HOME NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 595, 25 August 1909, Page 9

HOME NEWS.

ITEMS OF INTEREST BY MAIL." London, July 9. ' Some interesting facts concerning tlio progress of tho study of music oversea were given by tho Prince of Wales, who presided at tho twentieth annual meeting of tho. Associated Board of tho Royal Academy of Music and tho Royal' College of Music. His Royal Highness stated that there had been an increase of over 3000 in the number of those examined throughout the Empire in tho year undor review. "In Australasia some twenty now centres have been opened. Last yoaif the total, number of Candida tea was 7309 v this year it has reached 8079. Out policy in. establishing colonial exhibitions throe years ago.has been completely successfulj as Voved by the fact that ten out of the twelve exhibitioners appointed havo. been able to come to London ■ to pursue- their studies. The partnership between the board 'andAM'Gill University has terminated by lapse of time, and the board will now revert to its former policy of conducting its own examinations in Canada, with its own organisation." . The Prince also announced that Mrs. Harris,, of Palmerston North, New. Zealand,'had given a ; gold medal, to be bestowed annually..

Aiv important Admiralty departure was announced in the; recent Naval Estimates whirh. provide for. one of two floating docks to he stationed at Portsmouth, where the present, accommodation for Dreadnoughts is inadequate. Each dock- (the other is to be in th'i Aledway).is to have a lifting capacity of 35,000 tons, more than capable of lifting, a waterlogged Dreadnought or super-Dread-nought.. The site chosen for the, anchorage of the new dock at Portsmouth is well, protected from attack, and also from, the swirl of the tide, and is yet near the main channel. ........ ......

■ A magisterial- rebuke was administered to a Suffragist at Bow IStreot, who was fined £5' and ordered to pay £1 2s. 6d. damage •for;" wilfully and maliciously damaging the stono'work of the House of Commons by stamping it with indelible ink. To the defondant, a Miss Marion Wallace Dunlop, Mr. Curtis" Bennett said there was no doubt that'the damage was done intentionally and wilfully, ' a"nd therefore maliciously. He would like to' say,' in his opinion, women who. acted in this way were doing barm to the cause they intended to support. It was intolerable that the people of London should week after-week and month after month bo inconvenienced by "this continual system ol ruffianism, hooliganism, and'wilful damage, which could not possibly benefit any cause. The lady 1 said she did hot intend ;to: pay the fine. •' '..-..

A recently discovered contemporary statuette of, Shakespeare) fifteen inches high and carved in mulberry wood, is announced to come under the hammer at .Messrs. Sotheby's.; Originally the property of Shakespeare's sister, Joan, it possesses an unbroken record down to tho present, day. Although roughly. carved, ' tho likeness to the poet is undoubted. For many years the statuette and its history lay hidden, away in the store cupboard of a recluse, an old lady, whose house was literally crammed with valuable pictures and .curios, and who recently, died in the provinces at. a groat age. There is 'said' to bo no doubt of the au-. thenticity of.tho statuette'. "

Princess Louise has oponed a Spinsterland at Hampstead, otherwise nm residential flats for bachelor gir)s. It is set among the lanes and lawns of the garden suburb.. Hero the lady secretary, artist,- and nurse may livo inartistic surroundings, free from the worry of' an unsympathetic landlady,' in a homo of her own making. For 345. a month tho bachelor girl can .have a small holding in Spinsterland: It is said to'bo a paradise of' comfort.and peaco, but it is an "Adamless Eden," for no man can rent a flat in Waterloo Court,- as the flats will, bo known,'whijo" thei only, male 1 inhabitant of Spinsterland "is .the porter at.tho lodge;' . ''.■' .

A memorandum issued by tho National Service League furnishes .- some remarkable figures concerning the National Homo Defence, Army—as it might be; The number of lads reaching,tho age: of : eighteen each'year in the United Kingdom is put down as 416,000, and, according to the scheme, they are divided up as follow:— Medical rejections ' ■".'.., •'...' 200,000 Navy and Marine recruits • .'.. 8,000 Army recruits '...'•'..; '...35,000 Emigrants' _... ' ... ... 30,000 ". Mercantile marine .;.''.;., 15,000 Yearly total for training • ... 148,000 ' With this number each year, leaving 5 per cent, for annual wastago, tho estimated numbers, would be: .■''.•', Recruits ... .:. ... ... 150,000 First year men .... ... .... 142,000 Second year men ' .... ... 135,000 Third year men ... ;.. ■■;, ... 12S,000 ; National Army total ... • ... 405,000 The, cost of the scheme) which would compel every young man between eighteen and to servo four- or. six months' training,, with the usual Territorial drills and musketry to follow) would, it is estimated by tho National Service League, only amount to £3,806,372 more than the present cost of the Territorial Army. •

A striking'contribution to the discussion on the naval crisis has been made by Admiral C. Penrose Fitzgerald in bis commonts on the speech of Lord Charles Beresford to the members of the London Chamber of Commerce.' After'expressing tho opinion that tho speech was the best that his lordship has over made, tho Admiral goes,on to say: "Little does the gqneral public know, and still less does it realise, the . destructive and far-reaching 'effects : of recent Admiralty ( policy so ably exposed by our unmuzzled naval bulldog, who, it js to.bo hoped, will continue to bark loudly until;he succeeds in awakening his slumber-; ing countrymen. .Indeed, if;the country was not blinded by clouds of official dust, it would see that the scandalous disclosures made by the publication of the Bacon. letters alone demanded an. immediate inquiry; .into a system of espionage, and secret reports 'by juniors over the heads of their senior officers, which is totally .opposed to all our best naval traditions, and must be..destructive of all discipline, all confidence, and all efficiency," v Although the sittings of the Congress of Motorists, held under :the auspices of' the International League of Touring Associations, were of a private character, it is permitted to state that important subjects were discussed. Amongst them was the matter of road signs, comprising proposals for tho unification •of such signs throughout Europe, and the universal adoption of a sign for deaf cyclists: The conference was attended by representatives of; no fewer than fourteen countries.— "Standard of Empire."