CABLE FLASHES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 2999, 10 December 1896, Page 3

CABLE FLASHES.

The Italian War Budget, excluding the cost of the operations in Africa, amounts to 259,000,000 lire (10| million sterling). The army is to be increased by the enrolment of 15,000 additional men. There is no foundation for the statement that tho Australian unionists have rendered financial assistance to the Hamburg strikers. The only communication sent to Hamburg so far from Australia has been an expression of sympathy with the strikers.

At the inquest on the bodies of Curran and Smith, the first two victims of the Stockton colliery disaster, a verdict of accidental death was returned. It was proved that their death was caused by the poisonous gas entering the mine owing to the doors having been left open. There was no evidence to show who left them open. ~ . As the result of the trials of journalists at Berlin Herr Lockert and Herr Lutzow have boon sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for conspiring to injure Baron Marschall von Bioborstein, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Two other of the accused pressmen were fined. With reference to the Britiah-Venezuela treaty, President Cleveland in his message to Congress says he thinks it eminently fair, and he expects that the negotiations for a general arbitration treaty with Great Britain will soon bo completed. The Government of Venezuela will convene a Congress to ratify the treaty.