Latest Condensed Cables.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 661, 10 February 1909, Page 5

Latest Condensed Cables.

The Revue Magazine states that the Empress-Dowager of China, before dying, induced the Viceroy Yuan Shih-Kai, Prince Chun, and the chief eunuch to compel the Emperor to take opium and to suffocate himself with gold-leaf, under threat of strangulation, and that the Emperor complied. Hence the refusal of medical help The Empress then appointed the present infant ruler, and died the next day. The South African Federation scheme is based on the Calcutta and Simla precedent (the first beiag the seat of government and the second of administration), and includes the adoption of the Indian camp ofSce principle in Capetown while the Federal Parliament is in session. Lord Curzon, interviewed in this city, said he believed that the arrangement regarding the future capital would be workable, judging by the Indian precedent of Simla and Calcutta. He was, he said, greatly impressed with the good feeling and the absence of racialism shoWrr by the Convention. The Chancery Court has granted an injunction restraining the London Society of Compositors from using its funds for the payment of salaries of members of the House of Commons. President Roosevelt has vetoed the Census Bill. He insists on a competitive examination for census clerks, numbering 50,000, in order to prevent the abuses of the last two censuses, when the appointments were treated as politicians' perquisites. A man has been rescued alive at Messina after having been buried for 37 days in a confectioner's shop. He fed on sweetmeats and liquors. - The people of Berlin are displaying an absorbing interest in King Edward's visit there, and the police are overwhelmed with applications for tickets by people desiring to witness his entry to the city. The California Assembly rejected the bill prohibiting aliens being members of corporations, also the bi}l requiring the segregation of Japanese from whites; but agreed to the bill excluding Japanese from the State schools.

Mr Roosevelt has telegraphed to Mr Gillet. (the State Governor) that this last bill is the most offensive of all, and is clearly unconstitutional. The Government, he adds, will be compelled to test it. Many of the unemployed at Bristol asked permission to cease relief work early on Saturday in order to watch football matches. The corporation decided to discharge all such applicants. i Sir Edward Fox, sitting as a Board of Trade Arbitrator between the North-Western Railway and 39,000 of its servants in various grades after the Conciliation Board had failed to agree, requires many concessions from the company, but also reduces some wages and disallows various claims of the men's national programme. Mr Bell, Secretary of the Railway Servants' Society, expresses his satisfaction with the decisions.

Durnan, the Canadian sculler, is. anxious for a match with Arnst, and offers to pay for the expenses of the race.

The Rugby International Board has disagreed on Scotland's proposition that the daily allowance granted to the New Zealand team amounted to professionalism, Scotland and Ireland voting for the proposition and England and Wales against it. The board unanimously resolved that a cash allowance is contrary to the principle of Rugby football, and no such allowance will be made in future., < MR HICKEY IN,AUSTRALIA. A SYMPATHETIC RECEPTION. Mr Hickey, the New Zealand Coal Miners' delegate, attended a special meeting of the Committee of Management of the Northern Colliery Employees' Federation at Newcastle. He explained/ that his mission in Australia was to place the position oi the coal miners of the dominion before the mining communities here. He hoped a plan would be formulated to bring the Newcastle and New Zealand coal miners' organisations closer together. The meeting decided that the executive officers of the federation should"* confer' with Mr Hickey during the coming week with a view to arriving at a scheme for co-ordinate action. WOOL SALES.

The London woo! sales were brisk, and prices firm at recent rates. The Tukorongo clip fetched io|d. There was a good sale, the highest rates of the series being realised. The wool sales closed strong, with most sorts of the highest level of the series. Choice seventies merinoes were equal to London prices of January last year. Sixtyfours, suitable for America, were id below the November rates. There was strong arid steady competition for average combings for the heme trade and the Continent at full December rates. Topmakers' crossbreds were firm at December rates, and parcels suitable for America showed an advance of 10 per cent, on December rates. During the scries 93,030 bales were sold for the, home market, 88,000 for the Continent, and 12,000 for America, 8,000 being held over,