LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 122, 16 October 1914, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

English and American mails via 'Frisco ex Matai at Wellington, -will arrive here thia (Friday) afternoon. | Max Linder, .the eelebated picture' player, is well known ajid popular as •tie leading Pathe comedian, iij t'ho first of tho front rank picture players to Mi in tho present lamentable waor. IVViiJh many other aetoiu of repute, Max. tinder joined t/lie colons at the outbreak of hotityitics and it will be sod news for picture goers to learn tliat lh« was kisik'd La a recent engagement in France.

It is unquestionably true that nature hastens to repair the wastage of ,meu in war by producing a preponderance of male children, during and after great conflicts. The benefit of the war to the vitality of France cannot be doubted. From any point of view except sentiment it is idiotic to have to scientifically rear infant "weeds" and mow down j tho perfect adult with shrapnel. But I the shrapnel will revive nature and the i proportion of low weeds will be smaller. I These aro not speculations—they* are facts. —Auckland Observer. I Thus tho London Mirror:—"l hear from Paris that racehorse owners haw been badly hit by the war. Mr Jamp Hennessy's thoroughbred Lord Lori?, which won the big steeplechase in Paris and the big hurdle race at Nice, and was worth at leaßt £IO,OOO, has been commandeered by the Government, who paid the owner £fiO. Ultimatum—an appropriate name—belonged to M. Veili Picard, and valued at £6OOO, was taken over by the military authorities ■at the price of £72. Trianon, which Iran second in the Grand National, was . sold for tho same price, and Sardanpale, ! the most famous crack of the year, has ] not been requisitioned, but. will be re--1 served for stud purposes."

i A Tailiape resident who has returned from America, in the course of an interview with a Wanganui Chronicle reporter, referred to the shipping freights from New Zealand to Xew York. It cost, under normal conditions, lie said, 6s 6d more per cwt. to land Xew Zealand butter in New York than Danish, the freight rate being responsible lor that difference, apart altogether from the extra money required for banking exchange and insurance .It cost 5s 4d per ewt more to get New Zealand butter than ,it did Australian, and about (is more (than Argentine, so that it would be seen 'jthat there would have to be some big .adjustment in freight rates before any .trading with New York could reasonably be expected. In tihe House of Representatives yesterday, iiiiie Minister for Education quot ed some figures showing the inereaise in 1 he average salaries, including houao al-1 lowance, of tcaxihers, from 1900 to 1913 and' to 1915. In 1900 the average salary of men teachers was £163 ltii Bd. In 1913 the average had risen to £227, and in 1913 it would be £351. Tnis rcpre- : sented a percentage increase in 16 yeaitis i of 53 peer cent. lie was not quite sure i what was generally supposed to be the ! increase in the cost of living in that period, Inrt ho believed it was generally ! fiefc down at a/bout I'd per cent. In 1900 i the average salary of women teachers was £BS l5Js (3d, in 1913 it was £l2B LOs, and in 1915 it would bo £l66—a percentage increase in fifteen years of tfci per '. • ,

Before Mr. A. Croofee, S.M., in the I Waitara Court on Wednesday, after'noon, Wm. Cole, junr., was charged on the information 'of Christopher Topless with using provoking and insulting language an dit'was asked that defendant should be required to find sureties that he will keep the peace towards the said Christopher Topless. Mr. Nidholson appeared for complainant, and Mr. Hutchen for defendant. The Magistrate said it eeemed to him that Topless (either accidentally or otherwise had drawn his horses towards the cart to provoke Cole. The mere use of tlhc words, however, did not iinply that Topless was in any fear, and the case was dismissed.

Writes a London scribe:—"l was passing along Whitehall recently, and saw half a dozen press photographers and a cinematograph man lined up on one of tho "islands" in the middle of the street. While still wondering what was afoot, I saw Kitchener in grey tweeds and a soft felt hat, crossing from the direction of Downing street. When he came all innocently, within a radius of action of the cameras, a little goldencurled mite stepped across his path. Tae big soldier almost toppled headlong over the child, and then, looking down *n astonishment, saw the audacious stranger holding up a small Union Jack, and heard her murmur, "l'lcase take it, sir." I "Kitchener promptly raised the chill j gently, and allowed her to place tho colors in his button-hole. This was the signal for much movement among the camera 1 shutters, and, as Kitchener strode oil into the War Office, the little toddler came towards the elated photo men, who quickly sent around the hat among themselves for coppers. It is thus that shy celebrities are trapped and made the subjects of patriotic pic--1 turcs."-

At a meeting of the New Zealand | Association, held at Westminster Palace Hotel in August, the High Commissioner (the Hon. Mackenzie) said, inter alia: "Our whole empire is alive in every fibre. The young nations will unite with tlio older in upholding the civilisation and peaceful development policy which all along has characterised us. Well might Sir Edward Grey say with Lord Dalhousic—'l wanted peace; hut if you are bent on war, war you shall have with a vengeance.' And I will add, that under the direction of capable Ministers, and guided by the powerful arm of Kitchener, the sword shall not be sheathed until that tyrant disturber of the world's peace shall have been effectively dealt with." It was Lord Plunket who moved the formation of a New Zealand War Contingent Association, and Sir Joshua Williams, ia Secondin' iii<> proposal, remarked that at the time of the Bosr War. he remembered liow enthusiastic- | ally New Zealand rose to the occasion. |He was proud to see that they hud risen to the occasion again. They*might [.have to look forward to reverses. They miglit have to play an unhill game for a long time, but the Empire and New Zealand both knew how to plav an uphill game. They were not merely up against a nation, but against a principle, one of the most vicious principle-: ever enunciated, namely that might is riglit. (Hear, hear), they could only reply in the words of Solomon, 'Our strength shall be unto us as a law of righteousness.' j