BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 53

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

LONDON, April 10

There are at the present time 40,000 untenanted houses in London, as a result of the high rates.

The Mullah has been given the seaport of Illig for his headquarters.

Weiss beat Harverson by 8000 to 7523 in a billiard match.

Owing to tlie. want of proper protection against music pirates, 19 of the chief publishing houses have decided) not to publish any new music,, neither to pay composers nor to advertise.

The Times states that the Ormuz will b-3 manned by a white crew, and) her Lascar sailors will return to Colombo as passengers. Tne Ormuz embarks her mails at Naples.

Mr Coghlan, Acting Agent-general for New South Wales, writing to The Tim.es correcting its Sydney correspondent, shows that the Australian imports for 1904 declined by £1.875,263, not by £6,710,470, as the correspondent had asserted. In other words, if those imports had been required for home consumption the decrease -would have been JG1,615,720. -* It was gratuitous to assume that Gz-eafc Britain iras ihe greatest sufferer by this decline, which was caused by the cessation of State borrowing and the nofi-importation of private capital. Australia had a right fo be proud of her surplus of five and a-half millions on her trade. He contradicts the assertion that the population -was declining, and complains of a campaign of misrepresentation, which was the chief cause of the avoidance of Australia by British emigrants.