GENERAL CABLES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 98, 20 January 1926, Page 9

GENERAL CABLES

The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand has ordered a 4000-ton freighter from a Clyde firm.—Sydney "Sun” Cable.

A snowstorm lasting twelve hours covered the South Coast of England to a depth of from 12 to 20 inches, according to a Loudon message to Sydney “Sun.”

A Reuter message from Weltevreden states that all the plates of the eclipse of the sun taken by the Dutch expedition, after development, proved failures.

The Pacific Cable Board has ratified Mr. Hunter’s appointment, pending an agreement upon expenditure and allowances. The Canadian representative did not attend the meeting.

The National Tourist Office at Paris estimates that more than a million tourists visit France yearly, spending seventy-six millions sterling, of which, on an average, Americans. spend twentyseven millions and Britishers twentyone millions.

The Iraq Parliament approved the new Anglo-Iraq treaty, which is virtually an extension of the former treaty," 58 voting in favour and 20 dissatisfied members declining to vote.—Reuter.

A Reuter message from Paris says the Chamber of Deputies Finance Committee adopted the proposal of MM. Palmmade and Bedouce concerning reform of the succession duties system whereby the State is allotted a portion of a deceased’s estate in inverse ratio to the number of children or kindred.

A fire at Detroit damaged beyond repair the triple-engined metal ’plane with which Captain Wilkins planned to make his flight across the North Role. The ’plane was one of ten destroyed. The entire experimental plant of the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company was badlv damaged. Captain Wilkins states .that the loss of the ’plane will not delay the starting of the expedition.

When the Rev. William Christy died at East Liverpool, Ohio, of poisoning a fortnight after his marriage, the police investigated the case, and ascertained that his widow had been tnystenouslv widowed on four previous occasions,' states a message, from Sydney “Sun.” After an examination, Mrs. Christy confessed that, she had poisoned all her husbands in order to obtain the insurance on them.

The Federation of British Industries is urging the appointment of a Government committee to investigate a proposal to increase the token value of the penny by 20 per cent., making ten pennies equal a shilling and thereby introducing a decimal system, without a change in denominations or requiring a special knowledge of decimals, in the Home trade.—Sydney “Sun” Cable.

A Damascus message says the French are massing troops at Ezra preparatory to attacking the Jebel Druse.. When the weather improves they will probably advance in three columns. . A French column inflicted severe punishment on a band responsible for cutting the Beirut railway. They captured a gun and material and burned the yillages round El Home, fifteen miles from Damascus, for assisting the band.

Abbe Desnovers, who was accused by a woman of witchcraft, appeared before the Court in Paris and was examined for three hours. He declared he had no connection at present with the Bordeaux sect of whom Madame Mesmin is the head, but lie admitted that he attempted exorcism in the case of two voting women belonging to the order. He severed his connection with the order in September, 1923, when Madame Mesmin suggested to him that the. time had come to proclaim a new religion of which she hoped he would become one of the twelve apostles. She offered him the choice of being the new St. Peter or tire new St. Paul. Horrified at tins proposal, the Abbe gaid that henceforth he would have no connection with the order.