Dry spell spells thirst

Among the war trophies on the Horse Guards’ Parade, London: a German torpedo. — Otago Witness, 2...
Among the war trophies on the Horse Guards’ Parade, London: a German torpedo. — Otago Witness, 2.2.1916.
The continued spell of dry weather which we are experiencing just now is causing some anxiety to those who are dependent on the rainfall for their drinking water.

Those who are in this position will be glad to learn that Messrs Thomson and Co. announce that persons in need of drinking water may get as much as they require free of charge at the firm's factory in Crawford street.

The artesian spring which supplied Messrs Thomson and Co.'s factory taps the third rock strata 200ft below the surface, and yields 50,400 gallons a day.

It is of limpid purity, never varies in flow, summer or winter, and is 20 degrees cooler than tap water.

That many will welcome obtaining supplies of this delicious water goes without saying.

Peninsula milkmen, whose district, we believe, is acutely affected, may ease matters by refilling their empty cans with this splendid water after their rounds.

• Much is heard in these days of the "white man's burden''.

The "pack'' is not a heavy one in the British Crown colony of Fiji, for in this beautiful group, whose future is so indissolubly linked up, for better or for worse, with the future of the Pacific, there is (writes our correspondent) no system of education provided for the offspring of the 40,000 Indian settlers.

The children of Chinese settlers are not permitted to attend the public schools.

The educational wants of the native (Fijian) children are catered for by the churches, and attendance is not compulsory.

The Fijians are catered for.

The Chinese are as yet few.

The Indians are many, and ignorant.

Thus there is growing up in the Pacific the menace of an uneducated as well as undersized, neurotic race, begotten largely of child wedlock.

• Sir, - On behalf of No. 22 Platoon, D Company (Otago Infantry), Eighth Reinforcements, I desire to thank the ladies of Otago and Southland for the splendid assortment of gift goods made or donated by them and issued to each man of D Company during the last few days - viz., Two pairs hand-knitted socks, one balaclava cap, one cholera belt, one pair mitts, one housewife, two handkerchiefs, and two small linen bags; also one tea towel, one soap bag (containing one cake Lifebuoy soap), one pot S. B. ointment, and one tin Keating's powder, and a small linen bag containing one pair bootlaces, half-stick of liquorice, and a small quantity cinnamon bark - the whole forming a most welcome and useful addition to our kits. I wish also to thank the Ladies' Patriotic Committee of Otago and Southland for the gift, shortly before we left Trentham, of a splendid leather waistcoat to each man. - I am, etc. E. W. Newton, Corporal.

• Mr Lander made an interesting find lately on the western slopes of Mount Egmont.

At a height of about 3500ft he discovered a number of bones, some of which he recognised as moa bones, but others he could not identify.

He brought what he could carry away with him.

One of the bones is the under part of the skull of a large animal in a complete state of preservation, except that one tooth was lost in transit.

It is a little like the under jaw of a horse, but other bones do not bear out a theory that it is a horse's skeleton that Mr Lander found, through among them is the shell of a hoof, like a horse's.

His idea is that it is the skeleton of an extinct animal, and that this particular animal and the moa whose bones were found in the same place met on the mountain side and both succumbed in an encounter, and rolled down into the gully where he found the remains. - ODT, 3.2.1916.

 

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