This question came up at the meeting of the Wellington Land Board last week (states the Post), when several applications for grants were dealt with.
One man applied for a section of 200 acres in the Puketo district, and in his application he said he shared 40 acres elsewhere with his brother.
All the other applicants were landless. Mr J. Georgetti said that a man should not be treated any differently because he happened to have either ample capital or interest in land.
All were on a level in the sacrifice they had made, and one man had probably fought as well as the other.
• The recruiting officers at the Auckland Drill Hall have experienced much inconvenience for some time past (says the Auckland Star) owing to boys who have not reached the minimum age limit enlisting under false ages in order that their services might be accepted.
It is, of course, not always possible to distinguish at a glance whether a recruit is of the required age or not.
A glaring instance of a boy having imposed upon the recruiting and medical officers was exposed the other morning.
The previous night a youth appeared at the Drill Hall and signed on under the age of 21.
The authorities were unable immediately to detect that a false age had been given; but next day the boy's mother appeared at the office, and asked to see her son's papers, declaring that he had not yet turned 16.
As a warning to ineligible young men who would take advantage of their manly appearance in order to get to camp, it may be stated that a heavy penalty may be enforced, should they be exposed.
• The desirability of arranging a monster Sunday motor run for all the returned troopers in and about Dunedin was raised by Mr M'Dougall at the meeting of the Motor Club last night.
Sunday was necessarily chosen as the only day on which all the men and all the motorists could be got together.
Several members present evidently felt that the proposal would meet with opposition from those whom they were pleased to term "wowsers'', but no one was prepared to support the view that such an outing would be an improper use of the Sunday.
Mr Wright said he would heartily support the motion, but suggested that motorists should be very careful to pass places of worship quietly.
• Our Cromwell correspondent wired yesterday as follows:-‘‘A period of oppressive heat culminated on Sunday and yesterday with heavy thunderstorms in various parts of the district. The most serious was in the Clyde-Cromwell gorge, where extensive damage was done from a point half a mile north of Champagne's Cutting to within a mile of Clyde. For a stretch of some four miles the railway line and main road are covered with debris or are washed out.
‘‘At Champagne Bill's Hill the railway has been twisted and swept towards the river. The ballast engine was caught, and is now silted up in the debris. North of Clyde the telegraph lines are down in several placed, and all traffic to Cromwell is suspended. Mr Doig's orchard, half a mile north of Champagne's Hill, has been partly smothered with tons of silt and stones, and the flood waters entered the house, destroyed the furniture, and left deposits of mud feet deep in the building.
‘‘Monday's mails reached Cromwell this morning by pack horses. A large staff will be required to restore traffic at an early date." - ODT, 2.2.1916.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
