Untitled

Observer, Volume XXXVII, Issue 34, 28 April 1917, Page 22

It is a memorable Easter that has brought into the arena alongside of us our brother Jonathan. We welcome him into the comity of nations that is fighting for God and the Right.—Gisborne ' 'Herald.'' V » rf The Military Service Act is a war measure rendered necessary by the dire need for men, and when the miners set themselves up as the dictators to New Zealand they are not only law breakers, but traitors. —D annevirke ' 'News.''

In the course of proceedings before a commission in the United States to enquire into certain facts connected with the moving picture industry, it was elicited that a salary of 750,000 dol. (£150,000) is now being earned by Charlie Chaplin. Giving evidence upon the salaries paid to film artists, Mr. William A. Brady, president of the World Film Corporation, explained that in the case of Chaplin the huge payment was justified by the fact that he was just as popular in Siam as he was in America, and that he was better known than Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, or Kaiser William. "The trouble," he added, "is that many other stars who were getting £8 to £10 a week on the legitimate stage, now drew ten times that amount, with the consequence that their heads were turned. My own daughter is getting so much money that I have to grab half her weekly salary and save it for her. Otherwise she would spend it foolishly." Mr Brady further said that Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Miss Billie Burke, Charlie Chaplin, and a few others, were worth every cent they wei'e paid, but that most of the artists did not render services which warranted their salaries. ® ® © Coal is at the root of the railway trouble. Miners have ">een granted exemption from the Military Service Act in order that their labour might be available to keep our ships afloat, and our trains running hut ar, the Denniston and WestpoitStockton mines the men do not see their work in the British light. When every muscle should be strained the men decide to -j,o slow and the suffering falls oil the workers in other trades.—Dannevirke "News."