A letter, forwarded by a Dunedin firm, which employs a large number of horses in its business, includes the following: "The question is of the utmost importance to such a firm as ours, and only a few weeks ago we had no fewer than six horses laid up with nails in their feet. We think the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should seriously take up the question, and endeavour to prevent nails, etc., being swept into the streets from the various railway sheds and wharf sheds where cases have to be opened, and this also applies to many warehouses."
In a letter published in the World's Carriers, a Home Journal, with regard to this question, the writer states: "These nails are picked up by horses' feet, causing lameness, great suffering, and serious injury which often defies the skill of veterinary surgeons to cure, and often proving fatal; and, even if recovery is effected, it is only at the cost of a long time of great pain to the poor animal, to say nothing of the many thousands of pounds lost by horse-owners each year in London alone - a most wanton and unnecessary waste of money.
"Truly, it is the innocent suffering for the guilty. This certainly ought not to be, and should be preventable if only proper care were taken by those whom it concerns. We feel it is very difficult to fix the responsibility on the culprits in this matter, but surely something ought to be done; at least publicity might be given to the danger arising from such carelessness and indifference, if only for the sake of the patient, long-suffering, dumb animal - our friend the horse. We think if public attention was called to this evil by the various authorities, especially the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, it would go a long way to stop it."
• New York newspapers publish reports from Niagara Falls of what is described as the most daring rescue in the annals of United States history. A man named Henry Smith fell into the river above the falls, and, though only a little distance from the bank, he was swept down towards the brink of the torrent, and his doom seemed inevitable. But three men who were lower down the bank, and who had seen Smith's plight, rushed into the water.
The first, throwing himself in, was held by the second man, and as the latter swam from the bank he in turn was held by the third man, who gripped his feet firmly with both hands. A human chain was thus formed, and the man furthest out was just able to grip hold of Smith, who was being swept past in an unconscious condition. Several persons on the bank, who had been holding on to the feet of the last man, then drew all four to the bank in safety. The spot where the rescue was effected was only a few yards from the brink of the falls.
• A Board of Trade inquiry was opened on May 15 at Newcastle-on-Tyne into the wreck of the steamship South America, of London, which went ashore off the Cornish coast, at 1.40am on March 13, while proceeding from Hamburg to Cardiff in water ballast. The vessel had a crew of 38 hands, and also carried the wife and child of the master, Mr Alfred Bowling. The vessel belonged to Nitrate Producers' Steamship Company. After she struck, the crew and passengers were safely landed in the ship's lifeboats. - ODT, 11.7.1912
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
