NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 12

NEWS AND NOTES.

The following items of intelligence have been selected from files received by the latest mails : — THE LAST CALL. A curious situation, almost Gilbertian in character, has arisen at Portadown, one of the chief cent-res of the Irish linen trade outside Belfast, and it threatens to lead to a general strike of mill operatives (stated a message dated Thursday, 10th February). A short time ago the linen merchants agreed to adopt a suggestion made by a local medical man on behalf of the silk folk of Vhe town to reduce the number of factory horns blown for the purpose of announcing the time to the workers. According to the arrangement entered into only two horns were to be used, one at each end of the town, and all clocks were to be set by one central authority. The decision arrived at by the employers aroused considerable indignation among the workers, and the operatives in the spinning mills refused to resume work until the horn was blown. On the morning of 7th February the mill hands employed in one of the largest factories in the town struck work because the horn was not blown at break-fa-st-time. The workers in other factories will be brought out if the horns are not blown as formerly. The workpeople are parading the town in groups, and an extension of the movement is anticipated. At the annual distribution of prizes to the members of the Walworth Browning Settlement Brotherhood recently, Mr. Crooks, formerly member for Woolwich, w<ts presented with a silver medal bearing the inscription "Will Crooks, Champion of the Poor." In acknowledging the presentation, Mr. Crooks referred to his defeat at the election. He said it had relieved him of certain obligations, and had given him an opportunity for work in other directions. He had been told that if he had come Home a little earlier he would have won. That cast an undeserved reflection upon the people who worked for and supported Him during his absence. His feeling was that if he had been taken away from one kind of work the Lord woufd provide him with work of another kind. A paper manufactory was lately established in Newfoundland by the Associated Newspapers, Limited, of London. Lord Northcliffe, chairman of the association, lately received a cablegram from Sir Morris, offering congratulations on behalf of his Ministry on the success of the venture. All the St. John's daily papers, says Sir Edward, are being published with' it, and the quality cannot be excelled. "Everybody is delighted at this conclusive vindication of your enterprise and foresight," adds the Premier. According to the Washington correspondent of The Timea, the United States Government is negotiating for a treaty with Liberia, the negro Republic, on the West Coast of Africa. The object in view is the adjustment of the Liberian debt, and the establishment of what may be termed a financial protectorate over the Republic, by placing American Government otncials m charge of the Customs of Liberia. A similar arrangement exists with the Republic of Santo Domingo. During the recent severe weather in the Old Country, the Rev. R. Hutton, a clergyman, died on the highway near Llangellen, in Wales, from exposure, while walking to Corwen. The Civil Guard of Guadalajara (Portugal) being unable to stop the maraud* ings of a band of 200 Bohemian gipsies, the indignant inhabitants decided to unite for an attack. Mustering over 100, and armed with all kinds of weapons, chiefly fowling-pieces, at midnight they made a descent upon the camp. The gipsies were taken by surprise, and after ••» brief resistance fled in all directions. They were pursued, and many -of them captured, including all the women and children. Three of the gipsies were killed and fourteen were wounded. The enormous prosperity of the United States\is strikingly exemplified by statistics that have been published of the building operations in New York City within the past seven years. Dirrtag that period 102,561 new structures have been erected, at a total cost of £262,615,863, while £30,930,468 more has been expended on alterations and remodelling of buildings. The largest yearly outlay was during 1909, when 18,956 buildings were added to the city, costing £49,517,144, an amount which equals the value of all the real estate of so large an American city as Detroit. The size and magnificence^ of the buildings art» constantly increasing, the average value of the buildings erected in 1909 being 70 per cent, greater than the average in 1903. An army of average strength of 50,000 men is employed in building operations in New York. The United States Vice-Consul at Guayaquil sends to his Government » translated copy of the contract approved by the Congress of Ecuador, between the Government and Carlton Granville Dunne, a . British subject, for the exploration, extraction, and exploitation of the country's petroleum, natural gas, and asphalte deposits and mines for fifty years. Mr. Dunne is granted the right to the free importation of all machinery and equipment necessary and the free exportation of the products exploited ; also the right to build railway, telegraph, and telephone lines, and docks, and wharves. The concessionaire was required by the contract to pay the Government £30,000 at the time of signing, also £100,000 paid-up shares of the £1,000,000 stock company which Mr. Dunne is obliged to form in London. Archdeacon Lloyd, of Saskatchewan, speaking at a meeting of the Colonial and Continental Church Society, said, "In much lees time than it took to build up the United States, Canada will Have a population of 100 million people. In years to come the centre of gravity of the British Empire will not be England but Canada. It is larger than France and Germany, and will become a collectiou of empires." A large firm engaged in cotton exportation, after careful calculations, has estimated the Egyptian cotton crop for the season 1909-10 as 544,450,0001b, from 1,597,000 acres, and valued at £22,000,000. In 1908-9 the acreage was1,638,040, the crop 678,349,0001b, and the value £20,000,000; in 1907-8 the acreage was 1,603,271, and the crop 716,166,0001b, and the value £24,000,000. Sir William Bull, the successful candidate for Hammersmith, in the January elections, once found himself in a somewhat awkward predicament. Travelling in an omnibus one day, he discovered that when the conductor came for the fare he had no money wherewith to pay it. Sir William was about to alight when the conductor politely offered to pay it for him. The politician accepted the kindly offer, and (says M.A.P.) shortly afterwards the bus conductor was delighted to receive a fine silver matchbox from Sir William with the inscription : "A friend in need is a friend indeed. Receipt for one penny kindly lent without itcurity.'

The judge of th» United States Circuit Court has quashed the indictment against the publishers of the New York World for libel in their publications regarding the purchase of the Panama Canal. The action was brought at the instance of Mr. Roosevelt when President, aad the persons alleged to have been libelled were Mr. Roosovelt himself, Mt. (now President) Taft and his brother, Mr. Charles Taft, Mr. Douglas Robinson (brother-in-law of Mr RooseveH), and Mr. William N. Cromwell (a lawyer). The allegations complained of were that a syndicate of Americans received large bums out of the £8,000,000 paid for the acquisition of the French company's property and concessions, and that the revolution, which ended in the secession of Panama from the United States of Coinmbia and the establishment of that province as a separate State, <ras engineered by the then Administration at Washingtea. The Harmony Club, with the motto "Be Happy," is the title of a new club formed in the West End of London, as a branch of an institution of the same namo in the United States, where it has proved highly successful. The only conditions of membership are : "A thirst for knowledge, a hunger for happiness, and a desire for growth." The objects of the club, as set out in the official programme, are : ''To harmonise people with themselves, their surroundings, and each other ; to prove the efficient value of a smile and a song in everyday life, and to establish a perfect unity of body, mind, heart, and spirit." The members of the Harmony Club will be known to each other by a email button-badge, bearing the motto "Be Happy," and each will receive a monthly magazine called "The Center," in which members will describe the results of their efforts in spreading happiness among their fellows. A burglar broke into a house in Berlin and carried off a jewel casket. He returned it soon afterwards, with a note saying that as it only contained family documents and no valuables, he had 00 desire to inconvenience the owner. The vicissitudes of families in the present general election have been remarkable. The two Peases — one a Unionist Whip, the other a Liberal Whiphave been beaten. The two Cottons, father and son, have been beaten. The two Morrison-Bella, Unionist brothers, have been beat«n. The two Rutherfords — one a Unionist and the other a Liberal — have gone. Mr. H. D. Maclaren has been beaten and his younger brother elected ; while Mr. J. W. Lowther, the Speaker, has been elected unopposed in one division of Cumberland, and his cousin, Mr. Claude Lowther, rejected in another. At the Agapemone, Spaxton, near Bridgewater, the death occurred on 2nd February, from heart failure, of Mr. Charles Stokes Reed, secretary to Mr. Smyth-Pigott, the head of the «ect at the Abode of Love. .Mr. Reed, who was 59 years of age, had never recovered from the shock occasioned by the death of his wife some months ago, and the effects of the assault upon him when the Agapemone was raided in November, 1908. The province of Hupeh, in China, is said to be terrorised by brigands. Numerous robberies are reported, and several well-to-do persons have been captured and held to ransom. In one or two cases where the money was not forthcoming the victim was tortured and put to death. Apparently the local officials are doing little or nothing to put an end to these outrages, their excuse being that there are not enough soldiers available to fight the robbers. In the Laohokow district of the province a mandarin recently succeeded in laying a notorious brigand by the heels. His triumph, however, was short lived. In two hours' time 200 men, armed with j swords and pistols, gathered and threatened to kill the mandarin and pull his house down. He saved himself by releasing his captive and banding him back his weapons. The Russians are apparently within measurable distance of the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, for a Bill introducing this form of chronology has been laid before the Duma. It has been suggested, however, that to avoid a repetition of the riots which took place in ' England for the restoration of the "eleven days" when the Julian Calendar was abolished, the Russian reform should be carried out more gradually. Various proposals have been made, the most popular being that all months of thirtyone days should lose the last day until a total of thirteen days have been dropped. Russia will then have caught up the rest of Europe without any very noticeable inconvenience or upheaval. Only the church festivals stand in the way. And the Russian Calendar has many holy days. At a meeting of the Lambeth Guardians, held on 2nd February, it' was stated that an applicant for relief, aged 60, who was nearly blind, was attending evening classes at a- blind school in the hope that he might still be able to earn a living. The Master of the London Pageant, the central feature of the Festival of Empire, to be held at the Crystal Palaco , during the summer, has just received an j interesting model of a Viking ship, discovered in 1880 in a grave mound at Gohstad, near Sandefjord. On the lines of this model will be built the Danish boats that are to be used in the "Danish Invasion" scene of the pageant. Count Tolstoy recently spoke into a gramophone, expounding his well-known views on capital punishment. An order has now been issued at Odessa prohibiting the public exhibition of this Tecord, says a Renter telegram. Sir Ivor John Caradog Herbert, Bart., who was returned for South Monmouth at the recent election, is a great linguist. He speaks, Welsh, French, German, Russian, and Spanish, and has seen military service in all parts of the world. He is a Roman Catholic. j In reply to a deputation of Hindus who waited upon the Lieu tenant-Gover-nor of Bombay to express their horror of the shooting of Mr. Jackson, at Nasik, his Excellency said that something more j than words was necessary if the cancer of society was to be eradicated. He pointed out that seditious books and papers found a ready sale in the Punjab. Most of the writers thereof, and most of the perpetrators of outrages were Hindus, therefore it rented with the Hindu community to assist the Government in the suppression of a criminal conspiracy. Patience was all very well, but there must be a limit, and it rested with the Hindus to see that tho evil was suppressed before the limit was 1 c ached. Four tons of tobacco concealed in Belgian coal-trucks have been seized by the French Customs authorities at the frontier station of Blanc-Misseion. Golf-balls for charity is a somewhat novel form of offering, but the Duke of Devonshire has sent to the Princess Alice Hospital, Kastbournc, a cheque for £18 IBs, the proceeds of golf-balls that had "strayed" into the gtouud* of Compton Place fr>«n tb«Uakt during the {** yett.