The Princess Mary was held up under a guard of officers, who were sympathetic but sceptical.
When the matter was investigated it was found that the Princess had gone incognito on a visit to the front, accompanied by Mlle. Bassau, to meet the Prince of Wales.
Six miles from a village her car was halted by a French patrol.
The occupants had forgotten their passports and permits, and the patrol failed to recognise the name of Lady Chester, under which the Princess was travelling.
The car was left under a guard, with an assurance that the occupants would be shot at six o'clock next morning.
Four hours later an officer returned to identify the Princess, whose bona fides were established, and messages were sent to headquarters, which were on the point of issuing a general alarm for the missing princess.
• Seventy-five years of age, and anxious for a ''smack'' at the Germans.
This is the age and the desire, respectively, of John Mather, an old Otago identity who has been camped for the past five years on the side of the Waipori River.
Mr Mather has had ''smacks'' at Britain's enemies in several parts of the world, as he ran away from college when he was 14 years of age and joined H. M. S. Terrible, taking part on that vessel in the bombardment of Odessa and Sebastopol in connection with the Crimean war.
He says he saw Admiral Seymour, then a middy on the Terrible, pick up a live shell and throw it overboard.
He was bought out of the navy, and came to New Zealand, but went back to England and joined the Esk, taking part in the Chinese war, where he was wounded.
Subsequently he returned to New Zealand, and fought in the Maori war.
He also volunteered for active service in the Boer war, but was informed he was too old, despite his assurance that he could ''stop a bullet'' as well as any other younger man.
Mr Mather has drawn up plans for a new type of submarine, and is at present in communication with the Minister of Defence as regards his invention.
He informed a member of our staff that he has four nephews at present fighting at the front, and kindly made up a parcel of books to be forwarded on to our soldiers.
• A deputation of ladies, headed by Dr Edith Huntly, waited on the Minister of Defence to-day to ask whether care was taken to protect the community from venereal disease that might have been contracted by soldiers who returned to New Zealand, and whether the Minister would provide for a women's patrol of the streets, the vicinity of military camps, etc., to mitigate, if possible, the contraction of the disease.
The Minister, in reply, said that every precaution was being taken to protect the public, and returned troopers with the disease were kept and treated till it was safe to let them go.
With regard to the women's patrol, he requested them to place before him any information at their disposal in reference to anything of the kind that had been done elsewhere.
In consequence of rumours regarding men who returned by the Willochra, he said he had had special inquiries made, and had been informed that there had been only seven cases in all of venereal trouble on the ship.
These men were all well and free from infection when the ship arrived.
• A fatal accident befell a horse attached to a heavy spring cart at the cross wharf between 9.30 and 10 o'clock yesterday morning.
The vehicle was standing parallel to and alongside the wharf, when a piece of paper - a frequent cause of trouble where horses are concerned - was suddenly caught by the wind and blown in the face of the animal, which took alarm, and plunged with the cart into the harbour.
The driver, who had just loaded the cart with a length of weighty cable, and was standing on the vehicle at the moment, narrowly escaped by scrambling over the side of the falling cart to the wharf.
The vehicle turned turtle in the air, and must have completed a somersault in the water, for it was righted when the horse came to the surface.
Excited onlookers were powerless to save the horse, which, after a struggle, was overcome by the weight of the cart and was drowned. - ODT, 11.8.1915.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
