SUMMARY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7020, 7 January 1910, Page 1

SUMMARY

Mr Asmilth, at Brighton, defended tho e'|uital,le valuation of land and other features of I-Imj Budget, and reaterated that t'lio Hour© of Commons must have supremacy over taxation and finance mattors.

Mr Winston Churchill says the quarrel between the democratic electorate and the one-sided wealthy Chamber had come ut lust, and the collision mutt involve u constitutional change.

Sir Edward Grey declares that even a Second Chamber, if based on hcreditary rigfot, would become increasingly conservative in cour.se of time.

Violent meetings are being held in Ulster against Home liulo.

At a if st-al Eeform League meeting in Dublin eouipkiiiit was made, ttet the Itemondites were refusing tariff reform, to the detrimeni't of the Irish agriculturist.

Air William O'Brien has re-entered oolitics, ami is conducting a vigorous campaign against the Kedinondites, urgin.' that their tyranuiy should be annihilated. At the instance of Mr Rowland Hunt, Uniomiist member for Ludlow, tie. Post Office has issued a circular assuring oldage pensioners of the security of their pensions.

Mr Lloyd George, speaking at St. Pait onus, declared tliat a travelling meaiiagerie of peers hod visited almost every part of the kingdom.. They had never worked so hard m their lives.

The Spanish Republican and Social Democratic party at Coruniua is sending greetings to Mr Lloyd George, and proclaiming him the benefactor of the universe.

"The Times" reports that the North Atlantic staamsk'ip lines propose to coordinate freight rates to the extent of agreeing to a rniniinum tariff, and abolirihSng unremnnorafcive rates in connection with competitive traffic. Mr T. A. Coglilan has discovered that einpity Ausln-aijan-branded butter-boxes are collected in London, shipped abroad, and filled with margarine, whiich is told as Australian butter.

The task of officially observing the eclipse of the sun on Jtay 9th will be left to Australians, the Itoyal Society and the lioyal Astronomical Society lending instruments.

A conference in Bruasels to discuss gun-running has proved fruitless, th/e States represented being unwilling to extend the present convention. The German Commercial Treaties Association states that the revised French tariff will practically destroy thle market for German chemicals, machinery, pianos, metal manufactures, and the trade, in Nuremberg toys. The Eight Uev. William Awdry, D.D., Bishop of South Tokio, is dead, aged sixty-eight. Thl? South African eleven defeated England in the first cricket test at Johannesburg by 19 runs, the scores being—Africa 208 and 315, England 310 and -'2l.

Owing to Mr T. F. Ryan's retirement Air Pierpont Morgan and his associates have acquired control of the Alorton Trust and thle Fifth Avenue Banking Companies, which he consolidated with the Guarantry Company of New York. Mr Alorgan intends, the merger to include the Bankers' Trust Company, thus forming the largest trust company in America. Th|e American press places the capital of the new trust at .£GOO,000,000.

A total of .£28,250,000 was given as public benefactions in the United States daring the past year, including ,£10,000,000 to education," .£7,000,000 to hospitals, and .£2,500,000 to missionary societies. Th;e late Mr J. S. Kennedy gave .£5,000,000, Air J. D. Rockefeller .£2,500,000, and Air Carnegie .£1.211,000. The late Mr Ogden Mills, the San Francisco banker, left a fortune amounting to £12,000,000.

Three hundred out of . 600 German workmen employed on railway works in 'Amuzonas, lirazil, died of malaria, and (seventy others who refused to work were •driven into the forest, suffering severe liar.-ilups.

It i* reported from New Guinea that payable alluvial gold fields have been discovered at tho Williams river, 120 miles eastward of Port Moresby.

A private letter received in Sydney predicts that the two eldest sons of the Prince of Wales will make an Empire, tour next year.

Speaking at the banquet to Lord Kitchener at Sydney on Wednesday, Mr <.'ook, Minister for Defence, 'said the object of the Field-Marshal's visit was *o formulate a. scheme of defence to Vnable Australians to hold the continent for themselves and for the Empire, I*>!'<l Kitchener said lie had been ptrnck by Sydney's magnificent harbour, «tid its value as a naval base in time of war; but it must be made safe from attack by efficient fixed defences, supjjortcd by a mobile and efficient land force.

Air Bowling, president of the Miners' Federation, denies tHe report that he intends to ask the miners to accept the decision of a Wages Board. The number of men employed in the Barrier mines at the end of December was 6K>7. as compared with "020 at the end of the previous year.

The latest news of the steamer W&i----kru-e. ashore at Dusky Bay, 13 that thexe is little hopo of saving her.

Passengers express keen appreciation of tho attention given by tin? crew to their safety and comfort. Several of the officers and crow- be-Imvc-d with conspicuous bravyer, and tile courage of the stewardesses is highly fr;pokeii of.

The preliminary heats of the Wangamii Fculluiig handicap were rowed on the Wiiiiigunui river yesterday. The lueattsi were won by Arnst, Webb oind Hagney (of Sydney).