Peace treaty

The patience of the Allies is being subjected to a severe test by Germany in the matter of the fulfilment of her obligations under the Peace Treaty. It is to be gathered that the British Government, partly, perhaps, as the outcome of its recent observance of the military activities of Germany in the Ruhr district, is becoming increasingly impressed with the need of bringing pressure to bear upon Germany and put an end to the evasions of her duties. It has secured what seems to be unimpeachable evidence that the German forces in the Ruhr Valley are considerably in excess of the number admitted in Berlin, as well as of the number sanctioned under the Peace Treaty. The Foreign Secretary, said to have informed Dr Sthamer, the German Charge d'Affaires in London, that Germany must immediately give evidence of an honourable intention to withdraw a portion of her troops from this district. Clearly, the Allied Conference which is to be opened to-day at San Rome is fraught with unusual import. It may be surmised that its effect will be a stiffening up of the Allies in relation to features of the Peace Treaty which have been more or less disregarded in Germany. Among other matters, there is that of the disarmament clauses of the treaty, with regard to the fulfilment of which the Allies have been treating Germany with a good deal of indulgence.

Harbour oil spill

An undesirable memento of an oil-fuel steamer was unpleasantly evident on the foreshore at Port Chalmers on Saturday morning. Before sailing the previous evening an American oil-fuel steamer had pumped a quantity of crude oil into the harbour. It was either the residue from an oil tank or drainage from the bilges, and its ejection was unobserved, or the harbour authorities would have taken steps to stop the proceedings. The oil was floating as a thick scum on the surface, and it was of a black, sticky nature resembling coal tar. As the tide receded the stonework under the cross wharf was painted a shiny black, and the wharf piles looked as though a coat of coal tar had been newly applied to them. Steamers berthed at the wharves displayed a very even waterline marked in black. Motor launches and rowing boats also showed an overnight waterline in sticky black.

Floating oil fuel has not won approval on the foreshore at Port Chalmers.

Rabbits run riot

Lauder: The most interesting thing in Central Otago just now is rabbits. It is running in everybody's mind and on almost everybody's land. Yet the law says that it is a pest, and must be destroyed, and some 18 farmers were penalised at Ophir on Friday last for not making adequate efforts to exterminate him. The rabbit is fast becoming a national problem because, though legally a pest, he is proving himself a highly profitable one. Many rabbiters have been enjoying an income of £5 and £6 a day by trapping the ubiquitous rabbit; canning factories at Cromwell, Alexandra, and Waipiata have been the scenes of bustling activity; some £3000 and £4000 a year. Under the present conditions it is evident that the rabbit has come to stay. All the murderous ingenuity of man as shown in traps and guns, ferrets and weasels, phosphorus and strychnine have failed to cope with his amazing fecundity.

— ODT, 19.4.1920