JOTTINGS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 42, 20 February 1915, Page 6

JOTTINGS.

In c'oiinection with Professor David’s survey- of the glacial beds north of Maitland (N.S.W.), the Sydney Daily Telegraph says that during the Dun-r trip- Professor David discovered ar fossil not hitherto recorded in Australia,(known as culoden, dVofi.- The ’discovery! was made nea r the:'spot where" the pilys, another -fossil nfew to Australia, was found last year: The work of purveying geolothe district td the north of "Maitlkhd .is tir be Continued during the year. ' • .‘V • I A Very interesting relic of the raid uponvfSeurUorpugh by- Germdu warships On December IGth is on exhibition in a’shop in Symonds street, Auckland. It consists of a portion of one'df the shrapnel shells, whiclj. general |iospitaL The relic was ydeeived by Mrs J. Howard, of Whahgaraarino, who in turn sent it to her -son-i’n-lano Mr 11. \V. y ,JRdiltitreo| the well-known Auckland cricketer;

In a letter accompanying the relic* Mrs‘Howard’s daughter writes as follows* ‘'they have come at last—at 8 o’clock this morning three German warshijis started to bombard the town. Oh, dear, what dreadful things 'hap r flened):- So far 'he'kndw “of ten being killed and ever so many injured. We are x all awfully upset, and fear to go to bed. lam sending you a piece of a shell that was thrown from the wardship, and struck , the general hospital. Our big gates were- blown off the hinges, and all our curtains fell down with the vibration. X shall never forget the: noise of the bursting shells, we just had to fly. for our lives. Now, we do indeed know what the poor Belgians .have suffered, for there were thousands of ' refugees i pouring out of Scarborough T

Writing, of Belgium three weeks before the outbreak of war, one writer said“ Health, strength, and fecundity” is to this very day the mark of the'Belgian town and country. Poverty itself is not hollowcheeked and stunted here. Chubby, rod-cheeked children play in the streets ; the peasants working in the fields are' straight and sturdy; even the actisians-are‘sis as muscular and strong as they are in,Constantin Mounter V bronzes. To-day Belgium is re. latively the richest country in Europe. Its colony of the Congo is ten times as extensive as the motherland. The Belgians' hardly know where to place their capital. Belgian money is invested in Russia, in China, in Japan. They are concerned in ell enterprises; their financiers control trusts in all countries., The middle classes, to are healthy, strong, and contented.” But since ; those words were written the riches df.Vßhlgiijm have taken wing aml flown away. The Survivors of that virile and industrious peiple are fugitives on the face of the earth.