OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10956, 26 April 1907, Page 4

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMARY OF WORLD'S HAPPENINGS.

LONDON, March 15. Germany intends to fortify Heligoland strongly and make it a powerful base. Owing to the illegal methods adopted by foreign trawlers in the Channel, English fishermen have been driven off the sen. -tlcmbers of the Order of Nebuchadnezzarites, which has been founded in Chicago, eat their meals and take their exer2if.es on all fours to promote health. Great crowds of crippled pilgrims are arriving in Zion City to kiss the robes, in which the remains of the "Prophet" Dowie are laid, hoping to receive miraculous ! cures. I 1 The reorganisation of the military com- j mands in the Mediterranean will lead to , the creation of a new Commander-in-Chief with a salary of £5000 a year. The Duke oi Connaught will be the Hist holder of tlie post. ! Canada is doing a rapidly expanding flour export trade with China. A scheme for the reaffortestation of 30,---000 acres in Scotland is under the considerat'on of the Commissioners of Woods and Foiests. Fanatical" Afghan mullahs denounce the Am„r ior having become a Freemason while in India, and declare that he is unfit to remain ruler. Floods have caused serious damage in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia (U.S.A.), and 100 towns are reported to be submerged. Mr Richard Bell, the Labor member, has introduced a Bill in the Commons making it obligatory on employers to give a reference to their, servants under a penalty of £25. Hundreds of inventors are at woik endeavoring to - make the perfect airship. Many of their models will be on view at the .Aero Club's exhibition at the Agricultural Hall next month. An official return issued yesterday shows that the total cost of the British Navy has been £133,556,679. Sir J. West Ridgeway, who was sent by the Government to report on the conditions in the Transvaal, declares that there is no "Chinese slavery," and that the coolies are ailowed'so much freedom as to be. a positive danger. Seedless lemons are the latest novelty in the" fruit world. 'There have just been received 150 of* them from California. They will be a;<boon to lemonade and squash makers, but they will not be cheap for a couple of years yet. They are now 6d each. '".-', Mme. Melba has unexpectedly determined to remain in New York for another week to sing into a specially manufactured talking machine. For this service Mine. Meiba will receive royalties guaranteed to the extent of £10,000. His Majesty the King will pay a visit to Ireland at an. early date/ > The State Legislature of California has decided, without debate, to take no action jn the Japanese question during this session. Wild deer and chamois have become so tame in tlie canton of Grisons, Switzerland, owing to starvation, that 'they are being caught like sheep by the peasants. Mining prospectors from Johannesburg have, discovered a diamond reef in the crater of an extinct volcano in Kentucky. Th 6 House of Lords passed a resolution against Sunday trading, arid urging the Government to take steps to remedy the evil. k „.The Chilian Government has placed £33,000 at the disposal of the President, to be spent in securing immigrants for that Republic. To protest against the growing increase of house rents, 5000 people met at Naples on Sunday and all took a solemn oath not to pay rent until they were evicted, says Laffan. Tiie feelings of the Ameer on leaving India overcame him, and an interpreter read part of his farewell speech. His Majesty then spurred his horse and gallowed away, followed by hie cavalry. On the United States railways 9703 persons were killed and 86,008 injured during 1806. H. D. Anderson, the Manchester Bank of England clerk arrested at Winnipeg, is alleged to have abstracted £1081 from bags of gold made up by him, and to have weighted the- bags with copper. Tlie net profit on the gas department this year at Leicester have been £39,158 16s 6d ; the electric lighting profits £5632 0s 2d, and the water profits £14,815 2s 7d, which, with the: £13,000 profit on the tramways, make a total for the year of over- £72,000. A daring robbery has taken place at the South African Exhibition in the Horticultural Hall, Westminster, where gold in. gots valued at £1600 were stolen and successfully carried tluough the crowd twenty ininutes before the exhibition closed on Tuesday night. Tlie secretary of the Paris, electricians' trade union says that the recent stri-co was ordered merely to test the discipline of the men, and to show working men their power to bring about a social revolution by the same methods. Emigration from Spain is increasing to an' extent hitherto unknown. Every day hundreds of workmen and their families leave the different ports. The newspapers declare that this "pell-mell desertion" is becoming a national peril, and /isk the Government to take measures to check the* movement. A New York telegram states that Mr G. H. Earle, the Philadelphia financier, is suing, tlie Sugar Trust for thirty millions of dollars as damages. He charges President Havemeyer and others with conspiracy, which caused the failure of tlie Philadelphia Trust Uompaity aiid the suicide of the president, Mr Hippie.' Intense indignation has been aroused throughout Canada by the action of the two Socialist members of the British Columbiii Legislature lii refusing to rise in their places in courtesy to the King's representative. They say they will not do ISO herealtc; when prayers arc read by any clergyman. Boorishness of this kind is not calculated to advance the Socialist cause ni Canada. 'The bad winter, followed by a spell of unclouded weather almost amounting to a drought, has kept back all vegetation in Spain. The outlook is most serious for the country. Distress is already felt severely, and unless rain falls soon it is to be feared that agriculture will 6uff er another disaster. The New York Herald states tliat the Navy Department has been unofficially informed tliat Japan has constructed a remarkable torpedo which is fired by wireless telegraphy. It is declared that tests have proved the invention to be a great success. - A tram was wrecked on Tuesday at Alkmaar, on the Delugoa Bay line, Transvaal. Dr. Adam uameson, ex-Commis-sioner of Lands, and 11 others were killed, and 11 were injured. Tlie disaster, sofar as is known, was due to the -sudden collapse of a culvert owing to the action of heavy rains. No negligence is attributed to the authorities. On Monday, while thousands of men were striving to clear away the remains of last month's storms, a heavy snowstorm occurred in New .York. It raged eight hours and added six inches to the snow and ice heaps which clogged the streets. The Surface car-lines were helpless for an hour until snow ploughs cleared tne tracks. The steam railway lines were also seriously hampered; Messis Hariand and Wolff state that, if satisfactory arrangements and agreements can be made with, the dock ana railway company at Southampton, the firm proposes creeling a large ship and engine re- • pairing works at that place. Should this intention be carried out the loss to the working classes and small traders of Bel r fast will be very considerable. Lust Sunday, in one ol the St. Petersburg, streets, a subaltern of th© Horse Guards met three privates of the Engineers, who did not salute properly. He wished to have ' them "arrested, but "they took to their heels. The officer followed shouting "Stop." A naval lieutenant on the oposite side of the street blocked the patli of the runaways, and, drawing his revolver, shot one of them twice in the budy. The crowd was so much incensed by tho incident that the officers were, in. danger of lynching, and had. to take re?* fuge in it cab. It is .stated that the British Government arc in treaty for tlie purchase of a smokeless powder, which is also rlashlees, invented by a Swiss chemist and successfully tested. To the militaiy and naval services tlie importance of such an explosive will strongly appeal, as the use of an explosive that gives no visible flash means impossibility ot location of guns and ships during action. A thrilling story was related at Ply : niouth by the crew of the schooner Luc" ile, wliich was abandoned in mid-Atlantic in a sinking condition on February 18th. The vessel Avas tlien nine days out from St. John's. Newfoundland, bound for Brazil. For a week she was beset by ■ storms, which smashed the' bulwarks, . stuyc in the lifeboat, and started the decks, I whilst one- huge sea carried away a plunk from the stern. In a terrible gale, the crew were rescued by the French steamer Konia. STATE OF ZULU LAND. Important developments are pending in connection with ZuluJand. It is believed that Dinizulu is about to visit Pietermaritzburg to discuss the allegations of disloyalty during the recent rebellion which have been brought against him. The Zulus are alleged to possess many unregistered rifles, but a recrudescence of the rebellion is not anticipated. The authorities, however, are acting" with'caution.- --) CANADA AND IMMIGRATION. The Ontario Government has increased jits annual grant to the Salvation Army from £1400 to £2000, in recognition of its good work in promoting immigration. | With the improvement in the weather and freer movement of goods traffic on the railways, a spirit of optimism once moro prevails. in. the North-West (says it | Winnipeg despatch). Everything points to greater imnJlgration, both 'from the United States ana Europe, than last year. It is estimated that the railway contracts already concluded will give work to 60,000 men for this purpose alone. | IRELAND'S GREAT EXHIBITION. F«u- the forthcoming Irish International Exhibition the buildings arc now practically complete, beautifully situated in the Pembroke district,- the* most fashionable

suburb of Dublin. The principal buildings consist of a grand central palace, Pal. ace of Industry, Palace of Fine Arts, Palace of Mechanical Arts, a home industries section, under the control of the Royal Lisli Industries Association, a colonial section, a gas pavilion, and several special palaces or sections erecteo by various for. eign countries for tlie display of their national manufactures. Teh jrrand central ! palace has a lloor-area ol 100,000 feet, i while the area of the Palace of Media _i-.il Arts is 90,000 feet. Among the foreign countries wliich will be represented in tlie Exhibition will be France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Russiu, Portugal, and America. CAPE UNEMPLOYED. The Cape Government is shipping un- ! employed to England. Eighty men left I to-day by the Cluny Castle, including five J who were taken from the police cells, where they were awaiting trial for vagrancy and drunkenness. It is reported that an emigration officer visited the cells and offered the prisoners a free passage. ! -he unemployed question at the Cape has grown less formidable. Relief works have absorbed much of the surplus labor. The action of the Australian Government m giving easy passages to needy Australians from the Cape .to Australian ports is also relieving the distress. The New South Wales Government agent has asked all the South African Mayors to help m getting "stranded" Australians down to the coast, where he will provide them with assisted passages. Hundreds are leaving Table Bay by tlie Australian boats every month.