OVERNIGHT CABLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18643, 21 December 1928, Page 15

OVERNIGHT CABLES.

(United Pres» Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) Bozinc in Melbourne. MELBOURNE. December 20. The boxing season ended at the Melbourne Stadium with a ten round bout in which Jack Cameron, ex-welter champion of Victoria, easily outpointed Bud Jennings.—Australian Press Association. Sir Michael Rimington Dead. LONDON, December 19. The death is announced of MajorGeneral Sir Michael Rimington. K.C.8., C.V.0., who served in South Africa from 1899 to 1902. at the age of sev-enty.-—Australian Press Association— United Service. General Rimington entered the army In 1881. He served in the Bechuanaland and Zululand campaigns and in the South African war was mentioned five times in dispatches, received the Queen's medal with eight clasps, and the King's medal with two clasps, and was made a Companion of the Bath. Alcohol in Compass. NEW YORK. December 19. Mrs Lancaster, who arrived here today for an air tour of the United States, carried with her a special aviation compass which was used by her husband. Captain Lancaster, on his Australian flight, and which he was planning to use here. The compass was filled with four ounces of pure alcohol, and Customs officials insisted that it must be drained, otherwise to land it would be a violation of the Prohibition law. Captain Lancaster, after appealing to many officials and pointing out that draining the compass would completely upset its calibration estimate, was finally permitted to carry it away in tact.—Australian Press Association. Jockey Seriously Injured. MELBOURNE. December 20. J. Harrison, a pony jockey, was thrown on his head at the Ascot races to-day and was also galloped on. His j skull was fractured and his condition is critical. He is a brother of the wellknown jockey. George Harrison.—Australian Press Association. Ex-Kaiser's Sister. BERLIN, December 20. The ex-Kaiser’s elderly sister, Princess Victoria, who is the wife of M. Zoubkoff. the young Russian, has been offered £50.000 for a lecture tour of Europe and the United States.—Australian Press Association. Championship Regatta. SYDNEY, December* 20. The annual championship regatta of the New South Wales Rowing Association is to be held on Saturday. The principal events are the championship eight and the champion sculls. The latter, which is timed to start at 4.45, includes the New Zealander A. Jackson, and Goulding, Stewart, Scott and the Olympic representative Pearce.— Australian Press Association. Australian Racing. SYDNEY, December 20. Two prominent entrants for the Randwick Summer Cup were scratched to-day, the ex-New Zealander Runnymede and Tibbie.—Australian Press Association. British War Pensions. RUGBY. December 19. Major Tryon. Minister of Pensions, in a memorandum, states that £860.000.000 will have been expended on pensions by March next. Unemployment among disabled ex-service men excluding those totally incapacitated, is less than 5 per cent of the total number of men pensioners. War pensions expenditure in the year ended March 31 last amounted to about £60,000,000, and for the current year would total £57,000.000. A comparison of the aggregate expenditure on war pensions of France, Germany and the United Kingdom for the ten years since November, 1918, shows that Frence has spent £450,000,©OO, Germany £350.000.000. and the United Kingdom £787,000,000. As to ,cost of administration, the total sum so absorbed in ten years was not more than £368,000, or 4.2 per cent. Pensioners number at present about 970.000, making together with dependents, wives and families, about 1,500,000 British Official Wireless. Amasing Cam. MELBOURNE, December 20. Amazing disclosures were made in connection with an abduction case against Albert Peardon. a married man. Evidence was given that he cleared out in 1923 with Violet Barry, then aged twelve, a ward of the State, who was in the care of Peardon’s wife. Since then he had lived with the girl as man and wife in other States. The girl was now the mother of two children. aged four and twenty months. The girl gave evidence that she was as much to blame as Peardon. Peardon deposed that he believed that the girl was over sixteen, otherwise he would not have taken her away. The man was committed for trial.— Australian Press Association. Distressed Miners. LONDON, December 20. The Government’s offer to double the Lord Mayor’s fund for the distressed mining areas, coupled with the Prince of Wales’s appeal, resulted in yesterday’s contributions totalling £50.000. The present total is £200,000. The Prince of Wales will broadcast an appeal on Christmas Day throughout England.—Australian Press Association. Steamer Founders. DELHI, December 20. The steamer Nansingh, of the Irrawaddy flotilla, foundered between Moulmein and Rangoon. The Indian crew were rescued, but both European officers were drowned. While giving orders regarding rescue measures. Captain Goad, the principal port officer, fell overboard from a sampan. His body has not been recovered.—Australian Press Association. J. C. Williamson London Production. LONDON. December 20. Sir George Tallis placed J. C. Williamsons in the ranks of West End theatrical managements by a production of ‘ Patsy'’ at the Apollo Theatre. The comedy was enthusiastically received. Helen Ford had the name part, and was a great personal success.—Australian Press Association. Appoal Dismissed. SYDNEY. December 20. The Full Court to-day dismissed an appeal on behalf of Martin Jacobsen, of Woy Wov. against his conviction and sentence to death for criminally assaulting his former fiance. The case caused a great stir, owing to an alle gation that the girl was a consenting party.—Australian Press Association. British Trade Unions. LONDON, December 20. The British Trades Union Federation continues to lose large numbers of members. For the sixth time in the past seven years a decline has been recorded. For the first time since 1916 the total has fallen below 5,000,000. The membership at the end of 1927 was 4,908,000. a reduction of 299,000 com-

pared with 1926. The largest decrease was in the mining and quarrying unions, wheih lost 107,000. Railway services lost 79,000 and metal groups 38,000.—United Service. Price of Butter. SYDNEY, December 20. Owing to droughty conditions the wholesale price of butter has been increased by a halfpenny to Is lOd per lb.—Australian Press Association. Iron and Steel Trade. LONDON* December 20. The “Daily Telegraph” says: “Although the demand for an inquiry into the iron and steel trade does not mention safeguarding, this must be envisaged. Safeguarding duties are impracticable. and a more likely solution is improved organisation in the industry. and capital readjustments. Some trade union leaders agree that safeguarding cannot be ruled out as a possible remedy in every industry. Coupled with the dress goods resolutions, this shows that a section of the trades union leaders are contemplating a change of front from the rigid free trade viewpoint. The Government is expected to appoint a Royal Commission into the iron and steel trade.” —Australian Press Association. Sydney Graft Case. LONDON, December 19. In the House of Commons, replying to Mr Tom Henderson (Labour), Colonel Ileadlam, Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, said that he had no information in relation to the Babcock and Wilcox affair in the absence of details. Because of the fact that there is an application for a stay of proceedings it would be premature to answer Mr Henderson’s inquiry whether the firm would be removed from the list of Admiralty contractors. —Australian Press Association —United Service. Mating's Estate Sequestrated. SYDNEY, December 20. Silas Maling suffered another reverse to-day, the Judge in Bankruptcy making an order for the compulsory' sequestration of his estate, at the instance of the Commissioner of Taxation.—Australian Press Association. Vast Engineering Schemes. LONDON, December 19. A message from Paris says that three vast engineering schemes are being studied by British, French and Spanish engineers. They include the linking up of a Channel tunnel with a tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar and a railway across the Sahara, which engineers claim should have results as important as the Panama Canal, the trans-Siberian and trans-Canadian railways. A Spanish Government technical commission is now preparing a report on the Gibraltar tunnel, with one terminus at Algeciras and the other in Spanish Morocco. France’s contribution will be a transSaharan railway, costing £16,000,000. If the material for this can be obtained from Germany under the Dawes plan it may reduce the price by a third. There are millions of potential labourers available at low wages, so experts are of the opinion that the railway will be self-supporting in twenty-five years. It will open up cotton plantations, cattle ranches and granaries, and will have immense potentialities if associated with suitable irrigation works.— Australian Press Association. Reparations. LONDON, December 20. The Paris correspondent of “ The Times,” understands that M. Poincare and the German Ambassador, Herr von Hoesch, have reached a complete agreement concerning the constitution of the committee of experts on reparations, and on the terms of reference. The experts must be independent men, possessing international reputations. Americans will be invited to co-operate. The Berlin correspondent of “The Times ” states that the Emelka film producing company, in which the German Government proposes to acquire a controlling interest, issues as a portion of a news gazette a series of diagrams illustrating the reparations burden. A German is shown pushing a barrow of constantly increasing size. Tables give the payments paid, and those to be paid. The series ends with a subtle “ How much longer? ” The final query mark swells until it fills the screen.—Times Cables. Transpacific Liners. SAN FRANCISCO, December 19. Mr Reginald Black, resident manager of the Union Steam Ship Company, is on his way to Australia on the Tahiti for a three months’ holiday, following a visit to London. He declined to discuss reports concerning the possibility of the substitution of modern liners for the Tahiti and Makura. “ This is a matter of which the future will have to take care,” he said. “On my London visit nothing was mentioned concerning the replacement of the present vessels with larger and faster ships.”—Australian Press Association.