In the course of a letter, written to Mr Leaver from the New Zealand General Hospital, Codford, England, Private Bremner says: - ``You will probably have heard that I `stopped one'. I was saved by your lucky halfpenny. The bullet struck the pouch of the money belt and glanced off the coin, cutting it in two. I have one piece, but am sorry to say the other is missing; otherwise I intended sending it to you as a souvenir. I have a nasty gash, but surface only, and I hope to be right again in a month at most.''
Our Auckland correspondent states that a discovery of moa bones has been made by Mr E. E. Vaile, of Broadlands, Waiatapu, in a bank of pumice soil, some 7ft below the surface. They were evidently of a single specimen of a smaller species of moa, probably Dinornis didinus, and would stand between 4ft and 5ft in height. Some interest attaches to this discovery because of the fact that it is believed that no previous discovery of the kind has been made within a number of miles of the particular district. The bones show some signs of age. It is held that the moa became extinct in the North Island sooner that it did in the South Island, but there is still abundant evidence that the bird was exterminated by either the Maoris or an allied race that inhabited the land before the advent of the true Maori.
Many curious articles are found at times in the penny-in-the-slot telephones. Pieces of lead, buttons, medals, and a host of other articles find their way into the slot, and it is on record that one foolish but conscientious caller even placed a penny stamp in the slot. One day an irate lady called on the telegraph engineer, and demanded her money back because she could get no answer to her call. She was asked if she had placed a penny in the slot. Indignantly she said ``No'', but she had place two halfpennies in the machine. She seemed surprised when told that a telephone is only a machine and is not able to figure out that two halfpennies make one penny.
Our Cromwell correspondent states that the drought which prevailed inland since the first of December without the least sign of rain, showed signs of breaking on Monday, but beyond a few heavy thunderstorms was not relieved, and with a continuation of the present conditions the turnip crops in the district are doomed to failure. The pastoral country also is becoming unusually dry, but with a good heavy rain this would soon come back to normal. On the Nevis mining field there is a great scarcity of water, and several claims have had to cease work. A fair consignment of fruit is now going on to the market, and being railed from a point five miles below the town. This is a big boon to orchardists. - ODT, 10.1.1917.
