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Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12537, 7 May 1915, Page 4

At the meeting of the Oahiaru .School Sports Association, held yesterday, it was decided to open the foot-ball-season'forthwith, the first match to take place on Saturday, the loth inst. Any communications ill this connection -' are- to- be addressed to the lion, secretary of the' Association, Mr -A. J. Woods (North School). ■The monthly meeting of the Waimate Hospital Committee was held 011 Wednesday, Present: Mr W. Geddes (chairman), 'Mrs Orbeli, .and Messrs Sanders, At-will, Hutt. Henderson, Brown, and -Or Borne. The- Chairman reported that affairs- at the Hospital were satisfactory. Since the last meeting a fire had destroyed a lumber shed and damaged another slied. A settlement had been made ! wi.tli the insurance company. During the month patients' payments amounted to £2B os. Accounts would be- presented for payment totalling £239 8s Bd. ■ The requisition for the year had been submitted to the Board and agreed to. A request for better accommodation for the nurses had been referred to tile Inspector-General. The report was adopted. On the recommendation I of iVurse Mander, Nurse Trott's salary ! was. raised to £SO per year, and the J housemaid's wages were increased to 18s per week. It was decided to make a donation of£2 2s to the Fire Brigade and thank the members for their'services. * • •• • 'Major Forrester, in a brief address to the 'National Reservists last- evening, 'expressed; the hope that- as- many as possible would parade'on Saturday to accompany the men who have offered fh'_t?ni£e'h'os for active service to the railway station. Nearly every member present last- evening expressed a willto fall _ in with Major Forrester's wish, which is recognised as a, step in, the -right direction, and'as a further means of showing the heartfelt appreciation of" the public. . Letters _ found on German prisoners make .curious and generally far from edifying reading. One does'riot forget the fiancee who asked her dear Karl to i' send her a- pretty pair of earrings, and | Ridded that they would be none the i worse for a piece of ear with them. In . the same strain, though slTgTitJy less bloodthirsty, are the following letters- > the first found in the pocket of a Ger. ' .man corporal, and dated February 6:— "Your clear wife," it runs, "asks me. to -write and say that you really ought to send her lots of jewellery wlien and if you nave an opportunity'of ransack.

'ing a French village. Seeing that I have received a number of pretty knick-knacks from my dear betrothed one, it has occurred to her to ask you to do the same. 1 do not know where my ii:uice got tho.se objects. 1 only kr.ow that lie is lighting on the Yser. This is' the message your dear little wife has asked me to send you." The second is a letter from "a dear little .wife 7 ' herself. It is somewhat peevish. "31. Kolb, v it complains, "has brought back lots of .pretty things, and a basket of quite new linen. Please, please 'pick-up some souvenirs and send them to me. Very often a waggon T load reaches us from your sector. You really ought to find out about it. Mme. Sans, also, would like a souvenir." The (Jamaru School Sports' Association held a meeting at the Middle. School yesterday afternoon. Feeling reference was made to the death of the date Lieutenant J. G. Cowan, killedthe attack on the Dardanelles. Lieut. Cowan had been, a prominent member

\6i the Association, and members pre'sent' voiced their appreciation of the high esteem in which he was held by the Association, as sportsman, teacher, arid soldier. It- was resolved that a

motion, of condolence be recorded in the miuntes, the motion to be for;warded to the relatives of the deceased officer.

it was suggested about a wrek agobv several lady enthusiasts to commence a physical culture and. Swedish drill class in Oamarit, and the suggestion culminated last -evening in the holding of a general meeting, -at which 35 ladies -were present.. Miss 31. Miller occupied the chair, and explained preliminaries, and the following officers were elected : —President-, .Miss Stron. ach; vice-presidents—Mrs Orbell and Mrs Ji. P. Lee, l)r Douglas, and Mr C. IC. Davcy; captain, Miss M. Miller; do-puty-capta-in; 'Miss I). Tait; secretary 'and treasurer, Miss M. Wins ley; committee —Misses A. Alexander, M. Lindsay, Falconer, V. Parley, and O. Mass. It r was decided to' eali the class the Oanuirii; Physical Culture Club, and to hold its meetings in the Middle School Gymnasium every Wednesday evening. Arrangements are to be made for an instructress and to limit the membershir)-.

•The 66 2-3 Yards Maiden Handicap ;at the O'tago Amateur Swimming Club's championship carnival, hold at Dnnedin on Wednesday evening, was won by I'. R. Macin tosh (&eo), a Waitaki- j-ligh. School boy, who put up a good performance. The time was 59sec.

A meeting; of the general committee of the North Otago Patriotic Fund will be held in the Borough Council Chambers on Monday., 10th. May, at 3 p.m., to arrange a public meeting and recruiting demonstration. All members both of town and country are particularly requested to be present. In the Oamaru postal district during the quarter ended 31st March. 9302 postal notes <,'? the value of £3004 ll'-i 2d were void and .4087 . postal notes of the value of £1389 ]os 6d ■ were pa:id. The rainfall at Balrudderv for the month ending April 30th was 0.53 m., and on looking over the records for the twelve months to that date the total amount is shown as 14.42 points, a very low record.

The value of the wool exported from the Port of Oamaru for the. week ended 27th April was £20.302. Tallow to the value of £237 was also .shipped. _ -VI ails for Niene. Raratonga. and Tahiti, per north express, at 1 p.m., connecting with Kereru at Auckland, close to-morrow (Saturday). There came to our notice this morning tan example of the difficulty experienced in procuring suitable dwellinghouses in Oamaru. A tradesman from Dnnedin is .at present pursuing hiis occupation in Oamaru, and, having been offered continueous work, decided, to settle. His efforts to procure suitable accommodation for himself and family have, however failed, and he is thus compelled to refuse the work and return: to Dnnedin.

The Savings Bank returns for the quarter ended 31st- March give the following figures for Oamaru.—Accounts opened, 297; closed, 145; number of deposits, 278G; withdrawals, 1456; amount of deposits, £50,184 17s: withdrawals. £34.159 14s 4d ; excess of deposits over withdrawals. .£10,2-39 2s Bd. A- further increase in the number of divorce petitions is recorded in the Civil Judicial Statistics of England and Wales for 1913. The total was 998 — against 920 in 1912—0f which 548 were (iled by lhisbands, and 450 by wives. There was also an increase in petitions tor judicial separation (91 against 77), and for restitution of conjugal rights (135 against 125). In the last decade divorce cases have steadily increased, the rise occurring chiefly iu petitions, by wives. Compared with the figures, for 1904, wives' - petitions in 1913 showed an increase of 65.44 per cent., whilehusbands' petitions had risen by 22.32 per cent. It is noted that, concurrently with the growth of suits for restitution of conjugal rights, which are usually brought by wives as preliminary steps' toward obtaining decrees for dissolution of marriage, there is a falling iff in the suits to obtain judicial separation.

Many writers have remarked that ,tlict Germans seem to select Sundays lor their fiercest attacks on our line, but in so doing they are only copying other enemies we have met' in war. their idea, no doubt, being that, owing to the English observance of Sunday, we are more likely to be caught "jiau-

ping" on that day than 011 any other. As a matter of fact, .a serious massacre of British troops, " whilst they ' w|ere actually in church unarmed, took place in Ceylon about 150 years ago; and this is the reason why British troops at home, even in peace-time, always take their side-arms to church with them, whilst at any foreign stations they •also take their rifles. It is remarkable how many battles were fought, by the Duke of Wellington on a (Sunday. Salamanca was fought on Sunday. July 2, 1812: Yimiera, Ftientes d'Onoro. Orthez, Toulouse, and Vittoria were also contested 011 what were known-as '•Wellington's lied Sundays." It was on a Sunday afternoon that he issued his immortal order, "Ciudad Rodrigo nnist be carried by assault this evening" ; and Waterloo was also, of course, contested and won 011 a Sunday. To come to more recent times, our great attack on Cronie's trenches at Paardebui'g was made 011 a-Sunday—Feb-ruary 18, 1900: and one of the Germans' hottest attacks on our position on the Aisne was made on Sunday, Sentember 20.

| The kind of articles which Germany . will be deprived of by the blockade is i indicated by the list of the chief im- | ports,'which for 1913 was as follows: I Agricultural products and foodstuffs. ' £'351,000.000: mineral raw materials. ■ £54,000,000; chemical products. £'21,500,000; textile materials and I manufactures, £40,200,000; base j metals and manufactures. .-£337400,000; | leather and leather goods-, £8.180.000. : Of course. a. considerable proportion of [ such imports had already been held 1 up as being contraband of war. | Smyrna, upon whose forts the guns of the Allies are turned, was- one of the seven cities of Asia in the Book of Revelations. It is the only one of the seven which , flourishes still—Ephesus, Pergamum, and the rest having none but historical memories to-day. The church .in Smyrna had an honorable history; it was. there that Polyear;> exercised his ministry, and there in 100, A.D. he died the martyr's death. Sir W. M. Ramsay, a- leading authority upon the antiquities of Asia. Minor, recalls the fact —significant and pathetic at the present time —that Smyrna; was "the last stronghold of Christianity in Asia Minor," and stiil "is more occidental in character and more solidly flourishing than any other city of Turkey." The population numbers over a quarter of a million.

A certain sergeant was overheard j telling- how he went round to -drill some civilian volunteers in the Law Courts !' quadrangle. ''lt is very dark," he said, -when telling the story, "and I noticed a tall, ungainly fellow writhing about in. the ranks, so I sang out, 'Now then, number two. form fours with your feet, and not with your neck.' r He said. ' Yes, yes—yes, yes.' in a- very unmilitarv way, anil seemed so nervous that- I looked at him again. It was Lord Hugh Cecil." in the- Admiralty the Churchill youthfulness and inipulslvenes is . wnterad down by the serene composure and sagacity of Admiral Lord Fisher and Admiral" Wilson, -two greybeards who thoroughly appreciate their thunderous young colleague, and who. with him, make a magnificent team of administrators ('writes the London correspondent of the Sydney "Sun"}. The Fisher influence is felt through every department. When Prince

Louis of Battenberg was theie. it a. thousand mines were require*!, tlie head o! the siipplving branch would be summoned, and thev would be ordered. Accenting 10 an old Admiralty custom. the head ot flu 1 branch w.uikl pruiiii-.-v them ill iliicc in on 11 is. Kaieiy was auylhiiig done in less time. t' no.er liie Fisher regime. th ■ order is a< companied by the, fixing o| a definite dale, teldom. more iiian a lortniaht. Ji an official were so purblind as to protest, tlier? would be the addendum., '•the mines in a fortnight or there will be another head to your department. it is this .system which lias brought Ml' Graeme Thomson from a subordinate position to .the post o] Director of '1 ranpsorts in less than three months., and which secured for him. mention in .Mr Churchill s speech in the Commons. The Fisher-ciim-t'lnuohill-cum-W ilson touch is also to lie discerned in the suspension, :f not the abolition, of the old system of courUmai'tial. For example. - a .very distinguished commander of a very liunous ship in a fairly recent engagement was adjudged not to have used his big guns sufficiently. When he reached port and reported and all the facts were sifted, he was not asked to rejoin his ship at once. He is, in naval parlance, "on the beach, ' which is the navy way (if saving that he is on half-pay and is not attached to a ship. . The Triumph Junior is the most- ro markable Motor Cycle ever made. Its simplicity is wonderful, the running cost is trilling. To clean and overlian. the engine is less than halt an hour's work.—W. Stuart Wilson and Co., Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, For Chrome Chest Complaints. 1/6, 2/6.