NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1362, 18 February 1915, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

If all the money in the world was equally divided among civilised people, every person would get £6 as his share.

In the American Naval Estimates it is pointed out that the naval statesmen hold to the opinion that the Dreadnought remains the central and chief fighting force of a well-proportioned navy, and that nothing iu the present war has disproved their faith in the modern Dreadnought.

About 150 trained dogs are operating on the Franco British front. They are sheep dogs from Brie, Beauce, Flanders, Picardy, Limousin, Gascony, Landes, and the Pyrenees. They wear a brown cover with the Red Cross on either side, and they are doiug good work in finding the wounded.

The Grey town Co-operative DJry Company paid the sum of last week, be:i;:- r at the rate of is per pound of butter'?! for the month of j'auua.y, and threepence per lb from the beginning of the siason up to December 31st making a total advance to date of is per lb.

A striking and, in a way, pathetic incident of the meeting between Lord Roberts and General Joffre has just been placed on record. The French Commander could speak no English, Lord Roberts little or no French ; yet they pored dumbly over military maps together, and undeistood one another perfectly. A witness in the Wellington S.M. Court was being severely cross-examined by a solicitor, and one of the questions put was: “You are not above telling a lie occasionally, are you ?” The reply was: “As ranch above it as you are.” Counsel: “Oh, don’t count me. We are notorious. We are not in the race at all.” The Court laughed heartily. “ I am very disagreeably surprised to find so much of the New Zealand native bush is fast disappearing,” said Dr. Mortensen in a lecture at Palmerston North last week. “ Where is the huia ?

That unique bird has gone. In place of the native bird are the blackbird and the sparrow. People do not realise that it is their duty to preserve New Zealand’s native bush.”

An entirely new phase of British “treachery” has been discovered by the Rheinisch - Westfalische Zeitung ; “We have come into possession of intelligence through a source the reliability of which none would dare dispute, that Great Britain is about to persuade or coerce Holland iuto allowing her a free passage through the Scheldt to Antwerp, now that the landing of troops either at Ostend or Zeebrugge is impossible. The new British plan of campaign is based on threatening the German positions in Belgium from Antwerp, which therefore will have to be recaptured.”

A member of the Maori contingent had his patriotism severely tested the other day, writes “Mercutio” in the’ Auckland Herald. His mother wanted him to stay at home aud appeared iu the commanding officer’s office with There seemed to be some idea of buying the Maori off. At any rate the £IOO was to pay for the uniform and equipment and refund back pay. The officer called the Maori, poiuted to the money, and told him he could take the and go or stay iu the force and leave his mother. The Maori uever wavered. He said: “ I see the I know my mother will be angry; but my heart tells me to go to the front.” Obeying the dictates of his heart he is still a member of the Maori contingent, and is likely to be.

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