NEWS AND NOTES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1350, 21 January 1915, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES

Following are the values of the principal exports of produce from New Zealand during the week ending January 12th :—Butter, 1 3 1 i937 ; cheese, frozen lamb, ; frezen mutton, , m 056 ; geld, .£5lB ; grain aud pulse, ,£10,254; hides and skins, ,£13,644; kauri gum, flax and tow, .£654; tallow, ,£3.977; timber, £3,527 i wool > Very frequently, custom. ”, seeing a light in a chemist’s sh ' alter closing hours, desire'-o purchases which aie often o! a trivial nature, and which coax have been procured earlier in the day, or could easily wait untd next day sry. A-: A'-, aland Herald. Hitherto tney have beeu served, although often to the inconvenience oi the chemist, may be unking up uis accounts or preparing to lock up the shop. Urgent matters nn chemist objects attending to alter closing bouts, but, with a view to cncocrag.ng people to make purchases at the proper hours, the chemists of the city have decided to make an increased charge for articles bought after closing hours. A Dutch correspondent at Os tend states that only 6000 out of the 45,000 inhabitants remain. Horseflesh is the only meat and there is little bread. The Germans plundered the stores ot beer and wine. Sixty four heavy guns are on the dunes and 13,000 Germans are guarding the boulevards at Mariakirke, where powerful fortifications have been erected. The Germans by threatening starvation torced the population to dig the trenches. Twelve thousand Geiraan convicts have arrived at Ostend. They are carrying the dead from the Yser line, floating the corpses down the canal and burying them at Ostend. The Department of Labour is at present collecting statistics regarding the membership of industrial unions throughout New Zealand. The secretary of the department has forwarded to union secretaries forms to be filled in, aud what amounts to an industrial union census is now in process. No person who is one year in arrears of dues may be included in the roll. The figures asked for are those on the unions’ books on December 31st. and the last day tor sending in the returns is January 31st. Last year’s census of workers’ unions showed a total membership of 71,544, which represents a 10,000 increase on 1912, but it is not expected that the 1914 figures will be as high as those for 1913, because in 1913 new unions were formed at about strike time, aud some unionists were counted twice —ia the new and the old bodies. When the King recently visited France aud Belgium be spent a good deal of time with the wounded. In a round of the men’s wards His Majesty spoke to many of the wounded, and expressed his sympathy with them. In the officeis’ ward the King spoke to each patient in turn, and one officer related an incident which greatly interested His Majesty. He said that while he was reading a newspaper in the trenches,, a bullet went through the page. When be examined the paper he found that the bullet had traversed the name of a friend of his —a member of K> Majesty’s suite. “Is my frienr with you to-day, yev r Maj..:ty ?” he enquired. The friend was r--e----sent, and was summoned beuside. The wounded officer explaiued that, directly after tb; paper was hit, be sat down to write a letter to his It lend, relating

the incident, and he cut out the piece of paper to send him. It was while he was thus occupied that he was himself hit by a bullet. An incident occurred in Wellington Harbour recently (writes a Post correspondent), which shows that we have New Zealauderers of typical bull-dog breed manning our forts. A large boat moored close to a fort slipped from ts anchorage and was drifting .way in a high wind across the harbour. As there was no other boat available lo pursue the breakaway, two meu quickly .p-’r. ed, and swam in pursuit, regardless of the consequences should the boat drift too rapidly to be overtaken. With swift, powerful strokes the swimmers overtook and boarded the craft in rough water. It was then apparent from the shore that two oarsmen could not make headway against the gale. A third man stripped and swam out to help. The three had a tedious task with the heavy coat, and as soon as they were able to approach within a cable’s length of the shore one of their number plunged into the sea aud swam with a line to land, where many hands were able to pull the boat to its mooring. In speaking of the great Eucharistic Congress held at Lourdes and which he attended, Dean Holley, oi Wanganui, said : “It strikes one as strange to find a city in which the names of every place are associated with holy things. Even the hotels bear holy names. For instance, the hotel at which I stayed is called ‘ The Hotel of the Child Jesus and the Angel Guardian.’ There were 100.000 people, independent of the residents, present in the city to witness the celebration. The visitors came from every part of the world, ail races being represented. Wonderful addresses were delivered, and wonderful was the place in which they were delivered, 50,000 people being able to hear with eas" every word of a speaker during an hour’s address. One of the most beautiful discourses was given by a French Canadian, who holds a , high position in Canadian politics. Another remarkable thing was the magnificent Solemn High Mass, celebrated in the open, before 70.000 people. The celebrations concluded with a procession in which thousands took part. There were 6000 priests, 200 bishops, and seven cardinals, while all religious associations were represented. Over .7000 Englishspeaking were present, including a good number from the Antipodes,” One of the seamen of H.M.A.S. Sydney, who returned to Australia the other day was asked “What sort of a person Commander Muller of the Emden was.” “Why, everybody reckoned that he was a first-rate fellow,” he replied. “He was given a full run of Captain Glossop’s cabin though be was not allowed to communicate with the officers or the men. One day while his clothes were being washed he wore a uniform belonging to one of our officers. The sailers were very decent chaps, too. Tljey were very eager to do any work in connection with the ship. They told us that our guns killed all the seamen on the Emden in the first half-hour. Then the officers brought up the stoker and firemen, and at the point of revolvers made them attend the guns. Some of the officers looked a savage lot. They were all wounded with the exception ot the commander. Half of the chin of .he Kaiser’s nephew was blown away. None of them seemed depressed, however.”