The Brussels Post, 1916-2-17, Page 6GERMANS 'GRIND 1 menth; the .fee, therefore, to
pa oee now bring neverY
inoethhundreds of thousands of
RpSSIAN POLAND Pound-
; In June the fii
sealingenuity ef the
Germane invented a oew source of
vArtsn, mE4su.gEs jmi TA ineorne, Everybody above the ftge of
" 15 eas to have n passport with a
TAX POOR PEOPLE. •
'pverybotly Above Fifteen Years Old
Charged for Passport and
Photograph.
A leading member of the Polish In-
dependence party tells something in
the following article of German rule
in Russian Poland:
The financial exploitation of Rus-
sian Poland by the German authori-
ties has assumed in certain parts of
the country the torn: of strange varie-
ties of speculation. Thus, for in-
etance, in Lodz, where great quenti-
ties of coal axe required for fuel in
the houses and in those factories
which are working at least a small
fraction of the time, the German au-
thorities (the police office) have in-
troduced a monopoly in coal and coke.
No one is allowed to provide himself
with coal by, any other Channel; cer-
tain stores bought by the manufac-
turers without the intermediary of
the German authorities have been
confiscated.
The German authorities are exact-
ing 45. 5d. for a sack of coal which
certainly did not cost them /non than
2s. 2efid. The coal is taken from
around Dm/throve, mostly from the
"Saturn" Mine, which belongs to the
same Lodz manufacturers to whom
the coal is subsequently sold at such
preposterous prices. Even the coal
which the town of Lodz is compelled
to supply for fuel in the buildings
used by the German authorities and
army has to be bought from those
same authorities.
Por a sack of coal which formerly,
cost 2s. 5d. the German author;ties'
now charge 4s. 2Yed. The police of-,
Ace has been making about £10 on
each railway truck of coal, and all in
all, hundreds of thousands of
pounds. The humanitarian president,
Von Oppen, had promised for some
time to give back part of those pro-,
fits, 1900, to meet the needs of the
town, but he soon forgot his promise.
In some localities the population
has been forbidden to buy provisions,
from anyone except the German com-
missariat officers; these were im-
porting without exeeption valueless'
cattle, fixing for them arbitrary
prices. Similarly, the "Warenein-,
fuln•," which monopolizes the trade,
in flour, fixes very high prices for,
it.
Exchange Manipulation.
The German authorities have been
making a considerable amount of,
money by speculating on the money,
exchange. Certain fees are accepted
from the population only in silver;
roubles, which are valued very low,i
while in other cases only marks have
been demanded. Especially in the
payment for coal the German autho-.
rites have refused to accept their!
own war bank paper (Dariehen-,
scheine), and draw out of the court -
try the silver coinage and bank -notes,
saying sententiously, "German coal,
must be paid for with German
money." As a matter of fact, the coal
in question is taken from the Polish!
district of Dombrova.
The German authorities are fixing
taxes and raising those which exist-;
ed before the war. Although all trade
had stopped before their order for;
payment of taxes was published, the'
said order demands payment of all
taxes on industry, threatening first a
fine of 1260 in default of payment,
and further lines afterwards, Ac-
cording to their calculations Lodz
alone ought to pay them more than
£100,000 of trade taxes.
While all kinds of fees are drawn
from the country the German autho- 1
cities are showing extraordinary in-
genuity in exploiting it whenever they t
are compelled to make investments w
indispeneable to them for military
reasons. Thus, for instance, they c
frequently force local bodies to pay a
for the repair of the railway or Toad
which they take over in their Myr/ a
military interest. Similarly, the ens B
tire burden of the upkeep of Russian g
prisoners of -war and invalided so1 h
diers at Lodz has been thrown on the
town.
photograph. For children below the
age of 15, common passports without
photographs are admissible. The
passport does not give its holder any
rights, or entitle him to move from
one place to another, Thus, if under
the passport .lew, only two million
passports are. issued, the Galenite
...
Treasury will obtain 11,000,000. Ae-
cording to the melee of 'Field Marshal
, von Hindenburg, published June 0, if
anyone in the occupied territory
should be found after August 1, .1915,
without a posport, he will be Iiable
to imprisonment for a terra not ex-
ceeding 10 years, or in ease of exe
tenuating circumstances, to a flee of
from 10s. to £300. This system of
robbery proves that the Germans do
not expect to remain in Russian Po-
land. One does not ruin economical-
ly a country in which one expects to
stay.
• +
COOLED HIS GERMANISM
Carnet Seys He Saw Kaiser's Order
To Slaughter.
The Paris "Matin" prints the fel-
lowing, written by Count Meigar,
former secretary and confident of Don
Carlos, and now a leading member of
the Carnet party, the sympathies of
ehleb are strongly pro-Germ:1n:
"I was at Probsdorf when the war
hroke out. I was then Germanophile
and was pleased over the prospect of
German success, on which I counted.
I hurried to Vienna and the fleet
thing I saw was the secret document
written by the German Emperor to the
Emperor of Austria, to inform hint of
the order given to carry on a far of
extermination.
'My soul is bursting with grief,'
wrote the Kaiser, 'but It Is absolutely
necessary to put everything to fire
and the sword; men and women, chil-
dren and aged must be slaughtered;
not a single tree must be lett upright,
nor a roof intact, With such a
system of terror, the only one to be
followed against a people so debased
as the French, It is certain that the
war will not last two months, while
by proceeding with humanitarian 0011.
sideration it might be prolonged for
years. I am having recourse, then,
whatever it may cost me, to this meth-
od, whieb, In spite of apearanees, Will
greatly diminish bloodshed.'
Words rna e t le first
breach in my admiration for Germany.
A few days later I read in an evening
paper a speech delivered by the Kaiser
to his soldiers in whicb he declared
that he had learned that two French
military doctors bad entered Metz
and poisoned the garrison wells with
cholera microbes. Then I understood
that such a man was not merely cruel
but 0, shameless liar and cetera -
realer.
"I also had an opportunity of learn-
ing of the grief of the Russian Ambas-
sador, who told 000 of his friends how
he had, in an interview with Em-
peror Francis joseph, declared his
Government ready to make important
concessions to avoid war,
"The aged monarch had yielded to
his prayers and authorized him to
telegraph to Petrograd that all danger
of war was over. The next morning
the Ambassador was hurriedly sum-
moned to the Emperor, wbo said that
he was obliged to take back his word,
as the Kaiser Wilhelm had telegraph.
ed to him, 'If Austria is afraid, Ger-
many fears nobody, and to burn the
bridges I have Just declared war on
Rode.'
"This revelation compelled my con-
version. I felt sure that the Kaiser
Wilhelm, instead of being the instru-
ment of Cod, was inspired by the
devil,"
DIED FOR LOVE OF HORSE
Quaker Killed After Long Trip to
Bring Mess of Oats,
M. Philippe Millet, in his war notes
n the Paris Temps, tells a touching
tory of the heroism of a member of
he Society of Friends and the S.P,A„
hose name he gives as Staunton.
Mr. Staunton was serving bis
ountry at the front as chauffeur
ttaehed to the staff, same his con-
cience would not allow him to shed
lea. One day he took pity on a
tray horse and led It back to the
tables, giving It into the care of a
room named Baker. On visiting
is protege some time afterwards he
ound it looking very lean.
"It is not m teeny," said Baker.
"We are not getting any mere oats,"
"Ceood," 'replied Staunton, "I will
go and fetch some," and he started
off, though It was not his turn to go
or mippliee,
"I Met him," says M. Millet, "Just
efore he was on bis homeward
ourney, and I asked him mechanic-
Ily it the made were any less ein-
ealthy' than they had been for some
aye est?"
"I had not much trouble in getting
ere," was his quiet anewer, "but 1
ear it, won't be very pleasant on the
ay baclt,"
"The next Morning," writes M.
filet, "I went to look for him, I
ound blue bent ever the wheel at
he her end of a bridge. A Shrapnel
allot had pierced his heart.
"Thue died Staunton, the Quaker, t
et' the love of Et a0r88,"
"Are you better oft for getting a
arried ?" "Yee; formerly hail good
uarters." "Arid now?" "Weil, now
have a better halt".
Little Johnnie --"Ma, was Robitmon t
row a ciracr
cus obat?" Mother— 12,
I don't know, Why?" .ichnnic--
Well, here it Rays that after he had c
iielled his day's work he sat deWii on t
s chest!"
Fines and Fee.
Incredibly high tariffs have been
imposed on the import into Russian
Poland of goods which are indispen-
sable to it --for example, 011, soap, e
food, etc. Vino and contributions
are imposed on towns on The slightest 's
pretext, Besides all this, the court- 'I;
try has been ruined by fiscal exac-
Hens in the shape of fees for page -
ports and temporary passes. For h
tickets from one railway station to f
another simply fantastic prices have es'
been fixed. A temporary pass is re-
quired for a journey from one die-
trict to another. (There was a time t
when stich a pass was requieed even b
or going from one village to an-
other.) Political reasons hardly f
come in here, because anyone can ob-
tain a pass on payment of a certain
fee, Bet these fee e are simply ire m
credible; for a pass to the nearest q
Pitted one has to pay 2s.; to a 'Oleo I
ftirther away, 8s.; and 50 tm. These
asses rite as high 03 10s, to 20a, Th
a country with a poi/elation of several C
Millions, districts, connected by eon-.'
oink, edminietrative, and family,"
boucle, had been isolated front one fir
&nether by the war for a whole hi
Strange British Rations in Africa.
Two British officers of the force in the Carneroons superintending
the shipments of bananas as they are gathered from the trees ancl pack-
ed off to the troops advancing on the strongholds of the Germans in the
Cazneroons. The peeler uniform of the British officer in that country is
"shorts" and sun helmets.
SERVANTS OF KING
KILLED IN ACTION
CHARGED INTO THE FOREST AND
WERE LOST.
Sandringham Employes Annihilated
In Battle With the
Turks,
Of all the tales of gallantry told
and yet to be told, of the desperate
lighting in Gallipoli, none perhaps
will surpass the heroistn of the Nor-
folk Territorials, with whom the
King's Sandringham servants went to RESERVIST PINED $500 •
fight. Of them, Sir Ian Hamilton
wrote in his now historic dispatch:
"Among these ardent souls was part
of a fine company enlisted from the
King's Sandringham estates. Nothing
more was ever seen or heard of any of
them. They charged Into the forest
and were lost to sight and sound."
Writing of the magnificent charge
into the "misty unknown," a corres-
pondent, writing from Kings Lynn,.
sap,: "It is a story of the mea who
never came back; of Colonel Beau-
champ and 10 officers, who led 250
men across ploughed open fielde,
thinking of niething but the order,
'Anafarta must be taken by dusk.'
To -day only a dozen, it would seem,
are alive as wounded prisoners' in
Turkish hands, some clay to tell a
tale, perhaps, that shall add a silver
lilting to one of the most glorious but try, was a dangerous proceeding which
saddest records of the British army." 'must be severely punished.
The national reservist sent a letter 1
to a naval flying lieutenant interned!
abroad telling him of the progress
made in improving the ah. defences
of London, merely with the idea of
giving him some news which would
interest him, and knowing well that
the naval lieutenant would never
dream of communicating. it to any-
one connected with the countries with
master. A pleasant cruise across opeit which Britain is at war,
blue seas on board the Aquitanis„ and The letter never reached the naval
a midnight landing on an enemy's lieutenant, for it was intercepted,
The authorities said they were per-
fectly satisfied concerning Kearne's
loyalty, but it was a serious offence
for people even to collect militery
information. Kearne said that in
writing the letter, it• 'never struck
him for a moment that he was doing
the slightest wrong. He wrote the
letter to the naval lieutenant to 'cheer
him up, because since his internment
abroad he has made an unsuccessful
attempt to escape, which had made
him very despondent.
The magistrate said that there was
not a scintilla of suspicion that he
had to deal with anything of the
spying order. Kearne was loyal
Englishman, a useful soldier and a
good worker, but he had committed
a grave indiscretion which "cried
thine guns swept the earth hare of aloud for a penalty at a warning to
those men wheel the Turkish infantry other people." '
could not. face, Exhausted by thirst The Magistrate said he was loath
and decimated by the fire, into the to impose a term of imprisonment,
'woods they continued. And then—
pecuniary penalty must
Slott. After .capture he was marched
90 miles In four days to bls intern-
ment camp, and now les foarffine
postcards just contain requests fee
money, food and clothing. •
"Colonel Beauchamp was last seen
alive in the village of Anafarta. He
was walking arm in arm with. his ad-
jutant. Ile carried bis service coat
on his arm and was still encouraging
his brave followers. `Dig 'en, out,
boys; stick it through theme It
was his last heard order to his men
to clear the village of Turkish snipers.
The village subsequently appears to
have come under heavy artillery shell
fire. Maybe it was followed by an
overtyhelming sweep of Turkish re-
inforcements 'vatted literally swamped
the surviving Norfelks."
Punished For Writing About British
.Air Defence,
Simply because he sent a letter to
a naval friend interned in Holland
containing remarks about British air
defence preparations, Percy Kearne,
an English reservist, has been fined
$500 for breach of the defence of
the realm act and narrowly escaped
imprisonment.
Kearne has done good work in serv-
ing his country, and the War Office
gave him a certificate of loyalty, but
the Judge held that the regulations
about sending information of a mili-
tary nature out of the country, even
to a f ellow patriot in a neutral coun-
It Is a Breathless Story.
"Think, of every eligible man from
the Ring's Sandringham estates en-
listing in a body and forming a nuc-
leus of C company; men whose wild-
est 'thrills' had been talk of a recal-
citrant bull on the royal estate.
Others from office stool and counter.
Twelve months of skilled training, in
which Col. Beauchamp was a past
unknown and unmapped coast.
" 'Anafarta must be taken by dusk.'
That was the responsibility intrusted
to thein. for more than two and a
half miles, across open country which
would not shelter a field mouse,
these Norfolk neophytes to gunfire
charged. Maybe it was the very gal-
lantry of these super -heroes that was
their urideleg. The 'Turks could not
face that thin line of glittering Nor-
folk steel. They broke and fled,
"Bold and confident, Colonel Beau-
champ, waving Just a simple Niigherri
cane, outpaced his men. 'On, the Nor -
folks, onl"Come an, the Holy Boy';
came the resounding echo from those
-ardent souls close upon their leader's
heels.
"The fighting grew hotter; the Nor -
relics came into a terrible enfilading
fire on both sides. Shrapnel and ma -
'who knows? Only 12 survive, and
they are wounded 'Prisoners. - boaajarga one'
Believing the penalty ±0be incora
i
King's Estates In Mourning. Mensurate with the offence, a number
. of members of Parliament are trying
West Newton and Derhingharn and
"So to -lay, tbe little viluigee of to get the War Office to. Obtein a re -
the • cottages on the Kieg's esteem/ 711tasiall 01 it.
are ell in mourning. Gardenere,
keepers and woodmen have paid „neware, iny son, of loose meth -
ars scarcely less heavy because
be. great secrillee, Aching hearts"fleware,
ods. tio yeti know how they general -
be King himself lins tried again
I y end?" "Ne, sir; how?" "In tight
and
gain to secure a release from sus- Places."
)8888. These women, ineterially,
rant for nothing. livery family re- "The man who tells
pares front the Ring the sante pee feulte is our beet friend," imoth the
as if its num was al home. , philosopher, "Yes; but he won't be
"Corporal 13101t, who V/08 attaebed ; long," ;mem the mere mem
o the 0 ennmany, the King's cont.;
any, is a prisoner, bet le unable to;
11 takee an tenerualle ernatt man
arrow ally light upon the fate 01 his
emendate Orme 0 week be is allowed tO speak seven laeguagee, but it takes ;
send a postcard to his mother, bet it matter one to remain silent in
it WAS just a jumbled up affair,' says , ope
I
Complete Dining Room
Suite $43.9-i
made of selected hardwood,
Imperial Oak finish, consisting
of Beet, China Cabinet,
Round Extension Table, Set
of Chairs (5 regular
and one arm chair. UPholster-
ed vyith leatherette seats),
Priced separately; Buffet,
$15.50; China Cabinet, $10,00;
Extension Table, $10.75; Set
of Chairs,- $9.90. Freight paid for Provinces of Quebec, and
Ontario,
We defy competition. Our prices are the lowest in the
Dominion of Canada. Write for our special catalog.
CITY ROUSE FTJRNISIIING COMPANY
1340 S. Lawrence 13oulevard, Montreal, Que,
FAMOUS OLD MOUNTAIN
Ararat Has a Con,spieuetts Place In
"Ararat is the hub of Armenia, or
the original home of the Haik people.
It is also the centro of what has ever
been the most troubled area on earth.
Tribes of Europe and Asia have
feught eaeh other here since the dawn
of history, and the remnants from the
battles have settled as neighbore, ha-
ting, despoiling, massacring one an-
ot
"Ararat is one of the most impres-
sive of earth's mountains, for it rises
sheer to the clouds out of an immense
plain.
"The dominant mountain is split
into two peaks, Great and Little
Ararat. Great Ararat rises to a
height of 17,000 feet above the level
of the sea. Little Ararat, where the
boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, of
Russia and of Persia meet, reaches
an atitudel of 12,840 feet. Though
the snow line here is very high -14,-
000 feet—the dome of Great Ararat
is covered with glittering fields of
unbroken white.
"A vast wealth of legend surreende
the mountain, svhicb bite always deep.
ly impressed.the imaginations of the
peoples who have wandered, passed or
settled beneath it. The Armenian
Priests long believed that the svonder-
ful mysteries of its summit might
never be surveyed by human eyes,
and all thought of scaling Ararat was
considered almost in the light of
sacrilege.
"The Armenians have also beld
that they are the first people after the
flood, the immediate descendants of
Noah, so to speak; for the first village
that Noah founded. after the abandon -
meet of the ark was Nalthitchevan,
So Um Anneulan thinks that his peo-
ple were the first race of men to grow
up in the world after the flood.
"The name of Ararat means 'high.'
The Persian name for the mountain,
leoh-i-Nult, mean's 'Nuales Mountain.'
It has been deterrained by the natives
that the Garden of Eden was placed
in the valiey of the Araxee.
"Noah's wife was burled in this
valley near the mountains, and grapes
are atilt grown there whose vines are
the direct descendants ot vines plant-
ed by Noah."
History.
"Mount Ararat, where there has
been barely a moment's peace since
Noah and his ark grounded neon its
massive shoulder, is at present thehuge,
huge, troubled boundary mark be-
tween the Ottoman Empire and Rus-
elaeand under the shedows of the his-
toric peak the fighting lines of Os,
mann and Russian have been swaying
back and forth, never far beyond the
lines of the fronter," begins a bul-
letin ISOM. by the National 9.00 -
graphical Society.
BIRD'S WONDERFUL JOURNEYS
The Plover Flies 5,000 Milo Without
a Stop for Food..
The golden plovcr leaves Nova Sco.
tie., and flies without a stop, straight
to South America, wintering on the
Pampas of Argentina, a journey of
some 5,000 miles, 2,500 being over the
ocean, without a stop even for food.
On the Pacific side the golden Plover
leaves the Aleutian Islands and goes
2,500 miles, to Hawaii without a rest,
and winters in the southern hemis-
phere from the Society Islands to
Australia. With this bird it Is the
northward trip that is slow, and the
eastern group crosses the continent
of South America, Mexico, the Great
Plains and across Canada to its arc-
tic nesting grounds, while the western
birds go up the Malay Peninsula and
along the Chinese and Siberian sea-
boardh
Woderful as it is, this enormous
journey of 12,000 to 15,000 miles each
year, there is at least one bird- whose
annual trip exceeds the plover a by
several thousand milt/4r we are told
in "St. Nicholas." The arctic tern
nests from Maine to within 8 dee, of
the 'North Pole, spends Its summer
in the land of continuous day, and In
its migration goes to a region in the
entarctic equally near the South Pole,
In ite roved trip it May toter as
mucti as 21,000 miles—nearly (meal
to flying around the world at the
Equator! In all the year the only
time It experiences full darkness ig
during the faw nights paSscd 121 the
neighborhood of the tropice, for 1±0
summer about the North Pole is one
long day. RS IA its winter about the
South Polo, But, although title la
much the longest journey made by
any bitel, It is not in some toys its
remarkable as the Plover's, for the
fern le a seabird, and can at any
time dive Into Me water and feed on
the abundant supply of lishea and
oilier Marine a nimale, virile the
plover Is really a land bled, ineitPahlo.
of foam at sea. So it has to fatten
ip before loving its summer home,
end Make ball' of its enormous entente
ottrat, without food.
"TURKISH CARPETS"
MADE IN IRELAND
TIDY INDUSTRY GROWS ALSO IN
EMERALD ISLE.
New Bld for Capture of the Enemy's
Trade in War Time
Recorded.
Ireland is no longer incurious 01
her mien things, but. once in a while
she still overlooks. a native achieve-
ment. For instance, Manchester has
Just told Dublin that Ireland noev
manufactures "Turkish carpets" which
would deceive the elect of Constanti-
nople, writes a Dublin correspondent
of the Neiv YorkS
Turc-Irish carpets are now added to
Turc-Irish cigaretes. It is a bold bid
for the capture of enemy trade in war
time. Costly earl/tits can hardly be
regarded as a war indu'stry, but the
Donegal eactories, from which the
Turearish epecimees come, are con-
quering the instinct of economy by
sheer merit. • Even now there are
enough orders to keep the workers
employed. The skill and beauty of
the work makes steady progress in
the calm highlands, The design and
color of the carpet which was exhibit-
ed at Manchester ravished the expert
eye, and we are told, charmed- an
order from an Egyptian connoisseur.
Carpet Manufacture.
The manufacture of hand -tufted car-
pets is about fifteen years old. in
County Donegal and has given emproy-
ment to hundreds of peasants who
have inherited through all the trou-
bled ages of Irish history the subtle
flair for form ancle color that distin-
guished their Celtic ancestors. The
Kildare carpet factory, which was re-
organized on a commercial scale about
five years ago, has succumbed to the
stress of. war. It specialized is large
carpets of the gorgeous and expensive
sort which finds patrons in American
millionaires and the malingers of
international hotels. To -day even
these personages and Institutions are
cutting their carpets according to their
cloth. So the Kildare -industry lan-
guished, but it has now come into
the hands of the firm which deals
more extensively in Donegal carpets
and will be reopened with a good back-
ing of capital. The successful strug-
gle of the Irish carpet industry in war
time is made still more noteworthy by
the fact that like all other textile
industries, it is suffering from the
scarcity of dyes.
War industries are booming in
Ireland. The woollen factories are
humming night and day, The only
shadow on the growth of the mewl -
tion shops is the fear of the publicans
that Dublin may be matte a scheduled
area. Irish agriculture is enjoying
golden hours. Naturally, however, the
entailer and more artistic home indus-
tries have suffered. The men are at
the war or in the fields and/ work-
shops. Maw of the girls are making
munitions.
Lace industry Suffers.
The demand for the minor luxuries
of life is declining with every new
pamphlet that issues from the Irish
Wer Savings Committee. There is
talk of a commercial glass factory
in Dublin, but the little industries in
stained glass and enamels have fallen
on , evil days, The lace industry, a
very importaut affair It rural Ireland
has been hard hit, and theta 18 some
depression in the famous centres in
Kerry, Cork and Limerick.
There 15 one cheerful feature in the
outlook for Irish home industries and
it is mainly due to the enterprise
and energy of the ountry'a educated
vvemert. They have mailed a new hi-
dustry into existence to redress the
balance of the old. In the notable
Irish number of the "Times" which
was published on March 17, 1918, a
Writer wondered why Ireland had
hover adopted the industry of toy -
making. Sooit after the outbreak of
war, the great milffnery shape in
Dublin and Belfast were obliged to.
dismiss a large number of seamstrese.
es and niany of these probably Would
110 destitute to -day if a band of good
ladies—including the leading metre-
giste.--had not wine to their help,
Workshops for the manufacture of
dolls end other toys were Started in
Dublin and Belfatt, Sem hundreds
of girls are now employed and the
number is inereaeing rapidly. Eon
tunately the 11111111010.1 15811118 ore most
encouvaging, The inditetrial assoolk-
lions, which aro the barometers of
With industty, eity that mot or tilt,
now toy factories aro ceiling tu5 mileke
ly as they can I/0000s. One may hope
that the toy industry is now firkely
eittablisluel ±0 Ii•eland.
FROSS
WHAT TITE WESTERN PEOPLE,
.ARE DOING.
Progress of the Great West 'fold
in a Few Pointed
Paragraphs -
Det; lentioners are still plying their
nefarious game in KilfillanO,
A better service in the Burnaby
Line lo to be provided by the. B. C.
A skating carnival at Grand Forks,
13.0., uetted $100 for the Daughters
of the Empire.
The city engineer of North Van.
Oeuver reports for 1915 an expendi-
ture of 555,066.e4.
The mining situation in B. C. is
perhaps the meet prosperous in the
history of the province,
More than 80 keen have offered
themselves as members of the pro-
posed home guard at Trail.
The next annual convention of
the British Columbia Federation of
Labor wilt meet in Revelstoke in
1917.
Over a quarter of a million pas-
sengers were carried in safety by the
West Vancouver ferries during last
year.
The little settlement of Anyox has
contributed more than $12,000 for the
various war relief funds from July to
November.
M. P. Gordon has been elected reeve
of Oak Bay, the residential munici-
pality adjacent to VictoHa, by acclam-
ation,
There is talk of breeding Angora
goats on Vancouver Island as an ad -
Jena to the woollen manufaoturieg
Industry,
Vancouver Bar Association aad Law
Students' Society will attend to the
business interests of their members
at the front.
The fishing schooner Amines No.
• 1 was wrecked by a storm in Skide-
gate Inlet. Her cargo of 5,01.0 pounds
or halibut was salved.
;
Mr, John Pidsley Mann, a well-
known rneraber of. Victoria's legal
fraternity, who formerly occupied the
office of city solicitor, is dead.
Phe late \Octol"a pioneer, George
Stevens, who was found dead in his
home in Burnside road recently, let
property worth hate a million.
• At Cielliwack, from September 1
last to the end of the year, Mr. 3.
Pelly has succeeded in raising the
sum of 5736.74 for the Prisoners of
WarFund,Ladner is frozen. In, the
channel up to Mission City and as
far as Port Mann is clear, and there
.is no difficulty in bringing up coal
meows.
Drift ice In the Fraser River has
necessitated a change in the routing
of the car barge sovice Operated by
the Great Northern Railway between
INeeleae.a.Westminster and Vancouvei
weOehv
ne eal tethe has h ep
pioneeresed : of awaythe 11
0111T;
person of Mrs. Hector 'Poop, of South
Sumas, at the age of '70 years. Mrs.
Toop bad been a resident of .he
valley for nearly 40 years.
Although Pitt Meadows has been a
municipality for three years, New
Year's Day was the first occasion on
which the voters were asked to ex-
ercise their franchise to choose a
council for 1916, Reeve William Reid
being returned by acclamation.
Residents of that part of the Fra-
ser valley from Harrison Mille to
Hope and Yale, are urging upon the
Provincial Government the improve-
ment of transportation facilities on
the north shore and the early com-
pletion or the trnulc road from the
coast to the Hope bridge.
BIRDS ON' THE44—BATTIEFIELee
Sing the Old Familiar Woodland
' Notes,
Strangely enough, the birds whose
seasonal migrations Mice them to
Northern France and Belgium return-.
ad thither last year as usual, and
seemingly unfree:1, nested, reared
their young, and sang while the bat-
tle raged about them, A member 00
a Canadian Highland regiment wrote
11°'nl'Aee: morning was downing, Om
colonel led us back to the trench we
had' captured. We began to make
ourselves more secure by digging
deeper and building the parapet in
front. As morning broke the birds in
the woods beyond broke into happy
song,
"I stood up in the trench and 'Dott-
ed across to the battlefield of the
night before. What a eight! The
bodies of Highlanders and Germane
were lying all round, haviiig paid the
price of war. What a contrast! On
tohnee estiht,, pheteaecedehaeudil atiralangduetilltitiltty;,, on
Another soldier wrote;
"We bave a favorite blackbird that
sits up in a tree above ue and answers
when the men whistle to him, n0
matter how 'heavy the firing may be.
I was amused to watch two old meg-
pies the other day. They wanted to
arose over to the German lines, but
every thne they started to leave a row
of poplars just below my shelter,
there would be a crack from some
rifle and back they Would turn and
perch Again' to chatter about it until
they had picked up courage for an.
other try, Then the nine thing would
happen alt over again." •
Ansi a member of the London non.
orable Artillery evrtteet
"Jot by our trenches there is 'a
wood, and although Itis fairly riddled
with ehot and shell both day end
night, yott would be seri:rise(' to kilo*
hole full of life it is, There aro two
or three nightingales that Mug moot
rippingly, at least ono pheaSant, one
green woodpecker, 18 tree, creeper, and,
of course, the witial thrushes and
bittekbirds.
"Isn't it Wangs thAt they sheltie
choose a piece Mto. that to nest ine
Pet it is very conitorting to hear the
old familiar woodland notes a 'ale."
•