LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A sharp earthquake shock was felt in New Plymouth at 1,15 this morning. A secret session of the House of Representatives is to be held to-night fo discuss war matters. Presumably this refers chiefly to Second Division demands. On Saturday tho West Coast Refrigerating Company took up fifty shares in the- Dominion Winter Show Company, Hawera.

At a special meeting of. the New Plymouth branch of the Second Division League last evening, the attitude of the Government towards the League's proposals was considered. It was decided to send three delegates to the conference of the Second Division Leagues of Xew Zealand, to be held in Wellington on Thursday next. A meeting of the ratepayers of the South Hiding of the Stratford County Council was held at Ugaero on Saturday evening to consider the proposal to strike a bridge rate in that riding. The meeting was addressed by the members for the riding (Messrs J. Christoffel and E. T. Coleman), who explained the position at length.' The meeting adjourned without coming to a decision.

Dominion Day was commemorated at the New 'Plymouth Central School yesterday, when a brief but extremely interesting address was delivered to the children by the Ven. Archdeacon Evans on the composition- of the Union Jack. At tho conclusion of the address the children saluted the flag, sang the National Anthem, and about 2.20 were dismissed for the day. The chairman of the School Committee, Mr. S. G. Smith, and Mr. H. Dempsey, formerly "headmaster of the school, sent apologies for unavoidable absence.

After six months or so, nerve, an air. man writes, begins t» go. It is really a question of nervous fatigue brought on by over-strain. Probably no man living could fly four hours a day all the year round, even in peace time. But when the signs of that .over-strain begin to show, the pilot is sent home at once on 'lighter duty for a rest. Is the war pilot afraid or not? Who knows? One pilot replied, "Yes, I am frightened to death all the time—but, somehow, not a bit afraid." v

A ripple of laughter passed over the House of ■ Representatives on Friday •when Mr. J, .MeCombs, Labor .M.P. for Lyttelton, asked, without notice, "Whether the Gdvemment were going to take steps to prevent any disaffected person from preaching or suggesting a rebellion lin resistance to the proposed 6 o'clock

closing of ; hotels?" The .'Hon. A. L. Herdman briefly replied: "The lion, member had hotter put the question on the Order Paper." (Laughter). Some exceptionally good photoplays are to be presented at Everybody's this week. To-night and to-morrow Booth Tarkington's adventurous romance, ''The Conquest of Canaan" will be starred with la Bluo Bird feature, "The Yaqui," or "A Romance of the Rio Grande," both first class features. "The. Conquest of

Canaan" was billed for last week but went agtray in transit. There is no' doubt this week as the picture is already in hand. On Thursday and Friday the popular new "Queen of the Movies," June Caprice, will appear in the Fox film, "The Mischief Maker," and Saturday the remarkable World film, "The Dancer's Peril," will cdmmence a local season, This picturo is one of the greatest successes ever presented to picture goers throughout the 'Dominion.

"There seems-to be every chance of our getting at least one more winter here," writes an Aucklander now in France, "and from all accounts winter is a pretty bitter time in this part of the country. Just at present (July) the place looks beautiful. I never saw such fine crops anywhere (the writer was a farmer), and the marvellous thing about it is that there seems to be so few men about to look after them. The women are great workers, and you often see them in the fields in the evenings. The spirit seems to be in France, anyhow." The writer adds that the advent of t?!e "Saimriiesy has no doubt put great heart into thfe French people, who have evidently great expectations of what wall happen when the Americans get to work. He holds the opinion, like a good many others, that the war is going to be won "in the air."

It is said that the machinery of tno Defence Department is being very largely employed in a futile endeavor to discover the three thousand and odd shirkers who have disappeared over the hori« zon to evade the call of Avar. AH sorts of devices are being resorted to is tho endeavor to place these recalcitrants, and many men with large salaries are devoting their-attention to methods of detection. It will occur to the authorities presently that a very viv.ch cheaper and more effective way of reaching results will be to offer a substantial reward to persons giving such information as will lead to the apprehension .of these gun-shy birds of passage/Some of these individual's are in constant commuaicar tion with friends and relatives, and their whereabouts would no doubt 'be readily disclosed if the Defence Department'were to really, make it worth whilß.--'Mana-wutu Times, * .- ■ ■■ • ■■:;'

London is still a city of for the zeppelin menace is 'still too serious to allow the old brilliance. Yet many people must go out into dark streets, and they are trying all manner of means to make themselves somewhat visible ih : the darkness, (says an English writer). The most effective is ' the glow-worm hat; it is so called for the soft, faint light with' wljch it (penetrates : the gloom. The women, munition and other night workers, are responsible for it. and find it as much comfort as the soldier finds his luminous wristlet watch. The hats are an invention of a progressive millinery house in response to the insistent clamor of the women for some slight means to save them from being run over by cabs and buses, and from colliding ,with other foot passengers. They are not unsightly, .being of any size and shape suited to or desired by the owner, and gain their illuminating effect from their trimmings, which look quite ordinary in the daylight.

At Lepperton on Thursday a big market day will be held on behalf of the Y.M.C.A. funds. Some interesting competitions will 'be held during the day.

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