NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 21, 25 January 1913, Page 14

NEWS AND NOTES.

[The following items of intelligence have been selected from- files - received by the latest mail.] . M. Manio, th© airman, mefc^with an accident on 6th December/ while flying from Hertford to Hendon to complete his flight from Paris to London. He ascended from Ball's Park, Hendori^ and set off in a south-westerly direction, which would have brought him- in a direct^ line to. Hendon. ' ' Owing ■to the wind; however, he drifted to 1 - the east, and ■ eventually found** himself over 'Palmer's Green. Here, on account of engirie, trouble, he was obliged to descend; *He planed down and alighted on the, roof of a house in Derwent-road. The-- machine came into collision with the chimneys, two of which wero digplaced. Although th© 'machine was smashed the airman escaped' in jriry,', add was rescued from his position •* on ' the house«tcp by meana of a> builder bladder. Mr. L. F. Duncan writes to* The Times i— "l see it asked' in *The Times 'How to be Healthy V Never -eafc mote two meals daily. I have never eaten more than two meals all my life. Sir William Jenner told me,' if every man'only ate two, no doctors ' r would be wanted. I am now 92, "and -never was ill a day in my life, antl^l believe' I am tho oldest subscriber, to The' Times j I have subscribed for 67 years."The railway connecting L&'Paz/ the capital of Bolivia^ with Arica,, »,port of Peru, has been .completed in five months less than the-'Contract , time. The line begins At Arica, some 1500 miles north of Valparaiso, and ends at La_Paz, a, distance of about 285 miles. It is one of the highest railways' in the world, rising to a height" of 14,000 feet above sea-level, and ' riinning for the greater part of the distance -at an altitude of 12,000 feet.' Apportion. is on the rack system. _ \This luie ',-will' be a great boon to Bolivia, as it ,shortens the route to the Pacific coast* by '4oo' miles over that via Lake .TiticaCa' and' Mollendo, and 600 miles ove* , that of" the alternative Antofagasta^line. '.'The birth of & son and heir to the Austrian Archduke Charles Francis Joseph; great-nephew of tWe Emperor Francis Joseph, and next after the Archduke Francid Ferdinand in the order of succession to the Hapsburg Throne, may, prove to be of high importance for ' the .Hapsburg dynasty," says The Times. "In virtue of the declaration by the Archduke Francis Ferdinand on his morganatic marriage with the Countess Chotek, now Duchess of Hohenberg, that neither his wife nor theis issue should ever be entitled to claim succession to the throne, the heirship presumptive- passed to his brother, the Archduke Otto. Upon the latter's death it passed to Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, whose marriage with Princess Zita, Of Parffla in October, 1911, was welcomed as likely to restore a.reguliu? ordeu of succession.'' • "The Government should have its own reporting staff-^a travelling Hansard to accompany Ministers, from Mr. Acland to Mr. Asquitlii throughout the land," says the Saturday Review. For Ministers are always being misreported. "Neve? ifl previous years ,at this Season has there been such an outflow of people for the Old Country/ says The Times Toronto correspondent, writing shortly before Christmas. "During the forty-eight hours, ended noon, Friday, 1100 people passed throngh Montreal\on their way to St. John and Halifax , to take steamers to England for the Christ' mas holidays." Mr. E. T. Mooley, tho financier, who in February last year was sentenced 'to twelve months' imprisonment for fratid, was released from Wormwood Scrubs prison a few weeks ago. Mr. Hooley spent the latter portion of bis term in the prison hospital, though it is stated he is not suffering from any serious malady. Part of his sentence was remitted foe good conduct. , The telephone arbitration case, which closed in London on the 12th ult. after the arbitrators had sat for 73 days, Was otte of the longest of its kind on record. The cost of the proceedings was enormous, The four King's' Counsel representing the company had brief fees marked at a. total of £4600. 'With them were two juniors, who had two-thirds' of the amount paid to the two junior King's Counsel. The ''refreshers" during the 73 days have been very large, amounting to about £350 a day for> the whole period, bringing the total to over £30,000. Then , come the sums to be handed to the two Law Officers, to Mr. jßuckmaeter, K.C., M.P., and to the two juniors who represented the Post-master-General, which will certainly be on an equal scale. In addition, there will be the .enormous cost to the solicitors in getting tip thd case, the fees paid to the eminent expert witnesses, the cost of shorthand writing, and the printing of the speeches and evidence. Six members of the Finnish Parliament, who were impeached for resisting the law equalising the status of Russians and Finns, but did not appear to answer the charge, were arrested recently by order of the examining magistrate, and conveyed under escort to Sti Petersburg. Mr. Raymond Asquith, son of the British Premier,, met the Derby Liberal Eight Hundred on the 6th ult., and was nnanimously invited to become the prospective < Liberal • candidate for the borough at the next^Parliamentary election in succession to Sir Thorns Roe, the sitting member, who is retiring. , A distressing ice' accident, involving the loss of six lives, occurred on the evening of Bth December in the village of Faulbaeh, near Aschaffenburg, | Bavaria. Seven girls, between 8 and 12 years of age, were playing on a frozen part of the River Main, when the ice, which was not an inch thick, gave way, j arid' all the girls fell into the water. Six were drowned, and the seventh was res- [ cued by her brother. Early on Sunday morning, Bth ult., a fire took place at Ardeer Explosives Fac- ] tory, Stevenson. Ayrshire. The outbreak originated in a house where cordite is dried. A stove containing 20 tons of cordite caught flre and the names spread to another stove, containing a similar quantity of the explosive. Fortunately there was no explosion, the I cordite burning itself out. The flames illuminated the district for many miles, j No one was injured. ' Speaking at a Mansion House meeting last month, Sir George Reid (High Commissioner for Australia), dealing with th© Territorial Force, said : Was it not a shame upon England when they saw what wa» being done in the Dominions, that the Territorial army should be so short of its numbers? "I say this," he j concluded, "a* a voice from Australia — until' yoa.can get better things, fill up those ranke, because they are bound to be a little better than nothing at all." About two thousand platers on, the battleship Queen Mary, at Palmera Works, Jarrow-on-Tyne, ceased work last month owing to a dispute about prices for odd jobs. The men have decided to ask for a minimum wag© of 10s a day on odd jobs, of, as an alternative, to be put on time work. They will try to bring out the plater* ift ibo. Hebbitttt yardi

"The Triple Alliance has been renewed for twelve years. Th© announcement was made almost simultaneously in Vienna, Berlin, and Rome. As the present treaty would not have expired until June, 1914, its renewal at this juncture has apparently a bearing upon the international situation. In Berlin and Vienna it is regarded as equivalent to a diplomatic manifesto, indicating th© complete agreement of the allied nations, and as a hint to Russia and Servia. There is to be no modification ia th© terms of th© Alliance, and its renewal has been heartily endorsed in, the respective signatory countries, 1 ' say 3 the Daily News. Sr Edward Carson is in despair at the Englishman's indifference to Home Rule. > Speaking at the Junior Constitutional Club, he said : "He came across men who said, 'Why do you bother about all this" ? You could go on making plenty of money at your profession and living a life of ease and comfort. There will be enough for you in your 1 time, and there will be enough for me in my time I .' /That was in the upper stratum of society. It was the apathy of men who were well off. When they came to the lower stratum of society they were- told : 'Ireland does not affect me; it is still in the same position.' In such circumstances one almost became hopeless." A recent message from Montreal states that the Canadian Pacific Railway will spend forty million dollars (£10,000,000) in new* rolling stock lately ordered. This money will secure the company 467 locomotives and 28,671 cars of various descriptions. When this large order is completed the com pany will have in commission 2225 locomotives and 98,804 cars. The new loco* motives ordered cost nine million dollars, the balance of the forty-eight millions being expended for cars of various kinds. This equipment will be operated over a, trackage of more than 12,500 miles. There was a scene of great excitement at Lloyds on the 9th of last month, when a report spread that the Cunard liner Mauretania, which left Liverpool for New York two days earlier, had rriet with a disaster. A telegram received in the morning gave the position of the vessel as 260 miles west of Fastnet at 11.30 p.m. on the Bth, but in spite of this £3 os per cent, was freely paid for reinsurance. At noon the liner was reported "All well" 575 miles west of Queenstown. In an official statement the Cunard Company denies the truth of th© report, which was published by some German newspapers. Th© rumour, th© company say, had caused great anxiety among relatives of passengers on board, and the Cunard head offices have been inundated with enquiries by^ cable and telegram from all parts of the world. The company added that, this was th© second time within , a brief period that unfounded reports had originated in ! Germany concerning the safety of their vessels. appears to have been a -useless member of society, a good-for-nothing, who would not work. He eeems to hay© done the best thing he could by killing himself," said the Westminster Coroner recently at the inquest on 1 a man who hanged himself in Hyde Park. For years the- man's ..wife had had to maintain him. The following epitaph on Robin Hood is taken from the tombstone in Kirklees Plantation, adjoining the park and hall, ; in .Yorkshire \r— I Here underneath dis laitl Stead Lax robin 1 tarl of vHutitingtfln, » -'•••> Ne'er arcir az hie sa geud. -♦ ' ■■ i And Pipl kauld im robin Heud, 'Sick utlawzaz hi an iz men Vil Bnglan nivr si agen. Oblit 21,ka1. Dekembrls, 1247. ■ "The intemperance statistics of France are appalling," says the Daily Telegraph's Paris correspondent. "Roughly, it is estimated that on© out of every fifteen Frenchmen is connected either as vendor or distiller with the liquor trade. The keepers of cafes and bars alone are close on a million in number. There are also almost 900,000 wine-growers, that is, who distil alcohol from their own products, in addition to the 12,000 odd aniseed distillers and brewers.^ The wealth and political 'pull' of this < 'bistocracy,' as it is sometimes called, are so great as to make its position almost impregnable. Only from the awakening of public opinion to the dangers of. this vast army in the heart of France can any substantial reforms be expected." The trade boom which is so conspicuous in the United Kingdom is even exceeded in the United States and in Germany. Comparing the year's figures for 1902 with the -figures for the first nine months of 1912, we ' find the increases for the- three countries to be: U.K., 7.3 per cent.; U.S.A., 29.3 ' per cent. ; Germany, .35.5 per cent. ' These figures, of course, do not include the trade of the big Home markets in each country. _ t "Living temperately consists in every man finding out/'for>hitnself what suits him and sticking '-to %" whether it be four* meals a day-or ; two, roast beef or Brazil nuts, a bottle', of brandy or ■ undiluted pump. There is no general rule for all; if a man deceives himself, ho will have to foot the bin," says the Pall Mall. The 6ch«m© for th© construction of a South Thames Embankment, to run from the new ( St. Paul's ■ Bridge to Westminster Bridge, is being' considered by ■ the ,I/ondon County Council. "Th© embankment" say# the Evening News, would form a western approach to St. Paal's Bridge/ and an alternative and quicker route to the City from Southwest London, besides linking up three main approaches to the City from the South. It would make feasible the much-talkednjf plan for removing Charing Cross Station to the south eid© of the river, and help in an effective widening of the Strand at on© of its most congested points j and it would open up a mile of river-front to South London, and give the inhabitants on« of the finest promenades in the British Isl«s. Th© cost of the scheme would not exceed that ofc the Victoria or Albert Embankment*, which cost £1,156,981 and £1,014,525 respectively." M. Degas, th© veteran painter, born in 1834, was present last month" at the eale of th© Rouatt collection, -when £17,400 was paid for "Dancers a la Barr«," his picture of dancing girle. M. Degas, who 'has been practically blind for ten years, originally sold thia picture for £20. The price paid for it is believed to be the highest ever giv«n for a work by a living artist. The painter, who is almost «dorgotten by fashionable Paris, lives a retired life in a fifth-floor flat without a single picture or statuette to recall his early talent* and fame. A Bill to make queue cutting compulsory was brought into the China National Council recently, and a heated discussion took place on the second section of the Bill, which provides that those who wear queues are to be suspended from enjoying their public rights. The .elections for the National Assembly are approaching, and this would have meant the disenfranchising of a large number of persons. The President therefore issued a mandate stating that the wearing of queues could not be considered in the nature of an offence, but that at the same time it was the duty of all officials to encourage its discontinuance