BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 13

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

; ] LONDON, November 27. f In compliance with a judicial direction, '. the Blackpool justices have fined a butcher j i for selling River Plate mutton as New Zealand. ' i The Queen has directed that Sir Arthur i Sullivan shall be interred in St. Paul's 1 Cathedral. Princess Aribert of Anhalt, daughter of Prince Christian, is suing for divorce. She lately visited the Queen. Her husband cares only for sporfc. A conference of representative Evangelicals and High Churchmen, held at the instance of Dr Creighton, Bishop of London, i discussed the questions of doctrine, ritual, and holy communion. The meeting proved abortive, and failed to suggest any satisfactory plan for the removal of their differences. A forced sale on the- part of some specu- \ lators depressed the currant market. They are now quoted at 375. • Silver is quoted at 2s s|d. There is much alarm in the Midlands , owing to an epidemic of alleged arsenical beer poisoning. Numerous cases have been observed for several months past. The health officer at Salford states that there ! have been 88 deaths from alcoholism in Salford alone during the past eight months. The brewers deny that there is arsenic in the beer, and invite an investigation. They are also withdrawing all supplies, that are open tb the suspicion of contamination. ■November 28. Lord Wolseley retires on Friday. Sir Evelyn Wood will act as a Commander-in-chief until Lord Roberts's arrival in England. Sir Arthur Sullivan left the music for a new Te Deum, which he had intended 1 should be iised after the declaration of peace in South, Africa. November 29. Tfie Daily Express states that the Empei'or of Germany, incognito, recently spent a week in Paris visiting the Exhibition. The French police discovered that three detectives were deputed to guard the Emperor while he remained in France. The British cruisers £Jaiad, Latona, and Sybille have been ordered into commis- ' sion. The gunboat Sparrow, recently ccmmis- ■ sioned for the Australian station, has sailed for Sydney. The Western Australian loan has been allotted. As the public subscribed only about one- half, the underwriters will ieceive the balance. Stephen Impett, a buyer in the employ of Murray and Co., Adelaide, committed J suicide by shooting himself with a revolver in London. He suffered from the delusion that he was going mad. A verdict of " Temporarily "insa-ne " was returned. Sir Langdon Bonthon, of Adelaide, in i a letter to The Times, advocates the table lands of the northern territory of Australia for breeding remounts for the Imperial army. He says land is obtainable for a peppercorn rental. The New Zealand Trust and Loan Company have declared a dividend of 5 per cent. November Oscar Wilde died in an obscure Paris i ; hotel. • I | [Oscar Wilde, poet, dramatist, lecturer on [ art, and 'the originator of the Eesthetic craze satirised in Gilbert and Sullivan's " Patience," < | was found giiilty and served a sentence for offences against morality, and on his release ; went to the Continent. He was born in 1856.] Great Britain's action in not renewing the prohibition of the export of arms from the Straits Settlements to the Dutch East Indies in connection with the Acheen War ' is a warning to the Netherlands Govern- . mcnt of one of the dangers of pro-Boerism. The secretary of bhe Aborigines' Protec- : tion Society in London has written Mr ; Chamberlain urging upon him the necesl sity for better protection being given to > the aborigines of Australia. • The Bishop of London has vetoed the . ' proposed prosecution of three of the most [ Ritualistic clergymen in London by the ' JSvaugelical jgarty^, jbecouse the prosecution

was not connected with the parishes concerned. Three millions 3 per cent. Exchequer bonds for five years were subscribed twofold, at an average of £98 2s lOd. December 2. A party of Hooligans have stabbed a man, shot a woman, and murdered a policeman in Whitechapel. PARIS, November 27. During a discussion in the Chamber of Deputies on the colonial v vote M. D. Estournelles de Constant, who has held diplomatic appointments in several foreign courts, denounced in unmeasured terms France's colonial expansion, and said that unle&s she was careful France would provoke another Fashoda in Yunnan. M. Fiancois, a retired China diplomatist, condemned as imprudent French intrigues in Yunnan. He said that France must remain a Continental Power, as she was unable to asjnre to obtain an empire over sea. November 29. The Aniche Colliery was the scene of a terrible dynamite explosion, in which 20 persons were killed and 40 injured. BERLIN, November 30. Prince Radoline, German Ambassador to Russia, succeeds Count Munster, Ambassador to France, who resigned on account of age. ST. PETERSBURG, November 26. Nine Russian military instructors have gone to Abyssinia. November 27. The Czar is distinctly improving. November 28. The Russian Naval Budget for 1901 is increased from 60 to 97 million roubles (over £15,350,000). It is intended to I build five ironclads and one cruiser. November 30. The Czar is cheerful, and his strength is increasing. The Czarina acts as his constant nurse. STOCKHOLM, November 29. Otto Nordenskjold, the Swedish explorer, has purchased the steam whaler Antarctic, and will lead the Swedish Antarctic expedition which sails in August, 1901. WASHINGTON, November 27. ~ VT v Long, Secretary of the Navy, recom- | mends Congress to authorise the construction of two battleships and two cruisers. NEW YORK, November 28. The United States warship Kentucky has been sent to Smyrna to enforce the appointment of an American consul at Kharput, Turkish Kurdistan, which contains tha College of Armenia, the principal establishment for public instruction in "Armenia and Kurdistan, founded by American missionaries. November 29. A typhoon at Gua.n, in the Ladrone Archipelago, sank the American cruiser | Yosemite. Five of the crew were drowned. The typhoon at Guam (Ladrone Ai'chtpelago) wrecked 1000 houses and killed hundreds of natives. SAN FRANCISCO, November 30. Spectators at a football match here fell through the roof of glass works into boiling vats and on furnaces. Eleven persons were killed, and 40 badly burned. BOMBAY, November 27.The troops recently despatched by the Indian Government are blockading Waziristan as a punishment for the tribesmen's j robbery of the mails and their attacks on the officials. MANILA, December 3. Twelve hundred Filipinos in the vicinity of Vigan have surrendered to the Americans.