BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1018, 6 January 1911, Page 2

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LATEST LONDON DOINGS. FIRE TRAGEDY. Three girls wore burnt to death at Birmingham in a fire which broke out in the evening 011 tho premises of Mr. W. Mcc£on, a button manufacturer, in Smith btrect. After the brigade had been at work some time they wore .notified that a number of gills were on the top iloor. A fireman succeeded in rescuing .one girl at cansiderablo risk, but she was so badly burned that she died on the way to tho hospital. To add to the horror of the situation,-it was found impossible to take the escape into a narrow passage which afforded the only means of reaching tho girls. When tho firemen were able to ('fleet an entrance to'the building they found the, charred bodies of two girls- onthe top Iloor. An outside wooden staircase to which there were two exits was not made use of by the girls, who wcro panic-stricken.

LADY STOUT AND SUFFRAGE. Lady Stout, wife of the Chief Justice' of Now Zealand, speaking on the result of the enfranchisement of woman oversea, tho other day, said that she wished to state that the policemen who met the women wero the roughest, bloated-looking, people she had 'ever Keen in hor life.To her such rough handling of women wishing to interview tho Premier w&i inconceivable. Since receiving the 'franchise New Zealand women had not deteriorated in appearance, health, or morals, nor. had their .husbands suffered by tho absence of the wives at the polls. In conclusion, she contended, that tho granting of tho franchise to women in New Zealand had in every way improved and purified political lite there, while legislation for the children had been also improved. <200,000 FIRE. Tho Kentish homo of Earl Sondes, Lees Court, near Faversham, has been completely. destroyed by lire, tho damago being estimated at .£200,000. The mansion was let to I\lrs. Talfsy, with whom a number of friends were staying,, including Lady de Clifford. The fire was discovered at about 2.30 in tho morning, and so rapidly did the flames spread that less than.lour hours later only the empty shell of the oneo magnificent mansion remained. In. the meantime a good ' deal • of furniture and a quantity, of valuable tapestries on tho ground floor were saved by tho guests and the servants, together with somo portraits and other pictures belonging tcrthc Sondes family. Tho fire started, 1 in the' servants' hall, but the causo' has not been ascertained as yet.

A PROOF OF FRIENDSHIP. . Tiio 'Imperial Japanese Government have signed a contract with Messrs. Vickers,. Sons nnd Maxim, of Barron-in-Fnr-ness, for tho building of a new •Dreadnought battleship-cruiser. The new vessel will, when completed, 'hnvo a displacement of between 27,000 and 28,000 tons, and is to cast about' two and,a half millions sterling. The ship, which will be tho biggest possessed by any navy, is to be fully completed within thirty months. It is understood that by placing this contract in England tho Japanese Government wish to mark their appreciation. o£ British workmanship, and to give practical expression to tho sincere feeiins with which they r-esard the allianco ; between Great Britain and Japan. The extent of this fcelin;; may bo Ranged from/the fact that' Japan has uoiv five yards standing idle, whero she . can herself build. Dreadnoughts in every detail. •

A DRAMATIC SCENE. , A dramatic scene marked the appeal i,u tho Court of Criminal Appeal of John "Walker and Thomas Mai,yon against their convictions at the Essex Sessions for stealing a till. A young man named Owen Gommo entered tho witness-box and exclaimed: "I stole tho till. I attended the trial, to see if they would get off," ho continued. "When they were found guilty I walked to tho front of the Court and said: 'Excuse ine, you have couvicted innocent men." I stole ■tlio till.':: But. no sooner had I said it than I ;was seized by, the throat, and put out of tho Court." "A re you ready now," said Mr. Justice Darling, "witli tho knowledge that you may' get penal servitude, to,, say you stolo the till?"—

'Yes, rather tiian see two men punished for it." The Court finally decided to quash the convictions. Gommo was arrested as he left.

, "JS'OW THEN, SMITH." News lias reached London of the death by drowning at Bunbury, Western Australia, of "Now then, Smith," tho British sailor-liero of..the.Messina, disaster. It will be remembered that' Smith,'with tho second mate of. his. ship—the Afonwen —rescued at ■ the time, of tho earthquake a family of.ton from the top of a high building which was on firo and collapsed shortly afterwards. A rope had been fixed to tho top floor of the house, and Smith was ordered'to climb up to seemingly-certain death by his captain, with the words, which hnvo sinco become almost historical, "Now then; Smith." Reed was decorated'by the. late King last year, but Smith was at sea at the time, and did not receive his medal till this year, when it was presented. him by King George.

..£3,000,000 LIABILITIES. , At least 1500 depositors wero present at tho first statutory meeting of the creditors of Mr. A. "\V. Carpenter, who traded in the name of tho Charing Cross Bank. Mr. E;-Leadam . Hough, Senior Official Re; ceiver, stated thpt tho filing of Mr. Carpenter's'petition was' due to tho" vigorous action of tho Director of Public Prosecutions. He further asserted that complaints had been received from depositors cf money having been obtained under false pretences, and that if the charge could be proved prosecution and punishment. of thoso responsible would follow. Tho estimate of tho liabilities at ,£2,500,000, 3lr. Hough announced, must be increas2d. In his view it would amount to between, «C 2,800,000 and i 3,000,000.

RUN ON A BANK SEQUEL. A reward of .£2OO has'been offered for information that will lead to the convic-tion-of "tho' person or . porsous -responsible for the circular that recently caused a big run on the Birkbeck Banlc. The circular, which was typewritten, and signed "A Friend," connected the bank with tho Charing Cross Bank. Copies were sent to several customers, causing a run which lasted two days. The Bank- of Englandrendered financial assistance readily, and many of th 6 depositors, as soon as they had withdrawn their deposits, paid them in again.

.£2,000,000 LINER. .£2,000,000 will be the cost of the new liner which the Cimard Lino has asked Messrs. John Brown (Limited), of Clydebank, and Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, of Wallsend-on-fync, to specify for. The liner is to have a gross tonnage of 50,000—5000 tons greater thau that of tho recently launched White Star liner Olympic, which is now tho largest vessel afloat. The new Cunarder will hnvo a speed of 23 lyiots, against the Olympic's 21, and. will be propelled by means of oil fuel. Unheard-of luxuries will bo found in this now leviathan, including a complete theatre, as well as a swimming pond, Turkish bath, and the other "necessaries" of modern passenger ships. Sho will accommodate 050 iivstclass passengers, 710 sccond, and 2100 third.

POSTAL REFORMS.

The Postmaster-General has just announced a number of very interesting postal reforms. Beginning probably about Coronation time next year, with tho issue of the stamps of the "new reign, stamped post-cards are to be sold at Id. each instead of jd., and letter-cards will be Id. instead of ljd. each. ' It is proposed . to simply 2s. books of stamps, which-now contain stamps to tho value of Is. IHd., in a form containing stamps lo the full value of 2s. Stamps, wrappers, and envelopes will all be sold at prices slightly lower than at present, and of more even amounts. A suggestion has been made, and is under consideration, that many commercial men would be glad 'to be enabled to-obtain

certificates of the posting of letters l'ov ,1 feo of id. each, it being understood that such certilicalos carnal with Ilium no guarantee of special security in transinissiou or compensation in the event of loss.

SUFFRAGIST RAID. • One hundred and sixteen women and two men were arrested as the result of a determined attempt 011 the part of militant women suffragists to gain access to the House of Commons and memorialise tho Premier 011 the subject of the Women Suffrage J>ilL Scenes of tho utmost turbulence tdok place, and tho police were attacked violently by the women. The attempt, however, failed in its object, but the leaders of the deputation were., informed by Jlr. Nash, tho Premier's private secretary, that a-state-ment with rogal-d to tho Conciliation Bill would shortly be made in the House of , Commons. J3y the direct wish of the Homo Secretary 110 evidence, was offered when tho cases came beiorc the magistrate, and the defendants were all discharged*

MINISTERS ASSAULTED.. Militant suffragists wcro not contented with the statement made in the Houso of Commons bj*-the'Premier ■ that if in power the Government would give facilities in tho next Parliament for effectively proceeding with a Woman Suffrage Bill as framed as to admit of free amendment.;* As token of their displeasure, a 'crowd of from 300 to 400 women marched from Caxton Hall to (lie House otvCommons, and Downing Street. Mr. Asquith, returning from the House to his residence, was recognised by the women, surrounded, and hustled, but, owing to tho intervention of tho police escaped unhurt. 'Sir. Birrell, less fortunate,'was kicked and" badly hurt by come of tho demonstrators. Later in the evening there was an epidemic of window-smash-ing at the bouses o£_ Ministers, outrages taking place at tho residences of Sir Edward Grey, Mr. L. Harcourt, Mr. W. Churchill, and Mr. J. Burns. In all, 158 arrests were made.

WRECK OFF A CITY BRIDGE. The unusual spectacle of a wreck iu> the Thames was witnessed from Southwark Bridge, when the Pimlico, a sailing barge of about ninety tons, -was driven by the force of the tide against 0110 of the columns of Cannon Street Bridge. So great was the impact that the barge, which was heavily laden with sand, sank within two minutes. George Gurr, the master, and his wife and two-year-old. daughter, had narrow cscapos from drowning. Th* Pimlico had a dinghy in tow, and fc'irr throw hi* child into it and jumped'-ct himself. He then, found that' his w-iio had returned to the cabin- of the sinking vessel to save her cat. .In response to her husband's urgent appeal Mrs. Gurr reappeared without tho cat, which went down with tho Pimlico just after the dinghy had been sculled into safety.

WELSH STRIKE OUTRAGES. It will be remembered that one of the. magazines at the Glamorgan ' mine at Tonypandy, in tho Welsh strike -area, was broken into recently, and that about 1001b. of saxonite, a number of detonators, and a good deal of fuse were stolen. Tho sequel occurred to this theft the other day, when it was discovered that charges of saxonite had been placed in a' hole made in a wall of the colliery manager's house. It is supposed to have been a dastardly attempt by the strikers to blow up tho house. While a Mid-Rhondda official was absent at tho pit lato at night his house was entered by miners, who, finding his wife and children in bed, stripped from them the bed clothes, and made a bonfire of- them and some' furniture stolen.from the house in the street.

CHEAPER TELEPHONING. The telephone rates between England and Franco are about to be reduced, as soon as the French Government has provided tho additional wjres which aro necessary. The rate between London and Paris will be reduced from Bs. to 4s. a call. Extensive alterations are proposed in tho number, position, and equipment of tho wireless .telegraph stations for communication, between the ships., and the coasts ai\d ther> inland-telegraph stations of..tho United Kingdom. Arrangements are. under! consideration, for the. general use. of-telephone . addresses in place of street home addresses .as. telegraphic addresses, to .which telegrams could be delivered. by telephone instead of by' messenger.—"Standard .. of Empire," November 25.