GENERAL NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 60, 13 March 1915, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS.

The Taranaki Agricultural Society’s recent autumn show resulted in a loss of £KiU,

Mails for United Kingdom forwarded from Wellington to Sydney on sth inst., to he dispatched via Suez missed the Suez connection, and will he dispatched from Sydney via San Francisco hy the Sonoma, .whcih lea\cs Sydney on the Kith inst.

It appears that New Zealand is represented on the new battleship Queen Elizabeth, which is doing great mischief to the forts in the Dardanelles. Amongst the officers (says our Palmerston North correspondent) is Lieutenant M’Culloch, who owns a farm in the Pohangiua County. He volunteered for service with 'the navy at the'outbreak of the war. Lieutenant M’Culloch had seen service in the navy prior to taking up his farm.

At tlie rotary bore at New Plymouth yesterday (states the News) a very strong blow-out of gas took place during drilling, ejecting about 50 casks of oil. The day previously a similar blowout occurred at No. 5 bore, which sent the oil over the top; of the derrick. About 30 casks were saved in a lew’ minutes. Oil is still flowing from this bore. Boro No. 3 continues to steadily give the usual weekly output of oil.

Addressing the jury on Wednesday in the final criminal case before the present sittings of the Supreme Court at Napier, Sir Robert Ssout, i-bief Justice, said that from what he had seen of Napier- juries they) seemed'to imagine that the responsibility did not rest on them. The jury were the protectors of the community, and if they chose to ignore the evidence and believe men who were telling lies they were not protecting the community.

The number of carcases of mutton carried by steamers leaving New Zealand during the first five months of the war was one million in excess of the total carried in any previous year. F<W the first eight months of the pro. sent exporting year a total of 216,QU0 carcases have been exported from Auckland, whereas during the yhole of the three proceeding years only 215,000 carcases were exported from Auckland.

Paris and Tipperary and London and Petrograd are not the oidy places it’s a long way to (says the Bulletin). The great battle of Ypres, in France, gives an idea of how far it is to Berlin. On November 11 the struggle was commenced by Sir Douglas Haig at Zonnebeke, and although his army was small as armies go nowadays,; it contained the finest fighting material and /'the best-trained lot of men in the world. Also, it was msjdendidly' led -by;-Haig an#“his officers’ 7fml baclced'np by superb organisation. conflict, ragejd with fury until December 09* Then, when the dust had cleared away and he got time to take a deep breath, Haig found he had reached Passchendaele, one mile along the main road from Zonnebeke. It was the most expensive and memorable mile in history.

A misfortune which was half-an-hour short of being a tragedy ncurred one night last week at the Hikurangi quarry, which is worked by the Whail ga re i County Council. The men, with horses and carts, left work in the ordinary course at the 'end of the working day, leaving all safe. Half-an-hour later 2000 cubic yards of earth and stone slipped from the quarry face to the bottom. Tools left by the men at the foot of the cliff were buried, which is indicative of what would have occurred had the men been working at the .time of the--, fall. Tile county engineer expressed the. opinion that the constant blasting onthe face -of the quarry must have gradually dislodged the mass which fell.

The season for shooting Ted deer in the district controlled by the Welliing. ton Acclimatisation Society will open on April Ist, and last till May 31st. Two different areas have,, this season, been set apart for the taking of red deer. In the area comprising the Haurangi forest reserve, four stags’ heads .and six hinds may be taken by the holder of a license, for which a fee of ,£2 is charged. The other area consists of the country known as Hutt and . Featherston (Wainui) Horowhenua, and Hntt counties (Parapariiumu), the Tararua forest reserve and also new country—Tauherenikan and Taihape. The license fee for this country is £2, but only two stags’ heads may be taken, and no hinds may bo taken under any condition. In another column the society advertises a list of the post offices at which licenses may be obtained; Those who wish to have copies of the extracts from the New Zealand “Gazette” containing the regulations and exempted portions of reserves will be able to obtain them from the society’s office, 205, Lambton Quay, Wellington, at an early date.