CABLE ITEMS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XX, 15 November 1902, Page 1233

CABLE ITEMS

The King has returned to Sandringham. A strong branch of the Navy League has been formed in Montreal. Lord Hopetoun is gazetted Marquis of Linlithgow, and has accepted the presidency of the Australian Club. King's College has appealed for half a million to endow a college seat in higher education. The death is announced of Mr Leonard Browne, the celebrated throat specialist. Chopyonghin, a pro-Russian, has been appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in Korea. The Canadian Dominion post office for the first time shows a slight surplus on the year’s working. Lord Strathcona states that the grain exports from Canada during the last financial year totalled a value*<of 49,215,000 dollars. President Castro has proclaimed that the rebellion in Venezuela has ended. The Government forces lately captured the strongholds of Mateo and dispersed the rebels. Mr. Arnold-Forster, Secretary to the Admiralty, has intimated that the new British scout steamers will carry 10 12-pounders and eight small automatic guns. Mr Taylor. Conservative, has replaced Mr. Warr (resigned) in the by-election for Liverpool (East Toxteth), defeating Mr Rathbone by a majority of 377. Germany is voting £200.000 for the expenses of participation in the St. Louis Exhibition. Prince Henry will attend the opening. The sheihks and notables enthusiastically welcomed Viscount Kitchener at Khartoum. While there he presented colours to the Soudanese regiment. The principal main line companies propose to undertake tubing in London, linking the termini by means of primary circles, with cross tubes radiating to all populous centres. Mr Herbert Samuel (Liberal) has been elected for Cleveland vice Mr Alfred Pease (resigned), defeating Mr Geoffrey Drage by a majority of 2036.

The Board of Trade returns for October show that the imports increased bv £2,502,927 and the exports by £ 1,166,195.

Four thousand whites and negroes at Darling, Mississippi, burned z a negrt» to death at the strike. The negro had confessed to having robbed and murdered two whites.

Sixty ruling chiefs, mounted on elephants, will escort the Viceroy (Lord Curzon) and the Duke of Connaught' on their State entry into Delhi.

Mr. Chamberlain lias appointed a committee to study the practicability of a gold standard currency being established in the Straits Settlements and the neighbouring Malay States.

Owing to the imprisonment of Dr. Tatarcheff and other Bulgarians in Greece, the Greek Consulate at Varna, in Bulgaria, has been attacked and anti-Greek riots have occurred at Burghas, attended by six fatalities.

Colonel Fonteheff, one of the leaders of the popular movement in Macedonia, attributes the collapse of the insurrection to the secession of Lt. Saratoff, who has formed a revolution committee on his own lines.

The bombardment of Midi, in the Red Sea, has ceased, the authorities having promised to surrender 11 Arab pirates who took refuge in a spot inaccessible to the Italian launches.

Viscount Cranborne, in the House of Commons, announced that the general position of Britain regarding the Yangtse Valley was unchanged.

Authoritative rumours are circulated stating that the Kaiser, when at Sandringham, on his visit to England, intends to frankly discuss German and British relations with the Ministry. • tt.

The chief constructor of the American navy complains that the strikes t.nd the consequent inability to procure armour have much delayed the ship-building programme. The Government has decided to establish an agricultural high school for women —the first in Europe. The school will give special training in dairying, gardening, bees, poultry, cattle and sheep. Already 325 ladies have applied for admission.

In connection with the forgery case, Bernstein, a jeweller at Plymouth, lias been arrested for forging and having in his possession forged Bank of England notes to the amount of £ 40,000.

The Grand Duke Paulo, uncle of the Czar, has been dismissed from the army. A mesalliance by marrying a divorced baroness is the cause of the dismissal from the army of the Grand Duke Paul (uncle to the Czar). Russian nobles’ estates are being foreclosed on to an increasing extent and sold to recover Government loans for the improvement of the estates. The buyers are largely of the rising middle class. The latest sales represent- 2300 square miles.

The chairman, in his address at the meeting of the shareholders oi the Engl’sh and Scottish Bank, said Australian borrowing would not meet with a good reception at present, but he thought an irrigation scheme to minimise the drought would be readily supported.

At the new trial of Roland Molineaux, who was sentenced to death at New York early last year for poisoning Mrs. C. G. Adams, Molineaux for seven hours was subjected to a severe cross-examination and created a favourable impression.

The tax collectors are compelling the Armenians to pay eighteen years’ arreafS'of the military exemption tax, regardless of the thousands who were massacred or who have left the country because of persecution. In many instances this involves forfeiture of the entire possessions of t.he defaulters.

Kuyoff, attached to the Russian Department of Agriculture, who was entrusted with the charge of a deputation of Russian farmers who are now visiting England, has by order of the Czar been requested to spend a year in Australia on a similar mission. to study agriculture and the methods of raising cattle.

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, addressing- a meeting at the Alexandra Palace, protested against the Education Bill, and advocated a reduction of expenditure, the curtailment of armaments, and the avoidance of wild and disordered schemes of foreign extension.

The edict ordering the punishment of the officials concerned in the murder of Messrs. Bruce and Lewis, missionaries, has profoundly impressed officialdom. It is interpreted as a decided diplomatic victory for Sir E. Satow, the British Ambassador.

The International Mercantile Syndicate ’is so organised that it safeguards British interests. It dees not own White Star or other English allied companies’ shares, which are in the hands of the English owners. The registered company is called “The International Navigation Company.”

The Admiralty is forming a reserve of engineer officers for service in war time composed of mercantile marine and shore engineers. They will be trained for three months in the dockyards and nine months at sea, and will receive 8/6 and 10/6 a day while

training with an annual retainer thereafter of £ 15.

The commandants of the French submarines at the Cherbourg manoeuvres report that the battleships were never safe within the submarine radius. The action of artillery fire and the most careful lookouts kept aboard the battleships were quite ineffective. They declare that the battleships were only ’safe when close to the harbour entrances protected by electric wires.

The steam collier St. Regulus collided off Dungeness, in the Straits of Dover, with the Spanish steamer Enero, striking the latter abaft the engine-room. The St. Regulus continued to steam ahead after the collision, with a view to keeping in the gap made in the other steamer, so as to enable the sinking Spaniard’s crew to escape. The Spanish sailors became too terrified to avail themselves of the opportunity, and the Enero went down. Only three out of her crew of 25 were rescued.

An Afghan merchant reports that the Ameer of Afghanistan is responding to Russia's request that Russian caravans should be permitted to usje the Khusk —Herat and Kabul routes, in order to cement closer commercial relations. It is admitted here that the matter is of the utmost importance, but it is impossible to change the whole Afghan policy suddenly. It is suggested that future communications should be made through the Indian Government.

“Vorwaerts,” the German Socialists’ journal, states that M. Kuropatkin, the Russian Minister for War, in a confidential circular asks the district commanders to consider means of combatting the revolutionary agitation in the Russian army. M. Kuropatkin states that the revolutionary Socialistic propaganda in the army is remarkably bold and widespread. The Socialists incite the privates against their commanders, and exhort them not to shoot peasants and workmen who are struggling in a righteous cause. In some instances privates and noblemen serving in the ranks act as political agitators.

While thirty thousand people were watching the posting of election returns in Madison Square, New York, an explosion of fireworks, which were being let off in honour of the return of the proprietor of the New York “Journal,” killed twelve people and injured 50. A mortar accidentally discharged a heavy bomb into the thickest of the crowd, and a second and third bomb became ignited by sparks and exploded simultaneously, causing a wild stampede. A later report states that eighty persons were injured by the explosion and seven in the hospitals had their legs amputated. Others lost both hands.

A Blue Book relating to the Colonial Conference contains a summary cf the proceedings and the resolutions. The appendices cover the discussion on military defence preceding the correspondence. The Blue Book is warmly acclaimed, especially Mr. Chamberlain’s opening- address, Viscount Selborne’s naval statement. Sir John Forrest's minute, and Mr. Broderick’s candid statement. German newspapers make unfriendly comments befitting the Imperial Conference -Blue Book. The “Vossiehe Zeitung” says that after Germany’s retaliation Canada and the colonies will not venture to adopt the preferential principles enunciated at the conference. The Government’s amendments in favour of the municipal or county council appointing the local Education Committee, and delegating thereto any of the Council’s poweis other than financial, have been adopted in the House of Commons. Rating and borrowing- are reserved to the Council, the latter to consult the committees on the subject, but the Council is free to disregard their recommendation. The Liberals welcomed the modifications, also a clause providing that a majority of the committees should be members of the Council, unless the Council decided otherwise. In the House of Commons Mr Balfour gave notice to move on Tuesday to apply the guillotine to amend-

ments on the Education Bill in ordea to have the third reading finished before December 5. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman announced his determined opposition to the proposal. Henri Vidal has been sentenced to death for murdering and robbing several women at Nice. Vidal is described as a degenerate. He was arrested in January, having confessed to killing three sweethearts. At the conclusion of the trial a crowd of 5000 tried to lynch the prisoner, but the gendarmes protected him.

The British War Office has ordered two thousand pairs of patent pneumatic boot heels, the invention of Mr W. Lingard, of Wellington, New Zealand. fMr Lingard left New Zealand some considerable time ago for Australia and England, In connection with his Invention of pneumatic boot heels, and. Judging by the above cable, he appears to be meeting with considerable success. Evidently the War Office have decided to give the invention a practical trial; Mr Lingard has strongly urged the adoption of these heels for military boots, contending that they would save infantry a great deal of fatigue when on the march. Mr Lingard is an old resident of Wanganui, and holds the New Zealand Cross, awarded him for bravery during the West Coast campaign against the natives In the sixties, when he saved the life of a comrade in a Wanganui volunteer -cavalry corps. Prior to leaving New Zealand to push his Invention abroad, he formed a syndicate, on shares, In the colony, to provide the necessary preliminary capital.]