CABLE NEWS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1666, 3 February 1904, Page 60

CABLE NEWS.

• . '/} aij'i LQiMDOiN, January ,26V... Jjfoe TDmott Bank of Australia’s report tiMwa- the deposits' amounted to £15,636,000 , cask investment and balance of tendttances.. £7,232,000'; bills and ,setouritieSy £12,497,000. ; • << 3Lioyda. Register” shows . that 632 mercantile steamers, aggregating 1,165*503 tons, and 65 sailing, vessels, 25,115 fnintt."' were launched in the TJmted Kingdom last year—the lowest output since 1897; while 549 steamers; aggregating 798,205 tons, and 404 sailing veschiefly in. the United States and Germany.

LONDON, January 27. In connection; with the rising of Hottentots in; German West Africa, Germany ia negotiating with. Britain j .for the right' of passage of troops through. Port Nblloth, Capo Colony. . ' LONDON, January 28. • RenZarkablo activity prevails at. the Woolwich Arsenal. A company with a capital of a quarter of a million has been floated- in order to cultivate cotton-growing in British Africa and the West Indies. Mr Bennett, manufacturer, and one of the Staffordshire potteries delegates, »taking to Australia the necessary machinery tot start works there. The King and Queen proceed to Ire land on April 23rd, and will remain there ten days. “ gt. Jameses Gazette 7 ' says Mr Sed3oat has an admirable faculty of thinking Imperially, but perhaps rather to excess on some obvious occasions when to think locally would be a virtue.' The head of the Canadian Intelligence Department reports that Pearse Island, belonging to Canada, completely dominates. tha islands in Portland Channel, awarded to the United States by the Alaskan Boundary Commission. Mr Freeman Cohen, a Band financier, and one of the guarantors of the Transvaal war loan, has committed suicide.

ROME, January 28.

Otoe hundred thousand books were destroyed in the Turin Library fire. Only cnee thousand, volumes were out. Four thousand! choice- fifteenth century manuscripts wore; rescued. , BERLIN, January 28. Decomposed tinned beans poisoned many ladies in a cooking class at the (Mice Institute, Darmstadt. Four died, and several are in a critical condition.

MADRID, January 28

During a crowded reception, by Kang (Alfonso in Madrid, two supposed Anarchists left a tin of explosives smouldering with a fuse attached, uiyier a bench at the entrance to the palace.

ST. PETERSBURG, Januarv 28.

'An unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate M. Weinenbaum, president of the Oommiseron appointed by Russia to carry oat the decree confiscating the Armenian Church property at Tiflis. NEW YORK, January 26. •In' connection •with the recent disastrous fire at the Iroquois . Theatre, Chicago, the coroner’s jury committed for trial the Mayor of Chicago, the proprietor of the theatre, two building inspectors, and the firemen employed at the theatre, two stage hands, and the Chief. of the Chicago Fire Department, whoee responsibility will be investigated by the Grand Jury. Mr Taylor, an expert mining engineer, was suffocated in trying to rescue the entombed men at Harwich colliery, Obeswicb, where t an explosion occurred. Those accompanying him fled and saved themselves.

All the men. entombed (a hundred and Higjrty) were either killed or suffocated. NEW YORK. January 27.

- The Tesouers at the Harwick'colliery > faund a pile of legs, arms and trunks of bodies at the bottom of the shaft where the explosion occurred, and fragments all over the mine. The explosion tore the men to pieces.

One ’hundred women lost their husbands and five hundred children were rendered fatherless by the explosion in the Harwick mine.

WASHINGTON,. January 28. The American Navy Estimates aggregate 100,000,€00 dollars (about twenty trillion; record for peacetime. -j-.; :

A Bill: has been introduced in the Congress enabling the American Government to utilise the mail contracts to Maare the option of foreign passenger ships as scouts in war-time. I The American Senate has authorised Cblonet Hay, Secretary of State, to negotiate with Great Britain for a revision of the joint sealing regulations in Alaskan waters. CAPETOWN, January 26. It is, estimated that fifteen thousand natives have revolted in German South-

riiWmt Africa. They are committing •Jraokinjg atrocities, - torturing,, and ultimately burning, alive, some of the captured troops. . ; Theycut off the limbs and gouged out one. of the officers, leaving W® fcodie on the veldt. VJWghtv thousand natives are besieging rijpndawek. .. * *

,- -~S - CAiPETOWiN, January 28. • natijves - murdered sixlteen vwrmans in Damaraland, West Africa. Swreuty are missing.

CAPETOWN, January 28. A terrible rainstorm was experienced at Batwke’s Creek, in Cape Colony. The Zwartkei river, at Lesseyton, rose thirty feet in forty minutes. A railway bridge was destroyed, and two girders, each sixty tens weight, wero carried three hundred yards. down the river.

MELBOURNE, January 28.^ Mr Theodore Angier, the head of the well-known London steamship-owners, interviewed, said that a “White Australia” policy was a perplexity to Britons. It seemed, he said, so petty, {unnecessary and selfish. The white man was unable to develop the whole continent. Those had got hold of the wrong idea who thought if ‘the black and yellow races came they would be employed at the expense of the whites. The more unskilled the workers the more the services of the intelligent and highly-train-ed section of labourers wouild be demanded. The federal Government has been advised that Australia is awarded a Krupp gun captured during the South African campaign. It will be mounted in Parliament House grounds till the federal capital is established.

MELBOURNE, January 29. _

Lord Northcote, the mew GovernorGeneral of Australia, replying to addresses of welcome from public bodies, after referring to the warmth of the welcome lie had received in the various States, delivered a message from the King to the people of Australia. His Majesty, he said, desired him to say how vivid and lasting his recollection continues of their splendid services to the lest of the Empire in the hour of trial during the late war, and to convey his Majesty’s thanks for the enthusiastic welcome accorded to the Prince and Princess of Wales during their visit.

Lord Northcote said the King watched with deep interest and confident hope the development of the great national movement. Every constitutional process for linking together the Empire was enthusiastically regarded by his Majesty. The first levee held by the new Go-vernor-General was very largely attended. As Lord Northcote was suffering from rheumatism in his arm, he was unable to shake hands with his guests. The Loud Mayor, . Sir Malcolm McEachara, to-day welcomed the members ctf the Australasian Athletic Association.

A hearty reception was accorded to the New Zealanders; Ross stated that Smith, Laurie and himself were in splendid form. Unfortunately, Simpson is in such a high fever, as the result of vaccination last 'Saturday, that it is not probable he will be a starter. Pollock is to arrive to-day. Tho competitions will commence at 2.30 p.m. each day. In welcoming the visiting athletic teams, Sir Malcolm McEacharn spoke very strongly against betting in connection with amateiar sport. Where it was permitted, he saiji,true sportsmen should show their disapprobation by not attending.

SYDNEY, January 28

Tlie Political Labour Conference decided to include local option, with the right to vote as to compensation,** and that the question d c nationalisation of •the liquor traffic he referred to a referendum of the people as a plank in the Labour platform. The Chamber of Commerce has fixed the standard of fair average quality New South Wales wheat at sixty-one pounds per Imperial bushel.

The Government has received a cable that the Reduction of Members Act has received the Royal assent. A Redistribution of Seatts Commission will be forthwith constituted.

The Government has proclaimed February 4th as a day of special prayer and thanksgiving for the abundant harvest.

The Political Labour Council has arranged to retain Mr Tom Mann as organiser till after the State elections. SYDNEY, January 29r

A strike has occurred in the Stanford Merthyr colliery, the men refusing to accept the Arbitration Court award. Ait the half-yearly meeting of the Joint Stock Bank the profits were shown to bo £76,631. After providing for interest on fixed deposits and deposit stock, £1166 was left and carried forward. On the Ist inst. the bank paid off £260,000 worth of fixed deposits. The current business is satisfactory, and improving. , ,„.C The chairman stated that a® the reserves were insufficient to cover losses of the old bank which were believed to be irretrievable, and which were unrepresented by available assets, the directors would submit to a subsequent special meeting a proposal to write down the capital of . the bank.

In connection with the strikes at the Northern Extended and other mines in the Newcastle district, the Colliery Proprietors’ Association' has. refused, the request of the Miners’ Federation for a conference. .

The miners asked for the conference with the view of the proprietors granting an increase on the hewing rate, as settled by the Arbitration Court, and also with the idea that, §pth-parties should approach the Couyfc with the object of having the award revised.

The proprietors refused, o_p the grounds that the miners initiated the action which resulted in the disputed award, and that the award) made the necessary provision for a conference in the case of any dispute. BRISBANE, January 28. The Premier, Mr A., Morgan, in refusing the request of a deputation for the construction of a railway, said when the lines now being built were completed the State would only have three-quar-ters of a million of loan money left, and there was no chance of making a successful appeal to the London market in the near future. Queensland must, therefore, learn to live on her own resources for years to come. As the head of the State he would not propose to go -on adding yearly to the expenditure. ADELAIDE, January 28. Mr Price, leader of the State Labour party, addressing a public meeting on the unemployed question, said at present working men knew more about the prospects of the Melbourne Cup winner than about legislative work. The time was coming when the working classes would have to study for themselves with true earnestness the unemployed question.

In consequence of the alterations in the boundaries of State electorates, the Attorney-General holds that local option. polls taken 'in the old districts are inoperative, and has granted a license where the vote was against further increases. The Temperance Alliance is obtaining legal opinion on the matter.

South Australia has been aw.aided a Maxim gun as a memento of the capture of a Maxim at Oliphant’s river during the South African war, in April, 1901. ADELAIDE, January 29.

A Durban paper, dated Ist January, states that Captain Yoss, in'the yacht Tilikurn, arrived safely from Australia.