Telegraphic News

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LIII, Issue 2822, 17 November 1903, Page 2

Telegraphic News

FROM ODB SPECIAL COBBBSPONDHNTS

(.By Tbleobapuj,

COCKSFOOT.

Wellington j Kov. 16. Tho Agent-General cables:— "No alteration in cocksfoot seed" market during last week."

The following telegram was received from our member, Mr 11. H. Rhodes, at a late hour last night:— Wellington, Nov. 16. To-day put through Committee thirty-four local Bills. Wairewa and three others were thrown ouk "We expect Public Works Statement tonight ; but will not discuss it. The Banking Bill may be introduced at any moment. There is a rumonr current that the Government intend taking half share in the Bank. The shareholders are holding a meeting and forming a deputation to wait upon the Premier.

London, Nov. 15.

Sir Michael Foster, M.P.for London University, speaking at the annual banquet of the Poor Society of Bristol, said the Cabinet was protectionist up to the hilt, The Government ought straight forwardly to tell the country what it meant. Mr Chamberlain's and the Government's policy were identical and both were dangerous to trade manufacturers, agriculture, and the working classes, wealth and progress, and would tend to disintegrate the empire and disturb the union at present existing, which was founded on something higher and nobler than mere huckstering.

Sir M. Hicks-Beach, while steadfastly opposing Mr Chamberlain's unauthorised programme, is prepared to support Mr Balfour's policy. He admitted that foreign tariff and dumping had seriously injured British exports and some industries. The unholy trusts and combines had also been injurious, and he opposed both the illegitimate d earn ess and cheapness, brought about through the operation of the Trusts tariffs. The Government's policy of penalising foreign exports-, unless Protectionary countries treated us fairly, was the policy embodied in the Sugar Convention and might be applied with great advantage to other home industries. It was es- ■ sential to trust the Government to recognise that an ample and cheap supply of coal and raw material was necessary for Great Britain's welfare. If the choice lay between standing absolutely on the old lines or a genuine change in the fiscal policy, he said, " I prefer the latter. I concur with Mr Balfour's remarks about the favoured nation clause. While C was negotiating the Sugar Convention I was much struck by the immense importance which foreigners attached to our Free Trade Market and their intense fear of being deprived of it. If the British Government obtained power to negotiate, it would be able to employ two great levers—the fear of foreign countries, lest they be deprived of the British market; and, secondly, the growing popular dislike of European countries to the burdeng of Protection. I do not believe the destinies of the country are safe in Radical hands."

Both Mr Balfour's and Sir M. HicksBeach's speeches were delivered at the annual dinner of the Dolphin Society. The Duke of Marlborough, speaking at Carlisle, said he was confident that country would ultimately decide to draw a protective circle round Great Britain and the Colonial dependencies, thus securing vast resources and becoming self-sustaining, The public took about half a million of the Victorian loan. In competition with the first battalion of the Third Brigade of the Aus tralian defence forces, for Balhausen's Shield, the Scots Guards scored 974 points, the Coldstreams 956, and the Grenadiers 939. The Ballarat team fired on November 7th, scoring 1018, thus winning the trophies presented from monies set apart by the late P. E. Balhausen, of Ballarat, to be shot for by terms from the regiments mentioned. The latest bulletin from Lord Robert's physician states that the patient's temperature is low and his general condition good. The Admiralty has purchased Mr Vanderbilt's yacht Consuelo for surveying work in Australian waters. Mr W. P. Reeves, the New Zealand Agent-General, at the Anglo-Saxon Club's dinner presented General Baden Powell with an escritoire and casket, subscribed for by A ucklanders. The General thanked the New Zealanders for their many kind messages and presents. He especially valued the machines and emblems of the war. Par's, Nov. 15. M. Georges Berry, member for Seine in the Chamber of Deputies, has persuaded the Chamber to appoint a Com - mission to inquire into the Humbert case. He stated that he had precise information that Madame Humbert had 19,000,000 francs deposited in a London bank in an assumed name,