OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10727, 26 June 1906, Page 4

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMARY OF WORLD HAPPENINGS. LONDON, May 19. Dredgers for the Panama Canal nre likely to be purchased from a Scottish firm. Six persons were burned to death in a fire at Stratford. Preparations are being made in Germany to dump 80,000 Russian Jews in Great Britain this sivmmcr. The Shah of Persia is again to visit England. More than 10CO motor-omnibuses are at present on order for service in London, i The Japaueso War Office is issuing over 1,000,000 medals to men avlio served in tho Manchurian campaign. Mrs Ada S. Ballin, the author of a number of books on children, was killed by falling from the window of her house ;in Somerset street, Port-man Square. ! Thirteen people were killed and 22 injured by 'lightning °t a funeral at Koniakan, Silesia. An insurance expert says that no fire insurance company in America knows whether it Avill bo solvent or not after it pays its San Francisco losses. Eighty-three citizens of San Francisco havo been officially certified as insane In consequence of the earthquake and fire. Tho Mormon Church is abandoning its business interests, and has sold the Utah light railway for £6,000,000. Over £500,000 damage was done by the firo which practically destroyed the leather market at Paris." A Buddliist priest burned himself to death before a crowd of believers at Kyapo; repeating texts incessantly while his bodv was being consumed. Tlie engagement is announced of Mr Austen Chamberlain to Ivy Muriel, daughter of Colonel Dundas. At the request of the German Emperor, the church authorities have ordered special prayers to be offered up for tho Crown Princess, who expects shortly to become a mother. The capital cost of the London County Council's electricity scheme is over £3,250,000. "The real extravagance of the South African war, which cost £250,000,000, was unpreparedness," said Lord Roberts, speaking to an assembly of City men at the Mansion House. A strike of hearse drivers lias occurred in New York. One coffin was deserted at tho church, where it lay for some hours. Sir Alfred Jones says there is no cure for sleeping sickness. No fewer than 600,000 people- have died in Africa from it. The Gardening World states that a Welsh vicar draws £500 per annum from lilies of the valley Avhich lie grows in his garden and supplies to a London firm of florists. With all the latest luxuries. New York's newest hotel — the Belmont — which has cost £1,600,000, has been recently opened. It is 21 storeys high, says the New York American, and contains 1006 rooms. Tigers appear to be on the increase in Bui'mali, says tho Englishman, owing to the restrictions an the possession and ■carrying of amis. Nine thouand unemployed assembled on ihe Embankment, and then marched to Hyde Park, singing Mr John Burns' "National Anthem." Dr Streim, a Swiss scientist, was trampled to death by an enraged elephant Avhile exploring in the interior of Sumatra. A fire, Avliich caused damage estimated at from £10,000 to £12,000, and endangered the lives of several valuable raeoliorscs, occurred at the Newmarket stables of Lord Derby. Tabloids of morphine and strychnine Avero found in the possession of Dr Adcock, the Christian scientist, charged with the manslaughter of Major John Nicholas Whyte, when he Avas arrested. For killing a negro Avho had assaulted his daughter, A. J. Esterling Avas arrested at Austin, Texas, but he was afterwards released on a bail .bond signed by 47 women. During the three months ending March 31 last, 84,016 aliens from European and Mediterranean ports landed in England. Only 168 wero refused permission to land under the Aliens Act. To test the practibility of travelling at a higher rate than 80 miles an hour speed - trials are being conducted near Berlin Avith fast railway engines drawing from three to six carriages. Fearing punishment from her parents, a girl of six years old has attempted to commit suicide by lying doAim before an approaching train, writes a Dresden correspondent. The engine stopped six feet from the child's head. The British torpedo boat 56 capsized and sank off Port Said early yesterday morning, Avhile being towed to Malta. Seven members of the crew axe missing, and it is feared they have been drowned. By forming themselves into a ladder, three New York policemen rescued a man who was hanging from a window of a burning building. The incident was loudly cheered by tne spectators. The Earl of Portsmouth, a member of the Government, declared that if the House of Lords rejected the Education Bill the House of Commons would accept the challenge, and Avould take the question to the country. ■ England is one of the heaviest teadrinking countries in the world, the average amoimt per head being 61b, as coinpared Avith £lb in France, -Jib in Germany, and just nnder lib in the United States. Now Zealand heads the list Avith 641b. Tho Grand Jury at Springfield, Ohio, has censured the Mayor, the Sheriff, the Chief of Police, and a number of policemen for neglect of duty in failing to suppress the recent anti-negro riots. Tho -Isthmian Canal Commission has asked for an appropriation of £5,269,616 for canal work for the coming fiscal year. The United States Steel Corporation is to build a £15,000,000 plant in Indiana, on the shores of Lake Michigan, Avith a model city, to be called Gary, Avhich is expected to have 100,000 inhabitants Avithin five years. "HONEST" INSURANCE. The New York World, which led in exposing tho insurance scandals, declares that the British withdrawals mark the end of the practice of the New York companies in maintaining oostly foreign branches at the expense of the. American policy-holders. The New York Press declares that the Mutual Company since 1898 has been obliged to give British policy-holders better terms than the Americans- in order to meet "thesompetition of honestly, economically managed British companies." STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. During a ball .game three miles from Mobile. Alabama, on Sunday, May 27, lightning struck in the midst of a crowd of spectators, killing five and injuring more or less 25 others. Twenty shocked and knocked down by the stroke quickly recovered, and Avcre able to leave the grounds unaided. ,Tho field was strewn with bits of shoes and clothing torn liom the bodies of the victims by the lightning. e STAMPS TO BUILD A RAILWAY. The many valuable collections i f old postage stamps which during the last. 50 j-ears havo been allowed to remain undisturbed in the atvuHs of the General Post Office at Constantinople axe lo be s<ld by the Ottoman Government. The pocceds Avill be devoted towards the expenses of ljuilding the railway to Mecca. It is stated that religious reasons '■■ave hitherto been the cause for refusing many tempting offers for the collection. FLIGHT FROM AN EARTHQUAKE. A prediction that an earthquake vill take place in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 25, has seized upon Ihe mind of the large population of Poles, Avho arc leaving in trains, carts, or on foot, carrying with them their household goods. The exodus is so great that it threatens to bring about tne chjsing of the cotton mills and of the whaling industry, in Avhich the Poles do the roughest work. In the three Polish churches services are being held eveiy night, at which tho priests plead with tho people to prepare for 1 the coming day, thus adding to the excitement. CAUSE OF A STRIKE. "Strong language," used by an overseer, in a Glasgow shipyard, is likely to stop work throughout the great shipbuilding and engineering centres of the Clyde and North of England. Tlie Avorkers in Henderson's yard complained of the conduct of one. of the overseers, and struck because Henderson declined to dismiss the foreman. Sympathetic strikes in other yards resulted, the movement being taken up by the riveters on the Clyde. The masters, in a conference at Newcastle-on-Tyno. have decided to declare a general lock-out unless the men immediately return to Avork. This Avill involve 60,000 men and probably affect the entire industry from the Clyde to the Tyne. FEARLESS SCRUTINY. The New York American publishes a message on the insurance scandals, dictated to its London correspondent bv Bishop Potter, of Now York. Dr Potter says: "To our everlasting honor, be it remembered that Ave have uncovered the regrettable si ua tion. There arc other nations an'd corporations that in similar cases ha\ r e principally distinguished their interest in them by their efforts to conceal the facts. Therefore, thoso Avho are fond of girding at American corporate corruption may wisely pause a little and roflcct on the lesson that has been given to the Avorld .by what the Legislature of New York has done in tho direction of fearless and unsparing scrutiny." . CANADIAN BANDIT HUNT. The train robbciß Avho held up tho Canadian Pacific express on May 7 were brought to bay and captured' after a sensational chase. Police, cowboys, Indians, and bloodhounds followed the trail day and night through the wildest country, over mountains, through Avoods, and , over unbridged "ri\ r ers. ' A clue to the Avhereabouts of the gang Avas found by means of a partly burned newspaper left by them near ono of their camp fires. It bore the address of a subscriber in the Nicola country. The pursuers came up Avitli the men between LaKO and Nicola aiver, and there Avas a fierce fight, during AVhich one of the bandits was shot in the leg.

AU were made prisoners. Tho ponal code provides imprisonment for life for train-robbing. JAPAN'S VIRILITY. In offering us more help for California than Ave, so much richer, had offered to her for famine (says Collier's Weekly), Japan gave but one" of many recent illustrations of her gallantry. Of everything that arises for her to do sho takes hold with the same calm energy and intelligence. Reports of her activities in trade promise that her victories in that field Avill not be less carefully prepared and sternly executed than were her victories on tho ocean and the battlefield. She has already spent for railway construclion in Korea and Manchuria about twenty-nine and one-quarter million dollam, and plans already started Avill add to this froan oleven to twelve millions more. The merchant marine, which, in 1903 Avas about 660,000 tons, is now almost a million. •