MISCELLANEOUS CABLES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18347, 2 April 1925, Page 9

MISCELLANEOUS CABLES.

Alfred George, a London pawnbroker who died, aged 88, leaving over rj 00 000. directed that three doctors Should separately examine him after his supposed death, and that £IOOO should bo paid to any one of the three who should discover that he was notdead, but merely in a trance, and if i should be so, restore him to lire. The Queensland Government has appointed a Royal Commission to enquire into alien immigration m North Queensland. It has arranged with the *ederal Government to check or regulate the flow of aliens to the north. A telegram from St. cW Brunswick, says that the l>ucCbarles Philip d'Orleans, nephew of the Jimg of Belgium, arrived there en route to the ranch of Lord Rodney (theprince of Wales) For Saskatchewan, Alberta. The 3>uke is going to Alberta with the idea of taking up a ranch. He is desuous of purchasing land near Lord Rodney's ranch. The House of Commons agreed to a resolution moved by- Mr " ■ G. A. Ormsby-Gore (Under-Secretary for the Colonies) providing for the payment of £9OOO annually for five years towards the expenses of the Imperial Institute, civing effect to the Imperial Economic Conference's recommendations m this connexion. Mrs Ebbett, who arrived in Melbourne bv a steamer from China on a holiday visit, was not allowed by the Customs officials to land when wearing a hat decorated _ with egret plumes which are prohibited by the Customs! regulations. Her luggage supplied another offending hat. The prohibited articles were placed in bond till she departs for a country where the wearing of egret plumes is not an offence. Thomas William Ashbv, charged with the murder of Robert James Trevorden at Beverley, South Australia, in February, was found guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy. He was sentenced to death. In tho House of Commons, replying to a question, Sir L. WorthingtonEvaus stated that 55 Canadian and five New Zealand troops were executed for military offences during thg war. The collapse of a pontoon bridge erected by Pioneers on tho Weser, between Veltheim and Hansberge, resulted in the drowning of numerous Reichswehr soldiers. It Is believed that between 50 and 100 perished. A Brisbane message says the Regis-trar-General's report on the vital statistics for 1923 refers to the declining birth-rate as a matter for grave national concern. The birth-rate fell from 27.58 per thousand in 1920 to 2-1.89 in 1923, while the marriage rate declined from 9.50 to 7.24, and the death-rate in- I creased by .09 per cent. j Francis and Joseph Bolland, charged at Sydney with causing the deaths of John and Mary Gurr, were remanded till April 7th. It was alleged that accused ran them down in a motor-car and did not stop. The Xew South Wales Marriage Act Amendment Bill received the Royal assent, and became law as from yesterday. A Sydney message says a combined sitting* of. both Houses of Parliament was held to elect a senator to the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Power. Mr Gibb, Labour nominee, after tying with Mr Thomas, the Nationalist j candidate, was elected on the casting vote of the President of the Legislative Council.