GENERAL NEWS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10497, 6 November 1912, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

THE WEBSTER CLAIM. , Mr J, W. Salmond, SolicitorGeneral, will leave for ( London on Friday next to represent New Zealand at the special tribunal that has been set up to settle one way or the' other tiie longstanding Webster claim. It will ho remembered that some few years ago Dr. Fitchett accompanied Sir Joseph Ward to London in connection with this case, and that last year Sir John Findlay on a similar mission accompanied Sir Joseph Ward to London. Both these visits seems to have been somewhat premature,, because quite recently the special tribunal to deal with this and other cases had not been appointed. Sir Joseph Ward, towards the close of the session of 1910, explained that the claim was one for £500,000 and was made originally by an American whaler who had settled in the country years ago, and whose successors claimed to be the possessors of certain lands now owned by the Grown. The lands are in the Auckland province. The Solicitor-General will probably be absent from New Zealand tor 'about six months. ;

THE HON. JAMES MILLAR. The Hon. J. A. Millar at the presentation of an illuminated address made to him by Canterbury Executive of the Locomotivemen’s Union, Claimed’ that his sympathies were always with Labour. He resented the actions of an individual member of Parliament who, under the pretence of voicing the opinion of Labour, took part in objecting to himself occupying the position of Leader of the Liberal; Party, He assured his hearers that, he had no feeling in the matter because that member did not represent Labour, but only claimed to do so. . Mr Millar stated that he had assisted in the Trades Union movement since 1885, and it certainly : out him to the quick to hear a member, of Parliament say that he had never represented Labour. “My work as a Labour representative, ’ ’ continued Mr Millar, “can be seen on the Statute Book since 1899,' which is a sufficient reply to those who think otherwise of me. ”

SALVATION ARMY SELFDENIAL FUND. The results of the Salvation Army self-denial collection in New Zealand are now made known. This is the first time the collection has been taken since New Zealand was separated from Australia. The New Zealand total is £15,900, an increase of £l3O over last year. The Australian total is £33,374, an increase of £3450. The total for Australasia shows an increase of £4750 over last year. The figures for the four centres in New Zealand are : Auckland Division £3876, Wellington Division £5774, Christchurch Division £3777, Dunedin Division £3463. The totals for the leading corps in the Dominion are: Gisborne £I3OO, Wellington £llsO, Auckland £1035, Dunedin £7OO, Christchurch £646, Invercargill £530, . Palmerston -North'£4l6; Wanganui £363, Hastings £B4O, Wellington South £305, Carterton £3OO, Timaru £3BO, Newton £377, Blenheim £343, New Plymouth £240, Oamaru £232, Eltham £331, Ashburton £235, Rangipra £324, Parnell £3lO, Napier £2Ol, and Gore £2OO. '

. DYING MAN’S NOTES. Since undergoing a serious operation five years ago, Prof. Louis Charles Robin, the French enthusiast for the co-education, of the sexes’, has had had health. He was holding the opinion that any man who became incapable of useful work should “disappear,” and he ceeded to carry out his theory. After taking a small quantity of poison, he sat down and made notes of his condition. One entry was to the effect that his effort was ‘ ‘unsuccessful, ” and that he must take a larger dbse, which he expected would be fatal. Professor Robin was usually an early riser, and as he did not appear as usual his sou went to his bedroom and found him almost at the point of death. He pointed to a bottle and was just able to Say that he had taken some of the contents. He died soon afterwards. AMERICAN NEGRESS’S CRIMES. A negress, Clementine Boyndbet, of Lafayette, Louisiana, who in a period of nine months murdered no fewer than 29 negroes while they slept, was last week convicted of the crimes, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. Such was the .terror created by this woman’s butchery of her victims that' for months the negroes in the districts in which the murderess moved were afraid to go to sleep at night. CHINESE OVERSEAS. In a leading article in its South American supplement the Times mentions that between 1870 and 1910, Chinese found new homes overseas. “The Anglo-Saxon race, ” proceeds the article, “impelled by sure instincts of selfpreservation and by recognition of the economic yellow peril, has closed its doors to this class of immigration, which was consequently being diverted on a rapidly increasing scale to the Latin Republics and the undeveloped territories of South America. The experience of Guiana has demonstrated the superiority of Chinese tropical colonisation in places where whites become derelicts and negroes a burden.”

MODERN BRIGHAM YOUNG. The Police in Philadelphia, U. S., have arrested a man' who has been, committing bigamy on a wholesale scale. It is reported that this man has no fewer than ten wives and fonr affinities. The children representing the issue of these marriages were numerous enough to fill the courtroom in which their father made his appearance. The prisoner, who is 39 years of age, was only 18 when he started his potygamous career.