LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 20 December 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

There will be no publication of the “Taihape Daily Times” on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Advertisers will please note this fact, and make arrangements accordingly.

Mr Faire,, florist, of Taihape, has >a very fine collection of rose blooms on exhibition in his window, and is booking orders for delivery next season.

A Brussels message states that the German espionage system in Belgium continues to be active, notwithstanding the (armistice. In a village near Brussels the police arrested two German soldiers disguised as women taking photographs of passing troops.

The electric current will be cut off in the borough on Sunday from 7 o’clock in the morning till 4 p.m., to enable repairs to be done. Consumers will note this fact and make arrangements accordingly In prder to avoid inconvenience

“Yes, he earned a pound before breakfast,” said a well-known sheep farmer the other day in speaking of a shearer operating at his homestead “Seventy-three sheep before breakfast is pretty good going,” was the rejoinder. “He must have started fairly early.” “Five o’clock; and he had early tea, too, out of the time.”—*Dannevirke News.

The White Star line Olympic, of 46,000 tons, carried 10,000 troops to Prance each trip. She repeatedly escaped submarines in the Mediterranenan through her marvellous dodging ability. According to one officer, “she turned in her own length, lying right over, shaking fit to burst, and sending the troops slithering over the decks.”

The only successful war prophecy has been credited to the Rev. Walter Wynn, an English clergyman who gave the exact date of the fall of Jerusalem three years before it happened. He also predicted early this year that On or before October 3 to October 15, 1918, Germany would experience either the irreparable defeat of her armies, or famine, or an internal revolution or a yearning for an armistice.

The Minister tor Defence, who has been trying to arrange for Now Zealand soldiers in Egypt and Palestine to visit Great Britain before returning, has received advice from the War Office and the Ministry of Shipping in the United Kingdom that it may be difficult to comply with the request. Owing to the lack of shipping transport, these soldiers may have to Cume home direct from Egypt, unless they are willing to submit to long delay before repatriation.

We were advancing in France (said an Australian), and had been going about an hour, and my platoon numbered about fifteen men. Going over a we saw a ‘pillbox.’ We poured machine-gun fire at it, dnd threw grenades, too. No reply came, and we congratulated ourselves that we had no casualties. All the time we could see smoke coming from the aperture; this worried us, so we decided to charge It, We had ou| charge with whoops and yells. I got to the doorway, and was met with: “Say, digger, what the is all the noise about?” There stood an American with a fryingpan in his hand, cooking bully beef over a fire which the Huns had leftl

Mr W. H. Fookes has a seasonable notice in our advertising columns with reference to Christmas gifts, to which we direct the attention ot our readers.

The influenza epidemic has made a fairly heavy toll upon shearers in the Wairarapa. Including Natives, it is estimated that nearly forty members of the Shearers’ Union have succumbed to the disease.

Marshal Foch. in a farewell message to the people of England, expressed gratitude for his unforgettable reception. “This,” he said, “exactly reflected the sincere iand intimate union animating us on the battlefield, which jointly enabled us to defeat the common enemy.”

“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer” is what the members of the Post and Telegraph Department could quote to-day, ■with something like real feeling that their inner ego was in tunc with the sentiment. For to-day the first instalment of the double war-bonus is being paid to the employees of the Department, thus dissipating the gloom and bitterness which was threatening to spoil the Christmas cheer of the people who look after our mail bags, telegrams, and telephone calls.

It was generally suspected that the Chinese storekeeper who died recently at Eahotu (Taranaki), had a hoard of money on the premises, and accordingly close watch was kept on the premises after his death until such time as it was possible to have a search among his belongings. This search, it is reported, resulted in the sum of £2BO being discovered in deceased’s bedroom, behind a box. The money, which comprised five-pound and pound notesy sovereigns (35), silver and copper, was iall neatly and methodically arranged, each denomination being carefully placed in separate envelopes.

It is astonishing, considering the length of the war we have just passed through, what a wonderful variety of toys are available this Christmas. Mr J. Sherwin, Taihape’s well-known toy man, states he has a better and more varied selection of Christmas toys this year than ever While the children are particularly well catered for, he has a splendid range of gifts for people of maturer years, such as silver and electro-ware, cur-glass and Chinaware, leather goods, and a spleindid edition do luxe of the standard British authors. The last mentioned are fine examples of the printers’ and bookbinders’ handicraft, and would make a gift that would be treasured for a lifetime. Mr Sherwin has secured the shop adjoining the Town Hall Picture Theatre, which is wholly devoted to Christmas Toys, and m view of the inevitable rush on Christmas Eve parents and others are advised to shop early.