NEWS BY CABLE AND MAIL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16120, 8 May 1923, Page 9

NEWS BY CABLE AND MAIL.

LARGE LAND OWNERS FORCED OUT BY TAXES.

LONDON, March 13. —Burdens of taxation continue to press heavily on owners of largo estates, and the. list of land proprietors who have to abandon such properties continue to grow. One of the latest to yield to the financial pressure is Sir Edmund Ohayler, who has been compelled, by the heavy taxes to sell his estate nt Craft, Yorkshire, which lias been owned by the same lamilv for seven centuries.' ■

Another vast estate, .bordering on the New Forest, owned by the Tra.goll family, lias just, been sold been use of llie high taxation.

THE DISCOVERY VO BE USED TN RESEARCH WORK'.

LONDON, March 23. —Captain R. E. Seoit’s vessel, the Discovery, has been bought Lv ihe Government of the Falkland Islands for research

work in whaling in the waters of South Georgia and South Shotlands. The Home Office announces the ship will be chiefly employed to ascertain the geographical limits of: the stock of whales, to trace the migrations and to form some idea of their numbers and the rate of reproduction. The expedition will also afford opportunity for adding lo scientific knowledge in other directions, parti c.ularly in oceanography, meteorology and magnetism. After extensive reconstruction the Discovery will in all probability set sail next, year. GOLD FROM LAURENTTC. LONDON. March 27.—The British Admiralty in the next few days will send out a salvage ship and divers in an endeavor to recover more gold from the liner Lauren tic, which was sunk off the northern Irish coast by n torpedo in 1917 while carrying t5,61)9.0''0 in gold bullion to the United States. To date £1,600,000 worth of the bullion has been brought, up front the bottom and Admiralty officers hope to get, up two or three more million this summer. The wreck is ill very bad condition and divers working fifteen miles from land and at a, depth of twenty fathoms have met with difficulties, including attacks from male dogfish, challenging Ihe intrusion upon their realm.

SLAVE TRAFFIC IN AFRICA REVIVED. LONDON, March 28.—Revival of the slave traffic in Africa, on which subject Ihe League of Nations promised) to, act, next September, is causing the French and British Governments serious concern. Thousands of human beings are being marketed 1 in Abyssinia, it, is declared, and the French Government has d'is covered that monthly shipments of slaves .are jvtssing through the port, of Lndiourah, in French Somaliland, front which traffic the local sultanate derives a fee- of one dollar on all slaves shipped to Arabia.

Rritisli naval units are endeavoring to deal with (lie situation in the Red, Sea andi Persian Gulf and' are meeting with some measure of success.

LONG TERM GIVEN DRUG RING HEAT). LONDON, March 16.—The first substantiation of a series of “dope” scares which have been receiving much notoriety recently, was vouchsafed the public when Howard Humphrey, declared to he the controller of a powerful and wealthy ring of drug traffickers. and who boasted of his perfect organisation and of his friends amongst Custom officials in a, position to assist smuggling operations, was given the maximum fine and sentence of £2OO and six months’ imprisonment in a London ( ’ourt. His appearance in Court was an aftermath of the seizure aboard the steamship Mishima Marti, off Hong Kong, live months ago, of two sofas and four arm chairs, in the upholstery of which 24C0 ounces of morphine and 2503 ounces of cocaine were secreted.

In the possession of Japanese accompanying the furniture were found papers showing Humphrey’s extensive “dope” transactions, and tho dealers from whom Humphrey bought, a wholesale quantity of “dipe-filled” furniture. He was denounced by the prosecutor as a man pf established position in the commercial world, who employs banking and shipping facilities available to business men for drug trafficking. NEW DISCOVERY IN OLD MEXICO. MEXICO CITY, March 17.—New archaeological discoveries in a suburb of Mexico City indicate a large flourishing city was destroyed many years before the occupation of Mexico by the Aztecs. An eruption of Monte Ajuseo, many years before the Aztecs, which covered tlie southern part of the valley of Mexico with an immense lava flow is supposed to have covered up the city. The date of the eruption is vague. The Aztecs’ story places it many years before their arrival. Accounts of the eruption were given to the Aztecs by the conquered tribes as having occurred many years before their time.

The discovery of a skeleton buried under many foot of lava rock caused Secretary Formcn-to to order further exploration. The discovery of the skeleton was followed by that of a pyramid by an American, in which mail}' hundred pieces of pottery and other pro-liitsoric articles were found. A group of workmen arc now engaged in uncovering tjre- pyramid unci the supposed site of the buried city. Manuel Gamio, chief of the archaeological department .expects to develop

r.ew works, which in his opinion are of great value, as they will throw light upon tho early founders of Mexico. At both ends of tho Valley of Mexico, many interesting discoveries have lately been made. At Atzcatzalco, in the northern end of the ’valley, the ground seems literally full oi pottery, idols and many wonderfully carved stones, which are entirely dis tinct from those found in Oaxaca and Yucatan. Farmers ploughing the ground and builders digging foundations and wells often find immense stones adorned with hundreds of heads, small figures and skulls. REMARK A RLE SKULLS.

Near Atzcapotzaleo one explorer found a skull which is entirely different, from any other found in Mexico. Inside. the forehead a large piece of bone exists, running from the top of the skull down almost to the eye sockets. This bone is very sharp iind'extencls nearly an inch into the skull. Another skull found at the same place lias a separate piece at the back of the head, which is circular, and is joined to other parts of the skull with sutures. Physicians here who examined the skull, declare it is a human skull, but entirely different from known skulls.

The exploration in the State of Oaxaca, will be pushed rapidly, as the department desires to complete tho preliminary work before the rainy season. New roads have been built by oil companies near Palanque, State of Chiapas, which permit tourists to travel to the ruins by automobile. Tlie Carnegie institute has offered to send a group ot explorers into Yucatan if the Government will accept the offer. Early spring will see a wonderful development of tho ruins of Mexico, both in Yucatan and near Mexico City.

CONUS OF £6 FOR EVERY FIVE ROOMED HOUSE.

LONDON, March 16. In order to encourage Hie building of working-class houses, the Minister of Health, after conferring with representatives of the Municipal < orporations Association, agreed to offer a subsidy of £6 per house for twenty years for new nonparlor five-roomed houses. The muniei|iat representatives agreed that, tins would enable building to he vigorously pushed forward.

TOMB OF HANNIBAL MAY BE TRACED l!V RELIC'S.

<CONSTANTINOPLE, . March 14. Sabres and fragments of marble just linear!bed at Gnchzeh, near here, lead archaeologists to hope they will soon find the long-sought tomb of Hannibal. Talking excavators in KastaiOouni have discovered valuable marble and bronze statues of the epocli of Alexander the Great, which have been sent to the Angora museum. TOO MANY' VESSELS IN THE CARRYING TRADE. LONDON, March 14—Lord Kvlsant, formerly Sir Owen Phillips, prominent in shipping circles, referred at a meeting on Tuesday of a shipping company, to what he called the superfluous number of cargo liners in tho carrying trade at present. He declared that the world would not require them for some years yet. A number of these vessels had been broken up in the last twelve months.

He mentioned that one-third of the ships laid up )>v the United States Mopping Board were of poor construction and of no practical economic value. FRENCH EAGER TO REVISE BULL FIGHTS. PARIS, March 23.—The relative merits of bull fighting, boxing and football are agitating French sportsmen in view of the announcement that France will have its most memorable season of bull fighting this summer at Bordeaux, Nimes and Arles. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is pushing an active fight against the Spanish pastime, is severely criticised in the press, which points out that in the realm of artistic brutality nothing exceeds a good, lively pugilistic match, that a football game is next in the order of carnage encouraged by tlie authorities, despite the fact that the decisions of referees recently have been the subject of disgraceful scandals, such as that which signalised the CarpentierSiki fight. The probability that bull fights will have great- vogue in France is indicated by the consistent demand for the sport, which will be regulated under humane rules not observed over in Spain. French sportsmen ask that the art of bullfighting be revived in all its former splendor, and that the organisers employ the most expert of matadors instead of second rate men ' who depend on horses, which inevitably are gored by tho bulls. EAGER. TO' GET THEIR CITY BACK. CONSTANTINOPLE, March 23.—Sir Horace Itumboldt, tlie British High Commissioner, said on Wednesday that lie thought that the evacuation by the Allies would begin directly after the Turks had ratified tho treaty, which would probably lie six days after the signing, as the Government of Angora was anxious to get- the foreign troops out. of Constantinople. Tho evacuation will include Ihe force in the Gallipoli peninsula, with the exception of the Graves’ Cbqjmission of twelve officers and men. Sir Horace said he did not believe any attacks upon foreigners would be made when the Turkish troops marched into tho capital. Ailnnn Bey, ihe Turkish civil governor of Constantinople, said to-day; ‘‘l do not know who will be military governor of the city when tho Allied troops evacuate it. I am certain there will ho no danger to tho lives of foreigners. The Turkish people hero will rejoice at. getting their own city back, but. they are serious and dignified and will not. attack foreigners or damage property. I see no reason why trade with the outside world should stop.” General Harrington has left here for London to consult the authorities on the evacuation.— Tlie total British force here is 23,000, including laborers. 'Tlie French have about 800, and tho Italians about 200.