NEWS IN BRIEF.

Otago Witness, Issue 2983, 17 May 1911, Page 60

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Three thousand Scottish emigrants started for Canada on May 6. An Argentine loan of £12,000,000 for extraordinary expenses is pro-shadowed. A ike in some workshops at the ljikolaiev naval shipbuilding yard, Russia, did much damage. A battalion of Amur Cossacks who struck obtained their arrears of pay. Earthquake shocks have been tclt ;u Southern California. The Freedom of the City of Glasgow has been offered bo Mr Fisher, Federal Pramn Minister. Seven thousand Rodifs landed at Salonica, Russia, have entrained for Albania. George Reynolds was fatally burncdi while sleeping in a stable aft Graytown, Victoria. The New South Wales Royal Agricultural Society hold a motor car snow in October, A young man who was playing football at Gympie, Queensland, was struck on the bead 1 , and died. One hundred! and sixty-two thousand people attended the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace on the 13fch. The 'Government of New South Wales has let a contract for 20,000 tons of locallymad© steel rails. The protracted dry spell experienced m Now South Wales has broken, and good rains have fallen in the country. The ■ Victorian wool clip last year wan 101,803,0001 b, or 6,470,0001 b more than that for the previous year. Otto Becker, of - Hamburg, proposes to establish an ostrich farm in the Kootenar district (Canada). . . The Secretary for India (Lord Crewe) has returned to London from the Continent much improved in health. M. Vallon a Frenchman, when biplaning at Shanghai, fell from a great height, and was killed.

Mr Grattan Coughlan, a comedian, was found dead in bed at Adelaide. He performed at the theatre the previous night.

The King visited Newmarket and inspected his stables. He also witnessed the racing, and received a groat ovation. The Committee of the Russian Duma has passed the Archangel Fisheries Bill, which provides for a 12-mile zone. Arrangements are being made with the Admiralty to secure 54 special ratings for the Australian torpedo destroyers. The Federal Government has paid the Queensland National Bank £ISOO for Com monwealth notes lost on the Yongala. Advices from the Congo state that as the result of a tornado at Lukandu two boats were sunk and 30 soldiers drowned. Mr Thomas E. Spencer, Australian author and industrial arbitrator, who -wrote "How M'Dougall Topped the Score," is dead. The repairs to the steamer Eastern, which was stranded in Queensland on January 26, have been completed. The cost was £30,000.

Whilst gardening, an inmate of the Belfast Asylum, Ireland, killed a man with a chopper, and wounded two others fatally. In connection with the poisoning cases at Lambeth, Scotland, it is believed that the flour used in making the poisoned scones ■came into contact with weeds while being milled. Queen Mary has directed her maids of honour always to wear gowns that touch the ground, longsleeved, with high collars, and toques, not hats. Telegraph and telephone communication was seriously damaged about Winnipeg, Canada, -by a heavy sleet and rain storm of unprecedented precipitation. The Presbyterian Missions Committee estimates that the Presbyterians number 80,000 of the population of the Commonwealth. A movement has been started irr Melbourne to establish free non-political trades unionism. It is stated that the prospect is encouraging.

The Federal Government is adopting a scheme of classification for telegraphists that "will cost an. increase of £50,000 annually. The Sydney City Council resolved that the fine of £3 imposed on street speakers for breaking one of the council's own by-laws was excessive. One hundred and fifty members of the British Dairy Farmers' Association visited the dairy farmers and butter and cheese factories in Belgium. Another N.S. Wales politician has been fined £3 on a charge of obstructing the traffic while addressing a meeting in the street during the referenda campaign. The- Rev. R. J. Campbell, of the City Temple, will start on a preaching tour in the autumn in the United States and Canada. He will afterwards tour Australia. Official advices have been received in Melbourne that two parties had been despatched to search when Mr Staniforth Smith's Papuan expedition returned. Two native carriers attached to one party died on the journey. The North London Aerodome has been destroyed by fire. Five aeroplanes were burned. The attempted removal of the pastor of the Polish Catholic Church at ,Cleveland. U.S.A., resulted in a riot, during which two persons were killed and- ten injured. The continued .prevalence of plague at Delhi, India, is disquieting the Coronation durbar officials. Mrs Ta-ft was taken so ill that the President hastened from Harrisburgh to her bedside. She is suffering from a severe nervous breakdown. Two negroes are dead, one fatally injured, one deputy-sheriff fatally wounded, and two others injured as the' result of a fight that followed an attempt to arrest a negro at Montgomery, Alabama.. The Standard Oil Company has lost its appeal to the United States Supreme Court after a few years' battle. The coxirt declared tiho Trust combination to be a restraint of trade. Mr M'Kenna, the First Lord of the Admiralty, unveiled a memorial in Ruskin Park, Cambcrwell, South London, erected in honour of Captain Wilson, commander of the Duff, the first London Missionary Society's ship to_ the South Sea Islands. The imports into Great Britain during April decreased by £7,705,244. mainly in grain, flour, cotton, wool, and silk. The exports increased by £400.241, and the reexport's decreased by £2,369,843. Mr Hunt, -th© Victorian meteorologist, who is investigating the subject of droughts, inclines to the opinion that the breaking of severe droughts is preceded by hurricanes. Miss Lily Boltwood, a domestic servant, aged 18, at Cheshuint, was severely burned through rescuing from a burning bed two children. The nurse of the latter had fainted.

The secretary of the Kensington Park Turf Club, Queensland, was fined 2s on a charge of keeping a common gaming-house and allowing bookmakers to operate on the course. The magistrate declared that new legislation was required. The Scottish Agricultural M.P.'s who vis tied Australia report a full description of the agricultural and pastoral conditions. The preface insists that everywhere there was an unsatisfied demand for manual labourers. From the 25th inst. a reduction in railway fares and freights will operate in NewSouth Wales, totalling approximately £50,000. The reductions are chiefly made in the interests of farmers and other producers in distant districts. Return fares will be abolished excepting on suburban lines, and. two' single fares will be made equivalent to a return fare, the idea being to squeeze out ticket-scalpers. The King and Queen and the Prince of Wales, at Victoria Station, welcomed the Kaiser and Kaiserine ami their daughter Princess Victoria Louise. Large crowds gave the Germa/n Royalties an ovation. Earlier in the day two British (navel lieutenants circled in an areoplane over Sheerness and over the Kaiser's yacht. An application before the Arbitration Court for an award to apply to the shearing industry disclosed the fact that pastoralists consider that the previous award fixed the wages too high, and that they seek a reduction. They also resist the inclusion of station hands in the award. By consent the case was adjourned pending a conference of pastcrahsts and shearers.