LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1918, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A violent shock of earthquake was felt in New Plymouth at 1.50 this morning. At the meeting of the New Plymouth High School Board on Monday evening members expressed their appreciation of the splendid work done by the principals of thy Girls' High School (Miss Barr) and the Boys' High School (Mr. W. H. Moyes), and it was unanimously resolved to increase the salary of each by £OO per annum, as from the commencement of the year. The monthly meeting of the local branch of the Methodist Women's Home and Foreign Missions Auxiliary was held at the St. Aubyn Church, New Plymouth, yesterday afternoon. There was a very good attendance, over which Mrs. W. A. Sinclair presided. An address on mission work was given by Sister Berry. Mrs. W. Ambury was appointed the local representative to the annual meetings of the auxiliary, which takes place in Dunedin next vveek. In connection with next Saturday's appeal on behalf of the Scottish Women's Hospital fund, gifts for the mart, which will be controlled that day by the Scottish ladies, may be left at the Red Cross rooms, Queen street, this afternoon, between 2 and i) o'clock, or at the mart on Friday afternoon or evening. The demand for home-made foods is always greatly in excess of the supply, ,ancl the committee will provide material to anyone who will undertake to bake for tiie Saturday markets. On Friday evening a meeting of the Legion of Frontiersmen is to be held in the New Plymouth Soldiers' Club at 8 o'clock, with the primary object of establishing a. troop of the legion in New Plymonth. The chair will be taken by Mr. H. J. Okey, M.P., and there will also be present on the platform Mr. C. 11. Burgess (Mayor of New Plymouth), and the Ven. Archdeacon Evans. Members of the Egmont troop and of the Poriatu (WJinngamomona) troop will also be present m strong force in their picturesque unifoim, to assist in the establishment of the local troop. From the list of prospective members in the hands of Mr. Goldswortliy, the local organiser, a strong troop should be formed here on , "day cvneing, when the aims and objects of the legion will be cxplainedi by prominent frontiersmen. There are at present on view in the window of White's drapery establishment, Devon street, several challpnge cups, which are to be competed for at the Taranaki Metropolitan Agricultural Society's show next week. The trophies include Messrs. Hawkins and Smith's ( Heather Blend") challenge cup for the champion hunter, cups for the champion draught and light horses, Mr.. Newton King's cup (value 20 guineas) for most points in the pedigree Friesian section,, the Taranaki Ayrshire Breeders' Association's cup (value 20 guineas) for most points in the pedigree Ayrshire section, and Mr. 11. B. Lepper's cup (value 20 guineas) for most points'in the pedigree Jersey section. The trophies form a very valuable collection, and it is understood that competition in each case is likely to be very keen. A dance is to be held in the Oka to Hall to-morrow night, in aid of the Y.AI.C.A. fund. The committee is leaving nothing undone that can ensure an enjoyable evening, and as the cause is a good one, should be a large attendance.

The Egmonl A. and I'. (Show opens today. The Mells and Nonuaiibv Co-opera live Dairy Companies have given Col) each to King George's fund for Sailors. A meeting of beekeepers is to be held at I he Technical College at 7.1!U to-night, for the purpose of forming a beekeepers' association. The Star says that the individuals who assaulted the clergymen at Ecilding on Thursday were strangers to the town. A theft of an impudent and unusual nature is reported by an Okaiawa, apiarist, who discovered Hie other day that one of his out apiaries had been robbed. The value of the honey and comb taken is estimated at .€4(l. According to a Press Association message from Christehurch, the Hon. G. \V. in the course of a reply to a deputation. remarked that the next general elect it.ll would probably be in about u year from now. A Press Association telegram from Auckland stales that in the Supreme Court a youth named Alexander Alderton, for indecent assault on a child, was sentenced to three years' probation under stringent conditions. "If a man wants u telephone in Wellington now, lie cannot get it, and it lies been the same for practically six months. This state ol alhiirs is rapidly extending to oilier centres'' -so said an oliicial of the l'o»t and 'telegraph Department giving evidence before the Military Service Board at Wellington last week. To-night will sec the final screening at Everybody's of June Cimvice in "A Modern Cinderella" and Charlie Chaplin in the Mutual comedy, "The. Shopwalker"' .Anyone who has not seen Charlie in this lilm should not miss this opportunity of seeing the quaint little coinmedian in one of his best and funniest productions. To-night will be the final screening at The Empire of the sensational 1 picture success, "A .Mormon Maid." Tomorrow Harold Lockwood will be starred iii the Metro super-feature, "Under Handicap, eight reel picture which deals with the life of a millionaire's son who is thrown on his own resources for a living. It is a powerful red-blood-ed story of doings among strong men and gives Lockwooil the chance of his life. The picture introduces some remarkable scenes of ranch life and a spectacular "round up." If the 'Paris Press is well-informed, the Allied armies will shortly be rendered invisible by means of a method of J'oblii era live coloration" invented by a I'l'ench officer the year before the war broke out. At that, time the color scheme was considered •of no practical use, as the military experts were agreed that rival armies would fight each otlie? at such extreme distance 'that they would rarely see each other. Now that the trenches are separated by only a few yards, the value of the invention has been recognised, and ' "invisible" troops and artillery are to be the .next marvel of this marvellous war. Cambridge Sanatorium, which was formerly occupied by consumptive patients from aJJ parts of Now Zealand, is now utilised as a soldier-' hospital, and a large proportion of patients arc men who have been gassed. The people of Cambridge are faking a great interest in the institution , and have fanned committees to assist the soldiers and their relatives. Some oi the latter have difficulty in finding accommodation at Cambridge, and a system of billeting is being arranged. Last week a piano was donated to the hospital and also a buggy and pair. When olio of the big trees in California fell a forestry expert counted 4000 rings from the heart out. That means the tree was forty centuries old. Thus it was a strong young tree when Abraham went into Egypt; it was bearing seed when Sodom and Gommorrah were destroyed; it was as old as America when Joseph was sold Tuto Egypt, nearly a thousand yc-ars old when David slew Goliath, and older when Christ was born than the Christian religion to-day.— Paper Mill. Apropos of the death sentence passed upon William Eggers McMahon, thp perpetrator of the Wiest Coast murder, an Otago Daily Times reporter was informed on reliable authority that the person who' will officiate as hangman is a South Island fanner in a fairly prosperous position. This individual acted in a similar capacity when Bennier was hanged recently, and when he received the fee for the performance of this work he deducted his expenses from the amount and handed the balance over to the Patriotic Society in the district where the execution took place. In addressing a jury engaged in a criminal trial at tho Supreme Court at Auckland last week, Mr. .Justice Stringer said he dejired to impress on members that it was the duty of a jury merely to del ermine the guilt, or otherwise; of an accused person on the evidence adduced, and not on any other consideration. He had a growing feeling that juries sometimes allowed outside considerations to influence them in arriving at a verdict. That should not he so. Outside circumstances, no matter how slender or for what reason they were introduced, should have no effect on the minds of jurors, otherwise the value of evidence was lost. "A iady gave me the other day a pamphlet, a gift from the louds, which she had caught as it fllitterejl down trom ah aeroplane flying over Coventry,' says the "British Australasian." She was an Australian, and this .pamphlet, appealing to the Coventry strikers in the aeroplane works not to'endanger our aerial superiority by refusing to work, happened to have been written by a distinguished Australian, Boyd Cable. I have heard it suggested lately bv a soldier and an airman that Britain might stir up a very large amount of extremely useful unrest among the German soldiers and people, by arranging that pamphlets, in German, telling them a hundred things about the war which their Government conceals from them, should be scattered generously on ■ German territory over which our aeroplanes fly when on scouting expeditions or bombing raids. One man—and no pacifist either—went so far as to say that he thought we could hit Germany far harder by dropping a ton of leaflet's on Mannheim or Berlin than by dropping a ton of bombs. I don't know about this, but; propaganda from the sky should not be neglected."