OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13291, 29 January 1914, Page 4

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMARY OF W()RLI> HAPPENINGS,

LONDON , Dec. 20. The Port of London Authority announce that they are about to appoint a manager of their undertaking. By dropping bombs, French aviators have done good work m a .kirmish with natives at Benkarrioh, Morocco. The Italian newspapers announce that for the first time m Italy a- woman lias received a- diploma a.s a qualified engineer. Margaret Lima, a girl of 15, shot" dead !ier faithless lover as he was leaving a theatre' in Broadway, New York. ' A strike-breaker had his skull fractured at Leeds by a- man who attacked him as Jl9 was on his way home from .he gasworks. The lead keel of the Vanderbijt defender of the America Cup, weighing 124,0C01b5, has been cast at Bristol, Rhode Island. . . At the, meeting 'of the Royal Astronomical Society last week, Professor IT. HV Turner/ F.Iv.S.,- , propounded the theory that suhspo.ts are formed by the flvarra of meteors known as the Leonids, which fall into the sun. ;, „A large double boiler 40ft ; long was blown into the air at Blair Pit, Dairy, Kirkcudbrightshire, and landed on a railway waggon. No one was seriously njured. In a gale, t J)-a . German cargo steamer Narvik. (3576 tons), capsized inthe North Sea, near the German island of Bork'um. Thirty-two men are supposed to have jeen drowned. ' N * The discovery of the potato was celebrated at VNeuilly, a suburb of Paris, oil the occasion of the centenary of the death of Baron de 'Parmentier, who introduced potatoes into '.'France. Flowers were laid on Parmentier's tomb, and potatoes figured largely at the banquet which followed. : Negotiations between Lord French, representing Messrs Paulings, and the Chinese Government for the construction of a railway between Shasi, m Hupeh, and. 3ingyi'fu, m __*tyeich6w, a distance of 800 miles, are almost completed. It is reported from Oxford that the Prince of Wales strikes everybody aa very flyiet, modest, and shy- He is shadowed 50 constantly by his . tutor, Mr Hansell, that the two- are known to the uudcr-graduate world as "Hansel and Gretel." •. [ Count Stanislaus Przedziecky, a Polish nobleman, owning an. estate of, 250,000 acres, *• 157 palaces, castles*, hotels, and dwelling houses, and securities worth over £1,000,000. has decided to liquidate his property and emigrate, declaring that the political conditions made life unbearable m Poscni The Pan-American Association are considering plans for the erection of the tallest building m the world to BroadWay, New York. It will lie called "Las Americas," bo 801 feet high, and will cost £3,700,000. 1 With accommodation for 3532 passenger, and crew, the North-German Lloyd liner 'Columbus, which is of 41,8.0 ton 3 displacement, was launched at Danzig. As a thankoffering 6n tho coming of age of the Marquis of Titchfield next year, and to mark their silver wedding, the Duke ?nd Duchess bi Portland have offered to wipe off the debt of between £4000 and £5000 on the King Edward memorial wing of the Mansfield Hospital. Wives of nearly all tlie members of tho United States Cabinet have pledged themselves to support the egg boycott campaign now bcin*^ waged to seduce tho prio., and eggs will be banished from their tables. Great Britain has approached the other 'Great Powers with «»■ view to the raising of an- international loan of £.60,003 to alleviate the destitution of, the Albanians, thousand, of whom arc without homes or shelter for the winter ,- ? and has already advanced £5000. ' ■ M . Jacquiert, the new Minister of Fine Arts m -France, intends to establish a cinema "archive at the Louvre, Where films will be preserved of all the most important public events which occur throughout the world: It is proposed to do ■ away* with all horse-drawn appliances m the London Fire Brigade, substituting motor appliances. The cost of the total ' 'memorisation of the brigade is esti-. mated, to be £160,000. A Quito correspondent telegraphs that a contract has been. signed bet-ween the Government of Ecuador and the representative?, of Messfs J. G. White., and Co. Lcwdoii, for Sanitation work? at j Guavflfjiifa." ' The works include water supply^ sanitation and rain sewers, and paving. • The . contract involves a sum of about £2,000.000. OPENING MTE OF CANAL,- ;.- ; ; It is unlikely that, the Panama .jCanal will be opened for. traffic on January 1 as promised, and tho earliest date &eem3 May .1. .The' feictor of uncertainty is the Cucuracha slide m. tlie Oulebra.Cut. This : slide continue m motion, repeatedly blocking .the. cut. -■ , . .. THE . DTJI-E'S LAND OFFERMir Lloyd -George has sent a reply to the Duke of Sutherland's offer of 200,000. acres, mainly deer forest', at 22s 6d an acre, or other 200,000 acr.es, .far eluding farm.lapd. at 5J5s, but as the duke is on the way to the Wess Indies the text of the reply cannot be; mado known meantimo- - , NEWSPAPER 'ADVERTISING BEST. At a meeting, of the Nb»th Wales Advertising Board the-chaiyman. said that, m, the opinion of the. committor, newspaper advertising Avas by» far the best means of reaching the largest number of people and making the work a .success. SACCHARIN. FIRE. Fifteen thousand -pounds damage was caused by a fiveV'at Uie Man bre Saccharin, Works, Brnndenbhrghroad, Jlainmersmith. The Factory, -which is si tun ted oh the riverside, consists ot several large isolated aud ', ''fii*em'oof'' buildings, it is pne of tlie t,\yo largest saccharin -factories iv the country. , . FROZEN- FISH FROM CANADA. A. . iiexy commercial undertaking was inaugurated lit Grimsby on Tuesday, when tho great fish market received its first carload of halibut from the Canadian Pacific coast. Its reception m the fis(i. trade <?f the. port was wholly satisfactory. Tho fish m its frozen and glared condition.. was m excellent ■ mar? ketable form, and orders * were , placed for its (Jistfibytioii m the great centres df.thq country so rapidly that the stock was popn booked. DIGNITY OF A MOTOR CAR. In order that tiie chairman of • the London County Council may be received at ceremonial functions m ;t fitting manner the- General x'urposes Committee of the Council propose the provision of -a. mpj^or car for his use. The committee suggests tliat a motor landaulettfe selected by the' chairmair, be hired at j£4so a year for a maximum of 6COO miles annually. .< ■ 66 SPATES AT SAtf FRANCISCO. A cable messpge leceived by the British committee, formed •m connection j with the Panama -Pacific . Exposition i'rbin one. of its members now visiting the United States says that Mr. Bryan ,bas announced that -thirty-one foreign and -thirty-five local States haye accepted the national invitation to participate at San Francisco, m .1915. The people of California alono have appropriated i^ver £4,000,000 to the funds. "WHAT AftK WE COMING TOT Canon Ne\vboit, preach ing at St. Paula Cathedral, said -St- Johu the Baptist stoo-jl at the threshold of the Oosyel as a figure, of warning and protest. His life was a steyn one; his message a severe one— repent, prepare, amend. And accordingly it had been reserved for the frivojity. of our tinies to drag his death into, the travesties'. of a.ipusic hall and as the setting Tor a dance. There were few of them who had not taken up the newspapers m recenjt times and said, "What #re w.e coming... to,?" All things seeme,d P$VW»?> tossing around them m a vast chaos. GREAT FIRE AT SCHWERIN. A great part' of tlie castle at Sell werin,' which is the residence of th. Grand Duke a"nd Grand Duchess of Meckleii- • burg-Schwerin, has been destroyed by fire. i-fßhp cause of'*the-,fire is, unknown', but it "vitas probably duo to some defect m the electric lighting. Tlue most serious loss is probably the beautiful collection of tapestries, and a. large quantity of old furniture, which burnt like matchwood.

CHANNEL TUNNEL COST. "Trains could bo running through the Channel tunnel by about OJjri-stmas 1920," said Mr Arthur Fell, at the Royal Society ,<>f Aris- "Engineers now - consider that the tunnels could be completed at a cost estimated at £16,000.000\ to be raised over about six or eight years, one-half to be found by England, ope-half by Franco. The £8,000,OCO to bo raised by England would probably be m $4,000,000 of debentures and £4.000,000 of shares. If the same fares which are now charged by tho steamers were charged by the tunnel company," he added, "the shares would pay very large dividends." AEROPLANES FOR THE DOMINIONS.. ? Lord Desborough, president of the Imperial A)r Fieet Committee, appeals to the public on behalf of the committee for the' sum of £10,000 to nay off the deficit (about £1200) on the cost of the aeroplane "Britannia," .which- was .presented by the committee to the New Zealand •Government, and also to enab|e the committee to carry out its original objects viz., to draw the attention of tho Empire to the imperative need of aerial defence, nnd to provide further complementary first units of an 'Imperial aii>- fleet for the aerial defence of tlie othei*. overseas dominions. IIARGE RUSSIAN ORDER. According to the Temps, an order for 353 aeroplanes of the Farcnan and Deperdussin types have just been placed, hy tlie Russian Government with various firms m Russia. These machines I will be copied from French model's. The j Russian Government have, decided to have the machines made by local constructors owing to ,-he exorbitant; demands made by the principal French makers. The Russian air force at present consists of about 300 aeroplanes. FORTUNE FOR CABDRIVER. I The Court of Appeal of Angers (France) has decided a lawsuit, m favor of a stableman and # . cajbdriver, who will now receive "£280,000. Count Jules de Perrochel died three years ago, leaving a large fortune. He was fond of makSivr wills, and had. made seven. The last one left his fortune to two distant cousins, Charles de Perrochel, a Paris cabdriver,, and Amgjjste .de Perrochel, who is a 813016111.111 m Paris. Since tho count's death the legatees. under tlie other six wills had been fignting the last , one made on the ground that the testator was then suffering from senile decay. „ "KIDNAPPING" BY*' AIR. A German military airman has played an amazing trick on the Russian Customs authorities. He landed by mistake on the Russian side of tho frontier, and was received by a commandant of the frontier guards, who ordered him to dismantle his aeroplane so that it might be carried to the nearest Customs station, over 30 miles away, for the duty payable on it to bo reckoned. Tlio airman "replied that he 'was too inexpert a mechanic to take his machine to pieces, but that he would ity to tho Customs station with the Russian officer. The officer accepted, but when the aeroplane came to earth after a flight above the clouds, he found that he- was not m Russia, but m Gerrhany. Tho pilot had returned to his own country, taking his captor with him. CIUC'KETKRS IN MOTOR SMASH. Strud'wiek* Hobbs, and Booth had a most alarming experience on December Wth during a motor car excursion to Amanzitoti^ 17 miles from Durban. Their car was approaching the Umbito level crossing, two miles up, when, m endeavoring to pass a trap, it ran into a bank, smashed an opep gate, and turned completely over, imprisoning all the occupants beneath. They were released with little difficulty, and were found to have received only a few scratches. The cricketers , returned to town m the afternoon, none the worse for their unpleasant experience.