GENERAL NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 10, 13 January 1915, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS.

It is officially announced that the Jxford-Cambridge University boat race has been abandoned.

The morning after the burning of the German Club at Broken Hill, following ;be tragedy of the picnic train, a crowd ibout 2000 strong attempted to climb die flagstaff of the German Club, which nul been left standing, and after a few attempts a young man succeeded. Vmidst thunderous cheers he hung out •o the breeze the flag of Australia.

The latest addition to the cost of iving in the form of an ■increase in he price of footwear is announced. A ortnight hence the prices of all ordiuiry hoots and shoes will be raised from : 0 to 17./ per cent. This, according to ho merchants (states thej Press Association), is an outcome of the war, ind will affect the whole of Austral'.sia, and probably Canada and the Anted States. All grades of footwear bill be affected, the higher classes nirticularly. The reason given is that, wing to the abnormal demand for leaher at Home, an account of military teeds, a serious scarcity for ordinary rade purposes has been caused.

The greatest dee of bravery ever seen by the late Lord Roberts aas jerformed during the Indian Mutiny ) V a Punjabi Mohammedan. As the British were cutting their way to Lucknow, they were stopped by a ,vailed enclosure at Secunderabad, strongly held ,and well! fortified. 'Great difficulty was experienced, bat it last a hole was made in a wooden loor, The Punjabi Mojhammedan put his right arm through the hole ror the purpose of drawing back the bolt. That arm was severed by the >nemy. Instantly he put through the other arm, drew hack the bolt, ]i»«t before that limb- was cut off also! “That is the most remarkable act of bravery I have ever witnessed, concluded’ Lord Roberts in telling the story.

Here is an essay on “breathing, which, on the authority of one of the masters, was written by a hoy at Wesiley College, Melbourne: ‘{Breath is made, of air. We breathe with our lungs, our lights, our livers, and our kidneys. If it wasn’t for ottr breath we should die when we slept. Our breath keeps the life agoing through the - nose when we are asleep. Boys that stay in a room all day should not breathe;, th,ey should wait till they get outside. Rpys in, a room make bad, unwholesome air. They make carbonicjcle. Carbon icicle is more poisonous than mad dogs. A heap, of soldiers were in a black bole in India, and a carbonicide got in that there bole and nearly killed every one of them before morning. Girls kill the breath with corsets that squeeze the diagram. Girls can’t boiler or run like boys, because their diagrams is squeezed too much. If T was a girl. I’d rather be a boy, so I could run and holler, and have a big diagram.”

During the past year steady progress 'was made with the construction of the Burriiijuck '(X.S.W.) dam, reports an Australian paper. Owing to the very large amount of extra work rendered necessary by the excavation of faulty rock at the ends of the dam, the rate of progress has keen slower than was originally anticipated, and completion cannot he expected for some time to come. Water has, however, keen stored to a sufficient height to provide for the needs of the irrigation settlement during the present season. It was hoped that sufficient water would have been stored during the winter to enable the ordinary low flow of the river to be supplemented, but owing to the exceptionally dry season the supply was much below the average, and it has only been found possible to carry out the original intention (to supplement the low summer flow) to a I (limited extent.