Splendid weather conditions prevailed on Saturday afternoon and yesterday for the week-end encampment held by B Battery at Tahuna Park.
A full muster of officers and men, under the command of Major Ritchie, left the Garrison Hall shortly after 2 p.m. on Saturday, and proceeded direct to the camping ground, where a squad was at once engaged pitching camp, while the remainder were kept busily engaged - the gunners at their guns, the specialists at signalling, range-finding, etc., and the drivers at driving exercises. For a while a breakdown threatened in the quarter-master's department, the cook failing to put in his appearance.
Without the services of this important functionary, it seemed at first that the encampment would be but a sad affair, but where the interests of the commonweal were so directly concerned it was unlikely that endeavours would be lacking to fill the breach. A trio of amateur cooks from the ranks, untrained but surprisingly efficient, invaded the kitchen, and, under the able guidance of Quartermaster-sergeant West, demonstrated the truth of the axiom that there is no one whose place cannot be filled.
Reveille sounded at 6 a.m. yesterday morning, and the men were on parade at 6.30. With the exception of the meal hours, and a break for divine service at 9.30 a.m., the whole of the day was usefully spent in field work of a varied and interesting nature. Camp was struck at 4 o'clock, and the men were dismissed from the Garrison Hall an hour later.
• In the course of a paper on ''Hydatid Disease'' delivered to the Auckland Medical conference, Dr L.E. Barnett, of Dunedin, drew attention to the yearly loss in actual money resulting through the prevalence of the complaint, and emphasised the necessity for a publicity campaign by the Government so that farmers and others could be fully apprised of the importance of measures for checking its spread.
It was advocated that prominent placards should be placed at railway stations, in the schools, and other places of public assembling, issuing a warning against the feeding of dogs on raw meat on similar lines to what had been done in the Argentine.
It was stated that the disease was more prevalent in the South Island than the North Island, and an estimate was submitted that the disease was reducible by half. The annual saving in loss of sheep alone would be 128,500. A computation made placed the loss on rejected meat because of hydatids during the past 10 years at a value of 200,000.
In the course of the discussion which followed and in which several doctors took part, Dr Stapley declared that a great deal of the disease was to be found in any of the abattoirs in New Zealand, and that dogs should be vigilantly kept away from such premises to avoid the spread of hydatids by feeding on the offal.
• As evidence of his lack of knowledge on the subject of the growth of the moustache, the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stour, remarked in the Wellington Supreme Court that he had the unique experience of never having had a razor on his face in his life. According to the foreman of the jury, the rate at which a moustache grew ''all depended on the men''. Personally, he could go without a shave for a week, and would still be termed clean-shaven. In fact he would show no more growth in a week than many other men would show in 12 hours. - ODT, 16.2.1914.
