NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1508, 10 February 1916, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

“The Australian is cock-o’-the-walk lien;” (says one of their number writing from Cairo). “Jle takes cliargo of everything. ami the English Tommy is right out of it. We had a wonderful trip from Suez to Cairo. There seemed to bo no order about anything on the route. Villages seemed to be a conglomeration of donkeys, goats, children, native policemen, tombstones, mosques, mud huts, niggers, veiled women, sand, and us much .dirt as would stick to anything. The squalor was absolutely appalling and almost unbelievable. Vet there is a pictuvcsqiieness about the land that is appealing and fascinating.” Writing to tho Minister of Defence from Cairo, on December 21, Lieutenant-Colonel Rhodes says; “[ hope it is realised in New Zealand in time to prevent any more of Miss Rout’s volunteer sisters from leaving the country. Of twelve hero, two qualified nurses can obtain employment, but the other ten are finding the greatest; difiicnlty in (hiding anything to do.”

“Do you believe in. God if” the Sergeant of Police asked a Mohammedan witness in. tlie Port. Chalmers Court on Friday morning. The witness answered in the affirmative. “What God?” pursued the sergeant. “There is only one God,” said the witness, looking hard at tile sergeant, who remarked (hat the previous witness had said he did not know whether (here was a God. The witness who said there was only one God also said he was a Mohammedan (slates (lie lOvening Star), and would swear hv Mohammed that lie would tell the (ruth, remarking that, as the accused, on whose behalf he was called, was neither his lather, brother, nor other relative, there was really no reason why he should not, tell the truth. His evidence was then taken.

To give children oil the dry hot plains ot Queensland a week eaeli year at a seaside .school, is a plan ionned l>y ihc Qitt'cuslanu Minister for Education (lioi.. 11. 1 1 . Hardacre). Mr llanlaere thinks Ids idea well within the range of practical polities, and he wants to know what the Railway Idepartment can do in the matter ol carrying tin; children to the sea at reducer I lares. Ho thinks it should not be a. very costly undertaking to erect at watering places serving the"'Southern. Cent rat, and Noi l hern districts respectively buildings capable 01. accommodating children both for instructional and residential purposes. He desiios thus to pave the way to a big permanent scheme, whereby ail the children who iiexei get, a sight of tile sea may Ih> taken in iotatiou llnoughout the year tor a week to the seaside.

Tho Auckland Star says“lncluded among (ho passengers who arrived from America by the Maitai on Sunday were tom- strapping voung It inns, who ha\e come to New Zealand to follow farming pursuits at Pigeon Bay, Canterbury. Only one of the party is able in speak English, and none of them have been away very long from their own country. One ot the passengers by the Maitai states that in Ins opinion the action of the Governincut in allowing such inou into tho J)o minion at the present time lias the elements of a, problem. Being Finns, these young men are Russian subjects, and ordinarily would bo liable for military advice, yet they are allowed io conic into the Dominion —tbeir passports are 111 order —and settle down to peaceful agriculture, whilst our own young men are being urged to enlist. All tho men arc of military age, and lino specimens of manhood.

A Loudon correspondent writes: There was a meeting- in Pam a tew weeks ago in connection with the J; reueli loan ot live of the greatest financial authorities in the world. It was a purely private ■ 'iithering, ami. after discussing their business, these gentlemen talked about the war. And they discussed as a matter of interesting conversation the prospects of the piolongation of the war. Four of the live expressed profound conviction that it would Ik- all over at the latest by (he end of next September, and that it would very probably be over so early as midsummer. The fifth, whose initial is R., was equally emphatic in his own view, which was that Germany could not possibly light beyond March. These were not official opinions, or even the public deliberations of business men. but the private and confident views of gentlemen who aye. perhaps, better able to form an opinion, at any rate, on tho ocon* dmic side, of the struggle, than anyltody else. The military view in the highest quarters is equally positive as to the result, but not quite so definite as to date. It is all a question whether Germany s military reserves, or her financial reserves, will become exhausted first. But both processes are going on rapidly. Their joint operation must, sooner or later, make it-sol 1 felt decisively, and we have in the working of these two forces a double guarantee of victory.

I am sure you cannot forget with bow much uneasiness wo heart], in conversation, the language of more than one gentleman at the opening of this contest, “that he was willing to try the war for a year or two, and if it did not succeed, then to vote for peace.” As if war was a matter of experiment 1 As if you could tube it up or lay it down as an idle frolic! As if the dire goddess that presides over it, witfi her murderous spear in her hand, and her gorgon at her breast, was a coquette to be flirted with ! Wo ought with reverence to approach that tremendous divinity, that loves courage, but commands counsel. War never leaves where it found a nation. It is never to be entered into without a mature deliberation ; not a deliberation lengthened out into a perplexing indecision, but a deliberation leading to a sure and fixed judgment. When so taken up, it is not to lie abandoned without reason us valid, as fully, and as extensively considered. Peace may be made as unadvisedly as war. Nothing is so rash as four; and the counsels of pusillanimity very rarely put off, whilst they are always sure to aggravate the evils from which they fly. —Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace (1794 A.D.).

Tho commercial editor of London Truth writes: —“1 hear that both Lord Nortlieliffe and his brother, Lord Kothermere, have just retired from tho Board ol the Amalgamated Press, Ltd., tho company which they founded in 1906 under the title of Harmsworth Bros., to take over the business previously carried on by the same management under tho title of Answers’ Publications, Limited. The capital is now £1,210,500, and for the past ton years the ordinary shareholders have received a dividend oi 40 per cent, while for 3912-13 a bonim ot 30 per cent iu addition was distributed. Lord Norhhclitfo is a much-criti-cised newspaper proprietor, but nobody who knows lum will suppose that be would relinquish bis chairmanship of this company if its position were in any way unsatisfactory. Far from that, there is reason to believe that it is doing well in spite ot the war, and it is probable- that the customary 40 per cent will be paid fur the financial year just ended. It, is expected that. Lord NortlicliH'e (who has not taken an active part iu the business for the (last two or three years) will be succeeded us chairman of the company by Mil G. A. Sutton, who lias been u director ever since its formation.

What is reasonable outlay by a soldier upon cigurelies '! iu an in.tcniew w itlpthe Defence Minister in Auckland a sum of 35s was casually mentioned as being “just about enough to keep a man for a month in cigarettes.” “Surely,’’ said the Hum Mr Allen, ”a man would not spend 35s iu a mouth on cigarettes?” The Herald reports that Mr Elliot Davis suggested that that would be about two packets a day, and some of “the boys” would spend as much. Mr Allen said be was informed by the medical men that over-indulgence in cigarettes was a serious matter —that it was unnerving the men. Personally lie was much concerned about it.

Rifleman A. A. Dimmock, of “C” Company, Ist Battalion N.Z. Riflo Brigade, writing from the Twenty-first General Hospital in Alexandria to a friend in Palmerston, states that there is intermittent lighting going on with the desert tribes on the Tripoli border. Tho Rifle Brigade is engaged there, and sonic casualties have been sustained, the writer getting a flesh wound in tiro left foot in the recent fighting. "They don’t care about coming to close quarters,” says Rifleman Dimmock, “hut U they do we promise to give them all the fight they want.” The New Zealanders found the climate a little trying, but the health and spirits of the men was splendid.

A. writer in an Australian paper says that amongst the sights which never fail to draw the attention of curious Londoners is that of girls perched high up on enormous vans manipulating the reins and guiding fresh horses through the maze of city traffic. During the last few. days a woman has been seen in one of the London parks acting as riding mistress for parties of young officers who have joined the Royal Horse Artillery and some of the mounted regiments. As many as half-a-dozen young men at a time this riding mistress has under her tuition, and she coaches them most carefully in the art ot managing a horse. Recently the general managing tho horse supply in the Reading did net paid a surprise visit to three depots managed entirely by women (chiefly members of the various hunts). The report lie gave was that these depots were the best managed of any under his supervision.