LIFE IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 301, 29 May 1915, Page 2

LIFE IN GERMANY.

SIDELIGHTS FROM THE PRESS. (Compiled after a survey of current numbers of leading German newspapers.) Berlin is particularly indignant about tlio "usury" that is practised in potatoes. But while Frau Schneider, in Gliarlotenburg, ia fined 30/- for charging Jd per lb. in excess of the maximum price fixed for potatoes, the law cannot touch the greedy wholesalers who withhold their stocks from the half-starved public, in the hope of a rise in the maximum charge. Indeed, the dearth of potatoes came to a sudden end the moment a higher price was authorised by the Government.

In Frankfurt the butchers appear to be reaping a golden harvest. The price of veal has gone up 10 per cent, and of mutton 5 per cent., the reason being an alleged rise in the price of live stock. As a matter of fact no such rise has j taken place. Indeed pigs have consider-1 ably decreased in value, but the price of pork has not experienced a corresponding decline. 2*3,000 MOTORS OFF THE STREET. The increase in the price of beer throughout the country, whicli is felt as a very severe hardship, has now been followed by a rise in methylated spirits amounting to about Od per gallon. The dearth of petrol is engaging the serious attention of the Government. To it, rather than to the scarcity of labar 1 caused by the calling to the colors of all capable men, is due the temporary withdrawal of four-fifths of Berlin's taxicabs. Further restrictions will remove a large number of motor vans and private cars from the streets. Berlin's 50;000 motor vehicles have been reduced to half that number.

At Bernsgrun, in the Principality of Rcuss, a new law has just been passed to debar those who have been remiss in paying Government and local taxes from frequenting inns, bars, and places of aniuseinent. The names of those shirkera are to be posted at the inns. The official appeal to German school boys, who are encouraged to ransack tlia parental home for gold and to obtain gold coins " by fair means or foul," lias led to remarkable results.

The boys of the Bonn Royal College .delivered 30,000 marks ( £1,800), which they had collected in four days. Duren College did not do quite so well, live | weeks being needed to bring forth 30,J00 j marks. But the Augustinian School at ] Friedberg beat all records with 50,C00 marks, collected by the boys in one Forest town of only 36,000 souls, has) handed 4G0,000 marks in gold to the '■ authorities. THE SALE OF LOOT. The infinite trouble taken by the German Press to prove the exemplary conduet of the German troops in Belgium and France seems wasted in view of a significant announcement made recently by the Berlin War Oilice. In this remarkable communication to the Press the War Oilice refers all inquiries about the sale of loot to the prettily-named " lvriebswirtschaftractiengesellsehaft a limited liability company organised for the best exploiting of war loot or the sale of the' enemy's "lost property"!

The experience gained by tlie Germans about the time of the retreat from the Marne may be largely responsible for an announcement issued by Prince Hatzfeld, Military Inspector of Volunteer Care ,of the Wounded. It is to the effect that "love gifts" of rum or brandy will not be transmitted to troops in the field.

Stock exchange business seems to Le in a fairly critical condition, if one may draw conclusions from a law recently passed by the Federal Council. According to this law, the publication of figures at which securities not quoted in the official list have passed hands, and which might indicate their present value is an offence punishable with a line up to 1,000 marks or six months' imprisonment. ' A SORT OF LEIPZIG FAIR. Meanwhile, the art business seems to be flourishing in the Central Empires. Seven valuable pictures, including a famous "Fete Champetre" by Pater, valued at ;C-1,000, changed hands recently. They were the property of Mr Josef Kranz, in Vienna. The transaction took place by night, and the pictures appear to have suffered through being cut ont of their frames. The great Leipzig Fair, though by no means as important an all'air as in former years, has attracted 2,500 exhibitors from Germany and neutral countries. One of the features is a special section devoted to an "exhibition of substitutes for goods from enemy countries." One of the leading German newspapers expresses lively satisfaction at the alleged extensive English purchases of German toys through the agency of American buyers ! An important Army Order issued from the Great General Headquarters Stall', tnuler date 24th February, will not fail to be of the most far-reaching consequences upon the future conduct of the war: —"Officers, non-commissioned officers, and men arc allowed to wear the ribbon of the Iron Cross, the Military Cross of Merit, and other military decorations in the second buttonhole from the top on their overcoats."