NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 52

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Russia has accepted the German designs for four large. Dreadnoughts, to be built at St. Petersburg. "They are the finest body of Volunteer troops I have ever seen in my whole life," was Admiral Sperry's comment on the review at Sydney. Philip, Prince Eulenburg's son, has quarrelled with his father, and married in London a performer in a German music hall. A Reuter's message states that the latest statistics show that the deaths for 1907 in France were 794,000 and the births 774,000. This is the firsf instance of any country's deaths exceeding its births. Owiri^ to the night-rider's campaign, the American Tobacco Trust announce that their buyers henceforth will forsake Kentucky, and transact business from Cincinnati. They also intend to concentrate, their supplies in Ohio. Mr Kidson, the Premier of Queensland, speaking at a Nationalist reception in his honcur at Belfast, said that the one thing which would ultimately overcome English resistance to Home Rule woidd be the conviction that Home Rule for Ireland was a necessary thing foir. England. Lieutenant Groves, one of the heroes of the submarine No. 9 disaster on July 14, has not yet recovered his memory. His recollection of the incidents of his youth are gradually returning, and it ie hoped that he will soon remember those surrounding- the disaster. Physically he is 'mproving. Mr Botha, in the legislative Assembly, 6aid that Lord Milner's administration had been the ,mosf unfortunate thine- that ever happened for the Transvaal. The distribution of the £3,000,000 grant was the Hgliest incident in the Transvaal's history. The Progressives declared that the distribution was in accordance with the Vereeniging- Agreement, and that the £3,000,000 actually became £9,000,000. MiChaplin asked: If Lord Milner was autocratic, what was General Botha? The election campaign in Western Australia is proceeding briskly. Parliament has been dissolved, and polling day fixed for September 11. The Bangalore, one of the colliers of the American fleet has been posted at New York as missing-. On her record voyage to New York, the Lusitamia steamed 650 nautical milca in 24 hours. The preliminary official returns of the estimated wheat yield in South Australia give 19,135,000 bushels, an average of 10.1 bushels to the acre. In the South Australian Assembly the Labour party succeeded in altering against the Government tho Constitution Amendment Bill in favour of six Ministers only, with a salary of £1000 each, The> profit of the Queensland National Band for the half-year were £43,481, whereof £23,481 has been transfe>rred to contingency account, £15,000 to the depositors' repayment fund, and £5000 to the reserve. Senor Augusto Legnio, a former Premier, has been appointed President of Peru. The value of the estate of Mr George Coper, Ihe well-known English lockmakoiand landowner, is reported to be nearly half a million. Mr Rdlleston, the Board of Trade Commissioner to New Zealand, has sailed by the Athenic. He previously visited the Chambers of Commerce and Manufactures in London and the provinces. • He was well received everywhere, and afforded the fullest information Dr Denekamp. who has represented the Dutch Associated Press in the Far East, in the course, of an interview at Brisbane said that from hi« observations he was convinced that within the next 26 yeans the cry of Asia for the Asiatics would be raised, and that the Japanese and Chinese armies and fleets would be fused into one. The Japanese would continue their present alliance with England only so long as China was weak. Once, however, China became strong, England would be dropped, and as far as Asia was concerned Europeans nations would take a back seat. At Oamaru on Tuesday, Mr Hutchison, S.M., fined Richard Andrews (for whom Mr A. C. Hanlon appeared) £20 for keeping liquor for sale in a no-license lifctrict. A similar charge a.iain«t hie wife, Margaret Andrews, was withdrawn when Richards A.ndrew pleaded guilty. i "Word was received by the Oamaru police on Tuesday morning that a woman named Brown, wife of a railway surfaceman, living at Tapui, had committed suicide. Brown twice shot at herself with a g"un, the second taking effect, causing death almost instantaneously. The Auckland Chamber of Commerce has prepared a petition for presentation to Parliament urging- an amendment of the Bankruptcy Act, and suggests that a com

mission, composed l of the senior official assignees in the Dominion with one or two leading merchants and a similar number of experienced accountants, should be set up for the purpose of taking evidence to ascertain in what respects the act is defective. Tho Mai'ist Brothers' new hrick school, in Shakespeare road, Napier, erected to replace ihe wooden structure which was partially destroyed by fire, was dedicated by Archbishop Redwood on Monday~"afternoon.