WHY NOT RECRUIT FROM THE COLONIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2146, 10 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHY NOT RECRUIT FROM THE COLONIES.

A correspondent writes from Canada lamenting the short-sightedness of wbnt he calls the " home doctrine of th» War Office," ift not establishing recruiting depots in several of the larger cities of the Dominion for the enrolment of men for the army. We are assured that the measure would b« moat popular, and that any number of good men of splendid physique would be forthcoming, and would gladly undertake any service. We admit that we are astonished at the *ant of fore^ijjht of those who bo strenuously oppose all ideas of utilising our Colonies as fields for recruiting. That sooner or later we shall do ho is certain. But why not make a move at once? There is everything to recommend the measure. It would be mot gratifying to the colonists ; it would enable on to fill many gaps in the ranks of attenuated battalions ; and it would be viewed as another link binding the colonies to the mother country. In all reMpeots it would be of immense advantage, and yet nobody seems to be prepared to aot. — Army and Navy Gazette.

A wonderful fish is becoming numerous in Goose Lake, California It hat the power to fill itself with "uir until it becomes very much like a ball. Of evenings, about sundown, they may be be seen playing on the surface of the water. They reflect all the colours of the rainbow, and when sporting over the lake are a good sight. A hunter, several weeks ago, saw a crane swallow one of these fish when in its normal condition, but before the crane got more than fifty feet up above the lake the fish had taken in enough air to explode the crane, which at the sound of a report like that of a gun, flew all to atoms, and the fish came lightly down on the water, no worse off for a short ride in the air. The fish is a great cnriosity, never having been found in other waters. — Jnst so. An Insomntast. — The Woolwich correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" vouches for the fact that there is an old man employed as a night-porter at the workhouse, Plumstead, who has not been to bed for nearly seven years. He sometimes dozes in his chair at the lodge gate, but is seldom undisturbed for half-an-hour at a time, and the longest sleep he has had in the seven years was one stretch of three boura. He is 74 years of ajj», but is quite active and in capital health. He has recently become a teetotaller, and gave up smoking a few years since, because he had reached a consumption of 9oz a week, and thought the habit extravagant. As he does not need rest he is never off duty, except when he takes a day's holiday ; but after concluding his night watch at the gate he %oen on a day watch as assistant porter at the workhouse, and does this double task without relief or change for months together. The old mail, who is intelligent and well informed, was formerly » butcher, tod it has been hia habit during most of his life to exist without bis bed from Sunday to Sunday, being late in the slaughterhouse and early in the morniug at market, day after day, so long as he was fit for hard work.