LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17062, 15 August 1917, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

In another column Messrs Dix and Wall invite tenders for road formation.

lhe retort hands at th<j Wellington Gasworks who stopped work on July 8 resumed on. Monday.

Dr. Laval the Belgian lawyer who defended Nurse Cavell, has arrived at an Atlantic port. He will deliver lectures on German law in Belgium.

A married woman lias been fined £-20 <£0 on eacn of four charges) for stealing blouses, forks, spoons, and other articles from the Technical and Normal bchooJs, Auckland. It was stated n court that her husband was a well-to-do man.

At a meeting of th c Executive Committee of the Taihape Women's Working Club, a letter from the Upper Wangaehu Koad Board was received advising that the Board had decided to vote £10 per month to Patriotic purposes, and that last month's donation would be paid to the Taihape Women's Working Club.

At tho public meeting at the Opera House to-morrow evening under the a-uspices of the Second Division League, a motion w.'ll be presented protesting against the suggested lowering of the age for military service. A resolution of portest was passed at a meeting of the Wanganui Ministers' Association, yesterday.

lii another column are notified important alterations in the running vi the Wellington-New Plymouth mail trains. On and after Monday next, th° down mail train to Wellington will leave Aramoho at 12.22 p.m. (15 minute? earlier than now). ._ The dining car will cease running tn this train, and passengers will lunch at Marton.

The Christchurch Presbytery has resolved to enter an emphatic protest against the reduction of the military service age. Mr J. McCombs, M.P., in' an interview, declared that 2000 men in some of the ballots have not answered to their names, and the Government should take steps to secure them, which would postpone the calling up of the Second Division.

Mrs Sampson wishes to acknowledge the following further contributions towards Dr. Barnado's Home "Half a Crown Fund" :—Previously acknowledged, £1 10s; Mrs Ross, ss; Mr J. Bates, 2s Cd; Mr John Stevenson, l()s; "Plain Bill," 2s 6d; /'Saint Bert," 2s 6d. Total, £2 12s 6d. Mrs Sampson will be pleased to forward any contributions towards the above fund.

In spite of the fact that every man will go into camp when his time arrives, the- "white feather" fiend still plies his nefarious practices. A member of the Second Division in Masterton recently received a disgusting letter through the Post Office attached to which were three white feathers and the words: "To men we send one, to cads three." The writer of such an effusion is evidently devoid of her proper senses.

The Patea Borough Council yesterday unanimously resolved to protest against the proposed reduction in age for military service. Members considered that there were many men over 46 in the First Division more fitted for the front than youths of 19. The Mayor remarked that a while ago the authorities were discouraging the .enlistment of youths under 20,' but now they wanted to conscript them.

The Piunket Society throughout the Dominion propose to hold a "Lloyd George Week" during the first week in November. The idea is not only to aillow for the collection of funds, but also to be of educational value to mothers in helping them to take heed in time' and to spare no pains to ensure good health and vitality for their babies, to meet the heat of the summer months, and thus help to build up a healthy and efficient race.

The Timaru Flour Mill Employees' Union passed a resolution protesting against the Government allowing Australian flour to be dumped into New Zealand to the detriment of the flour trade here, and stating that if relief is not soon given the mills/ which are full of flour, will have to shut down and the men be out of work. The Union telegraphed to Mr Maesey, who has replied that the flour position is receiving the earnest consideration of the Goverxu ment. * .

It is aremarkable fact that the recent series of earthquakes has been most evident and most persistent in the Wairarapa district. An explanation of this was sought from a leading geologist. He stated that the centre of the earthquakes had not yet been fixed, as the records were not available, but 'it \va-» thought that its centre lay out to sea. If so, it might be that the Wairarapa was the nearest land. Thera was a fault, or earthquake line running in the direction of the Chatham Islands to New Zealand, parallel with the Ru-a-liine, Tararua, and Kaikoura Ranges. If the centre of the recent disturbances was at the northern end of that line, on which many earthquakes have been plotted, Wairarapa would be affected. The line was approximately 100 miles in length, and recent earthquakes in the vicinity of Gisborne indicated that the fault extended as far north as that district. Earthquakes are a more fundamental phenomena, than volcanic activity, but not in the Wairarapa. Volcanic signs are all on the west of the Ruahine Range, except for some very ancient volcanic rocks (of the tertiary period) on the East Coast.