CABLEGRAMS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 October 1916, Page 3

CABLEGRAMS

Australia-New Zealand Cable Service,

CONSCRIPTION REFERENDUM. AN TPS LEAD BY 82,000 VOTES. 'Sydney, This Day. The referendum proceeded! steadily. There was a complete absence of excitement. All the other States report that referendum day passedi peacefully. The regulations prohibiting the publication of results last night kept the city quiet. A record poll is anticipated. At present the figures indicate that majorities against conscription obtain in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia ; while Victoria, West Australia and Tasmania favouir conscription. Present voting is inconclusive. Later returns wil decide the I issue. I

The incomplete referendum returns for tlie Cbmmoimvenlth were publisher! early this morning. The following are the results: — Against Conscription 722,036 i-'-r Conscription 636,569 Final figures will n'ot be available until to-morrow. Later. The referendum position is practically unchanged. The latest figUTes not including Queensland show :— Against Conscription 797,988 For Conscription 715,037, (Received Tin's Day 10.20 a.m.)

Sydney, This Day. Incomplete returns for the referendum on conscrpition (including Queensland) give the figures : No, 888,283 : yes 801,422.

J lie re-grading of the Ivawiu road extension lias been taken in hand by ;o the contractor, Mr G. K. 'Douglas and j. the hill at the eastern end of the road is being brought down to a good extent and the spoil used to fill up the gully, on the Tiro Tiro road, and also to raise the low position of the extension road. When completed there will be a considerable improvement effected. An approximate estimate by the Re--3 crusting Board of the number of men ' 111 the First Division of the Reserve puts the number down r,t 92.983. The seven groups in the Wellington military district contain 31,761. Of the total number from which has to be deducted the men who enlisted dn the [ 12th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 22nd Rein- ' foircoments as well as those who have , enlisted under the new attestation since September 25th. These will number at least 12,985, thus reducing the total of men in the First Division to about 80,000. On the oldi basiß of recruiting Wellington district would' be called on to supply 692 men for the 23rd Reinforcements and to make up shortages, but on the First Division it will have to send in 829. They are building, ships so fast in one British yard that, only one side of certain vessels can be finished till ] i the next ship is launched on account j of the lack of space. Not a yard of j ground, not a minute of time is wast- ' ed. Sir Oliver Lodge has written a message of hope to the bereaved {says the London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, on September 7th). It occupies a large space in one of our weekly newspapers. Sir Oliver Lodge is a famous scientist, and the most dis. tingnishedl pioneer of psychical research. His present contribution give.s the writer's views about the future state. 1 lie following are among the most striking points .-—"Death is

more like a port of departure, where we leave our land conveyance and launch o.ut on a new medium. It is a great adventure, but is in no sense a termination of existence. It is only a transition, a quitting of material life, and an entry into another mode of existence, under different conditions with new surroundings not altogether dissimilar to the surroundings here. Messages have been received across the gulf; the barrier as opaque no longer. There are facte demonstrating personal survival to be studded, .and, Sir Oliver Lodge adds: I'l venture to anticipate we shall find that what is called the next world is fully as real and interesting and full-blooded as this world. That it is no strange land to which our friends have gone, lut a home country commensurate with the 'brightest I of our reasonable Ihopes."