AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 47, 30 May 1916, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

I . _ •4ffi*> I HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. "URKT.XA GREEX." Miss Marguerite oi.uk, a pretty and talented rival of .Miss Mary Piekford, enacts the principal pari in the Famous Players Company's delightful photo-play adaption of'the succossiul ikigli.sk drama "'Gretna Green," which is the premier attraction at His Majesty's Theatre with the new programme. Miss Clark is liberally endowed with those gifts which were bound to win lame in her profession, and whatever may he the differences of opinion as to the respective merits of Miss Clark" and Miss Piekford, there is no room for doubt as to the. former's right to rank as a worthy rival of the "world's sweetheart." '"Gretna Green" mav be described as

a "pretty play'* of the picturesque days of the early part of the nineteenth century, and is one of the most delightful photo plays screened locally. A good programme supports the star film including the popular War Gazette, and a splendid comedy by the Keystone Company.

THE ETERNAL UNSVERSE. MR CLEMENT WRAGCE'S LECTURE. At the Town Hall last night, despite the downpour of rain. iVlr Clement Wragge, one of Australasia's most famous scientists ami astronomers, addressed an enthusiastic and deeply interested audience. The first pari of the lecture was confined to the heavens, that of the Antipodes and the planets, with their associate::, which are visible to the naked eye in the southern skies. The lecturer illustrated his address with an excellent series of lantern slides. These slides or photographs were obtained through the agency of a telescope of intense i

power. Coming more to the title ol his lecture—" The eternal universe and the war" —Mr Wragge said that men ,of science regarded the war in the light of a stupendous universe, and it was bringing about a purging process. / Though war was perhaps the greatest of all evils, it extracted the finer qualities in the substance of the race, so disclosing much undeveloped good, and again it must ho remembered in Mis great wisdom the Almighty permitted the scourge of war on account of its great cleansing powers—so it would be seen that war, as viewed from the scientific telescope, i

was an evil with qualities of virtue. Further, Mr Wragge contended that I 'war meant the elimination and abolition of many social evils whose functions only tended to gnaw away the very foundations of our national life. Commercially the war also was a power for good, the simple explanation being that monopolies must be jeopardised and the same fate tapped ;it the

door of trade combines. It brought an advance towards tho materialisation of wealth as well as reducing the power or influence of money, and itwas further one more step in the direction of closer union between God, nature and man. Another dovolop.ment the war would bring about 'would be that of thrift. With the growing pressure on the money mar-

kct :iml its resultant effect on the individual, thrift was ingrained into the race and would become a faculty a compulsory acquisition with the human element in the world's affairs. Nations, too, must learn their lesson from the international debacle insomuch as they would be taught to carve out their industrial independence, learning the while that such could become an established fact only by the utilisation of Nature's resources. Scientifically the war had had its advantages for it could not but stimulate scientific research—guns being, the lecturer hoped, displaced by well appointed' observatories.

Reverting to the astronomical aspect of the subject, Mr Wragge was followed with close interest by the audience. To their immediate view was brought those millions of minor and major worlds that stud the heavens, and of which so little is known in spite of the fact that they are frequently explored by the scientific eye behind the lens. It is regrettable that Professor Wragge's visit has not been made under more favorable circumstances. To-night lie will lecture at Toko.