VARIOUS CABLES.

Southland Times, Issue 16687, 16 March 1911, Page 5

VARIOUS CABLES.

PANAMA CANAL. CBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright). NEW YORK, March 14. Mr Roosevelt, speaking at Dallas, in Texas, declared that failure to fortify the Panama canal would be criminal folly. The only existing treaties were those with Britain and Panama. Other nations were free to destroy the canal in war time. PRISONERS FIGHT FOR LIBERTY. NEW YORK, March 14. Forty prisoners killed the guards and escaped from gaol at Vera Cruz. They were pursued by the police and a running fight took place in the streets. Several were killed but the majority of the convicts escaped to the woods. A FRIGHTENED MOTHER’S CRIME. BERLIN, March 14. Mathilda Runge, wife of a drunken loafer, fearing her husband’s cruelty, brewed coffee with cyanide of potassium in it. She dressed her children in clean linen and donned a black dress. She poisoned the children, but then her courage failed, and she did not commit suicide. ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. SYDNEY, March 15. A carpenter named George Fraser, a recent arrival from New Zealand, attempted suicide by shooting himself, and then jumping Into the harbour. He was taken *to the hospital with a bullet embedded in his head. A TIMID ROGUE. MELBOURNE, March 15. A man armed with a revolver entered the Elizabeth street branch of the post office, and threatened to shoot the post-mistress unless she handed over the contents of the till. He started to climb the counter, but noticed another woman at the telephone box and bolted. "IT’S AN ILL WIND.’’ LAUNCESTON, March 15. A cloud-burst at Northern Point, Mount Victoria, cut a gorge a mile in length and a chain wide down to bedrock, denuding the land of dense forest. This exposed a reef showing indications of good gold. A NEGRO LYNCHED. VANCOUVER, March 14. At Somerset (Kentucky) a non-union locomotive negro fireman was lynched.