabled even before they have attempted to fight us. Italy will have a double task. Her fleet will neutralise the French fleet in the Mediterranean, and her army will invade Egypt. The Italian fleet will.be able to keep the French fleet under control, even without the assistance of the new Austrian Dreadnoughts. As to her army, she has some 100,000 men in Tripoli, which she can easily send to Egypt to exterminate the weak English garrison stationed there. Then Japan is only a make-belief friend and ally of England. The Mikado’s Government is tired of England’s proceedings, and only too anxious to shake off the British yoke. There is no doubt that, in case of a European war, the Japanese fleet will sail to Australia, and seize both the Commonwealth and New Zealand.”