JOTTINGS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 275, 18 November 1914, Page 8

JOTTINGS.

The Belgium Week last week resulted in £734 being obtained by means of collections, and two concerts by the Christchurch Orchestral Society.

, The Fijian Legislature has resolved to ask the Secretary for Colonial Affairs for permission to raise a contingent of 100 men for service in Europe.

A Belgian who came to New Zealand a little while before the war broke out, intending to send later for his wife and two children, and who now resides, in Palmerston, has just received intelligence that his two children are safe in England, with their ears cut off, but there is no trace of his wife.

An amusing example of the kind of "news" forwarded to British papers from American sources is furnished by the following extract from the Edinburgh Scotsman: —New York, October 6.—The White Star liner, Delphic, which arrived here to-day from Auckland, with 6000 tons of beef, reports that there are 5000 Germans in New Zealand, prisoners of war, literally guarded by sharks. The island upon which the Teutons are isolated is not a long swim from the mainland, but -Bvei'y man so far who tried to cover the distance was literally gobbled up by the man-eaters with which the waters are infested. The prisoners live in houses and tents, and require very few sentries.

The Government Ims decided to pay for the railage of all goods other than frozen mutton from local committees throughout the Dominion consigned to central committees for the poor of Great Britain, Ireland, and Belgium. While it is understood that the central committees have made satisfactory arrangements with the shipping companies for shipment of cased goods to England, the Government desires it to he known that space will he ' reserved in the transports shortly to leave New Zealand for as many cases of clothing as possihie that the central committees may wish to forward by these ships. No perishable goods can he accepted for transportation by troopships, as there is no insulated space available. Central committees throughout the Dominion have been informed, so that they may take advantage of the offer to forward clothing by these transports. , ,