CABLE ITEMS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XVIII, 1 November 1902, Page 1108

CABLE ITEMS.

Aii earthquake has been felt in the Young- district, New South Wales. An earthquake shock has been experienced in South-eastern Tennesee and Xorth-western Georgia. The American army lias again reverted to the legal limit of fifty-three thousand officers and men. Trafalgar Day was celebrated in London and Portsmouth. The Nelson column was decorated. During the past half year the corn duty yielded £ 1,183,337. sugar £l,991,852 and coal £963,3<>5. Queen Alexandra received an ovation at Calais and Dover on her return from the Continent. Prince Louis Battenberg lias Succeeded Rear-Admiral Cusince as Director of Naval Intelligence. A rumour is current that strikes will occur on all the railways westward of Chicago. Stastieff. the murderer of M. Stambouloff. the Bulgarian statesman, has been convicted and sentenced to be hanged. The Porte has arranged for the conversion of a Customs loan, realising a profit of two millions. Many creditors are becoming clamorous. The White Star line has received a cable stating that it is unnecessary now for Cape passengers to secure permits to enable them to land. Stanley Spencer made a . successful, airship voyage from Blackpool to Preston. A high wind prevailed at the time. • - • The Clyde navigation trustees have decided to widen and deepen the Clyde at great expense, to enable the safe launching of huge Canard steamers. Dalgetty and Company's report for the half-year ended June shows the profits to be £I2LBBO. A dividend of six per cent, has been declared, and £51,880 has been carried forward. ’ Stones and sand fell in the Carib country, in the island of St. Vincent, to a depth of eight inches and in rather lesser quantity, at Chateau Belair. An anarchist has been arrested at the Elysse'Palace. He was armed with a dagger and a revolver. It is supposed that he intended to assassinate President Loubet. The New York “News" states that Mr. Pierpont. Morgan’s profits from financing company for one year amount to eight and a-half millions sterling. M. Pelletin, Minister of Marine, is experimenting with “the eight hours’ principle in some of the dockyards. Its general adoption depends on the amount of work done. The New Zealand and Australian Land Company has declared a dividend of 3 per cent., and carried forward £25,432 to provide for the losses of stock through the drought in Australia. , German and British naval officers discredit General Castro's reported victory at 1-a Victoria, and consider that the Venezuelan revolutionists are winning the campaign. The Landsthing has rejected the proposal for the sale of the Danish West Indies to America. The Government has resolved to send a commission to the islands to report on their economic resuscitation. The Government of British Columbia refused to grant the Doulihouborski (a sect of Russian immigrants) land where, as they set forth in their request, they could be independent ci all authority except God's. The Parliamentary' Committee of the Trades Union Congress has appealed to the unions' to contribute help to the 710 men connected with Lord Penrbyn’s quarries,, in Wales, who are fighting for the freedom of trades unionism.

The workers in the Amalgamated Tin-plate Company have accepted a temjmrary reduction of 25 per cent, in wages at Pittsburg in order that the company may secure a big' contract. Mr Tarte, the Canadian Minister for Public Works, has resigned at Sin W. Laurier’s request. Sir W. Laurier censured his campaign. which was undertaken withofit his colleagues’ consent. M. Leon Tiefrs, of Russia, is report* ed missing in Equatorial Africa. It is stated that he was sold up at Addis Abeya. in Abyssinia, by order of the Negus on an order to pay money due to his Somali guards. Mr Brodrick. Minister for War, stated in the House of Commons that Lord Roberts considers the report of the Remounts Inquiry unsatisfactory. The Agrarian Party in the Reichstag. by 194 to 155, despite Count Von Bulow's appeal, rejected the Government's proposal and adopted the Tariff Bill Committee’s amendment fixing the minimum duty on wheat at 60 marks. While a crowd was watching the rescue of a drowning boy at Starnboul, a parapet collapsed, throwing a large number into the river. Three hundred and seventy-five people were drowned. News from the New Hebrides states that Father Tayblade, the chief of the Catholic Mission at Melsstsi, on Pentecost Island, and five natives -were drowned through the capsizing of a boat in a squall. Mr Cooper, an English missionary, was recently assassinated at Fez, the second city of Morocco. The murderer took refuge in a mosque, but by the Sultan’s order he was taken out and shot. News lias been received that Arab pirates . recently attacked an Italian merchant vessel at Massowah, in the Red Sea. Italian gunboats pursued •and bombarded Midi, where the pirate dhows took refuge. Mr 'Brodrick (Secret-ary of State for War) threatens to take legal steps -if-theatre managers refuse, to recognise soldiers’ uniforms as equivalent to ■ evening dress in any part of a theatre. Mr. Rockefeller, head of the Standard Oil Companies, has given £lOO,000 sterling to establish teachers’ colleges connected with the Columbia University, provided a further £BB,000 is raised from other sources. The Government of Mozambique detained Mr. Dan. Grove, an Australian, leader of an African expedition from Blantyre, in British East Africa, for adversely criticising Portuguese administration. Mf. Grove was subsequently released, and is now proceeding to Durban. Ambryiu volcano, in the New Hebrides, is in a state of great activity, according to news just received here from the Islands. Reports like thunder' from the volcano have been heard at long distances away from the island. Mr Morley, in presenting the Acton Library to the of Cambridge, described it as having been collected to set forth the history of liberty, the emancipation of conscience from power, and the gradual substitution of freedom for force in the government of men, the whole affording a stimulus to thought. Air Chamberlain, in the House of Commons, replying to Sir William Gordon, said he was confident the Commonwealth would administer the law in regard to Pacific Islanders in Queensland in a liberal spirit. He was not aware that any had become subjects of the Crown. M. Coombes, Premier, stops the stipends of the chief authors of the petition against the religious association laws. The signatories include a number of prelates, who apparently were unaware that the Council of

State.had decided that any collective action bn the part of t)j£ bishops would be an infringeubeut of con- ■ cord.

'rhe British and Foreign Bible Society's Coronation Bible has been received by the King 1 . [This Bible was originally intended to have been used at the Coronation '-’service, but- was not because it fdid not contain the Apocrypha-] - - The Tsar of Russia, telegraphing to General Ignatieff at Sofia, says:—“l thank you sincerely for your toast at my' dear brother Ferdinand’s table. 1 rejoice at Bulgaria’s progress, and hope you found at Sofia as here the gratitude and sincere lovqralways felt towards Russian Tsars. -I wish your excellent work crowned with sucVisaount Doane, In ,h>s report on army remounts, says the drain for the Indian market has greatly reduced the margin of the Australian supply, and advises that in future purchases be maria through dealers. He adds: New Zealand, while not having a large supply of horses, is first among the colonies as regards merit, Victoria is next. New South Wales third. South Australia fourth, and Queensland last. Further revelations have been made at Indianapolis in connection with the recent arrest 4 .0 f ail American professor of anatomy and an assistant at the medical school on a charge of stealing corpses front graves, it is alleged that during the past five years the professor and those who assisted him stole twelve hundred bodies from the Indiana cemeteries for use in connection with the medical college. The eruption of Ta Soufriere volcano, ,in St. Vincent, last week was heard at the Barbadoes, nearly 80 miler, away. Arrowroot fields at St. Vincent have been devastated and wide areas of tillag-e, considered outside the valcano zone, have been buried by hot sand. Many residents of Georgetown journeying to Kingstown were exhausted by hunger and thirst. The Admiralty has invited tenders from Clyde shipbuilders for a firstclass cruiser of the New Edinburgh class, with more povverful guns than the County class. A duplicate will be shortly built in the Governmentdockyard. Tenders are also invited for two second-class cruisers, each of 3000 tons and 10,000 horse power. Owing to the great number of applications for old age pensions in Belgium, which had been fixed at sixtyfive francs (about £2 12/), the calculations of the Government were upset. Instead of being labourers, as expected, the applicants include retired tradesmen and small property, owners. The Government has dissolved the local committee because of the claims admitted, and has appointed a central committee to reduce the lists. The Germans are annoyed at the number of Russian warships frequenting the harbour of Kiel. The Russian officers, it is said, are photographing the fortresses and the German ships, and studying German naval evolutions. In the House of Commons Mr Balfour announced that no .negotiations were proceeding with Turkey regarding the passage of the Dardanelles. Six foreigners, chiefly Russian, have been arrested for having in their possession Bank of Englamd forged notes (of a total face value of £13,500), and for uttering the same. .The police, expended a very' large sum in securing their arrest. The notes were printed in Italy', and the paper was prepared by Englishmen in Spain. The deception was. so good that banks accepted them. , Sir Thomas Ei-pton’s new yacht Shamrock 111. (which is to race for the America Cup) is to be built of milled steel. She will be less expensive than her precedessors. Herreshoff’s are building the new Cup defender. Mr C. Iselin, of the New York Yacht Club, is the managing owner of the new yacht vthioh is being built t-o defend the America • Cup against Sir Thoe. Lipton’s Shamrock 111.

Mr Nursey, of Manitoba (formerJ V Minister of Agriculture), is establishing a Canadian Food Supply Co. to retail products of Britain and Canada, considerably below existing prices. He will open restaurants, bakeries and stores. The Turkish authorities have constructed a fort at Bab-el-Mandeb, on the Arabian coast, overlooking the narrow strait of the saute name between Arabia and Africa, at the southern entranee of the Red Sea. (The fort is within range of the British fort on Perint.| Peritu Island lies in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, 1J miles from the Arabian coast and 9 utiles from the African shore. Since ISS3 it has been a coaling and telegraph station belonging to Great Britain.] A mass meeting, attended by ten thousand Bulgarians, held at Sofia, approved of the Macedonian insurrection against the Turks. A similar meeting was held at Phillippopolis. A number of Bulgarian peasants who are opponents of the insurrection hold Colonel Jankoff (of the revolutionary party) a prisoner at Monastic. In the House of Commons Lord Cranborne, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, stated that Great Britain had urged the Porte, while taking adequate measures to maintain order in Macedonia, to avoid severity. Mitchell (Miners’ Union delegate), at the Miners’ Convention at Wilkesbarre, was warmly cheered. He advised the men to extend the hand of friendship to tl eir opponents and co-operate in establishing permanent peace on the. coalfields. He added that President Roosevelt’s proposals were likely to secure , more just terms than were attainable by a continuance of the conflict. President Roosevelt's Commission has been unanimously appointed. There was great cheering at Wilkesbarre. Work in the coal mines is being resumed A committee of the House, of Commons has decided in favour of the withdrawal of the United Electric Railways Bill, which gave authority to connect Hammersmith and Hyde Park. This action is intended to prevent the Morgan syndicate from proceeding with the bill to continue their tube to the city and the northeast, inasmuch as the preamble of the latter bill implies that they had amalgamated to ; complete The through route. <The withdrawal of the bill represents a victory for Yearkes and -Speyers over Morgan, inasmuch as the united tramway under Speyers’ control, instead of feeding the projected Hammersmith tube, will feed the district railway. Moreover, the Central London Company, aspires to the completion of the circle covering a portion of, Morgan’s route. ■ . ... Steps are being taken to recommit the Tube Bill to enable the Morgan syndicate to execute their whole railway scheme. Mr Bilfour has accepted an amendment in the Education Bill empowering local authorities to dismiss. on educational grounds, any teacher, appointed by-the manager of voluni tary schools. The Government's amendments to the Education Bill have been carried, providing that the local authorities are entitled to act-as managers if tie managers disobey their, mandate. Each Education Committee must contain at least one woman. Mr. Balfour, being- dissatisfied with the progress of the Education Bill, has warned the Opposition that obstructive discussion will be met with wholesale closurb. The manner Wi which the opposition was conducted Would, he said, if applied to other measures, render Parliamentary government impossible. Parliament must resist what would be a confession of its own impotence. The “Standard" states that the Roman Catholic authorities fear that the concession made will enable the local authorities seriously to interfere with the managers In the arrange* motif of work and the selection of school books. It is suggested that ’hey may reconsid.r their attitude towards the bill. The Nationalists hope the Bishops will ask them to actively oppose the measure.