Like the German Notes to the United States, it was an evasive utterance - no doubt purposely vague and obscure. On one point, however, it confirmed the general impression that the German Government wished to argue this point and that.
It is now as enamoured of the virtues of conferring to secure peace as it was hostile to all such pusillanimous procedure in 1914. It was the Chancellor's professed hope that President Wilson's next reply would set all doubt at rest as to the outcome of Germany's overtures.
His desire, which the Allied peoples will have shared with him, has already been gratified. President Wilsondoes not mince words in his reply. He demands that Germany shall surrender and that the Kaiser shall abdicate.
Boy boaties warned off
A party of four boys had an exciting experience off Somes Island on Sunday afternoon (says the Wellington Post). They left Evans Bay in a 17-foot centreboard boat, between 2 and 3 o'clock, with the intention of sailing to Petone.
A strong north-west wind was blowing, and the boat was steered to the westward of the island, and on a course that took them well clear of the land. When about half a mile from the island they were surprised to hear a rifle shot, and soon found that they were being fired at.
They say that the first shot passed through the jib, about a foot from the mast. The immediately ''put-about'' to get further away from the land, when another shot was fired, and a little later a third shot came - striking the water about two feet from the stern of the boat - so close indeed that the lad at the tiller was splashed by the water.
The boys say they were doing their best to get away from the island when the second and third shots were fired. They add that the guard could easily see that in ''putting about'' their intention was to keep as long a distance from the land as possible, and that - at the most - a warning shot was all that was necessary.
Reluctant bridegroom
Impecuniosity on the part of a bridegroom is evidently no bar to a marriage, judged by evidence that was given in a maintenance case at the Magistrate's Court in Christchurch on Tuesday. The evidence went to show that the defendant, then a New Zealand soldier in London, mete a girl in Hyde Park.
Some time later the two were married at a registry office. The bridegroom, unfortunately, was quite penniless, so the bride bought the ring, paid the marriage fees, and provided the funds generally. Defendant alleged that he was somewhat under the influence of liquor at the time.
He had, he said, a hazy recollection of taking the marriage oath, ''signing his name in a book'', and the going with his wife to ''a boozer called the Green Man''. The wife, however, vowed that the defendant was in his normal senses, and that, with the exception of paying, he had made all the arrangements.
Cat-catching plan
Last week a Christchurch firm advertised for 100 cats (says the Lyttelton Times), which were to have been sent to the country for rabbiting. Exception was taken by many people to this request.
- ODT, 25.10.1918.
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