BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 989, 2 December 1910, Page 6

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LONDON SUMMARY. SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS. London, October 21. The twentieth annual _ volume . of "London Statistics," just published by the London County Council, gives a most interesting .insight into London life. In 1902 tho population of Greater London was ■ 6,705,770, and in 1909 7,429,740; this year the estimate is 7,537,196.' Marriage statistics show that the average Londoner marries five years earlier than the bachelor Parisian or Berliner. Most London girls marry at the.age of twenty-one. Thirty-two thousand school children are taught to swim in a year, and 7,000,000 free meals are provided for hungry littlo ones. The gross amount insured against fire in London during 190S was £1,072,640,212. Ihero are 991,383 houses, and the biggest number of buildings to the acre' is in Shorcditch, where tho average is 21.5.. In 1908 no fewer than 17,000 persons were injured in street accidents within tho Metropolitan Police District, and 326 of these were killed outright. MUSIC AND EMPIRE. . Before leaving England for Canada, Dr. Charles Harriss, the author of tho scheme for taking the Sheffield Choir round the Empire with Dr. Coward next year, said to an interviewer: "I was planning ten years ago a tour round tho Empire with tho most famous chorus in the Empire, and working out the idea of binding together the choral and industrial elements of the Empire through the power of music. Time and' tenacity have brought about the 'impossible, 1 and within tho ten years I allowed myself to accomplish it and to circle the globe with it, I do not mind owning that the Imperial Choir, which I have formed in London with the generous help of its forty conductors, plays no inconsiderable part in my so-called 'dreams.' As musical reciprocity has taken English music round the Empire, it can just as readily bring that of South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to us." ADVENTURER DIVORCED. A remarkable story of a wealthy woman who married a man in the belief that he was a prosperous South African mine owner and diamond merchant, and afterwards discovered that ,he was "Bill the Bludger," a notorious Australian adventurer, was told in the Divorce Court, when the victim, Mts. Clara Frances Warren, applied for a divorce. It appeared that Mrs. Warren met her husband at Cairo in 1908. He described himself as a Cape Town diamond merchant. When Warren found that his wife would not tell him where she had her money, he immediately loft her. The man had undergone one or two terms of imprisonment in Australia, it was stated. Mrs. Warron was granted a divorce, with costs. FERRER ANNIVERSARY. A stupid and mischievous trick on ftbo part of Socialist agitators in London marked tho first anniversary of tho ■execution of Dr. Francisco Ferrer, the Spanish revolutionary. When the servants of the Spanish Embassy, at No. I, Grosvenor Gardens, opened the doors on the morning of tho anniversary they found the steps of tho Embassy covered with what looked like blood, but was really some sort of red paint. On the pavement were other red smears extending ten or twelve yards. Measures were at onco taken to obliterates the stain, but this was only done with the greatest difficulty, as the paint was almost indelible, and resisted tlie application of sand and hearthstone. This is the second tinio that the same trick has been played on the Embassy. KIDNAPPER SENTENCED. Dorothy Eileen. Mallam Inglis, a. 23-year-old nurse, stated to be regarded as a dangerous criminal by the Australian police, was sentenced, to three years' penal servitude at-the Leicestershire Quarter Sessions for kidnapping a four-year-old boy and stealing jewellery worth. £86 and £41 from Mrs. do Negri, the child's mother, and Miss Lilian Harding, It appeared that while Mrs. do_ Negri was out for a drive the, nurse disappeared with, tho child.' The hoy was discovered at an hotel in London, and v Inglis was arrested in Birmingham shortly after; It was stated that the girl, whose.real namo is Elsie Clifford came from Australia last* May, and that there wero several convictions for theft against her there. NEED FOR FEDERATION.' Sir Alfred Cripps, M.P., speaking recently at Slougli, said that his visit to Canada had done much to strengthen his views of the necessity for not delaying action in the cahse of Tariff Reform, and for formulating some practicable system of Imperial federation. Apart- from commercial 'relationship, ho thought the time-had come to consider closely some scheme of federal union. The necessary conditions should be absolute freedom in reference to all local matters and absolute- equality in proportion to interests in all matters of Imperial concern. There was no reason why tho Federal Council should be limited to sittings- in London. It might in turn meet at Ottawa and other oversea capitals.—"Standard of Empire." Mr. P. do Clere, • architect, invites, tenders for tho erection of a house in Knight's Road, Lower Hutt. 'Mrs. X (away from home)-"John,' did you leave out anything for tho cat before you started?" Mr. X (who dislikes tho beast)—" Yes; I left a can of condensed milk on the table, with tho canopener besido it.* , / Wife—"John, you had been drinking too much Inst evening." Husband—"Nonsense! But what makes you think so?" Wife —"You wero so good-natured, you know. Tho children said they never so you so pleasant." Husband (angrily)—" Look hero, when will you learn that a razor isn't, tho thing for ontting rop arid sharpening pencils with? wii'o (calmly)—" Just when you learn that a hairpin isn't the thing for cleaning a pipe with." Small Girl—"Why doesn't. baby talk, father?" Father—"Ho. can't talk yet, dear. Young babies never do." Small' Girl—"Oh, yes, they do. Job did. Nurso read to me out of the Biblo *how Job encsfid the day he was born!".