HOME AND FOREIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9154, 8 September 1888, Page 5

HOME AND FOREIGN.

[press association.] PAYMENT OF MEMBERS. London, September 5. The British Trades Congress has resolved to make payment of members of the House of Commons a test question at the elections. DISASTROUS" Prague, September 7. Disastrous floods have occurred throughout the country, and the crops . have been seriously damaged. So far, however, no casualties have been reported. NEW ZEALAND MINES ON THE LONDON MARKET. London, September 7. The New Zealand Crown Mines Company, with a capital of £65,000 is announced. MILITARY EXPEDITION. Calcutta, September 6. An expedition is to be sent to Aghor Valley to avenge the murder of Major Battye, Captain Winiston, and others of the Bengal Staff Corp3 who were killed in June last. The expedition will leave here on the Ist October, and will consist of five battalions of British infantry, two batteries of artillery, and eleven regiments of native infantry. OBITUARY. London, September 6. The death is announced of the Hon. Thomas Holt, ex-member of the New South Wales Legislative Council: aged 77. SHIPPING. London, September 5. The New Zealand Shipping Co.'s Aoranci arrived all well at Plymouth yesterday, with her meat in good condition. Rio de Janeiro, September 4. The New Zealand Shipping Co.'s Rimutaka sailed for Plymouth to-day. Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone millionaire, has only just turned his fortieth year, and yet his hair and beard are streaked wit grey. Mr. Bell is a Scotchman, and has only been in America since 1872. He was very poor when he landed, but he is very rich now, and his poor relations in Scotland have profited by his generosity. Mrs. Bell is a deaf mute, but she understands lip reading so well that her husband converses with her the same as he would if she were not so afflicted, and no one who hears them suspects that she cannot apeak and hear as other people. i