BRITISH & FOREIGN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14143, 1 March 1910, Page 5

BRITISH & FOREIGN.

Press Aasociation-By Telegraph-Copyright BRENNAN'S MONO-RAIL. LONDON, Feb. 28. Brennan's mono-rail car carried sixty I passengers at Gillingham at 22 miles an hour over sharp curves with great steadiness. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick, Agent-General for South Australia, and the Hon. W. Hall-Jones were present. Mr Brennan expects that a service for passengers will be in operation in eighteen months' time. The owners of the German rights hope to establish a service of 125 miles an hour between the capitals and the big provincial towns. NAVAL COMMANDS. Sir Arthur Fanshawe, Admiral of the Fleet, and Admiral Sir Edward Seymour are retiring. Vice-Admiral Poe is to he Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean and Admiral Curzon Howe Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth. NEWFOUNDLAND RAILWAYS. Messrs Reid have agreed to construct 250 miles of branch railway lines in Newfoundland, receiving £3OOO per mile for construction, and 4000 acres per mile for operating the lines. [ THE SAFETY OF SHIPPING. Several speakers at the Chamber of Shipping meeting protested against the reduction of coastguard stations, and attributed several wrecks thereto. COMPULSORY TRAINING. At a meeting of London shopkeepers, under the auspices of the National Service League, Mr Robert McNab, stated that Australia and New Zealand were the only portions of the Empire which made military Bervice compulsory. He attributed the success of the movement thorfl to tho universal suffrage. THE DIVORCE COURT. Tho Royal Commissioner on Divorce (Lord Gore-11) drew attention to New Zealand's powers to forbid the publication of Divorce Cr.mt reports. Justices Bingham, Bargra.vo, and Deane, denounced legal soparation. i MEDICAL SCHOLARSHIPS. In connection with the investigations into passive immunity in relation to tho treatment cf infectious diseases, Mr William Ray, of Adelaide, and a Rhodes scholar, was elected to the Philip Walker studentship, Oxford, of £2OO a year for three years. * r \MMOTH LINER. The "Daily Mail" states that the order for a. Hamburg-American 50,000 ton liner, costing a million and a half, originally intended for Belfast, has been placed at Hamburg. CZAR AND HIS GUEST. CONSTANTINOPLE, Feb. 27. Toasts wero exchanged by the Czar and King Ferdinand cf Bulgaria at Tsarskoe Selo. The banquet displeas- ' ed the Turkish newspapers because it was irreconcilable with declarations of i Russo-Turkish friendship. j FREXu-i MOTOR CAR TAX. PARIS, Feb. 27. The French Chamber, by a large majority, voted for an increase of the motor car tax, which has already pro- i duced £244,000 per annum. PIGEON SHOOTING. M. Galletti won the triennial pigeon ! shooting championship at Monte Carlo, with a, maximum of twenty-five hits. Mr Campbell, an Australian, scored 17 out of 21. A GERMAN SPY. BERLIN, Feb. 27. A merchant at Algerburg, in East Prussia, has been sentenced to four years' penal servitude for espionage. A RATE-CUTTING WAR. ! ■ NEW YORK, Feb. 27. ' There is a fierce rate-cutting war between the Weetman-Pearson's Syndicate, and the Standard Oil Company. The latter is attempting to squeeze ,the syndicate from the Mexican oilfields. Between £750,000 and £l,000,000 has already been lost. Prices are below the cost of production.

NEW BATTLESHIPS.

Received 9.35 p.m., Feb. 28th. WASHINGTON, Feb. 28.

Mr Meyer, Secretary to the Navy, at a private sitting of the representative naval committee, foreshadowed laying down two 32,000 ton battleships in 1911 costing 18,000,000 dollars each mainly armed with 14-inch guns. A member of the committee stated that Washington had unofficial information that Japan was commencing two battleships of a tonnage approaching 32,000.