The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, March 2, 1916.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1517, 2 March 1916, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, March 2, 1916.

The meteorological particulars for Foxton lor the past mouth are : Rain fell on 4 days, the maximum fall .12 on the 27th, the total rainfall was .38.

Mrs John Vile, sen., of Pahiatua, will celebrate her tooth birthday in the month of May. The old lady, who has lived under five British sovereigns, came to New Zealand with her husband and family sixty years ago. For some months past she has been confined to her bed, but her friends hope that she may see the century out. Four thousand bullets, made during the Maori war, have been presented to the New Zealand Government by the Ngaita tribe of Torere, in the Bay of PlentyThe bullets had been buried for some years, and on the outbreak of war it was suggested that they should be given to the Government to be used in the making of munitions.

“This war is no child’s play, it is war in every sense of the term,” says Captain Hardham, V.C. It was going to take a great many more men, and the sooner they went the sooner it would be finished. It was better to lose a hundred thousand in a year than drag the war on for a couple of years and waste three or four hundred thousand. “If we had had the men there we would have won through on Gallipoli. All the time I was there we were fighting odds in men, munitions, and other ways. That may surprise you, but it is a fact. Those men of ours fought it, and took it, and stood to it.” Replying to a Christchurch deputation of business men who asked that the closing of hotels at the same hour as business places should be instituted in the interests of recruiting, the Hon. James Allen said he wished to remove any impression that there were exaggerated evils in camp. There had been a certain amount of drinking on the part ot soldiers, but in the large percentage of cases the men had not only greatly improved physically by their training in camp, but they had greatly improved morally. He knew the influence at Trentbam, and he knew the influence and hold the more balanced men had on those of weaker character. On the whole, the influence was for good. He did not want mothers to think otherwise. That “men must work and women must weep” is as true now as when the poet wrote of the tragedy of the wives of fishermen. In this time of war the women have worked, but their greatest burden remains the same. Captain Hardham, V.C., a soldier and erstwhile captain of a champion Wellington football team, expressed the sentiment very simply. “There is nothing finer*in the war than the work of women,” he said. “They have time to think, but the men who go to the war have work which takes their minds off it. I shall never forget a sentence in a letter which I received from a mother to whom I wrote when her son was killed : ‘We are far away from you, and can do nothing but keep on praying and sending you our boys.”

The vital statistics for Foxton for the month ot February are : Births 6, deaths x, marriages nil. The Presbyterian Sabbath school picnic will be held in Mr O. Robinson’s property, Lady’s Mile, on Saturday next. The Patriotic Society invite the public to attend a meeting in the Town Hall supperrootn to-morrow night to discuss the recruiting problem. Private Burnard Osborne of Palmerston, has been invalided home, arrived in Melbourne yesterday, and will probably arrive in New Zealand in a fortnight’s time. Mr A. M. Wright, who has been training in Foxton lor a number of years, has removed .his string to Bulls. During this week a large quantity of hemp and tow has been railed from the local grading stores to Wellington, as sufficient shipping space could not be obtained.

“Eve-witness” gives a graphic account of some ot the phases of the great battle round Verdun. The carnage was fearful, the German losses alone being estimated at 130,000 up to the 27th February. It is calculated that the forces used by the enemy in the big offensive numbered 800,000.

The long spell of dry weather experienced in this district is being keenly felt, the country being parched, and the water supply in many households has practically given out. With the exception of the rain which fell last Sunday, when - i2-inch was registered, there has been practically no rain for six weeks.

Since Mr Redgrave started coaching the local State school boys at cricket, they have improved beyond recognition. The boys are fortunate in obtaining the gratuitous services of such an erstwhile international player. Mr Redgrave says one or two of the lads give good promise of developing into crack players. Mr Redgrave has enlisted the sympathy of one or two townspeople, and has decided to put down a concrete pitch for the boys. At the Press conference at Rotorua during the week, Mr Fred Pirani was elected first President of the New Zealand Federated Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Employers and a member of the Executive and the Awards Committee of the New Zealand Newspaper Proprietors’, Association and President of the Provincial Section, He is also a director of the United Press Association and Arbitration Court counsel for the newspaper proprietors of New Zealand.

The question of pay for married and single ipen with dependents under New Zealand’s recruiting scheme is becoming a vital one, says an exchange, especially in view of the inauguration of the recruiting scheme. The Recruiting Board has not yet made any announcement on the subject. The system in Britain is briefly as follows :—The Government supplement the small pay of the ordinary soldiers by adding a sum in proportion to the allowance made by the soldier himself. The amount paid under this head, as told by Mr Eloyd George, runs into over £60,000,000 per annum. “Don’t forget that the best of your men went to Anzac,” said Captain Hardham, V.C., at Wellington on Monday. “I think that the best are those that went first, and we must have the very best too.” He regretted that in some cases the medical men were not strict enough in their examinations. Sick men were of no use ; they were only an encumbrance. “We must have men physically fit. I don’t care whether a man is short, so long as he is sound. We will train him. We cannot add inches to his height. It doesn’t matter so much whether he salutes or walks erect, so long as he knows how to handle a rifle and can stand the physical test.” In Egypt the Main Body of Australians and New Zealanders would march twenty-five to thirty miles a day, with full packs, over the heavy sand, under the heat of the sim, and would afterwards be ready to spend an evening in Cairo. They weut to the Peninsula as the most perfect body of men physically that had ever been trained.

Two young men were received into the camp hpspital at Featherston last week. One died after an operation ; the other, Cecil Duff, was merely put under an anaesthetic to have his teeth attended to. Their beds were side by side and when a telegram was despatched announcing the death Cecil Duff’s name was used in error and the message sent to his mother at Bulls. It was a great shock to her, and she at once telegraphed the sad news to all her friends. And to the military authorities at Featherston she telegraphed asking that the body of her <on be sent to Bulls for burial. Eric Barratt, once a schoolboy at Levin (who is now in camp) happened to go into the hospital and went over to see, as he expected, the dead body of young Duff, who is a cousin. To his amazement the supposed corpse put out his hand to be shaken, and then it was discovered that a mistake had been made in the identity of the dead man. Duff was that day granted leave of absence and took first train for his home. After a little delay another telegram was sent to Mrs Duff stating that her son was well. When young Duff presented himself at the door of his home he gave the household another shock for they thought it was his ghost. —Chronicle.

With this issue is circulated an inset from the Scoullar Company Ltd.

The patriotic shop will be opened from 9 a.ra. to 9 p.m. on Saturday next under the charge of Mrs Baker and Miss Speirs. Gifts of any description will be gratefully acknowledged. In reply to a question as to whether he could find anyone to go bail for him, an Auckland accused who was charged with failing to maintain his wife, mentioned his mother. “I refuse to put my name to any paper,” declared the old lady. “Let him go to the front and be a man, like his brothers before him.” The suggested way out was accepted, and accused was released to interview the recruiting officer, on condition that he should report himself daily to the Probation Officer. The members of the Patriotic Society and the public generally are reminded of the meeting to be held at the Town Hall supperroom to morrow evening at 7.30, when the recruiting scheme of the National Government will be discussed. Members of the Ladies Guilds, Rifle Clubs and Territorial P'orces are especially invited. It has been thought that the Council Chambers is not quite central enough for a large number of residents so the meeting is called for the Town Hall on this occasion. Other matters of Interest will be brought under review. During a discussion at a patriotic meeting at Palmerston the other night a speaker said he did not believe in men going to the front and leaving their wives and families for someone else to look after. Men who vs ere not in a position to leave their wives in comfort should not be allowed to go. We will go a step further (says a contemporary) and say that the present haphazard method of recruiting opens an easy way for men so inclined to evade home responsibilities, and to commit the crime of wife desertion under the guise of patriotism. We heard of a case the other day where a man openly confessed chat he had taken a chance of a life time to get away from an unhappy home, to which he never intended to return.

Preparations are well in hand In connection with the harvest festival to be held in the Methodist Church on Sunday next. The district is being canvassed and a good display of fruit and produce should be on exhibition at the church which will be decorated with the gifts of the people. * The Methodists make their harvest effort one of the events of the year and there is every indication that the present one will be most successful. Harvest hymns will be rendered and appropriate addresses will be delivered morning and evening by the Rev. W. Rowe. It is the intention oi the officials to dispose of the gifts by Dutch auction on Monday evening at 7.30 o’clock at the supperroom of the Coronation Hall. Goods of unquestionable quality, backed up by sound value and prompt delivery, that’s what we give every.housewife who buys here. You practise true economy by dealing at Walker and Furrie’s. Foxton. SEE CHEAP RATES, FRONT PAGES LAIDLAW LEEDS WHOLESALE CATOLOG.