NEWS BY CABLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 47

NEWS BY CABLE.

' . THE AMERICA’S CUP. NEW YORK, September 26. Sir Thomas Lipton, in a prepared statement to-day, said he would challenge, again for the America Cup.

A LARGE ESTATE. LONDON, September 25. Mr .Rhodes Cobb left £235,836. Mr Rhodes Hawtyn Cobb, whose death was announced on August 13, was formerly senior partner in" Anning and Cobb, Australian and New Zealand produce merchants. WOOL RESEARCH. LONDON, September’ 24. It is. learned that the Imperial Wool Research Conference, which is meeting at Leeds, is presenting a report to the Imperial Conference. It is believed that it deals with a wider scheme of research work on an officially constituted Empire basis. - SIR WILFRED GRENFELL. RUGBY, September 22. Dr Sir Wilfred Grenfell, who has devoted 39 years of his life to the care of the. lonely inhabitants of Labrador and to the organisation there of hospitals and schools, reached England yesterday’ and will remain until March. During his ptay he will receive the gold medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. NOTORIOUS GANGSTER. /, VANCOUVER, September 23. A message from Philadelphia states that Jack Diamond, the notorious gangster, who was deported by England, France, Belgium, and Germany, arrived home. He was met by a welcoming committee of three Philadelphia lawyers, 30 detectives, and a motor car load of arms, tear gas, and bombs. FIRE IN CAPETOWN. CAPETOWN, September 27. The Wellington Tannery and Boot Factory was gutted by fire this morning. The damage is estimated at £lOO,OOO. There was no fire brigade, and residents in pyjamas formed bucket chains and endeavoured to save part of the plant. About 200 operatives have been render '.'l idle. WIRELESS TELEPHONY. LONDON, September 25. Mr Forbes will pr- Babiy be able to talk with his home during the Imperial Conference. The Post Office" hopes to link Britain and New Zealand telephonically through Australia shortly. Though it is impossible to fix a date, it is expected that arrangements will be made for a special call for Mr Forbes, who will inaugurate the service. ’ UNSINKABLE SHIP. BERLIN, September 27. Herr Fleberg Dueren, engineer, claims to have perfected an unsinkable ship. He demonstrated with a model a yard long, which was laden with a weight of 501 b. Holes were bored in the sides, but it refused to sink, and when thrust under the water it immediately rose, with the water pouring from the bored holes. The secret was not revealed. A GRAPHIC STORY. SYDNEY, September 23. Unexpectedly the British cargo steather Brookwood called into Port Kembla to replenish her bunkers. The officers told a graphic story of tire which broke out whilst the vessel was in the Indian Ocean. During the run to Mauritius coke estimated at 50 tons was thrown overboard with bare hands to keep the flames and poison gases in check.

WORLD FAMOUS TURK.

NEW YORK, September 25.

Zaro Agha, the Turk whose claim to be 151 years of age has made him world famous, and who came to the United States in July to lecture and give exhibitions, w’as knocked down by a motor car while crossing Broadway at Sixtyone street, in the White Way district to-night, and seriously injured. The motor car which was responsible for the accident sped away. RUSSIAN GRAIN TRADE. LONDON, September 24. Commenting on ttys Baltic Exchange reports that numerous ships have been chartered for the Russian grain trade, The Times attributes the Soviet’s anxiety

to swell the exports to the enormous cost of carrying out the five-year plan of Industrialisation of Russia. The only way of finding money is by exporting the very things for which the Russians arc starving. CHEESE WRAPPERS. LONDON, September 23. Cheese wrapped in tinfoil might be dangerous, according to a report received by the Minister of Health, which states that several wrapped cheese samples were analysed, but. in no single case were they free from contamination by tin. The Minister adds that the manufacturers ■will be well advised to prevent actual contact of cheese and foil by grease-proof paper or other means.

TRANSPORTED FOR LIFE. DELHI, September 26. Twelve Bengalis were transported for life and five were sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment each in connection with the death of an Indian police inspector named Bholanath Ghosh at Dasphur, in Bengal, in June. Ghosh and another inspector and four constables were attacked by a mob of several thousand while engaged in the suppression of civil disobedience. THE SIND FLOODS. DELHI, September 26. The immensity of the floods in f he Sind district of Bombay presidency, which hre only now subsiding afti six weeks, is revealed by the district commissioner, who says that the total area flooded is over 550,000 acres. Over 900 villages and hamlets were destroyed, 40,000 people -are homeless, and the damage is about £1,500,000.

BRITISH RAILWAYS. ~~ LONDON, September’ 27.

The'Daily Express understands that a meeting of general managers of the Southern and London and North-eastern Railways with the president of the Canadian National Railways is likely to develop into a far-reaching scheme for the complete reorganisation of' British railway’s with Government ownership and the appointment of a railway dictator, also the elimination of overlapping.

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE. RUGBY, September 26. British securities, which rose further on the London Stock Exchange yesterday, remained steady to-day, and £2,000,000,000 5 per cent, war Joan stock attained the highest price, ever yet recorded at £lO4 8s 9d per £lOO-of stock, while 5 per cent, conversion loan was at £lO5 17s 6d per £lOO. ' One leading British Government loan increased in value to an aggregate of nearly £15,000,000 yesterday.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN AMERICA. WASHINGTON, September 24.

The president of the American Federation of Labour (Mr Green) announced that reports reveal definite, and encouraging improvements in the employment situation this month. ‘’This is the first time since we collected figures from the trades unions that employment has shown such a' general improvement. However, over twice as many are still out of work as at this time last year, especially in the metal trades.”

NEW-ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY, September 24. Mr Schmitt, the New Zealand Trade Commissioner here, has received a request from influential Australian business men to extend an invitation to Mr Forbes to visit Sydney upon his return from the Imperial Conference to discuss the question of closer trade relations between. New Zealand and Australia and kindred subjects. Mr Schmitt has agreed to remit the request to the Dominion Minister of Commerce. BRITISH AGRICULTURE. RUGBY, September 22. Two Bills dealing with agriculture will be introduced by the Government during the next parliamentary session. One of these will be designed "to place unemployed workers on holdings of five acres or less. The Ministry of Agriculture would take powers to buy seeds and implements for the men and to market their produce.' The second Bill will deal with the organisation of agricultural products, and where a majority of the producers desired marketing organisations the Ministry would be empowered tinder the Bill to compel all producers to join the organisation. • . THE PRINCE ANNOYED. PARIS, September 23. ’ The' Prince of Wales paid a visit, strictly, incognito, to Paris. His wish to hide his identity was fully respected by the French press, and he was able to -walk t-he boulevardes unrecognised. The determination of four American photographers to snap-him led to an incident outside a hotel. ' When the Prince*,’who’ was accompanied by’General Trottqjj was emerging the photographers broke .through a group of French detectives. The Pririee hurried across the •pavement/while General Trotter pushed two of- the photographers with a golf bag. The Prince, who ■ is usually good natured, was obviously annoyed. THE KING’S. SONS. I RUGBY, September 24. The Prince of Wales, who has been enjoying a quiet holiday in France, returned to London to-day by air from Paris. He flew in his own light aeroplane. He is leaving by the night train for Balmoral, where he will, probably remain until the Court returns to Buckingham Palace bn September 30. ’ The Duke of York this morning played himself in as captain of the famous StAndrew’s Golf Club before a. large crowd. He made a beautiful straight drive down the fairway, and in accordance with an old custom rewarded with a gold sovereign the caddies who recovered the ball.

NAVAL TREATY. TOKIO, September 26. Absolute assurance emanates from official sources of the ratification of the now famous London Naval Treaty, on which a special Examination Committee has finally reported to the Privy Council. Thus ends a prolonged situation which engendered a most bitter conflict between the Cabinet and the naval leaders, in connection with which the methods of the councillors evoked the strongest denunciation by all classes. The prospect of Japan becoming a full member of the Three-party Treaty is exciting jubilation throughout the country. SINKING OF A SCHOONER. VANCOUVER, September 23. A message from North Sydney (Nova Scotia) states: Eight passengers and two of the crew of the Newfoundland schooner Caranza, which left here for Burin (Newfoundland), were lost on Thursday night, when the vessel sank after being split in two by lightning off Hie eastern coast of Cape Breton.

_lt was learned to-day, when six sur vivors, vyho were picked up 75 miles west of St. Pierre Miquelon on Sunday night arrived here on the schooner Vigninette. that all the dead were from Newfoundland, including the captain (Joshua Matthews). LOOS MEMORIAL. RUGBY, September 25Beginning to-day, the anniversary of the commencement of the Battle of Loos, the “ Last Post ” will be sounded by one of the Imperial War Graves Commission’s ex-service staff every evening at Loos memorial to the missing. The “ Last Post ” is sounded every night at Alenin Gate, Ypres, which bears the names of those who died in defence of the salient, and similar arrangements will be made at Thiepv'al Memorial when it is completed. During the present summer, up to the end of August, 100,000 visitors have signed the visitors’ books kept in the British war cemeteries of France and Belgium.

THE NEW PRINCESS. LONDON, September 22. The official names chosen for the Duke and Duchess of York's infant daughter are Margaret Rose. She will be christened in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace in October.

Margaret is an old Scottish royal name, and is a pleasant reminder that the little Princess is a daughter of Scotland. It has also ucen a family name of the Strathmores for five centuries. One of the Duchess’s own names is a variant (Marguerite) ; while Rose is the name of - the Duchess’s beautiful sister, Lady Rose Leveson-Gower, who was one of the first visitors to see the baby. It is expected that the Prince of Wales will be one of the godfathers.

THE BANK OF ENGLAND. LONDON, September 25. The Bank of England announces the important innovation of co-operating with the Incorporated Association of Retail Distributors in order to secure reliable information in regard to the state of trade and the cost of living One hundred departmental stores scattered over 60 towns have agreed to furnish the bank with monthly returns of retail prices compared with the corre sponding month of the previous year together with the stock held. The next stage will be the calculation of a retail trade index by the bank. The first joint report by the bank and the association shows that prices were lower in August and trade less, with signs of reduced purchasing power by the public, especially by the leisured classes. =

BRITISH POST OFFICE. RUGBY, September 24.

The postmaster-general (Professor H. B. Lees-Smith) stated that when th accounts of the Post Office for the last financial year are completed they will show a record {profit of approximately £9,250,000. He claimed for his department an average level of efficiency higher than *sat displayed in other industries, and he said that the criticism to which as a public department it was open acted as a tonic. Referring to the postal service, h said that it carried 6,000,000 letters’; a. year. As for the telephone service, the proportion of wrong calls was only one per cent, in the provinces and 34 per cent, in London, while the average time a subscriber had to wait before an operator answered his call was 6.4 seconds in the provinces and 5.3 seconds in London.

CANADIAN MOTOR CARS. MONTREAL, September 22.

A message from Windsor states that, returning from Ottawa, where he had been in conference with Mr G. W. Forbes (Prime Minister of New Zealand) and Mr R. B. Bennett (Prime Minister of Canada), Mr Wallace Campbell (president of the Ford Motor Company in Canada) said he felt “ very confident that something would be done by New Zealand in regard: to preference on Canadian motor ears in .return for similar preferences by Canada on- New Zealand product".” OTTAWA, September 27.

New Zealand was Canada's best over; seas market for automobiles in 1929. With Australia she accounted for 33

per cent, of Canada’s automobile exports. The total exports to New Zealand were more than 5,600,000 dollars, and to Australia more than 3,500,000 dollars.

AS IT IS DONE IN NEW YORK. NEW YORK, September 25. Mr Paul Moranti, who put Wall Street on stilts, and dug a half-mile, ditch under the financial district, is preparing to start the job of building a railway tunnel from Spain to Morocco, under appointment to the Spanish Government. He constructed a subway to link the Brooklyn-Manhattan transit system. He was a year ahead of the schedule in executing this job, which experts said would be impossible without suspending the operations of the financial market.

Mr Moranti jacked up 35 sky-scrapers and shifted a solid maze of electric conduits, gas, water, and steam pipes, and passed by the most valuable network of cables in the world. He removed a brick sewer, sank the supports in quicksand, and dumped the excavated mud 12 miles out at sea. Mr Moranti fought every step of the way against dense traffic and swarms of pedestrians in the narrowest streets of the city. EMPIRE ECONOMIC UNION. ( LONDON, September 27. “ 15 e do not visualise a Chinese wall round the Empire entirely excluding foreign trade,” writes in a preface to the interimperial trade report, issued by the Empire Economic Union Research Committee. “We definitely hold the view that an overwhelming case exists for a special stimulation of interempire trade.” lhe report suggests trade arrangements between Britain and the dominions involving the imposition by the dominions of a 20 per cent, tariff against foreign goods. Suggestions for increased interempire trade include (1) an Imperial parcel post service; (2) the Treasury’s recommendation that the issuing houses of overseas loans should see that loans are intended to benefit British industry; and (3) th< possibility of an interimperial currency and the creation of an Imperial secretariat. The report is signed by Mr L. M. S. Amery, Lord Lloyd, and others.

MANDATED TERRITORIES. GENEVA, September 23.

Mr F. Brennan (Australia) addressing the Sixth Committee, said that the Australian Administration had never countenanced the notion of annexation or claim to sovereignty over New Guinea. It desired to remove the last vestige of unfavourable discrimination that was inconsistent with its own immigration laws. He said he thought it most desirable to state this position clearly because the ob se ations of individual critics suggested that the situation was not universally appreciated.

Sir Thomas Wilford said that all the New Zealand parties were determined faithfully to carry out the Samoan man date in the interests of .the population. He thanked the Mandates’ Commission for its congratulations on what had been done in regard to education and health, and on the improved economic conditions of the people of Samoa. He believed that if the League continued to have confidence in New Zealand Samoa would become the brightest ’ jewel among the mandated territories. The difficulties, including passive resistance on the part of a portion of the inhabitants, should be borne in mind when considering th-? commission's references. WILL OF LADY HAY. SYDNEY, September 23. Probate was granted in the will of Lady Hay. late of North Sydney, whose estate is valued at £94,505. Among the bequests are £lOOO to each of her godchildren. The residue is left upon trust,’ in equal shares, to Minnie Sinclair (Auckland), Bruce Gillies (Timaru), Ida Bruce (formerly of Auckland), Madge Clerk (wife of Dunean Clerk, Auckland), Mary Willis (formerly of Auckland), Dr Sinclair Gillies, Anna Shirley, and Jessie Arthur (Sydney), and John Bruce (of Berrv, New South Wales). ■ AUCKLAND, September 23. Lady Hay, who died in Sydney in July, lived for many years in Auckland, where lie became occupied in public life, Hay, a successful merchant and a member of the City Council from 1878 to 1879. Inheriting a fortune from a relative, up his residence in Sydney, where he became occupied in public life, receiving a knighthood just before his death in 1909.

Lady Hay, who before her marriage was Miss Jessie Sinclair, came from Glasgow at the age of eight to Auckland, where her uncle, Andrew Sinclair, was the first Colonial Treasurer under Captain Hobson.

FRENCH LOANS.

PARIS, September 24

It is learnt from official sources that the French Government contemplates a large scale financial operation as soon as the conditions are favourable. It is believed that it may comprise the redemption of a part, or the whole, of the 1915 5 per cent, rentes. It has belatedly leaked out in this connection that the Government in July received a note from Mr Snowden (Chancellor of the Exchequer) backing the claims of British holders of the rentes issued during the war, amounting to 1.641,000,000 francs, that they should be paid on a gold basis instead of with

stabilised paper francs, which are worth 2d compared with, IQd before the war.

Jlt is recalled that France unyieldingly insisted on her borrowers repaying on a gold basis, yet she refused the same right to the British holders.

It is admitted on behalf of British holders of the rentes that they have no legal claim, but it is urged that there is a strong moral claim, accentuated by the reflection that had Britain insisted on full payments of the French war debt I 4 rance would not now be the largest gold-holding country in Europe, with no unemployment, while Britain would not be under such a staggering income tax, and would not have such a huge number of unemployed. °

THE CUNARD COMPANY. RUGBY, September 25. Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the Cunard Company, has issued a statement regarding the two giant Cunard liners which are to be built. He described the possible capture of the socalled “blue ribbon of the Atlantic” as merely incidental to the far bigger fact that for the first time in the history of naval architecture it is a practical proposition to run a weekly service from Southampton, via Cherbourg, to New York with two steamers which can pay. Hitherto such service has required three steamers. The conditions which govern the construction of such a pair of steamers are speed and size. Speed is dictated by the time necessary to perform the journey in all seasons of the year and in both directions, plus consideration of the number of hours required in port on each side of the Atlantic. The size is dictated by the necessity to make money by providing sufficient saleable passenger accommodation to pay for the speed. Sir Percy Bates expresses thanks to the Government for the help given over the insurance of the vessels, and he recalled that even before the war a problem existed with regard to the insurance of the largest class of stjeamer. He hopes, however, that when the question arises the expansion of the ordinary marine insurance market may render the Government agreement redundant. WORLD'S GOLD SUPPLY. GENEVA, September 23. The League’s Financial Committee, which is examining questions concerning the world's gold supply, has issued an interim report. It estimates the gold in the banks and treasuries at about £2,607.000,000, while £183,000,000 is in circulation. The committee estimates the gold production of 1930 at about £80,800,000, after which it will increase for three or four years, eventually declining until it reaches £74,000,000 in 1940. After the lastmentioned year the decline is likely to be accelerated owing to the gradual exhaustion of the African mines, unless new and unexpected supplies arc -discovered or a new process for increasing the yield, enabling the reopening of old mines, is invented. The committee is of the opinion that, although the demand for gold for monetary purposes has ’ been temporarily checked by the economic depression, the evidence points conclusively to a serious situation arising when trade revives unless alleviating measures are taken in time. It believes that the supply of new gold will be inadequate in 1931 without such measures, and urges that countries employing the gold exchange standard should seriously consider the consequences of any considerable conversion of their existing asset reserves. September 24.

Believing that remedial measures can be found within 10 years to remove the anxiety about a gold shortage, the committee welcomes the discontinuance . of gold coinage in domestic currencies, it does not believe that such a course has weakened credit, and it hopes that gold will be concentrated in reserves in the central banks, - accompanied by limitation. As to the -payment of international transactions, it believes 'that the minimum legal gold cover against notes, which is largely traditional, could be reduced, effecting economies and not weakening credit. It would require an international agreement, but the difficulties are not insuperable. It suggests an extended use of cheques, and the replacing of small bank notes by a subsidiary coinage, also the adoption of the gold standard : by countries which have not’yet a stabilised currency, and urges on countries employing a gold exchange the conversion of the existing asset reserve's into gold. It expresses the opinion that confidence in the gold exchange standard system would be increased if it was internationally agreed that reserves held abroad for the maintenance of currencies should not be subject to seizure and confiscation in war time.

LON DON, September 24

The Manchester Association of Exporters and Importers expresses the opinion that if Empire currency could be introduced it would lead to stability in prices within the Empire and stimulate direct exchange of an Imperial goods service throughout the world.