HOME NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1355, 17 November 1877, Page 16

HOME NEWS.

ENGLAND.

Earl Russell is 85, having been born on Augußt 19th, 1792. The Gardener's Magazine gives a bad account of the fruit crops generally. The Home Secretary has appointed a committee to inquire into the condition of the London detective force. The Sanitary Record denies a statement that an outbreak of Asiatic cholera had occurred at Byers Green, Durham. Sir John Bennett hats been re-elected an alderman for the Ward of Cheap in London by a large majority over his opponent. The declared value of wheat imported in the last seven months was £17,329,444, and in the like period of 1 876, £14, 377, 166. There has been a large increase in fresh or slightly-salted beef imported. This year the value was £927,490, and last year, in the same period, £141,336. Mr Edward Cunard, second son of the late Sir Edward Cunard, was killed on the 30th ! ult. while playing at polo near Folkestone. Several English mayors have received telegrams from Madras, entreating them to open subscriptions for the relief of the j sufferers by the famine. \ Lord Stratheden snd Campbell presided recently at a meeting held in the West* minster Palace Hotel, London, to organise a j national anti-Ratsian demonstration. Dr. Baxter Langley, Wm. Swindlehurst, and Edward Satery have been committed for trial on a charge of having defrauded the Artisans' Dwellings Company of L 30.000. The Princess of Wales has, by her own desire, been elected a " Dame Chevaliere of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem," a philanthropic society presided over by the Dnke of Manchester. Lordßunghley, the Conservative candidate, has been elected successor to tbe late Mr Ward Hunt in the representation of North \ Northamptonshire, having obtained a majority of 786 over Captain Edgell, the Liberal candidate. Lord Russell has requested his name to be added to the list of noblemen and gentlemen who have expressed .their opinion that the National Society should send an equal number of ambulances' to the Russian and Turkish armies. At the. half-yearly meeting of the Great Northern. Railway Company in London, Lord Colville, the chairman, . announced that the two accidents at Abbots Ripton and Arlesey Biding had cost the Company LIOO.OOO in personal compensation alone. v Mr W. E. Gladstone, in commemoration of the late Caxton Celebration, has presented to the French Academy, of which he is a foreign associate, the copy of the small octavo Oxford Press Bible, which was specially struck off for him when he presided on that occasion. The Duke of Sunderland's agent has served lie Town Clerk of Stoke with notice that unless that town ceases to pollute the Trent with its sewage, application will be made for sequestration of the borough funds. A similar notice is about to be served on the Town Clerk of Hanley. Action has already been taken anent Newcastle-under-Lyme. News from England confirms the report of a serious strike among the cotton spinners in Bolton and other parts of Lancashire. Already about 12.000 persons have struck work, and 106 mills are closed. The cause of the strike is an unwillingness oo the part of the operatives to submit to a reduction of five per centum in their wages. A similar strike occurred in 1874, when the matter being submitted to arbitration was decided against the men. The five per cent, tlien taken off was restored in 1875, and the present strike is occasioned by an attempt to make the reduction again.