The Germans, that is to say, are still pressing furiously to the attack, and in the north have been forcing the British and French slowly back. The enemy appears to have made little progress since his capture of Kemmel Hill last week, and, while we must be prepared to hear of the British evacuation of Ypres, which may be rendered untenable - save at a cost disproportionate to the value of the position - the latest news is that the Germans have sustained what Mr Philip Gibbs does not hesitate to describe as a disastrous defeat. From one quarter comes the surmise that, thwarted at Amiens and Arras, the enemy has now decided to hurl his fullest weight northward, striking towards the Channel through Flanders; and from another it has been suggested that General von Ludendorff is manoeuvring to draw the reserves of the Allies towards the points he selects - in the present instance Flanders - in order to prepare the way for his principal thrust, further south, and that the operations in Flanders are of secondary importance in relation to the battle as a whole.
Great Southland season
A well-known Southland farmer gives a glowing account of the success of farming operations in this province over the past season. He states that the 1916-17 season was considered by Southland farmers to have been the best experienced for many years, but that the 1917-18 season has been an even better one. There was plenty of sunshine, and the rain fell at intervals just when it was most wanted. Farmers from the North Island who have visited Southland this season agree that the country there is looking better than in any province of the dominion, and a visitor from Queensland also remarked on the splendid farming conditions prevailing there. Usually stock owners look to the grass only becoming sufficient to meet requirements for feeding about the middle of November, but the Southland farmer referred to stated that he had the unusual experience of finding that in October the grass was getting ahead of the stock.
Finance sought
The Mayor (of Dunedin) has just issued a circular to a number of business men asking them to meet for the purpose of devising means for adequately helping the Women's Patriotic Association to meet its financial demands, which at the present time are urgent. The members of the Women's Patriotic Association have, from the day war was declared, done splendid work for the comfort and welfare of our soldiers, and they have themselves raised, almost exclusively, the large sums of money required to enable them to perform satisfactorily their self-allotted task.
Tearooms prices
The arrangements recently made by the principal tea and luncheon room proprietors, under which the charge for afternoon tea was raised from sixpence to eightpence, has been broken by one of the signatories to the agreement, who, taking fright at the drop in the patronage accorded the rooms in the first week of the increased price, promptly went back to the original charge.
- ODT, 1.5.1918.
