NEWS OF THE DAY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVI, Issue 8627, 8 December 1906, Page 5

NEWS OF THE DAY.

The London Standard is officially informed that there is no truth in the statement made by the Morning Post that the Colonial Conference had been postponed till May 15th to suit the convenience of colonial Premiers.

The House of Commons has decided that illegitimacy of workmen's dependents shall not be a bar to claims for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Bill.

Dr Jameson, Premier of Cape Colony, has returned to Capetown from his visit to London. He says the Capo Government has invited Lord Selborne to convene a conference to discuss the question of the federation of South Africa.

An official report from Washington declares that the seals on Pribylov Island (Alaska), in Behring Sea, are being decimated, there being now only about 180,000 instead of four to seven millions formerly.

American millionaires have subscribed £000,000 sterling to found a National Theatre in Central Park, New York. It will be completed in a year and will seat five thousand persons. Racial feeling in San Francisco has become intensified owing to the prosperity of the Japanese merchants in new buildings erected by Japanese workmen, while the white merchants are still struggling against labor charges for the erection of the warehouses. The prisoner Harris, who tried to murder the deputy governor of Parramatta gaol recently, inflicting serious wounds, made an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide by hanging. He used ins socks as a rope. It is understood that a few days ago the prisoners in a workshop where Harris was employed revolted and attacked the warders, but were quickly overpowered. Parramatta is li miles from Sydney.

Great heat is recorded in the interior of South Australia and New South Wales. On many stations the thermometer stands at 100 to 108, the latter being the record at Mogil Mogil (500 miles west of Sydney). Much activity is being displayed at Broken Hill mines. 8,450 men are employed. The mineral output for the year was valued at over two millions sterling.

The New South Wales Government will make known the course which it intends to pursue in regard to W. P. Crick, when the Lands Commission report comes up for consideration in the House. It is rumoured that drastic measures are intended. The Legislative Assembly has resolved that that portion of the Land Commissioner's report referring to findings of misconduct against Mr Crick be restored to the order paper and considered on Tuesday.

The New South Wales Assembly is considering the Amendment Betting Bill, placing trotting on the same footing as horse-racing. The Poynansing cotton mills, at Lodz, in Russia, 75 miles from Warsaw, has been closed indefinitely, throwing seven thousand hands out of work. Other owners threaten to close their factories owing to constant strikes.

It was announced in New York a month ago that President Roosevelt had dismissed an entire negro battalion for declining to divulge the names of comrades concerned in rioting and shooting into houses at Brownsville, Texas, and killing a citizen. The Senate have now asked Mr Roosevelt to fully explain his reasons for disbanding the battalion.

A St. Petersburg message states that owing to strikes, bankruptcies and industrial stagnation there are 20,000 unemployed in Odessa, their numbers swelling the criminal ranks.

The consumption of alcohol during last November at West Ham Workhouse totalled £6 15s, while in the previous November, before an investigation was made, it was to the amount of £20.

The annual cost of 8268 troops in German South West Africa is estimated at £480 sterling per head. The protection of settlers is limited to certain districts only.

A Perth message states that in effecting a Government insurance of one million and a half, the AVestralian manager Royal Insurance Company waived the right of cancelling the policy for three years. This agreement has now been repudiated by the directors of the company.