LATEST CABLES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 32

LATEST CABLES

LONDON, Friday. . The Bill introduced in the House of Commons by Mr Robson, M.P. for South Shields, raising the school age for hadtime scholars to twelve, has passed through committee. [Children of eleven years of age are allowed to attend school and work in the factories provided they have passed the third standard.] Tire Japanese loan was a failure. -The public subscribed only one million.. v ' i The scrip is now quoted at one ancl a half per cent, discount. [The Japanese loan was announced for ten millions sterling; the rate of interest 'was fixed at four per cent., and the price was set as low as 90. Since the loan was announced, however, Japan has laid before Europe an extensive programme of naval armaments. Orders were actually given by' the Japanese Government for the building of one third-class cruiser, two torpedo gunboats and twelve first-class ahd sixteen smaller torpedo . boats. This may have militated against the successful floating of the loan.] The Right Hon Joseph Chamberlain has informed the Agents-General of the Colonies that he highly appreciates the colonies in their wish for closer relations with the Mother Country, including thendesire for her co-operation in the matter of the construction of the Pacific cable. The British Government was willing, the Secretary of State for the Colonies proceeded to remark,, to consider the Pacific cable question on the basis of utilising the national credit. Mr Chamberlain also suggested that delegates should be appointed to confer with him upon the whole matter, with a view to a- satisfactory arrangement being arrived at on the lines he had suggested. In the House of Commons to-day, the Right Hon W. St. John Brodrick, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, stated that .the Anglo-Russian agreement enabled Russia to obtain a concession fe; railway 1 construction from the Manchuria hue m a south-westerly direction, but it did not cover the railway which it was proposed to construct, and for which concessions were being asked, into the province oi Sh.en.-si, in the nerth-v os! of the Gninesc The debut of Miss Maggie Sterling, the Australian singer, at the,Queens Hall, was highly successful. Miss Sterling was given a double recall. ~ In connection with the conferment of Birthday Honours, it transpires that All Henniker Heaton, M.P. for Canterbury, to whose agitation was due the institution of ocean penny postage, was offered a place on the list, but declined it. 1 LONDON, Saturday. The British imports for the mouth of May showed an increase of £d,DU.UJU, and the exports an increase of. £5,139,000, as compared with the previous May. , Newly-built . ships represen,ed £1,975,000 of the exports. There is a prospect that the lion J. W. Taverner, the Victorian Mir.ster of Agriculture, who is now in London, wi,l arrange for a new fortnightly steam service to carry Australian produce at reduced rates from the colony to England. ■ i • r iv-r lb Is reported that Dr --Fridjof rs ansen, the famous Arctic explorer is arranging for an expedition to the Antincfcic regions, which will start m 1902. Parliament: has passed a resolution thanking Lord Kitchener of Khartomi, Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, and the Anglo-Egyptian Army for then; services in last year’s campaign, which resulted in the capture of Omdmman and the breaking of the power of the Dervishe3. During a discussion in. the House of Commons on the Foreign Office vote. Sir C. Dilke and Lord C. Beresford condemned the drifting policy which has been pursued by Great Britain in the Far East. The Hon W. St. J. Brodrick replied that the Tie -tsin treaty was being upheld, and that no door was being closed to Great Britain and her trade. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs also held / c view that China would not alieuat* U ’ Yang-tsß-Kiang provinces. The British Government was however, despatching gunboats to Tchang to patrol the river, and to protect British trade. Hon Vi. St. J. Broderick also raid that the Government was arranging to open inland ports, and declared that the British Government was determined to hold China to a promise she had given to permit the extension of the Burma railway through the Yunnan. He proceeded to say that he deprecated distrust of Russia, but observed that it was difficult to acquiesce in the proposed Pekin railway, which would give Russia a dominating influence at Pekin, and would precipitate the disintegration of China. ; Sir Edward Grey, M.P. for Bcnvmk-on-Twced, and Under-Secretary for For-, eign Affairs in the Rosebery .Government. congratulated the Right Hon St. John Brodrick, the present Under-Sec-retary,. for his definite and business-, like statement in regard to China and the proposed Russian railway. Sir Edward Grey went on to say that he hoped the acts of the Russian and British agents in China would correspond to the letter and spirit of the viows of their respective Governments. , Mr W. Howard Taylor, of Western, Australia, lately purchased . the Due

d’Abruzzi’s yacht Bcma for £4OOO, and with it ho has won the Thames Royal Yacht Cinb’s river match, to which is attached a £IOO prize. LONDON, Monday. The latest information as to the progress of the Peace Conference now sitting at The Hague, political capital of the Netherlands, seems to indicate that there is grave danger of the failure of the scheme for international arbitration which has been so zealously urged by the representatives of Russia, Great Britain and the United States. The Washington correspondent of Reuter's Agency reports that private received from The blague show that the representatives of Germany are markedly hostile to the principle embodied in the proposal, and the dissent of so powerful a nation is considered to be an insurmountable difficulty. Three of the workshops at Baron Armstrong’s Elswick works have been destroyed by fire. Much, costly machinery lias been burnt, and the damage is estimated at £209,000. The fire has thrown 2000 hands idle. [Elswick. which is situated on the western outskirts of Newcastle, has been, made by the famous ordnance works of Lord Armstrong, for with the growth of the works the papulation increased from 3500 m 1851 to 53.000 in 1891. Of these 14,000 are engaged in the works, a portion of which lias been destroyed The works are the largest of their kind in Europe. The original engineering works date back to 1847, and ten years later the ordnance works were com menced. Subsequently, through amalgamating with Messrs C. Mitchell ir d Co., shipbuilding was added; and some of the largest war vessels have been built by the firm, including the ill-fated Victoria, of 10,000 tons. The frontage of the works to the river Tyne is over one mile, and the area occupied is 125 acres.] LONDON, Friday. The extent of the damage to frozen meat in connection with the recent fire in the storage shed at the victoria Docks, in which was contained the cargo of the colonial liner Banffshire, has now been ascertained. Twelve thousand carcases of mutton and lamb have been condemned, chiefly belonging to the Christchurch Meat Company. The local office of the New Zealand Shipping Company has been advised that all inward cargo was ’ended excepting 10.000 carcases, wind; were burned. The vessel lias been gutted in the forward hold. In consequence of inquiries from wool shippers as to how much was destroyed by fire in the fheds, cable intelligence states that about 1000 bales of wool, sh'pped at the Buffi. 400 bales at Lyttelton, about 125 bales at Waitara, and a bom 100 bales at Wanganui, were totallv destroyed. PARIS, Friday. Socialists and Republicans are uniting to arrange an ovation to M. Loubet on the occasion of his visit to the Grand Prix meeting. The Pope has tendered his congratulations to M. Loubet over the incident at the Auteuil racecourse. Russia has officially expressed her disgust with the President’s assailants. PARIS, Saturday. The Premier, M. Duptiy, has introduced his proposed supplementary estimates, which provide for an expenditure of 61 \ million of francs (about £3,ooo,ooo),which is equal to the surplus of the current revenue. The money is to be expended on strenthenmg the coast defences of the Empire and protecting the colonies. One of tho precautions taken by the French Government when the late Auteuil disturbance revealed the explosive tendency of the reactionary parties was to send away from the city Major llr.rchand, the lion of the hour, lest his popularity in connection with the transAfrican expedition should be used as n means of stirring up the populace/ Major Mavchand, it now appears, resents the use thus made of him, as

practically involving his banishment, from Paris. PARIS, Sunday. ■ In connection with the running of the Grand Prix de Paris to-day, the Government adopted precautions similar to those taken during the Czar’s visit to Paris. Six thousand policemen and twenty squadrons of cavalry and many infantry were stationed throughout the route between the Elysee and Longchamps. Detachments of treops have also been stationed beneath the grandstand on the racecourse as a further precaution against disturbances. PEKIN, Friday. The Chinese Government has granted mining concessions to Frenchmen in .fix districts of the Szechuan province, and has thereby infringed the rights which were secured recently in that region in Mi- Pritchard Morgan, the English M.P. NEW YORK, Saturday. Two hundred prospectors who weretravelling by the Edmonton trad to tho Klondike gold fields have perislied from starvation, scurvy and drowning. NEW YORK, Monday. News comes from Texas of a terrific cloud-burst in that State, affecting the districts between 200 and 300 miles upcountry from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the neighbourhood of the city of Austin, the capital of Texas, which stands on the Colorado river, about 180 miles from its mouth, there were serious inundations, and about twenty-five persons lost tlieir lives. The valley of the San Saba river, a south-westerly branch of the Colorado,

was visited with great severity. Around the towns of San Saba and Menardviile twenty lives were lost. An American sounding and dredging expedition. "nder the direction of Professor Agassiz, will sail in August to explore the middle of the Pacific Ocean. MADRID. Monday. A dreadful storm has occurred in the neighbourhood of the city of Valladolid, 150 miles north-west of Madrid. The village of San Pedro suffered most, 160 houses being destroyed and-ten persons killed. ZANZIBAR, Monday. News has been received stating that Mwanga, the ex-King of Uganda, and the chief of the Kabaregs, who were captured by an expedition under Captain Evatt.Jiave been exiled to Kismayu,a seaport on the British East African coast, near the mouth of the Juba river. , PRETORIA, Monday. The trial of the Johannesburg conspirators was commenced to-day. Agar Ellis, the informer, in his evidence vaguely implicated the capitalists belonging to the South African League. Mitchell, who formerly served in the Zulu war, deposed that Nicholls was the ringleader of the movement, and that Patterson invited him to join, pretending that the British would help them. A detective deposed that Patterson was a member of the Australian Soudan contingent. CAPETOWN, Monday. The Parliament of Cape Colony has been summoned to meet on the 14th of July. A serious dynamite explosion has occurred in one of the diamond mines at Kimberley, which is situated 540 miles north-east of Capetown. Seventeen native and three European miners lost their lives. SYDNEY. Friday. A dreadful double tragedy is reported from Woollahra, one of the suburbs of Sydney. Mrs Kidney, the wife of a resident of tho borough, while suffering from dementia, held her infant child under water in a tub until it was drowned. The unfortunate woman then drowned herself in a bath. An inquiry has been begun into the circumstances under which the HuddartParker Company’s collier Lindus was totally wrecked on the Oyster Bank at Newcastle last week. The harbourmaster gave evidence to the effect that the entrance to Newcastle harbour had shoaled considerably to the northward of the fairway. It was impossible to alter the leading lights without blasting away a large area of the channel. The American transport Celtic has arrived from Manila to load provisions for the troops. The Star of Victoria has left for Auckland. An elderly woman named Grant has been burned to death in a lire at V) aratali. t-j suburb of Newcastle. SYDNEY, Saturday. It is now believed that the ship Red Rock, which left Townsville on the 28lli February last for New Caledonia, and has not since been heard *of. has foundered with all hands. SYDNEY, Sunday. A fire broke out in the lower hold of the ship Stefans Rosetta, lying at the wharf, this afternoon. The brigade, it is believed, has now \G p.m.) controlled the outbreak. The damage cannot yet be ascertained. The damage to the ship Stofano Rosetta is not serious. SYDNEY, Monday. Splendid rains have fallen in the far west. The weather is Utterly cold, and three inches of rain fell to-day at Orange. The Marine Board to-dav suspended the certificate of Captain Sams, cf the Tekapo. which was lately wrecked at Marouhra Bay, opposite Sydney, for -six months. The Right Hen G. IT. Reid, Premier of New South "Wales, made a speech at Newcastle on Saturday night, in the course of the Federal campaign, and at its close was questioned as to his views . regarding the Premiership of the Commonwealth. In his reply Mr Reid said that :f he was Premier of New South Wales when the Federal Government was formed V; would have a legitimate right to aspire to the position of Premier of United Australia. Tie believed in always being “on top.” and was going to stay there till someone shifted him. ALBANY, Monday. The new steamer lihnitangi. recently built on the Clyde for Messrs Levin and Co., of Wellington, called at this port on her voyage to New Zealand, and has now sailed on the last stage of her trip to Wellington. [The owners have been advised of the Himitangi’s arrival at Albany on Saturday and of her departure for Wellington. She is due in about a fortnight's time.] MELBOURNE, Friday.

It is estimated that the year will end with a deficit of £395,000 in the colony’s railway accounts.

[Last year the railway accounts showed a debit balance of £454,427 after paying all exnenses of working and interest on capital expended.] MELBOURNE, Saturday.

The Premier (Sir George Turner) has received a cablegram from Sir Andrew Clarke, Agent-General for Victoria, stating that tho Imperial Government intends to - reconsider the Pacific cable question. Sir Geoi’ge has authorised the Agent-

General to represent the colony at the proposed conference, but has instructed him not to bind Victoria to any scheme without consulting the Government. HOBART. Saturday. The debate on tho no-confidence question raised early in the week by Mr Bird. Leader of the Opposition, has - concluded. The division resulted in the defeat of the motion. ADELAIDE. Sunday. • Sir John W. Downer has relinquished the leadership of the Opposition. Mr Solomons wilt succeed him. "/ ' MELBOURNE, Monday. Three intercolonial shipping companies have arranged to raise the freights by 25‘per cent, on the present rates. The increased rates will take effect as from next Wednesday. This advance will bring . the shipping rates up to those ruling in 1896. NEWCASTLE. Monday. The Marine Board has severely censured Captain Forrester of the steamer Lindus for his error of judgment in not ascertaining the state of the bar prior to sailing. ADELAIDE, Saturday. Inquiry has been made with reference to the message found in a bottle pick-' ed up at Henley Beach to vlic effect that the sailing vessel Marie Antoin-; ette, about the 25th December last, sank with all hands except the first mate. Johnson, the second mate, vne died, and tire supposed writer, an able seaman named Smith. It would appear that the message has to bo classed with other silly. hoaxes of the kind that have been frequent of late, for no such sailing vessel is registered in Lloyd's list. The only vessel named the Mary Antoinette is a. small steamer belonging to Constantinople. 'BRISBANE. Friday. A' man named \\ illiam Bonner lias been arrested on suspicion of the murder of the man Weaver. BRISBANE, Monday. In the- Legislative Assembly, the Federal Enabling Bill has passed through' Committee without material amendment. The third reading will be moved on Tuesday. The Premier (the Hon J. E. Dickson) anticipates no difficulty in passing the Bill through Hie Council. The steamer Duke of Buckingham. Homeward bound, was discovered to be on fire when off Goode Island. The work of flooding the steamer is now proceeding: and everything is in readiness to run the vessel on to the beach ii necessary. THURSDAY ISLAND, Friday. A fire at Port Kennedy, the township of this island, destroyed the stores of Burns. Philp and Co., the.well known shipping firm, and also Tattersall’s Hotel. The damage is estimated u £IO,OOO. THE CASE OF 09PT/US DREYFUS. PARIS, Sunday. The date of the retrial of Captain Dreyfus has been fixed to be begun in August. Colonel Picquart, who was imprisoned for the action’ lie took in maintaining the innocence of Captain Dreyfus, has been provisionally released. PARTS. Friday. In view of the late disturbance on Tie Auteuil racecourse and the treatment shown to officers there, special precautions are being taken by the military authorities to guard against the involvement of members of the army in any .similar occurrences. General Zurlinden. Military Governor of Paris, has issued a warning to. tlm officers and soldiers of the garrison, directing them to withdraw from any gathering at which there are indications of a demons'ration. Pending the new triad by court martial to which be is shortly to be subjected, in accordance with the recent judgment of the Court of Cassation, Hie conditions under which Captain Dreyfus is held in custody have been considerably ameliorated.. " • ■ " * ' " He is now being treated as an accused officer awaiting trial, both his uniform and his rank of captain being restored to him. PARIS. Monday. Several officers of C hasseurs have been arrested at Nb e. in the South of France, for shouting “ Vive VArr/ee !*-■'■ and “ Down with tho traitors I’’ Contrary to expectations, and poss-Uy owing to the determined attitude shown by the Government, no demonstration was made during to-day s race-meeting at Longchamps. Everything is also quiet within the city of Paris. M. Loubet. the President of the Republic, was the recipient; of great Republican and Socialist demonstrations on going to and returning from the races. Tie received an ovation cn tho course, though many habitues wore absent.

The extensive ; precautions secured perfect, order. At the races yesterday M. Krantz, the Minister of War; Colonel Picquart, the champion of Captain Dreyfus ; and M. Delcasse, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, were cheered by the populace; but M. Rochefort and M. Deroulede, the reactionaries, were hissed.

The question of bias in Judges, recently discussed in New Zealand, cropped up in particular form in March in connection with the Dreyfus case. Counsel for Mine. Dreyfus had applied that three of the

Judges of the Court of Cassation should be excluded from taking part in the revision proceedings on the ground that, as members of the special commission originally appointed to consider the admissibility of her application for revision, they had committed themselves to a view opposed to revision. M. Ballot-Beaupre recommended that the application should be rejected, while M. Manau, the ProcureurGeneral, held that it should be granted. After deliberation, the Court rejected the application, and imposed on Mme. Dreyfus the line of 100 francs customary in such cases.