GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 28, 2 June 1915, Page 3

GENERAL.

An analysis of the applications from women in Knglancl for war work slums thai out of a total of between 2;),(K)() and 25,000 sent in. about .'5(300 women wish to be employed on armament work. One of the applicants, wlm is most eager to make, shells, is a Scarborough laundress whose place was destroyed by the German cruisers in the Kust Coast raid.

An example of what can be accomplished in the way of intensive agriculture by proper methods is afforded by the return from two crops grown (in the farm of Mr M. Fenny. Springs, Lincoln (.says the Christcliureh Press). From an area of three acres of partridge peas, a return of S'3.l busiiels per acre was recorded, and from another throe acres of potatoes in the same paddock the yield was 111 tons per acre.

Miss Gilsking, of (ires-mouth, was elected Carnival yueon at tLokitika, Miss Keller iHokitika) second, .Miss Kvhiis (Hokitika) third, Miss Winchester Utoss,) fourth, Nurse Isdalt <Ktnnara) iifth, -Miss Hatch (Jlinuij sixth. The election realised £534. lor the fiolgian Fund, in addition t( the amount taken at the gates at ;■ fete held at Hokitika. The following is a description of beto knit, a Balaclava Cap, and of tin material required: .Material required Two skeins 3-ply wheeling wool, i pair bone needles, (j or 7 size. .Kir si. piece: Cast on S)l> stitches; knit '2: rows plain garter stitch, knit J-l row* two plain, two pearl; cast off lb' stit dies either end; knit 60 rows plai knitting 1 ; cast 10 stitches either end knit 25 rows plain knitting; cast 01. Second piece: Cast on 96 stitches knit 20 rows, two plain, two pearl east off. join two ends, and stitc! round face.

A movement is on foot to get tin Government to construct a railway from Hotorua to Taupo, via Waiotap. (says the Auckland Star). With the object in view a petition is being free ly signed by European and Maor landowners in Tanpo, Waiotapu Murapara, Hotorua, and adjacem districts. Those who sign. boti Maori and Europeans, oiler to havi their lands rated at Is per acre, say a total of £IOO,OOO, as a eontributio' towards the cost of constructing tin railway. It is claimed that the 2< miles of line will benefit aboui 2,000,000 acres of land. The petition crs are willing that the Governmen'. •should settle the boundaries of tin suggested area.

Little facts which come to light now and again go to inform Now Zealanders that the German element iu New Zealand is larger than has generally been supposed (.writes the Lyttelton Times). A paragraph in a northern newspaper tells of a Lutheran church in the Marfcon district, which has held its services iu German, Since the war broke out the German services, conducted by a reverend gentleman by the name of Hoffman, appear to have been a cause of some discussion in the .Marten district, but no news ol this readied the outside work! until a week or two ag<>. The British residents regarded the German gatherings and services with a suspicious eye, and at last someone in authority, it seems, bad a conversation with Mi Hoffman on the subject, with the result that it was announced at a recruiting meeting in Marton a lewnights ago that the holding of services in German bad now been abandoned. There does not appear to have been anything dangerous in the little Ltith--eran gathering, and many people probably will think it a pity that the German worshippers have been disturbed in their devotions, lint such, unhappily, is the fortune of life in these days of war, lor no one of "enemy" birth need expect to find existence comfortable in a British country just now. A paragraph in the "Lyttcltoii Times" telling the story of a. man w!io walked from a place near Akaroa to Little I'iver and then to Christchurch in order to enlist, and was told by the medical examiner that lie could not stand a long inarch on account 01 the state ol' bis feet, was discussed by members of- the Citizens' Defence ('t|>s. and several expressed an opinion that the story was typical of a somewhat strange case that was not very uncommon. One of the members, who is taking an active part in the recruiting movement, said that ho knew a ease in which an experienced musterer, a man who bad spent years roaming the tussocky hills of Canterbury, and who bad never experienced anything but a healthy/ feeling of tiredness, was passed by the Christebureb doctors without question, went to Trentham, and was simply broken down by the marching operations there. lie became so bad that lie had to be sent back to Christ.church. In another case, a young musterer, healthy and robust to all appearances, discovered at the camp that he had a weak heart, which put him out of the reinforcement ranks. Several gentlemen who were in the recruiting office <said that Dr. R. W. Anderson's interview in the "Lyttelton Times'' placed quite a different aspect on the question of "rejects." They felt that the medical examiners were following the proper course in rejecting all men not absolutely sound.