DELAYED CABLES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9404, 31 December 1910, Page 2

DELAYED CABLES.

CHICAGO TO NEW* .YORK.

: CHICAGO, Dec. 24. Tlans have Just been completed in connection with a remarkable .engineering project.., •■•.:. The scheme is one for the construction, between Chicago and New York, of a of sufficient dimensions' to carry telegraph ".and telephone wires, and a ■ pneumatic tube • for the trans- ' mission of packages. , The construction of the tunnel is to be commenced immediately. MASCAGNI'S NEW OPERA.

ROME. Dec. 23. Before an audience, made up of musical celebrities and. journalists, '■'Signer Mascagni sat at a piano _ for upwards of two hours yesterday singing all the numbers of his new opera, "Isabeau." When the famous composer of "Cavaleria Rusticana" had finished a remarkable scene was witnessed. ' The critical company to which he Jiad been playing and singing unanimously voted. "Isabeau" .a masterI piece, and when Signor Mascagni rose from the piano he was rushed-by his enthusiastic admirers, affectionately embraced, and overwhelmed with their congratulations. I WIPING OUT AN INSULT.

. MONTREAL, Dec. 24. A desperate fight took place yesterday between an I|ishman, Patrick Shields, and three Italians. Resenting some offensive .remarks they had made to him Shields rushed at the foreigners, one- of whom drew a razor and. started slashing him about the head. The plucky Hibernian, however, provqd one too many for his treacherour assailants, and finally succeeded ;in battering them all into unconsciousness. ' ' ■ ' Shields then went looking for the police, who on: their arrival found one of the Italians dead. V TO ABOLISH HANGING. • LONDON, Dec. 23.

The recent execution of Hawley Crippen, the notorious Camclen road has prompted Mr Edward F. Benson, the well-known author, .and son of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, to prepare a Bill for the abolition of hanging, for which he proposes to substitute the use of a lethal chamber. . His idea is that a criminal condemned to death should be either allowed to poison himself or should be destroyed by means of an anaesthetic. Mr Benson says: "The disgusting apparatus with which the condemned are put to a violent death is utterly barbarous and mediaeval, and has a debasing and degrading effect upon the public." CHINA WANTS KIAO-CHATJ BACK. PEKIN, Dec. 21. China wants to" regain possession of Kiao-Chau, in the Shantung Peninsula. . The place was leased to Germany in 1898 for use as a naval base, but the Chinese Government is now realising that the territory is,one which it could utilise itself for many important purposes. Its efforts to recover Kiao-Chau, however, are, not likely to be successful. j

Kiao-Ohau was formally ceded to Germany on a 99 years' lease in. January, 1898. The protectorate is administered under the German Navy Department by a governor. The territory concede with the town stretches about 160 miles along the coast, and. a. neutral zone, with an area of about 2500 square miles, and a population of about 1,200,000, surrounds the district and the bay. The area of the protectorate (exclusive of the ""bay) is about 200 square miles, and the population about 33,000.

PANAMA CANAL. NEW YORK, Dec. 22. President Taft .is having prepared the draft, of a Bill to regulate ■'"the tolls to be levied jiri. t connection with the passage .of ships through the PaV nama Canal;. -

The President is of opinion that to obtain a gross income of nearly £1,400,000 it should not be necessary for the tolls to exceed one dollar per ton.

It is reckoned that the maintenance arid operations of the canal will cost £600,000 annually. - President Taft considers that with a normal increase in trade the income will ultimately approximate the interest on the £80,000.000 that America has invested in the great undertaking. . ' ,

FIFTY YEARS BEHIND BRITAIN.. K NEW YORK, Dec. 21.) Judge Lawson, Dean of the ' Missouri University Law School, .has just returned to America from a visit to Great Britain. While on the other, side of the Atlantic he spent four months' investigating the procedure of British, law courts. j ' Interviewed as to the result of his observations, JudgV Lawson declared -that as far, as. the criminal courts were concerned the United States was fifty years behind Great..Britain.

A CANADIAN HEROINE. ■* OTTAWA, Dee. 22. The Canadian Government is about to take steps,to honour the memory of Madeline de Verches, a girl of 14, who, more than-200 years ago, defended bnr father's seigniory against, a hostile force of Irocmois for over, a week. It is proposed to erect-, a statue that will cost £500.