The trowel, the making of which was entrusted to Messrs G. and T. Young, of this city, is of 18-carat gold.
On the outside it has been beautifully engraved with the delicate Maori scroll work familiar on the prows of canoes and in the decoration of whares, and on the face is the New Zealand coat of arms.
The handle is of polished New Zealand greenstone, surmounted by a gold crown finished with imperial red plush.
The trowel will be placed in a case made by Messrs Scoullar and Chisholm from New Zealand woods veneered with beautifully figured totara knot.
The exquisite workmanship apparent in both the trowel and its case reflects the greatest credit on the Dunedin artificers, and shows that work of the very highest quality can be undertaken here as well as in London.
• The main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force will get a warm welcome and comfortable home-coming when they reach England, for a smaller body has been in existence for months past, and has divided its energies between becoming very efficient soldiers and doing very efficient fatigue work for the accommodation of their countrymen.
Where the New Zealanders now are is a mystery - as it ought to be.
The crowd at the Lord Mayor's Show has been told that the detachment from Salisbury Plain has just reached England.
• Ottawa: Although we are far from the scenes of actual conflict - the firing, the rush of armed forces, and the devastation - Canada is very much in the great European war.
Her first contingent of 33,000 men of all arms is not in France; but it is almost within hearing distance of the cannonading.
It is at Salisbury Plain, England, and has been there for nearly a month.
The English people appear to have been most favourably impressed by the equipment, the physique, the intelligence, and the eager spirit of our men; and well they might be.
It is doubtful if a finer body of soldiers could be found anywhere.
It would not be strictly true to say that our contingent represents the cream of Canadian manhood, in its vigour and capacity to fight; but it is fairly typical of robust, hardy, spirited, and capable Canadian manhood.
For such a force, tough of fibre and inured to sturdy conditions of life, the winter of France can have no possible terrors.
• Something of a record in the matter of collecting rates was disclosed at the monthly meeting of the Waikouaiti County Council yesterday, when the clerk (Mr John Porteous) submitted a statement showing that all the rates for last year had been paid, making a total of 13 years in each of which all these amounts had come to hand.
The statement was received with expressions of satisfaction by all the councillors present, who congratulated the clerk upon such a pleasing state of affairs. - ODT, 23.12.1914.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
