From what can be gathered the recommendations of the chairman provide for the setting up of a State Department for the purpose of taking over such farms and supplying the necessary labour for working them by utilising the services of those who have been passed as fit for home service, and securing retired farmers and farmers over military age to supervise the work on the farms in their particular districts.
• Dentistry as a profession is becoming more and more useful owing to the increasing prevalence of dental disease, and also to the fact that the public are at last waking up to the importance of having sound teeth. At the present time there is a serious shortage of dentists in New Zealand. It was recognised that the regular quota was one dentist to 1500 people. When the war began there were 2200 people to every dentist, and it has now increased to 2650 through dentists joining the forces. It would seem therefore, that dentistry presents a good opportunity for those seeking a sound career for their sons or daughters.
• A branch of the Karma and Reincarnation Legion was opened at the Theosophical Rooms in Dowling street last night, by the hon. secretary (Miss D. Norman-Martin). The legion was instituted in America in 1910 by Dr Van Hook, with the view of popularising the truths of Reincarnation and Karma. Karma is the working out of the law of Cause and Effect, and shows that men reap only what they sow. Reincarnation, it is claimed, is the only reasonable solution of the many inequalities of human life. These truths, it is claimed, show life to be ruled by an unvarying law, by working with which man becomes the Master of his destiny. This, the first meeting of the legion in Dunedin, was a great success, and it was decided to hold meetings twice every month to study the many references to Karma and Reincarnation in modern literature.
• The Downs run (near Naseby) has been divided into 14 sections, ranging from 154 to 519 acres, the capital value per acre varying from 12s 6d and 21s 3d. The sections will shortly be offered for selection on renewable lease. The Hawkdun run, adjoining, has been subdivided into five runs, of which the outgoing lessee has selected one, in accordance with the law, leaving four runs, ranging from 10,470 acres to 12,450 acres each. The half-yearly rentals of these runs vary between £52 and £70. The run selected by the outgoing lessee is 11,430 acres, and the annual rental is £155. These runs will be offered about the end of March.
• Recently a man in the Ashburton County appeared before the Military Appeal Board and succeeded, apparently, in impressing the board that his case was one of undue hardship, with the result that the appeal was adjourned sine die. His neighbours, however (states the Guardian), are of a different opinion, and have forwarded a request to headquarters that the case be re-considered by the board, together with a lengthy statement of what they consider to be the facts of the case.
• Some good sport was experienced by five amateur fishermen from Napier on Sunday. Going out in the trawler Beatrice, they selected a locality near the coast between Waikare and Mohaka, where the bottom is too rocky for trawling. Each of the five lines was equipped with six or seven hooks, and for five hours’ fishing 380 schnapper, mostly of large size, were caught, as many as four at a time being landed, in addition to a number of hapuka and other varieties of fish. — ODT, 17.2.1917.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
