LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

. Wellington reports a sharp earthquake at 7.22 a.m.—Press Association. We have to acknowledge receipt of £1 forwarded by }Sx. S. Whitehead, jun., of Mokau, for the Bush Fires Relief Fund. The late Mr. Thotnas Struthers' PiI'Jima farm of 290 acres, subdivided into eight sections, was sold .by auction last week and realised from £29 to £72 per acre, the average for the lot being £55 per acre.

Mr. W. A. Collis, secretary of the New Plymouth Expansion League, acknowledges receipt of the following subscriptions: Taranaki Jockev Club. £ls; Mrs. Paul, £5 ss; Mr. Newton King, £5 ss; Taranaki Herald and Budget, £3 3s; S. W. Shaw, £2 2s; T. C. List, £2 2s, A. Shuttleworth," £l.

Robert John Riley, who was convicted at New Plymouth on Wednesday last for failing to enrol under the Military Service Act, and was ordered to be kept in custody until taken charge of by the military authorities, will be taken away under escort this morning.

So great are the resources of Lake. Waikaremoana that, according to the Mayor, Mr. E. Parry, the Government Engineer, estimates that even If there were no rain in that district for eight years it would not affect ; any projected scheme that might depend on the lake for its supply.

The popular Douglas Fairbanks is the star attraction at The Empire at present in a fast-moving and delightfully amusing comedy-drama, "Double Trouble." in which Doug, gets tangled up in a mysterious double identity.

Messrs Spedding and Stainton, Ltd., have received advice of the safe arrival in Auckland of Messrs F. Taunton and R. Hooker who left here via Mokau on Saturday on an Indian motor-cycle with side-car attached. Leaving at 5 in the morning the riders reached Auckland at 8.30 the same evening. The road in parts was in bad order and accounted for a delay on the way of three hours. To reach Auckland in 12J hours' actual riding time was a splendid performance and speaks well for the reliability of the Indian motor-cycle. This establishes a record for the journey., It is interesting to note that 23 years ago Taunton's father, Mr. L. M. Taunton, accompanied by Messrs Harry Good and R. T. Harper, bicycled on ordinary bicycles from Manaia to Auckland in 3 days.

Australian troops who were in Wellington on Tuesday were given an informal welcome in the Town Hall and were addressed briefly by the Minister for Finance, Sir Joseph Ward. Afterwards they were given general leave and during the afternoon and evening the town saw a great deal of the soldier cousins, whose uniforms distinguished them easily from the New Zealande'rs. They were a cheerful and exuberant crowd, with less discipline than the New Zealand troops show, but with a system of their own that seemed to be working reasonably well.

A reminder is given of the concert and dance to be held in the Toko Coronation hall this (Tuesday) evening. The entertainment is to serve the dual purj pose of welcoming homo some of th Toko warriors recently returned and also to farewell spine of our klmki fanners who are up oil final leave. The best music has been secured, and the floor has received a special preparation, whilst the vocal and other itenia ure from the best possible local and outside talent.

It is stated by the Auckland Star' that an Auckland resident received last week an urgent cable message which read: — "Send to Codford Post Office £3O. Urgent," This was signed with a name of someone with whom the recipient is entirely unacquainted. Needless to add, the £3O was not forwarded. The applicant must have had a lot of faith to pay for a cable and think there were' patriotic people in Auckland sufficiently simple to forward £3O to an iinkn'own person. At the same time, there is reason to fear that this may indicate an organised system ' for robbing relatives of men who have gone to fight for the Empire. One Auckland gentleman some few weeks ago received a cablegram signed by the name of his nephew. He promptly despatched £lO, but. lias since learned that no request for money had been sent by his relative. Other cases are known where money has been sent from Auckland in answer to cables received, and it has since been learned the sums had neither been asked for nor received. Tn (be case of the cable under notice, the request that the reply be sent tn Codford Post Office was no doiAt designed to five the impression that the applicant )3 in Coilf"- 1 pital. The safest nl"n wo'ii l l-<» ti send any mpnev to relatives ~i the front through offic 1 :.! channel.

Medical men the world over are agreed that one outcome of the present war will he an astonishing addition to surgical and medical knowledge anil experience. In surgery particularly soine . extraordinary achievements have been recorded (says the Adelaide Advertiser). A case in point is Corporal C. Merrill, who served on Gallipoli with the 9th Light Horse, and, | while there, was wounded -by a bullet in the head. The missile entered the forehead, passed through tile lbft eve, | which it destroyed, and lodged in the antrum, a little under the surface of |the skin. It remained in that position • —meanwhile having caused Corporal Merrill almost constant pain—until a fortnight ago, when it was skilfully extracted 'by Colonel A. M. Cudmore, at the Keswick Hospital, South Australia. The bullet might have Ibeen removed "oy making an incision in the face, hut that would have involved leaving a' scar. Consequently the operation, which'prov- ; eel to he eminently satisfactory, wai done 'by way of the .mouth, and now Corporal Merrill has an interesting' pouvenir for the decoration of his watch-' chain."

A new form of wireless telegraphy, which, instead of passing messages through space, transmits them through thousands of feet of solid earth, is now, in use at the front, and is proving of the utmost value in establishing effective communication between units ' liji the firing lino and divisional headquarters, from which operations were directed- Reference to this new means of communication was made by Major W. J. M. Locke, MC„ last week, in the course of a war lecture delivered in Melbourne- He mentioned how during the attack on the Hindenburg line, east of Bullecourt, a party of Australians, who were astride a piece of the captured line*; were suddenly overwhelmed by an enemy onslaught. Their flank 1 was turned, and for a time it seemed that certain disaster awaited them. But, seated in an enemy dugout, which earlier had been captured from the Germans, was a solitary Australian soldier, at the transmitting end of one of these underground wireless installations. When the unit to which he was attached was flung back by the enemy counterattack, lie was left alone at his post completely encircled by the German forces. With the utmost unconcern, however, he proceeded to send along to headquarters a detailed account by earth wireless of all that wa3 going on. The eventual result was that the Australian artillery managed to get the range of the Germans, whose counterattack was dispersed; the lonely signaller at his was relieved, and some little time afterwards he was decorated for his bravery with the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Says the Wauganui Chronicle:—The liuia, one of the rarest of native birds, and extremely prized 'by old-time Maoy chiefs for its tail feathers, is almost extinct. Some years ago search was made in the bush on the Rualiine and Kaimanawara ranges for specimens to place in the 'bird sanctuaries at Kapiti and Little Barrier islands- The search, however, was unsuccessful. For several years past it lias been believed that huias still existed in thei more remote spots in the bush countiy albout the head .waters of the Wangamii river, and confirmation of the opinion is now to hand. Last week, while motoring over tlie Okalnikura hill from Matiere, Mr. B. A. Beattie, stock agent for Dalgety and Co., saw two huias. , Natives in the Pipiwki district state that the huia disappeared from that locality about eighteen years ago, when there was a big demand for the black, whitetipped feathers for headgear decorative purpose in connection with the visit of the present King and Queen to the DoI minion.

War trophies are beginning to reach jXew Zealand in large numbers. Included in a big consignment landed in Wellington this week are three German 77 centimetre quick-firing field guns, manufactured by Krupps. The Otago Infantry Regiment, which captured one lof them, claims it as a trophy. On the breech are the marks "No. 7937, Krupp, 1917," so that it is one of the latest type, though now quite useless owing to shrapnel damage. Another badly shattered gun of this type, a trophy of the 2nd Battalion Auckland Infantry Regiment, was captured by the Uth Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment o n June C, 1917- The shrapnel damage seems to have been inflicted on the guns from the front and' from behind. . The front hits are no doubt due to British projectiles, but the ones on tho back may have come from the Germans themselves. The gun positions having been captured from theip, their barrage has been withdrawn, and the German artillery blazed at its own guns, which had come into the British possession.

A New Zealand sergeant in Palestine giwes, in a letter to a relative, the following account of the incident which resulted in Sergeant, Percy McClatchie, brother of Mrs M. J. Lynskey, Hawera, being awarded tho Military Medal. Everybody in the regiment (C.Y.C.), he says, is disappointed that McClateliie did not get the Y.C-. ,'He thus describes the affair: "The brigade was away in front of our line reconnoitring the enemy. They had picketed down there for the night- When about, dawn Jacko came up at the en masse, in thousands- Our fellows just had time to get the line up and horses fixed up to retire. Tho Turks came, up at -the run, firing from the hip—about five or six thousand of them. Our fellows only numbered a hundred or two. However, Mac stayed behind to help a couple of chaps who 'Uad lost their heads completely One he put on his horse and sent safely away (to be shot five minutes later through the head). The other clung to his stirrup. Tlie'd had not gone far when Mac missed the fellow. Looking back, he saw him flat on the ground, fairly done. He went bacl< and picked him up and put him oil his own horse and ran alongside him. Of course, in the meantime, the [Turks.were right at their heels in hun- ' dreds. Mac -told me he could see ma-chine-gun bullets ploughing up the earth, just straight behind them, and he could see the spray of them creeping up closer and closer.' I reckon he earned the V.C. if anyone earned one in the war." Members of the Equitable Building Society of New Plymouth (Second Group) are notified that subscriptions .will be due and payable to-day, Tuesday •April 2 at the Secretary's oifce, Currio street, from !) a.m. to 12.30 p.m., from 1 p/m. to ii p.m., and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. —Advt. Por Children's Hacking Cough at night, \Yn~u' Oeat Paacsrnunt Cure.-1/0, 2/fl-