NEWS AND NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1800, 12 March 1918, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

An astonishing incident came to light in connection with the Halifax disaster. A live baby was found in an oven. The harking of a dog brought a rescue party to the ruins of a house, and as a consequence of the persistence of the animal a search was made, and the infant was discovered unhurt deep down In the wreckage. The British Medical Journal, reviewing the year, states that it appears that the proportion of doctors killed was highest in the Australian force, Still more remarkable is the number of Australian medical men of field rank killed. The figures show the killed: —K.A.M.C., four, including two lost at sea. Territorials, four. Australians, eight. Canadians and South Africans, one each. The total of Australian doctors killed is 18, the wounded being 5!).

As a result of G o’clock closing, one local hotelkeeper is doing away with the commercial room adjoining the bar, and is having the necessary alterations affected to turn it into a shop where soft drinks will be retailed, says the Manawatu

Times. It ;>vas stated at the meeting of the Licensing Committee that the rates /on this room alone amounted to 30s per week, and as it was very little used now as a commercial room, the proprietor desired (o utilise it to the best advantage. New Zealand’s Prime Minister ((lie Right Hon. W. P. Massey) is a man who carries weighf-(17.5t.) in the material sense. When in France, hedesired a flight in an aeroplane, and was given the chance in a machine just vacated by General Seely; but the body strap, which sufficed for the general was two inches too small for the Dominion statesman. It was patched up with string, and the aeroplane ascended after taking a rather longer run than usual on the ground. After the flight, the pilot asked: “Would you mind telling me your weight, Mr Massey?” “About seventeen stone,” replied the Prime Minister. “Gee! I don’t wonder the bally old ’bus wouldn’t go up,” remarked the aviator.

“Billy." Sunday, the revivalist of the United States, has become an ardent recruiting agent. He has no time for the Kaiser, as is evidenced by the following extracts from a speech recently delivered at Chicago “It’s the Kaiser against the President; Hohenzollern against Uncle Sam; Germany against the United States; Kaiser Bill against Woodrow; Hell against Heaven show your colours! The hell the Kaiser has raised on earth makes the hell below look like a sideshow. As for lying, the Kaiser has Ananias outdistanced so far you can’t see his dust. As I’ve said before, turn hell upside down and you’ll find ‘Made in Germany’ stamped on the bottom. No man can be true to his God who is not to his country. Patriotism and religion are twin brothers.”

A New Zealand private soldier recently arrived at an Australian town in a transport, en route for the front (says a contemporary), and as he had left a wife and children behind, he was very anxious to send a letter to them. Unfortunately for him, no shore leave was granted, but with a couple of mates he determined to step ashore and post his letters. .Snatching a favourable moment, the trio evaded the guard and got ashore, and after posting their letters and having a look round, came-on board, but were unlucky enough to be “spotted.” A court-martial was the result, and the private was the first to be tried, and pleaded guilty, explaining the circumstances of the case. Before being sentenced, he claimed the right to defend his comrades, which the court had no, option but to grant. So brilliant was the defence put up that the men were acquitted, and afterwards the court decided not to convict the pleader. It then transpired that he was one of the, Dominic’s ablest lawyers, worth something in the neighbourhood of £60,000. And he was a private.