LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 January 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The !Popc (refused an .offering of "Peter’s Pence’’ from Amiens, saying that the money was needed for the devastated city.

Mr Pike, M.P., Britain’s Assistant Postmaster-General, reported in November that the number of letters despatched to the troops inFrancc was 10,000,000 per week, and that the French Post Office despatched 15,000,000 weekly.

The sharpest earthquake experienced at Invercargill for many years occurred at 3.15 a.m. yesterday. Its direction was north to south, and its duration five seconds. Buildings were shaken and clocks stopped, but no damage is reported. The weather was boisterous during the holidays, with frequent rain and occasional hail. A severe thunderstorm passed over the town during the night. The wrea,thcr is now clearing.

A school-girl is wanted, during the

school holidays, to do light domestic duties by Mrs. Strong. Good wages are offered.

Shearing operations in the Wairarapa are now nearing completion. A shortage of shearers has been experienced, but co-operation amongst the farmers has enabled the work to be got through with expedition.

Tenders are invited by the Upper Wangaehu Road Board for the cartage of 150 yards of shell rock on the Wairuhe Road. Tenders close with the- Board’s clerk, Mr A. M. Ryan, Taihape, on the morning of the 16th inst.

Shipping at Bluff, which has been very like the days of old at the port, has given the' waterside* s a' fine month of wage-earning. The last boat To work the port was finished on Christmas Eve She distributed aboxit £IOO a day among the wage-earners on the waterfront. Some of the men earned over £lO for the last week.

I understand (says a writer in a London paper) that virtually all Indian railways have now agreed to the Indian Government’s suggestion that officers ’ widows who have been obliged to remain in India under the present restrictions on travel should be granted the concession of travelling first-class on payment of secondclass fare. ‘‘lf this kind of thoughtful consideration for the relatives of those who have fallen can be shown in India;, why not here?” To which we would add: And why not in New Zealand?

A letter received from Perth, West Australia, by the last mail indicates how seriously the food supply has been affected by the strike. The writer, who is a Government official in Perth, states that his family has had no supplies of sugar, butter or salt for some weeks. This shortage shows no signs of being relieved until a settlement is reached, and the writer later says that he is hoping to have a pound of salt sent him in a few days. -Such a small quantity is evidently a big consideration now that the commerce of Perth has . been so dislocated by the labour trouble.

It has often been asserted that German prisoners of war in England, as well as in New Zealand, are being too well treated, in fact many of them are having the time of their lives. Confirmation of this has recently been received in Thames by a parent whose son writes from Home referring amongst other matters to the recently arranged exchange of German and English prisoners. Seven hundred British prisoners were to be exchanged for German. Needless to say the British in German prison camps had no difficulty in making up their minds about, leaving for home, but of the Germans in England, only six were willing to return to the Vaterland. The remaining 691'had to be selected by lot.

Australian shipowners are agreed that the congestion of cargo awaiting shipment from State to State is almost unparalleled. With the exception of the Sydney to Melbourne run, every other linking section around the Australian coast is inadequately catered for by the existing tonnage. Even with the pre-war tonnage available, it would occupy several weeks to cope with the excess of consignments, and in the opinion of a leading (Shipowner -the existing tonnage on the coasts will never succeed in moving the merchandise offering, and there will be a permanent residue for which, of course, the recent strike has been largely responsible^

Sir Edward Morris, the veteran Prime Minister of Newfoundland, who recently returned to London after a visit to America, says that next year the xYmericans are going to run a day and night service to Berlin. They are going to drop bombs in Germany from the sky at something approximating the rate at which Haig and Petain are now dropping shells over the German lines in Flanders and France. There will be no beg-pardons in the American conduct of the war in the air. Some of these bombs will be labelled, “Remember the Lusitania!” Kaiser Bill is remembering !t only too well now —and cursing the man who sank her.

Men on our fighting front (says a writer in the Pall Mall Gazette) are said to be greatly amused at the statements in some papers that the war has practically killed sport, and that space formerly given in newspapers to football and other games will later on be occupied by articles on education and other improving things. “There will be more sport than ever when the boys come home,” says one who is in an excellent position to judge “Thousands of chaps who never played a game of any sore before going into training are now athletes. Sporting fixtures behind the line are extraordinary in number, boxing being particularly popular. Next, to--letters- from home, there is nothing our soldiers are so interested in as sporting news.”

It has been definitely decided to

hold the next United District Fire" Brigades’ demonstration in Taihap», the time fixed being during Easter week. The committee of the local fire brigade are already busy making the necesasry initial arrangements. This demonstration will probably be the largest that has been held by the U.D.F.B. for some years, as nearly every one of the associated brigades have signified their intention of being represented.

It is not to be wondered at that tUc ivaiser and Co. are rushing their shock troops over to the western front, to deliver the knock-out blow in a hurry. Hindenburg has played many bluffs during the course of the war, and he has used that first-aid of the boaster—bounce and bluster. What the Hun deals out to others naturally, he most dreads and fears himself. John Bull knows this well, hi Tc won’t play anything but “cricket.” Uncle Same is different. When he gets into it he is going to give the Kaiser and Co. just what Sheridan has declared war to be. And Wilhelm of Hohenzollern has realised this.