THE OLD COUNTRY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 18, 29 April 1908, Page 9

THE OLD COUNTRY.

Mr. Jas. Fitzalan Hope has been elected unopposed for the Central Sheffield seat. Of the 400 persons who participated in the cattle drive at Kiltoghert, County Leitrim, 32 are to be prosecuted. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain is making steady progress, and now takes long walks. Leech, Harrison, and Forwood, a big firm of Liverpool shipowners, have assigned their estate.

Mass meetings of the North-Eastern railwaymen rejected the conciliation proposal and decided to tender their notices. Their Majesties King Edward and Queen Alexandra have gone on a fortnight's visit to Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Christiania. The Social Democrat Conference, which is sitting at Manchester, decisively rejected a proposal to affiliate with the Labour party.

The Supreme Court Sitting in Admiralty has ordered the steamer Maori King to be forfeited to the King for false registration and flying the British flag.

The White Star Line has ordered at Belfast two steamers, with a. speed of 21 knots. They will be the biggest in the world, 40 feet longer than the giant Cunard liner Lusitania.

Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, in a letter to a correspondent in regard to tariff reform, says: “I trust it will not be long before I am able to do something, which will be indeed gratifying to me, when there is so much to be taken in hand.”

As a result of jealousy, William Bucholitz, a laee merchant, and a churchwarden at St. Paul's, committed suicide, after murdering a married woman named Power, who cohabited with a man named Staines.

The Independent Labour party's conference at Huddersfield, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald presiding, agreed to the offer of Mr. Victor Grayson (Socialist member for the Colne Valley Division of Yorkshire) to join the party without signing the constitution.

London's petition to the House of Commons against the Licensing Bill introduced during the last administration by the present Premier, Mr. 11. 11. Asquith, is six and a half miles long. It weighs six hundred weight, and contains 517,000 signatures. A correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” asserts that owing to the preference of five per cent given by Australia to Britain as compared with foreign manufactures, the Electric Fittings Company of Hammersmith has engaged eight hundred additional hands. At the instance of Mr. T. A. Coghlan (Agent-General for New South Wales) the executive of the Congress on Refrigerating, to be held in Paris, intend to propose a resolution for the modification or abolition of the Continental regulations hampering the introduction and sale of frozen and chilled produce.

The Labour Conference has denounced the Government for entering into an agreement with Russia, thereby sanctioning the infamous tyranny of the Russian Government. The conference, standing, enthusiastically cheered the Russian Socialists. A resolution was carried declaring that the methods of Viscount Morley, Secretary of State for India, were as had as those of the Russian bureaucrats. British Elections. The election for Dewsbury, rendered necessary by the elevation of Mr. Walter Runeiman (the new President of the Board of Education) to Cabinet rank, took paleee on April 24th, Mr. Runeiman being re-elected. The polling was: — Mr. Runeiman (Liberal) 5591 Mr. W. B. Boyd-Carpenter (C.) .. 4078 Mr. Ben Turner (Labour) 2246 - Die Liberal majority was much greater at the general election when, the same candidates standing, the votino was: Mr. Runeiman, 6764; Mr. Boyd-Carpen-ter, 2954: Mr. Turner, 2629. The North-west Manchester by-elec-tion, rendered necessary by the promotion of Mr Winston Churchill to Cabinet rank as President of the Board of Trade, created intense excitement on April 25th. Mr Churchill was defeated by a substantial majority. The election resulted in the return of Mr Joynson Ilieks (Conservative), the voting being as follows: — Ilieks (Conservative)s4l7 Churchill (Liberal) 4988 Irving (Labour Socialist) .. .. 276 Majority for Ilieks .. .. 429

There were 11,914 electors on the roll, including 503 new electors. The figures show that 89 per cent, of the electorate voted. This is a record. The Liberals of Dundee have invited Mr Churchill to stand lor that seat* A Fatal Mistake. Moonlighters attacked the house of a fanner named Rountree at Kingscourt* County Cavan, on Sunday night. During the raid Rountree's wife ran out to try and identify the assailants. The husband, not aware that his wife had left the house, saw the moving figure, and thinking that it was one ol the raiders, fired through a window, instantly killing her. Decline of Wesleyanism. The decrease in the number of Wesleyan Methodists for the past year was the largest for half a century, the decline being: Full members, 4392; trial members, 1179; and junior 2435. The olliicial returns showed that in 1906 there wore 2445 Wesleyan Methodist ministers in Great Britain, 539,146 church members (full and junior), and 1,133,927 Sunday-school teachers and scholars. These figures showed a slight increase over the preceding year. Heavy Snowfall. A heavy snowstorm has fallen throughout the United Kingdom. The fall in Scotland averaged three feet, while some inches fell in London. Work has been stopped in the Northern shipyards, and trains have been much delayed. A great snow-storm swept England on April 25 and 26, several inches of snow falling all over the Kingdom. In the Southern counties great damage was done to fruit trees, and the crop will be a poor one. All over England communication has been stopped, and the telegraph service has been dislocated. Association Football. The final cup tie of the English Football Association was played on April 24 between the Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United, last year's champions. The match resulted in a win for the Wanderers by three goals to one. There were 70,000 spectators. Lock-out of Shipyard Workers. The shipyard employees have balloted on the question of a reduction of 1/6 a week in wages, or submission of the matter to arbitration and the establishment of Conciliation Boards, to which the federated employers still objected. The ballot, by two to one, was in favour of the second alternative. The employers have decided to adhere to their ultimatum, insisting that the shipwrights on strike should accept the rate paid on the Clyde, and they have decided to serve notices of dismissal on the men. The lock-out will affect 80,000 shipwrights, joiners, drillers, woodcutting machinists, and others in the shipbuilding yards on the north-east ami west coasts. Collision in the English Channel. During the height of the blizzard which has raged over England and in the channel since Friday last, a collision occurred in the Solent, oil’ Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, between the American liner St. Paul and the British cruiser Gladiator. The St. Paul had just left Southampton on her trip to America, and was at earning round the Solent in a heavy gale, accompanied by driving sleet and snow, when suddenly a vessel, which proved to bo the British second-class cruiser Gladiator (Captain Walker Lumsden) loomed up out of the darkness. The vessels were then so close that a col’ision was inevitable, and the cruiser

received a crushing blow on her most vital spot, nearly amidships, and on the port aide. The force of the impact was sullicient to heel the cruiser over, and when she righted it was seen that she was injured, and was making water very rapidly-

She was headed l at full speed direct for the beach, but so great was the inrush of water that before she could be run ashore, she turned turtle, within twenty minutes of the collision, but by this time she had reached shallow water/a nd when she settled her keel was some feet above the surface. Death of Campbell-Bannerman. The late Prime Minister of England (Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman) died on April 22nd, in his seventy-third year. His illness caused widespread regret, and messages of sympathy were received from all parts of the United Kingdom. The deceased statesman was a son of Sir James Campbell, of Stracathro, and assumed the additional name of Bannerman in terms of the will of a relative of that name, who, in 1872, left him a fortune of about a million sterling. He also inherited a large sum on the death of his father, the head of the Glasgow warehousing linn of J. and W. Campbell. Sir Henry first entered Parliament in 1868 as a member for the-Stir-ling Boughs, and in 1871 he received the appointment of Financial Secretary to the War Office. Afterwards he held, amongst other offices.fi the posts of Secretary to the Admiralty, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Secretary for War. In 1899, onu the retirement of Sir Win Vernon Haremit from the leadership of the •Liberal party, Sir Henry was chosen as his successor, and on the party coming into power, became Prime Minister. His wife, a daughter of General Sir Charles Bruce. K.C.8., died last year. Evading the Tariff. The German cargo steamer Hagen, bound to Fremantle and other Australian ports, while lying off the Goodwin Sands, shipped a cargo of explosives from a {German tug, presumably with the object of securing the admission of the cargo to (Australia miider the livp per cent lesser duty allowed under the Australian Preferential Trade Act. The action is exciting much comment in {England. 1 •