Allied bombers active

Children from city schools addressed by the Mayor of Dunedin, Mr J. J. Clark, at the Victoria Gardens. - Otago Witness, 29.5. 1918.
Children from city schools addressed by the Mayor of Dunedin, Mr J. J. Clark, at the Victoria Gardens. - Otago Witness, 29.5. 1918.
London: Sir D. Haig's aviation report states: Twenty-two tons of bombs were dropped in the day time on Monday on the enemy's railway stations, aerodromes, and billets.

Our night-fliers dropped 13 tons of bombs on aerodromes in the neighbourhood of Ghent, Tournai, and St. Quentin, and a further four tons and a-half on the railway stations at Thionville and Metz, (Lorraine) and Coblentz (on the Rhine), while 22 heavy bombs were dropped on the railway stations at Namur and Charleroi (Belgium).

Since the commencement of the German offensive 1000 German aeroplanes have been brought down, and over 1000 tons of bombs have been dropped over the enemy's lines.

French official: Enemy aeroplanes were reported approaching Paris last evening. We kept up a violent barrage, and our airmen went up. The enemy dropped the bombs on suburbs, resulting in material damage and some casualties. The enemy did not reach Paris.

The Daily Express Geneva correspondent says that the British daylight air raid on Cologne on Saturday caused enormous damage. In addition to the announced civil casualties, many more recruits were killed or wounded, as a number of bombs fell directly on the barracks in the northern part of the town.

Potato flour proposed

Mr J. Watt, who will be remembered as a former resident of Balclutha, writes to us from Nelson with reference to the condemnation of a large part of a recent consignment of potatoes which arrive in Dunedin from Australia, suggesting that potato flour might be made out of the diseased potatoes. He recalls a time in his boyhood when the potato crops in Ireland and Scotland were blighted, and says that at that period his father, who was a mill-wright in a village in the south of Scotland, adopted a process by which heaps of diseased and evil-smelling potatoes were treated so as to produce potato flour, a flour similar to cornflour or arrowroot and used for purposes such as those for which these commodities are used.

Missionary experiences

There was a large attendance at the Choral Hall last night, when Mr Robert Powell, of the China Inland Mission, gave his farewell lantern lecture on ''Missionary Experience Among the Miao (or aborigines) of China,'' Mr John Gibson presided.

Mr Powell gave an interesting description of life among the aborigines of China, and explained that the Miao were quite a distinct race of Chinese. He stated that the latter's occupation could be traced to before the time of Abraham. There were two distinct tribes of aborigines.

One, occupying the centre of China, were docile and were almost serfs, while those living in the southwest were independent and were known as the Black Miao from the sombre nature of their dress. Where he and Mrs Powell were stationed was 700 miles from Shanghai, and the only means of communication was by a flat-bottomed boat navigated up a river, the journey occupying nine weeks.

The dangers incidental to the journey were great, and it sometimes required from 40 to 200 men to drag the boat up the rapids. The country was of a very hilly nature, he had not seen more than half an acre of level ground in all his travels. The aborigines were altogether different from the Chinese in looks, manners, and customs.

- ODT, 24.5.1918.

COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

Comments

In occupied countries, it didn't rain but it poured. They were bombed by their allies.