NOTES OF THE WAR.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 161, 9 March 1871, Page 7

NOTES OF THE WAR.

One regiment of Landwehr of the Guard, consisting of 2400 men, has left behind in Germany 7003 children. In one company of 180 men, there are only eight unmarried.

At Claye, a village four miles from Metz, numbers of the inhabitants concealed themselves underground when the Prussians appeared. It is believed that many others are still in regions beneath, and their gradual resurrection is expected. There are immense wine caves around Claye, some of them constructed at a considerable depth below the surface ; into these the terrified villagers had descended, ond there they have been lying concealed while the enemy has occupied the houses and stores and gardens above.

The following anecdote is related by a medical officer from Metz. Among the articles which ran very short as the siege progressed was chloroform. After one of the sorties a soldier came to the hospital with his hand smashed by a piece of shell. A brief examination showed that some of the shattered bones must be removed. "Do you wish to be insensible while the operation is being performed?" asked the surgeon. " I should think so," the soldier answered ; " I have been suffering terribly for the last two hours, and I do not believe that I could support any further pain." The surgeon was silent. It Avas a painful operation, but the chloroform was all but gone. " Why do you ask, M. le Docteur "—" — the soldier went on, after a pause — " is it that the stuff that makes one sleep is getting short 1" " Terribly short," said the surgeon, " it has nearly come to an end." The soldier was silent for a minute or two ; then he said, " Very well, M. le Docteur, then I will do without it ; some of those who have worse wounds than I have will want it more ; only be quick about it." So saying the soldier lay down, stuffed his handkerchief into his mouth, and held out his hand for the operation to be performed.

The besieged correspondent of the " Daily Nows " gives the following list of prices of " luxuries " : — Terrines of chicken, lGf. ; a goose, 45f. ; one cauliflower, 3f. ; one cabbage, -If. ; dog is 2f. a Ib. : a cat skinned costs 5f. ; a rat, If., it' fafc from the drains, If. 50c. Almost all the animals in tho .lardin dea Plantes have been eaten. They have averaged about 7f. a Ib. Kangaroo, however, has been sold for 12C the ll>. Yesterday I dined with the correspondent of a London paper. He had managed to get a largo piece of muffltm, an iinimal which is. I believe, only found in Corsica. I can only describe it by saying that it tasted of mufflon, and of nothing else. Without being absolutely bad, I do not think that I shall take up my residence in Corsica in order habitually to feed upon it." One of the correspondents, writing from Paris, speaks of the practise of examining the letters found in the knapsacks of Prussian prisoners or dead. The practise, he thinks, is obviously defensible, because sometimes most valuable information, political aud military, is obtained by it : — " But in order to get at this the reader has to go through an amount

of purely private and personal matter, often of a character which ought to make it specially sacred from a stranger's intrusion, and which it seems almost profanation to pry into, while the poor fellow for whose eyes alone it was written lies dead or dying.The Prussian soldiers seem always to carry about with them an extraordinary number of letters, most of them from their sweethearts or wives, full of touching prayers and hopes for the husband's or lover's safe return, and fears that at the best the Christmas family circle must this, year miss him. Too often it; is doomed never again to see him. But in the midst of all these affectionate utterances and bits of local gossip come allusions to the disposition of the Prussian forces and to the state of Europe, which convey information well worth having. Last night, for instance, a letter from a sister to her brother contained political news of a later date than anything that had reached Paris. Her letter was admirably written, and the brother, thougli a' private soldier and not, in the conventional acceptation of the term, a gentleman, spoke French and English fluently. He did not seem badly wounded, and said all he wanted was a little water ; but I hear this morning that he is dead."

Under the heading " Starvation Salaries," the following 'communication has been addressed by a correspondent to the "Ballarat Star" .— " Judge Pohlman, in recently sentencing a prisoner convicted at the General Sessions at Melbourne for embezzeling the moneys of big employers, remarked that the salary (£225 "per annum) paid by that firm was very inadequate to the prisoner's responsibilities What would he say if he knew the munificent salaries paid at -some of the banking institutions here, where it is a fact that tollers (through whose hands thousands of pounds pass daily) receive £120, and ledgerkeepers, who are pre- 1 sumed to detect, and ai'e responsible for all forgeries, have£Bo per annum? It may perhaps comfort protectionists that these ' liberal screws ' are not paid by the English (or foreign) banks, but by those specially started for developing the colony's resources.