OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10302, 9 March 1905, Page 4

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMARY OF WORLD HAPPENINGS

LONDON, January. 28. The Czar is staled to be worth £100,000,000.

General Booth has ordered the Salvation Army to pray for the Runsiau people anid authorities.

Four more lives have been lost in ice faUilitius, bringing the death-roll up to the total of thirty-two. Between Calais and Dunkirk the English steamer Monarch, from AustraJia, with a cargo of 32,000 bales of wool and 2000 tons of nickel ore, has gone ashore. Mr H. C. Jones, the town clerk of Hoiborn, surrendered himself at Bow street, confessing to having embezzled nearly £11,000.

Russian papers state that the Chinese Court astronomer predicts that the present war will last thirty-three years, and that four years hence Great Britain will be involved.

The heirs are wanted to a fortune of £30,000 left by a Mr William Charles Pierce, of Bendigo, Australia, to- two English relatives.

A giant Ru-.sian, who stands 9ft 2in ia height, and whose- finger ring k oukl ma,ke a clog-coOlar, will shortly appear at the Hippodrome. Mr Louis Ross, with his self-invecited American 20-h.p. steam automobile, won Sir Thomas Dewar's trophy at Orniond, Florida, yesterday, covering one inile in 42sec.

Tiro religious revival in Wales has resulted in a total of nearly 70,000 converts. Maesteg heads the- list with 2016 new members of churches amd cliapels. ' The Royal Commission on Coal Supplies, which hkis issued its last report, estimates the available coal supply of the United Kingdom at 100,914,668,167 tons — sufficient at the present rate of consumption for 440 years. A private Bill has been deposited for the ensuing session whereby a new company, with .an initial capital of £5.009,---000, seeks to supply electric power in London on a scale large enough to cheapen the cost very considerably. It is estimated" that the new orders placed with Clyde shipbuilders this year totaO 150,000 tans, mainly cargo boats of about 7GOO tons. . :

Charged with swindling the Texas Bank of £600, Mrs Alice Webb Duke, the I" -de of Mr Brodie Duke, the tdbaccp manufacturer, was arrested in New York. We ought to keep Port Arthur m our hands so long as our Empire exists. Port Arthur is the key in the Far East, and it is our duty to keep the key in our hands.— Jiji, Tokio. . .. A dramatic verstcni of the life of King David is to be - performed at the famous Piission' Theatre at Oberammer.g;uv i:i Jiine, July, August, and September. About 500 persons will take part. Mr Andrew D. White, late United States- Minister at St. Petersburg, says that the Czar lias no strength of cliar.iester; he had no proper education, ai.d is gnnerally liopelessly unfit. Mr Marconi, tlie inventor of wh-pless telegraphy, is engaged to be married to the Hon.* Beatrice O'Brien, daugiHor of the Gate Lord Inchiquin, not to a ludy of Rome. The wedding will take place in the second week in March.

A telegram from Moscow states ill- t Mme. Tarafoff, the celebrated Russian, actre.'.s, received a present in i j «j. shape of an elegant "banboniere, which i-rovpd to be an infernal machine. While being opened, it exploded, te-rribly nju.-wig all present in the room. Mme. Tarafoff lost an eve.

While motoring nOong the. bea;li at Grmond, Florida, jit fifty-live miles an hour, Mr Frank Crofcer, the won <J "15'i.ss ' Groker, met with, an accident wlvch rpsuited im liis death. His chau'lcur \w also killed. . During 190?- the lloya.l Mint in Li-ndm-coined £11,042,000 in gold, and vrilidiov worn' coin to the value of £2,i^ r <, r -- r >. It coined £605,801 silver, 'and withdrew £638,839, or more thiun was earned.; aii.i of bronze it coined £77,895. Altogether 95,137,437 new coins were struc 1 : During 1904 the lifeboat.'/ of Mi* Ts'<y:il National] Institution saved 390 l'v«:. onrl also landed 104 persons who hud tak'ou refuge in. lightships, or whoee lives msgh* have been endangered. The iiisui.ut'un t'i anted ,138. rewards for life smiiy by ir^ans of fishing and other bo.ua. It is announced that, during the past year, the Japanese' have" captured Lwentyi three. blockade runners, etc., thirteen of which were Russian and seven British ships. The Japanese sacrificed seveuteoii vessels in the blocking of Tort Arthur, and lost nine transports and merchantmen, sunk by the Russians. Justice Gay nor,* of the New York Supreme Court, in addressing the 'Hebrew Educational Alliance, . said : "The time is coming when the combined civilisation of the world may have to interpose in Russia on that . same score , of humanity: that made the; United StaEes intervene in Cuba.": ,:■:■:■': ' ■ ,1 Tom. Hungarian steerage passengers died on board the .Vaderland on. the voyage across tine' Atlantic, says Reuter's Now York correspondent. Their death was caused by congestion of the lungs, dae to exliaustion and 'poor nxitriticn. They had been for hours in the train immediately before they embarked at Antwerp. Owing to sea-sickness they were unable to retain either food or medicine. ; ■ 1 All will go well with this country. when i the Liberals return to power. According to Mr Bryce, expenditure, and especially military expenditure, will be reduced ; taxation of the people will be lightened by transferring something of the burden to the land ; plural voting will be abolished; the registration, law wiOl be improved; lire iniquitous Licensing and Education Acts will be. amended ; and Ireland will get another present of local government and land legislation. ' . A TRIBUTE TO BRITAIN. Of. all the great deeds of Great Britain, none 3s greater than this: that practically single-handed and alone she has brought about tine safety of the oceans. Alone .among the nations she lias consistently had the naval equipment to carry on the ocean patrol. On both coasts of the Americas and in Asiatic waters, the vessels of the English Navy have stood for international law and order. — Harper's Weekly, New York. V.C. WON IN THIBET.

• The King lias .conferred the Victoria dress upon Lieutenant John Duncan Grant, Bth Gurkha Kjfles, for. conspicuous bravery in Thibet on tlie occasion of the. storming of the Gyangtse Jong on July 6th last. The storming company, headed by Lieutenant Girant, had to advance up aiii almost precipitous rock face under a heavy fire. Showers of rocks and stones ware being hurled down .* by the ; enemy, and only one man could go up at a time. Crawling on bunds amd knees, Lieutenant Grant was hurled back, but in spite of injuries successfully scaled the height. • The successful assault w«s greatly due. to. his example.

£2,000,000 WHISKY TRUST. An important fusion of interests has ttikcin. place hi the raw grain whisky trade, whereby tlie Distilleries Company, Ltd., of Edinburgh, have secured a controlling interest in the United Distiillc-iits, Ltd., of Belfast. The Distilleries Gompny has arranged to purchase half the shares of the Irish company, increasing its capital to £2,100,---000, with the object of providing the purchase money. . The Scotch ciompany already possesses seven distilleries in Ssotknd, and under the new arrangement it will control the three ilargest distilleries in. Ireland. With the exception of 'a few sma.ll individual concerns, the whole of the raw grain whisky trade of the United Kingdom will be in the hands of Ihe Pistilleries Company. The object of the combine is saul to be the limiting of production, and a k-vt'ling up of prices may be expected. .The stoqks of grain whisky now on h;»>:d ;ire estimated at the enormous total of I?C\--000,000 gallons.