The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1349, 19 January 1915, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1915. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tub; agitation for the Saturday halt-holiday still continues in many centres, but those places which adopted Saturday tound the experiment disappointing and reverted back to Wednesday or Thursday as the statutory halfholiday under the Shops and Shops Assistants Act. Saturday shopping is a custom that will ever remain popular with the public for many reasons and we should be sorry to see any alteration. A special meeting of the local Borough Council will be held on Tuesday, 26th inst., to appoint the statutory halfholiday for the current year, and there is not likely to be any petition to alter the existing day.

Thk municipal elections are not far distant and this year the Mayor will be elected for a period of two years instead of one as previously. We understand that Cr Chrystall is likely to be an aspirant for the civic chair this year. He is the senior councillor and is held in high esteem by the council and public and has a thorough grasp of municipal administration. Cr Chrystall is a man who would worthily uphold the position and with his knowledge of local requirements should make a really first-class successor to Mayor Stiles who, we understand will not seek re-election.

Ik an article entitled “The War as Affected by New Inventions,” the editor of the Scientific American refers to the length of modern battle-lines. He says: “Improvement in mechanism has been met by changes in tactics. The armies in Europe are fighting along fronts over too miles long, not only because 250,000 men out of a total of two millions on one side are engaged at a time, but because the infantry rifle and the field-piece are so accurate and so deadly that men cannot be as thickly massed as they were in Napoleon’s day, or as late as the Franco-Prussian war. At Austerlitz 75,000 Frenchmen fought along an eight, mile front; at Wagram 170,000 Frenchmen along a ten mile front. At Gravelolte r 55,000 Germans formed a line five miles long. Then came the South African war, and with it the small calibre magazine rifle that demonstrated the necessity of thinning out the fighting line until the final charge. At Yalu General Kuroki distributed 40,000 men iu a line five miles long —exactly the same front occupied by the 185,000 Germans at Gravelotte. At Mukden Russian and Japanese armies numbering each over 300,000 men opposed each other along a front 75 miles long. Kuropatkia sometimes had only one man for every four paces in the trenches. Since every commanding officer in Europe has learned the lessou of the Manchurian campaign by heart, it is certain that there are not more than 4000 to 5000 men to a mile along the fighting fronts of Europe, instead of six times that many, as in the Franco-Prussian war.”

Thk Hon. Thomas Mackenzie in an interview with “The Financier” on the outlook of New Zealand, and speaking generally regarding the country, Mr Mackenzie was pleased to say that it was in a very satisfactory condition, “We are fast developing our great resources; we are encouraging our people in every possible way ; we are utilising for electrical purposes our great water powers; we are irrigating our dryer lands ; vve arcoffering facilities for the development ot much of the country that was considered unproductive. Fruit growhig is being extended all over the colony ; our people are industrious, steadyand progressive, free from the luxuries of the Old Eand and many of its entangling drawbacks. With us everyone takes a share in work. The son of the sheep farmer does not consider it derogatory to go into the sheep yards and handle his stock with his shepherds, nor to take his place in the harvest field. Work with us is considered honourable, and those who take part in it the worthiest in the land.” The High Commissioner concluded a most interesting interview by quoting the following passage from the financial statement made by the Minister of Finance: —“It has been the avowed policy of the Government to accelerate settlement and to promote the welfare and happiness of our people, and. by proper attention to the health and early training of the young, to encourage the growth of a vigorous and resourceful national ! character.”