RNW Mounted Police of Canada to receive more horsepower

A cricket team, comprised of patients and staff at Queen Mary's Hospital, Hanmer. Back row (from left): Sergt. Foote, Corpl Brunton, Capt Hardham, V.C. (skipper), Privates Dewer, Ellen (umpire), Corpl Mansfield, Pvte Morrison. Front row: Corpl Hollis (wic
A cricket team, comprised of patients and staff at Queen Mary's Hospital, Hanmer. Back row (from left): Sergt. Foote, Corpl Brunton, Capt Hardham, V.C. (skipper), Privates Dewer, Ellen (umpire), Corpl Mansfield, Pvte Morrison. Front row: Corpl Hollis (wicket-keeper), Pvtes, Macdonald, Dougherty, Dobson and Reeves. - Otago Witness, 28.3.1917.
The famous Royal North-West Mounted Police of Canada is to be increased in size, according to information received in Wellington by the last mail, and its duties will be more military in their character than they have been in the past.

The strength of the force under the proposed reorganisation will be about 4000 men. Settlers in the Western States, who have so long relied upon the Mounted Police for the enforcement of law and order, viewed with some alarm the possible withdrawal of the riders of the plains, but they have been assured that some posts will be maintained.

The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan both consented to an abrogation of existing contracts, as war conditions rendered it necessary for the dominion Government to ask that the full force of the mounted police should be available for the dominion.

An official statement read: ``The fear is unfounded, however, that the services of this excellent force are to be lost to the settlers in rural parts. The force will be increased rather than reduced, and will exercise its authority over all sections of the provinces.''

•Mr R. Delebere Barker, in an article on omens and superstitions in The Reveille, published in Nairobi, British East Africa, states that, years ago, when he was in the New Zealand Alps, he was left in a hut in sole charge of some 30 sheep dogs.

One night all the dogs began to howl very dismally. Some spirit seemed to possess them, and they uttered most blood-curdling howls until midnight.

As he was unable to sleep, he walked outside and gazed at the surrounding rocky crags, and listened to the reverberating roar of the snow river that raced along the stony bed of the valley.

Suddenly, he heard a shrill cry, evidently a human scream. It seemed to come from a hut across the river, where an old gold prospector lived. In the morning the old man's body was found, brutally mutilated, and his gold gone.

•Speaking to a reporter, the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald (Minister of Agriculture) said a good many farmers had expressed the opinion that the agricultural tractor would not be of much use in New Zealand (says the Christchurch Press).

He knew of a farmer in the Blenheim district who had been using a tractor, and he asserted that with it and three men he could do as much work as he did formerly with eight men and 24 horses.

•The five Stewart Island men drawn in the recent ballot have all been turned down, and it is a peculiar circumstance at first blush that every man on the island who has been drawn in the ballot has so far met with similar deserts (says the Southland News).

On consideration of the circumstances, however, it would appear that it points directly to the fact that all the fit men on the island went voluntarily to camp.

•The Melbourne Argus states that a plague of mice is assuming serious aspects in some of the wheat-growing districts of Victoria, particularly those areas in the Wimmera portions of the Mallee.

An inspector who has just returned from the north-western parts of the State describes some of the stocks as presenting the appearance of being mountains of live mice, while in other cases the effect of the plague is described as resembling thousands of wriggling snakes.

Of course, these extreme instances are not typical, but even where the attack is comparatively slight it is a menace to wheat-growers. The town of Inglewood is being visited by a plague of mice, which has infested houses, gardens, and all buildings, occupied or unoccupied.

Quite a crusade is being maintained against the pest, which, however, appears to be on the increase.

- ODT, 29.3.1917.

COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

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