GENERAL CABLES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 31

GENERAL CABLES.

L OiN DON, January 13. The polling for the election of a Parliamentary representative for Mile-End (Tower Hamlets) resulted as folio tvs: — Mr Harry Lawson (Conservative) 2138 Mr Straus (Liberal) ... ... 2060 Majority for Mr Lawson ... 78 Mr Lawson’s advocacy of a proposal for restricting aliens was the chief cause of his victory. LONDON, January 13. Fighting is proceeding between the chiefs of Dir (a town of Kafiristan, on an affluent of the Panykhora, about fifty miles south of Chitral) and Lawarai (a short distance north of Dir). The latter captured a fort. A movable column from Malakand (forty miles north-east of Peshawar) is advancing to preserve the Chitral lines of communication, and possibly to assist Dir.

LONDON January 13. Sir Thomas Lipton’s store at Glasgow has been destroyed by fire. The damage is estimated at £30,000. LONDON, January 13. The British South Africa Company’s resident engineer describes the alluvial deposits in Victoria and Mashonaland as patchy, and consisting chiefly of shed gold. The engineer suggests that probably the ancients secured the bulk of the gold. Mr Balfour, replying to the Association of Commercial Men, promised to carefully consider steps to secure the abolition of foreign shipping bounties or measures to counteract their effect. A deputation, representing two hundred manufacturers of proprietary medicines, have protested to the Hon W. P. Reeves, Agent-General for New Zealand. against the regulation enforced by the New Zealand Government inquiring the disclosure of the contents of patent medicines. The manufacturers contended that such regulation was ultra vires, and asked that- it should be withdrawn, as compliance with it w r as impossible. LONDON, January 13. The Japanese exports for 1904 increased 10 per cent., and the imports 17 per cent. LONDON, January 14. Lord Roberts unveiled the memorial in tlie crypt or St. Paul’s to war correspondents who died in South Africa during the campaign against the Boers. Amongst the names inscribed on the memorial are those of Messrs Spooner (Sydney "Daily Telegraph”) and Lambie (Melbourne “Age). The Russian loan of £16,000,000 in Germany and Holland has been covered tenfold. LONDON, January 15. Advices from Port au Prince state that the United States has threatened energetic intervention unless Hayti annuls the sentence of fifteen years’ imprisonment passed on one Huber, an American, charged with complicity in some bond frauds. King Edward gave an audience to Major-General Sir Edward Hutton, late Commandant of the Commonwealth military forces, and the Rev W. Garble, organiser of the Church Army, to whom he gave £IOO. The Union Bank of Australia reports that the deposits amounted to 000; cash investments and balance of remittances, £8,023,000; bills and securities, £11,968,000. The Powers' favour administrative financial reforms in Crete, instead of a union with Greece. With one and a half pounds of improved cordite the new 184-pounders ordered by the British Government can drop shrapnel at the rate of fifteen per minute at a range of four miles, the effective aim being two and a half „miles, and decisive fire one and a half miles. LONDON, January 16. Captain Percy Scott lias been appointed to supervise gunnery practice afloat. The Cunard shinning line has agreed to rejoin the North Atlantic conference. The rate war is thus ended. Russian engineers report the discovery of rich gold mines in Abyssinia. They recommend King Menelik to develop the mines himself. Disquieting reports of espionage and infiltration on the part of Japanese commercial agents in Indo-China have induced France to send an official to examine the situation.

Mr Pringle, consulting engineer to Rhodesia Limited, reports very favourably on the recent discoveries of alluvial gold in the Victoria district, Rhodesia. He considers the prospects for diggers are very encouraging. SYDNEY, January 16.

Messrs Burns, Phi Ip and Co. have placed in the hands of the Federal Government a claim for £IO,OOO compensation against the German Government for damage arising out of the refusal

to allow the company’s steamer Ysabel to trade at the Caroline and Marshall Islands. The deadlock in the wool trade has been settled. The shipping companies have decided not to levy the proposed primage charge until after March 31st, thus allowing time to make arrangements in connection with insurance and other matters at the London end. The wool sales are to be resumed tomorrow. WASHINGTON, January 14. The Senate’s committee has reported favourably on the Shipping Subsidies Bill. The proposals of the measure are attracting much attention in England. OTTAWA, January 14. The United Empire Loyalists of Canada are urging that the Dominion should contribute a battleship to the navy every five years. HOBART, January 14.

A bacteriological investigation proves that the recent outbreak of disease cattle near Burnie (ninety-two miles north-west of Launceston) was anthrax.