GENERAL CABLES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 184, 21 December 1912, Page 2

GENERAL CABLES.

mum - FRENCH PRESIDENCY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Paris, December 10. M. Bourgeois has declined to become a candidate for the Presidency, and it is expected M. Poincare will be elected. A DISASTROUS EXPLOSION. Paris, December 10. Three studios in the Boulevard de St. Jacques were gutted by an explosion. Seven hundred pictures, valued at £BOOO, were destroyed. Two Australian lady artists lost several pictures. PRINCE LUITPOLD. Berlin, December 10. The Kaiser.attended Prince Luitpold's ifuneral. THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. Washington, December 19. President Taft, in a message to Congress, advocates the remodelling of the American Constitution, enabling members of the Cabinet to take seats in the House of Representatives and Senate, similar to the British Cabinet. ROBBERY IN MALTA. Malta, December 19. Jewellery valued at £3OOO has been stolen from a jeweller's shop. ROYALTY ON GUANO. London, December 19, i Mr. Harcourt, in replying to questions, J said lie was negotiating with the Pacific Phosphates Company for the payment of an additional (id royalty on Ocean Island guano. AN INSURANCE PROSECUTION. London, December 19. Lady Maurice Fitzgerald, chairwoman of the Wexford Board of Governors, was fined 40s for refusing to pay contributions under the Insurance Act, agreeing to pay the future contributions pending the King's Bench decision in the test case. ALLEGED FALSE PRETENCES. London, December 19. Phillip Yorke, ex-theatrical manager, • was summoned at the Marlebone Court on a charge of false pretences by Mrs. Kingdon Smith, of Sydney, in connection with the proposed starring of her 'daughter at the music halls.

A HOLIDAY FOR ONE MILLION. London, December 1!}. 'Hie majority of the JJritish newspapers will not publish on Christmas Day, thus freeing one million workers. . THE OPIUM TRADE. London, December 10. English .and Indian opium merchants have memoralised the India Ofl'iee, requesting the suspension of sales of opium in India pending an understanding with China. PREHISTORIC MAX. London, December ID. The Geological Society discussed a J skull discovered at Pildowu, "Sussex, I alongside a mastodon's teeth and' prechedalan flints. The general opinion was ithat the skull was of.the period before : the cavemen, possibly pliocene. The i skull resembles a young chimpanzee's, i the jaw is heavy and apelike, and the I forehead steep, with scarcely any brow j ridges. This is the first evidence of the I primitive source whence surviving man ' has arisen.