BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3196, 16 June 1915, Page 22

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

LONDON, June 7. For the month of May imports increased £12,545,676, exports decreased £8,432,198, and re-exports decreased £128,200. June 9. Mr Justice Deane has granted letters of administration for the will of the late Sir Douglas Lucas Tooth to his mother. The bulk of the property is in New Zealand, and the principal beneficiaries are his brothers Selwyn {who was killed in action) and Archibald, the present baronet. Mr Broughton (Unionist) has been elected to Parliament unopposed for Preston, vice Mr Tobin, appointed to a county iudgeship. June 10. The works of Brown, Hughes, and Strachan, motor body builders. Park Royal, Ealing, covering three acres of land, were destroyed by fire. One hundred Red Cross ambulances and 200 Army Service motor vans were destroyed. The fire started in the centre of the works, and there was a strong breeze. The buildings were swept right and left. A large force of troops assisted the firemen to extinguish the flames. The damage is estimated at £BO,OOO. One Britisher was killed and four were wounded during Villa’s capture of the town of Culiacan. Villa invited Carranza to a conference in neutral territory upon receiving President Wilson’s warning that hostilities must cease. June 11. Fifteen hundred children celebrated Empire Day at the Guildhall. Sir George Reid, in his speech, said that the British soldier who died in battle was a martyr, because he was a volunteer. That martyr blood would cement the perple of the United Kingdom to the dominions as no prosperity could do. June 13. Mr Augent (Nationalist) was elected for College Green (Dublin) vice Mr Nannetti (N.), deceased, beating Mr Farren (Labourite). Tina is the first contested election since the w r ar. Mr Boose, secretary of the Royal Colonial Institute, has been appointed a commissioner to travel the world with the object of increasing the membership. Mr Keir Hardie, acting on medical advice, is relinquishing work for six months. New Zealand pears are retailing in the West End at Is and Is 3d each. June 14. Dunrobin Castle was partly burned through the fusing of a wire. The pictures and furniture were saved, and a number of -wounded soldiers were removed in time. [Dunrobin Castle is the seat of the Duke of Sutherland, and is situated near Golspie, in Sutherland (Scotland). The castle is said to bo the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, having been founded, according to one authority, in 1098, and according to another in 1275, by a thane of Sutherland. It mainly dates from 1856. The stately entrance porch recalls that of Windsor Castle, and the interior is designed on a. sumptuous scale. The beautiful gardens contain a wealth of trees, which grow with remarkable luxuriance for the latitude. The third Duke of Sutherland erected a museum in the grounds, in which aro many specimens of the antiquities of the shire. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the Duke of Sutherland placed the castle at the disposal of the nation for the use of convalescent soldiers.] PARIS, June 9. The management of the Suez Canal at the annual meeting on the 14th inst. will ask for the removal of the representative of the North German Lloyd’s from a seat on the corporation. PETROGRAD, June 13. A great landslide destroyed several hundreds of houses at Simbirsk. Damage to the extent of several millions of roubles ■was sustained. [Simbirsk is on the Volga, in the southeast of European Russia.] OTTAWA, June 12. The official statistics show that the acreage under wheat in Canada is 15 per cent, greater than in 1914, owing to the effort to obtain a great war year crop. BLOEMFONTEIN, June 12. General De Wet has been allowed to withdraw his plea of guilty. COLOMBO, June 11. The country is now tranquil. The police and the military are making arrests and recovering looted property.