NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 270, 14 August 1915, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

DROP IN FLOUR. BRAN AND POLLARD. DUNEIDIN, Yesterday. Flour has been reduced 10/- a ton. It is now quoted at £ls 10/. Bran is; reduced 20/ and is now £7; pollard by 10/ and is now £8 10/. WELLINGTON SUPREME COURT AN ALLEGED LIBEL ■ AGAINST A WANGANUI NUN. J : 'WfEILLINGrON\ -Friday. At the Supreme, Court, Laetitia Jane Hoed was charged with publishing a defamatory libel concerning Lily Hood, who now is and has been for ten years; a nuri'of Wanganui Convent. The letter containing the libel was set to Archbishop O'Shea. John Palliser, from whom the accused said sh e bad got certain information, gave the story an absolute denial. SIXTH REINFORCEMENTS. ADDRESSED BY CHIEF ,OF STAFF. THEIR TRAINING REVIEWED. A SOLDIERLY EXHORTATION. "PLAY THE GAME." WELLINGTON, Yesterday. Colonel Gibbons, Chief of Staff, addressing tbe Sixth Reinforcements, said they had not had the same chance as the Firths to a thorough preparation through sickness and weather. "The Mounted Rifles," he proceeded, 'have suffered more seriously than the Infantry. A, B, C, and D Squadrons had delays in getting their horses, but they have pulled through, and I do not thing those four squadrons are far behind what we have sent before. E, F, G, H, I, and J Squadrons we are, sending away only partially trained; their training will be completed in Egypt. "This the first tim e since the Main Body went that we have asked for our reinforcements' training to be completed there, but there is reason for that We were asked urgently for men, and these, squadrons will take over horses now in Egypt for their own training and at th e same tim e set free .other men fit for service at the front. "The Engineers and Artillery, I am satisfied, ai*e up to what we have sent before, but they have, had better opportunity 'than the mounted rifles. They have remained here in Trentham, Camp, and stuck to their work. Infantry have done well and I do not consider they are far behind, if behind J ! at all, the fifth reinforcements, except j in musketry, but this has not been the, fault of the men. I se e that you going forward full of confidence, and I am sur e that you will uphold our traditions." After warning, the men against drink and other temptations which unfit men for duty as soldiers, Colooe,! Gibbons pointed out that our troops, together j with the Australians, had won a very h-,gh reputation, and he. urged the Sixth to make it their business to keep that reputation up. H e hoped to read an acknowledgment of that fact, not merely in newspapers, but in the, history of the war when written. , Colonel Gibbons intimated that the sixth, after landing in Egypt, would probably not have long to wait before being sent into action. Many of the second reinforcements upong making to Egypt, had been despatched with the main body, and the fourths had been sent on to the Dardanelles after spending only three days in Egypt. He concluded by urging them to "play the game."

BRITAIN'S AIR FLEET K. of K. is said to be as keen a believer in aircraft as Mr Winston Churchill. Ther e is a story going about to the effect that some months ago Kitchener sent down to a certain department at the War Offic e and asked how many squadrons of aeroplanes could be raised in a certain time. An optimistic officer in that department sent back a memorandum, naming a figure whose size would have startled the former Secretary for War, Colonel Promptly the memorandum came back, and across ti in K.'s own hand v; as the simple instruction: "Thi 3 figure must be doubled." And it has been, or very r.eariy so.