Home and Foreign.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 4193, 17 May 1897, Page 2

Home and Foreign.

Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright.

8. ami A. Investment Company. London, M*>y 14. The half-yeajly report of the Scottish and Australian Investment Company shows a profit of £7890. A dividend of 2|, per cent, is recommended, and a sum of .£1640 is carried forward. Cruelty in the Congo State. Missionaries in the Congo State are making complaints of the cruel treat- | ment to which the natives are being subjected by persons engaged in the i rubber trade. They are answerable for the burning of forty five villages in one district. j Dr. Be van in England. May 15 Arrangenifints havo been made by the Mansfield Nonconformist College, Oxford, for the Rev. Dr JSevan, of Melbourne, who is at present visiting England, to act for a term as Collegiate preacher. The doctor also preaches Jubilee sermons at Glesgow. Banquets for the Premiers.

Banquets in honour of the Colonial Premiers are arranged to be given by Mr Chamberlain on June 30th, and by the Imperial Institute on July 18th. The Prince of Wales presides at the latter. The P. and 0. Company. The P. and 0. Company declared a dividend of 5 per cent on preference and 7 per cent on deferred shares. An Unpopular measure. Berlin, May 15.

Prince Hohenlohe, President of the Ministry and Minister for Foreign Afftirs, has introduced a law in the Prussian Diet limiting the right of public meeting. The German Press is indignant, and declares that the proposed new legislation imperils all free political movement.

Mrs Langtry's Divorce Case. .New York, May 15 The action for a divorce brought by Mrs Langtry, the famous actress, in the Oahfornian Courts, proved successful. The petition for divorce was granted on the grounds of desertion and want of maintenance. Terrible Railway Accident. St Petersburg, May 15 A terrible railway accident is reported from Rockenhof. A military train was derailed, whereby a hundred soldiers were killed and sixty injured.