LOCAL AND GENERAL

Taihape Daily Times, 4 July 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Raetihi's net contribution to the Red Triangle effort amounted to £303 5s 3d. < !l :v

A meeting of returned soldiers is to bo held in Raetihi on, Saturday next to form a branch, of the Returned Soldiers ' Association . . .■ i-.

" Tthe Crown Prince recently fired one of the German long range guns, which is located at his favourite distance from the danger zone.

' A New Zealand officer at the front, in a letter recently received in Christchurch, says: "Our conscripted men develop all the keenness of the volunteers, and, with adequate training, turn into excellent fighting material."

Cabinet has decided to increase the mufti allowance to discharged soldiers to £5 ss, but instead of two uniforms a returned man will be allowed to retain only one, and will not be allowed fclis great coat. :

An indoor bowling rink, stated to be the first of its kind in New Zealand has been opened by members" of the Lyttelton Bowling Club. The room is 94ft, by 22ft, and the surface of the floor is padded with scrim.

"We know from those who have worked it out that the purchasing power of the sovereign, as compared with pre-war times, is now only 13s 6d,' 'said Sir James Carroll, at Gisiborne.

During the past three years 1600 teachers have resigned. Of these, 700 are at the front, some of the women have resigned to be married. But the great majority have resigned to fill more lucrative position's (mainly in the Public Service), and the Education Department knows it.—A speaker at a meeting of the teachers at Masterton.

German poison gas has given the shell of the coeoanut a humane as well as commercial value. Thousands of cocoanuts are being shipped from Porto Rico, so that the shells may be used in the manufacture of gas masks for American troops' in France. The shell of the coeoanut, it was found, after much experimentation, could be made into a high grade of charcoal. This charcoal, it is said, is a valuable antidote for poison gases.

Mr. W. H. Bates, Ophthalmic Optician is now in Taihape and may be consulted on all eye troubles at Mr. W. H. Fookes' Taihape, pharmacy.

Some garage proprietors in Christchurch, have been put to considerable inconvenience and Joss owing to a recent shipment of 20,000 cases of petrol having been detained under Government authority. The result, says a Christchurch paper, was that orders placed with the distributing company were not filled, and the garage proprietors involved lost business, as they had to turn customers away, not having the petrol to supply them.

Rabbiters in Southland proved gainers by the floods recently experienced in that district. Thousands of rabbits were forced to take refuge on islets remaining above water here and there. The rabbits were crowded on these small pieces of land, and the men, armed with long sticks, had an easy prey. One islet was literally black with the animals, an exchange states, and with skins fetching from 3s to 4s per lb. those at work must have laboured profitably.

The following is a tale now in circulation showing the quality of the mud in Flandere at the present day. A soldier walking along a road noticed a hat which he attempted to kick ouc of the mud. What was his surprise to find a head under it, and to hear a voice calling fbr help. When the man was extricated, he said: "1 was on horseback." So together they proceeded to dig out the" horse. The horse's mouth was found to be full of haj from a wagon which had sunk still further down.

Only men who have served in the Ne*w Zealand forces can obtain land under the provisions of the Discharged to this matter Mr. E. F. Andrews, secretary of the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association, mentioned the case of a New Zealan&er who had been living in South Africa and enlisted there. Upon his discharge for wounds he returned to New Zealand and desired to obtain land but wias informed that as a soldier he had no standing) his' only chance being under the ordinary scheme.

The English superintendent of a hospital for Indian women recently received the following testimonials to her efficiency: "Dear She, —My wife has returned from your hospital cured Provided males are allowed at your bungalow. I would like to do you the honour of presenting myself there this afternoon, but I will not try to repay you. Vengeance belongeth unto God. —Yours noticeably, — ." The second letter reads: "Dear'and Fair Madame, —I have much pleasure to inform you that my dearly unfortunate wife will no longer be under your kind treatment, she having left this ■world for the other on the night of the 27th ulto. For your help in this matter I shall ever remain grateful Tours reverently, — ,"