LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 88, 20 March 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Weather Forecast.—The indications are for northerly winds moderate to strong. Expect changeable and showery weather with mild haze and hazy conditions. The barometer lias a tailing tendency.- Bates, Wellington.

A Southland soldier, writing to an Invercargill resident from Salonika (reports the Southland News) says:— "There has been nothing startling lately to interest us except the second air raid which took place on January 2. The cheeky wretches tried to give us a half-hour entertainment, which interested us very much. Our guns gave them a warm time, and Succeeded in bringing down two out of the four after letting them waste their fireworks."

The prolonged and unusual heat in Dannevirke this summer caused an unusual amount of sickness amongst children—vomiting and high temperatures—which led many iparents to imagine that their children had been attacked with infantile paralysis (says the News). One local doctor in the course of conversation said he received almost daily dozens of rings from anxious parents whose children were suffering from nothing more serious than the hot weather.

| The embryo citizens of the Chinese j Empire have* in respect to the mastery of their language, a much more difficult task* than | tile juvenile Britisher, for (says j the Hawke's Bay Herald) ,ij according, to the Rev. H. Davies, of oie Canton Mission Society,- during the an "address delivered by him at Napier on Sunday, the young Celes-j ■t ia 1 has oyer 5000 different letters and Svords; to ooniniit to* memory. Judging by the specimens of geometrical problems which adorn the mysterious books one discovers on the counters of the average Chinese loundryman, the school days of tlie young Chinese must be fully occupied.

During Colonel Winston Church ill's recent speech in the House of Commons, in which he advocated the '■<?-« turn of Lord Fisher to the Admiralty, reference was made.to a remark of the Coloisel's[atyth.e commencement (<f. the war about digging the German navy out of Kjel Canal like rats out; of a hole. Capt. Faber (Unionist), .while, listening to Colonel Qlyvrqhjlk i4ter.i.ecttedl jabout j rijgguig/the ( rats out of their holes?" Colonel .ChurphdJ,; ','l. regret that remark, it, never ought, to have been made." It ,is..hard.to.sfy,iwm : his. reply..tQ-CapJ:.., Faber's interjection whether he re-, gretted having made it or .regretted ■ .j|' \ , ■ ■ H : V'j Imffl '*' If r"i ■U." "*» • An •Australian ilafly, writing to a; friend in Eajmerston,., recounts a rather thrilling experience which ah Australian officer went through on Gallipoli during the. eventful campaign which took place there. During a bombardment by the Turkish guns this officer was buried for half an hour in his dugout, and was unconscious when recovered. One of his sub-lieutenants was buried for four hours, hut was conscious all the time. Hilt" a battalion of Australians were. also hu|Mnßffid^itfl^iMtt!^ltt ■tn : die them. out. The Australians, to. iu ,iu«m. p.ju j ,r*srsffi vesld not make out wnv the Jm'ks aitl no| go merit;' but found that a fierce blizzard. *which swept over the peninsula had aciejtbas a deterrent to the Turks, a'rid inutile bitter weather of those few : 'dirysv many of the enemy had -been frozen to death, and in this connection some of the Australians also paid the great penalty and were found' dead at their posts.

During his recruiting tour Mr 0. H. Poole, M.P., was told, says tbe Auckland "Star," that there was •just one place in Taranaki it was unsafe to visit—the young men of a certain town had threatened that anyone who came along there to talk about shirkers would be introduced tothe local river. Naturally that was the place the burly member for Auckland West made straight for. A big crowd filled the public ball, but the throwing of a bottle on the roof tvas, as far as any active opposition pro* grossed! 'i was told,"'remarked Mr Poole, '''that'if I came and talked recruiting in this town I would be ducked in the river. Well, Idon't particularly mind being ducked, arid I have a swim every day of my life if I can get it. I'll just say this, that if I go into, your river per force, I'll wager I won't go alone. There will bo two or three of you to go with me. But to get to business. Isn't it time, some of you made for Europe, filled with a resolve to chick the Germans?" Applause greeted the speaker, and his meeting was voted one of the most successful of the campaign.