MISCELLANEOUS

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 11877, 6 March 1907, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS

.^ London, March 4. One of the despatch bags' which was in the possession of Mr Herbert, ! the King's Messenger, who was lost in the wreck of the Berlin, has been recovered, empty," at Hook, in Holland. The Vaterland has been refloated. The .Unionist press attribute the Progressives' defeat at the London County Council election to a fear of Socialist legislation. Radical newspapers declare that the Council has been made a scapegoat for the Borough Council's extravagance. The "Daily Chronicle" says that a conspiracy of all unclean interests has overthrown the Progressives, t In the House of Commons Mr \V" H Lever introduced a bill granting all British citizens a pension of 5s weekly at the age of 65, the Exchequer to provide 9-10tbs by local taxation and 1-lOth by necessary funds. Berlin, March 4 German newspapers comment on Sir H C Bannerman's article oh Imperial topcis as suspicous and hostile in.tone. New York, March 4 The Democrats in the United States Senate resolved to "talk out" the Ship Subsidy Bill. , . gs£ Congress has passed Mr Aldrich's Currency Bill, which authorises the Treasury to place Customs receipts with banKs instead of retaining them, and the measure increases by threefold the currency which banks may retire monthly. The United States Congress during ten weeks voted two hundred millions sterling in appropriations. This is a record. Sydney, March 5 The report of the Miners' Accident Relief Fund shows the amount deducted from miners 1 wages in the past year aggregated $25,000, representing the average employment of 25,642 personß. At the Wesleyan Conferance, ' the Rev Burton, of the Indian Mission,. Fh, stated that the 30,000 Indians in Fiji were increasing at the rate cf 3500 annually, while. the Fijian population is decreasing 2000 yearly. He feared that in ten years Fiji would again be a heathen country. There was no doubt that the Pacific was being Orientalised, for Hindos were also getting a footing in the New j Hebrides, New Britain and, Samoa. Unless they made special efforts to save the situation, .the -crescent of Mahomet would displace the cross of Christ in the Pacific.