GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 October 1917, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

In the course of a speech at a Wellington Navy League meeting, Mr. T. M. Wilford remarked: "If you want anything done, go to.a busy man—the man with nothing to do never has time." The richest ranker of the war is Trooper Marshall Field, grandson of the founder of tlie vast Field fortunes, who recently enlisted in the First Illinois Cavalry. On account of the peculiar conditions of his grandfather's will, the fortune has to accumulate until the beneficiaries reaeli the ago of twenty-five, when each takes a riroportionate life interest. It was willed, too, that the whole capital should be kept intact for forty years. Thus Marshall Field will be fifty when he comes into possession of his inheritance, and will probably find himself worth £40,000,000!

A Feilding soldier, writing from France and referring to recent air raids, says: —"I saw some of their 'handiwork at Folkestone when I passed through on my way to London. It made my Mood boil to know that out of the debris of one building alone the bodies of ten young women and girls were brought to light, to say nothing of the mangled bodies of old men and women and tiny children taken from others. And they say, Why don't we retaliate?' My God, no, not that sort of retaliation. Nemesis is already on the trail of the Hun, as the tottering and swaying line of battle moving slowly but surely towards Germany proves." Mr. Massey related in the House on Thursday how New Zealand had lost a special line of steamers to be owned by the Dominion for trade between here and the Old Country. A statement had appeared in an English paper that the New Zealand Government proposed to run such a line of steamers. This led 'the controller of a Home, shipping line to offer the whole of the steamers of the line to New Zealand.' "I asked him whether he would sell at pre-war prices or present prices," said Mr. Massey. "He replied, 'At present prices.' Needless to say the Dominion could not afford such an expenditure at present." The shortage of honey tins and benzine tins is becoming acute, owing to the Btringent regulations governing the export of tin plates from England and America. The conditions with regard to shipment of tin plates from England specify that they can only be shipped if required for meat, jam, fruit and milk. In regard to benzine tins, an endeavor has been made to procure supplies of second-hand tins in Auckland, but so far with little success, one carter securing only thirty tins after being out for five hours. In view of the serious position which has arisen, users of benzine l arc asked to save their tins for use again, thus relieving the stringency.

According to the N.Z, Tablet the new Irish movement of the Sinn Feiners is under the. leadership of De Valera, the M.P., whose speeches are described by Mr. Lloyd George in recent cables as "cold-blooded incitements to rebellion." The Tablet speaks of him as "a young Irish patriot with a Spanish name. Kamorn de Valera (the Tablet says) was born in New York about thirty-four years ago. His father was Vivian de Valera, a Spaniard, and his mother's maiden name was Kate Coll, a native of Limerick." He was taken to Ireland when he was only two years old, and was educated at Blackrook College. "In 1910 he married Miss S. O'Flann'igan. one of the ablest kid most enthusiastic workers for the cause of Irish Ireland. De Valera was one of the first to join the Irish Volunteers, and later, when the split occurred, to throw off allegiance to John Pvedmond. In appearance (the Tablet adds) the Irish leader is tall, muscular, full of energy, with deep passionate Irish eyes set in a face of ivory pallor."

"There is a revival of faith in the doctrine of human immortality anion? the men at the front," says a Padre in the "Church Times." "This is perhaps a spiritual awakening. It could scarcely be otherwise. Men who are face to face with death, and conscious of the fact that the next bullet or shell may end their own earthly existence, are naturally profoundly interested in the doctrine of human immortality. The man who tried to persuade a body of men at the front that death is the" end of all things, and that there is no future existence, would find his audience—to say the least of it—unsympathetic. However shy men may be in discussing other aspects of religious faith and practice, they are always ready to talk on this, and an address at a parade service on the subject of the life beyond invariably commands their close and sympathetic attention. In fact, it is not too much to say that there is amongst the men at the front a general belief in a future life, in which they expect to meet and recognise their friends who have passed over."

Mr. Harold Beauchamp has received an interesting letter from Mr. J. A. Ruddick, formerly Chief Dairy Commissioner in New Zealand. In the course of the letter Mr. Ruddick says: "I am sure you will be amused at the enclosed newspaper clipping, which appears in the Ottawa morning papers to-day." The extract is as follows:—"New York, September IS.—Germany has forfeited her right to possession of Northern New Zealand, which will remain part of the British Empire at the close of the war. declared Mr. W. A. Holman, Premier of New South Wales, in an address at a luncheon given in his honour here today _by Lord Northcliffe, head of the British missions in this country. 'Australia did not enter this war because of military ardour or in a spirit ot jingoism,' the Premier said, 'but because England's cause was the cause of right. We were under no obligation, and we had no interest to serve. If is a fact that as a result of the war the territory of Northern New Zealand has fallen into our hands, and we intend to keep it. But we did not enter the war for that purpose. Germany lias forfeited her right to it.'" Mr. Ruddick in a footnote suggested that i Northern New Guinea is referred to.