THE OLD COUNTRY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 18, 28 October 1908, Page 6

THE OLD COUNTRY.

The Alessageries Maritimes intends to improve its service to the East and Australia.

Trafalgar Day was celebrated in London in the customary manner, the Nelson Columr being decorated. The Australian amateur footballers beat London by three points to nil. Tlie Australian professional footballers beat Cumberland by 52 points to 10. The Christchurch City per cent debentures have been over-subscribed in London.

Lord Justice Neville has approved of the voluntary winding up of Wilier and Riley.

Wilier and Riley’s shareholders decided to wind up voluntarily. The directors are preparing a scheme of reconstruction.

Air. T. AfcKinnon Wood, Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education, has been appointed Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Air. C. P. Trevelyan succeeds Air. Wood in the former office.

Sir Eldon Gorst (British Agent and Consul-General for Egypt), in an interview, denied that Great Britain was desirous of proclaiming a protectorate in Egypt.

The Congregational Union has opened its session at Liverpool. The Rev. Ralph Wardlow Thompson presided over a great gathering of delegates. The wild agitation for an unrestricted Parliamentary system, however, showed that the country was not in a fit condition yet to govern itself. The Australian 'League footballers won their sixth match by defeating Runcorn ■by three goals and a try to two goals and a try. The proposed vote of censure on the Government, to be moved by Air. Keir, Hardie, is due to the exclusion of the “right to work theory.” Colonel Seely, Under-Secretary for the Colonies, stated that the All-Red route committee was now considering its interim report. It was unable to report finally until further information was received from the colonies.

The Liverpool “Journal of Commerce'’ states that all the marine engineering works on the north-cast coast have agreed to working arrangements, the basis of which are concentration of management, classification and standardisation of work, and also proportionate pooling of profits. A capital of £5,000,000 is represented. A meeting of delegates of the men employed by Furness, Withy and Co., West Hartlepool, approved of the offer of Sir Christopher Furness to establish a copartnership, provided the workers pledge themselves not to strike. u

The delegates have urged the local branches of the various unions concerned to adopt the proposal experimentally for one year. The Unemployed. Mr. Asquith has promised a full and definite statement on the question of unemployment in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He said that if the Labour party considered the statement- unsatisfactory he would give a day for the discussion of the question. While the House of Commons was discussing the Children Bill an old Whitechapel Jew, from the strangers’ gallery, tossed a bundle of papers on the. floor of t-he House, exclaiming, “Read my scheme for dealing with unemployment.” He .was ejected, after being admonished. Mr. Asquith states that the Government intend at the beginning of next session, to deal with the permanent causes and conditions of unemployment. 'A grave situation had arisen, necessitating direct and immediate treatment. This temporary dislocation of the machinery of production had, he said, occurred throughout the world, and not merely in the United Kingdom. The present number of unemployed was substantially in excess of anything experienced for some time, and Mr. John Burns had worked night and day to provide relief.

Between Juno and October the Local (Government Board had sanctioned loans for local works of utility to the extent iof £4,388,000, being much in excess of the average. Other heavy loans were likely to be sanctioned. Works were being accelerated in the metropolis and large provincial centres. The Water Board intended to construct an additional reservoir, which would cost £520,000. The Government did not intend to authorise local authorities to levy a penny relief rate. Hie Post Office intended to enr ploy 8000 extra hands arv The War Office would take. 24,000 recruits for the special reserve, at a cost of £200,000. During the winter, 21,000 would be engaged in the Government dock-yards on repair work. Tenders had already been accepted for destroyers, costing £9.000,000, and tenders would shortly be accepted for five unarmoured cruisers, at a cost of £1,500,000. All this navy work had been commenced six weeks in advance of the usual time.

The Government proposals made no pretence of finality. They were, merely anodynes affording temporary relief. Liberals are divided about the proposals outlined by Mr. Asquith for the relief of the unemployed, some considering that they are hot sufficiently farreaching. Unionist members regret that the unemployed in Scotland are not utilised in the excavation work at the Rosyth naval base.

The Labour party considers that the administration concessions are quite inadequate. The “Daily Mail” saya that by providing work for 45,000 Mr. Asquith assists one in 15 out of 655,000 unemployed. The “Daily News” declares that the proposals will afford no relief to unemployed women. The destroyers ordered in Glasgow will employ four thousand hands. The Glasgow Corporation intends to memorialise the Government urging it to proceed immediately with the construction of the ship canal connecting the Clyde, with the Firth of Forth, in order to provide work for Glasgow unemployed. Terrible distress prevails in many parts Of the United Kingdom, and it is feared that, serious rioting will take place before the winter is over.

Early last month the Sheffield City Council voted £lO,OOO for special works to relieve the distress there. The Liverpool Council, on the same day, spent £6OOO on the purchase of land on which to employ 150 men for three months. 'At Manchester hundreds of workless men demanded work of the authorities, declaring that their patience was exhausted. The situation at Glasgow was acute when the last mails left. The City Council had undertaken to provide meals for children under five years of age, and various measures were being inaugurated for the relief of the adult sufferers. Owing to the unrest all leave had been stopped among the troops at Maryhill Barracks. Mr. Will Thorne (Labour member for West Ham) was charged at the Wealmin■ter Police Court to-day with having incited a riot while addressing the unemployed at Trafalgar Square, when he

urged the unemployed to rush the bakers’ shops, and to steal rather than starve. Defendant denied the charge, and claimed that his speech was taken too literally. Still, he held that it was not a crime for a starving man to help himself to bread.

The magistrate (Mr. Curtis Bennett) ordered defendant to enter into sureties for good behaviour for a year, failing which he would be imprisoned for six months. His Worship remarked that if such incitement were allowed to go unchecked, the lives and property of peaceful citizens would be placed in jeopardy. A stop must be put, he added, to attempts to cause people to assemble for illegal or wrongful purposes. In the House of Commons, Mr. Winston Churchill (President of the Board of Trade), in reply to Earl Winterton (Conservative member for Horsham, Sussex), admitted that the unemployed in Great Britain were somewhat more numerous than in Germany. Increase In Agrarian Outrages. Mr. Birrell, Chief Secretary for Ireland, informed Captain Jas. Craig, Conservative M.P. for Down, in the House of Commons to-night that the number of agrariai. outrages reported to the police during the whole of 1906 was 234. In 1907 the number had increased to 372, while for the first nine months of 1908 the total was 417. Imperial Statesmanship. “The Times” says that the problem confronting Imperial statesmanship is the reconciliation of the growing forces of nationalism in the autonomous dominions with the principle of common aims and common action in crucial questions affecting the Empire as a whole, and advises Imperial statesmen to acquaint themselves at first hand with the feelings and ambitions of the colonies. Blackmailers Sentenced. Charles Winborn has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and Arthur Canham’to three, for threatening the life of J. B. Joel. At the hearing of the charge letters were, read showing that the writers posed as members of the Camerista Monenero, a secret society, and informed Mr. Joel's wife that a member of the society had been ehosen by lot to assassinate Mr. Joel. On seeing an advertisement agreeing to pay money, another letter was sent to Mrs. Joel, stating that a man would call for the money at Mr. Joel's house. When Canham called he was arrested. He confessed that Winborn wrote tile Jotters, and promised him half the money if ho assisted. Rifle Shooting. Natal won the Roberts trophy with a score of 498, England being second with 451, Australia third with 437, New Zealand fourth with 431, and Queensland fifth with 412. England won the Meath trophy with a total of 862 points, Australia being second with 801, and the South Island of New Zealand fourth with 736. The Suffragettes. The hearing of the cases against the suffragette leaders —Mrs. I’ankhurst, Miss Christabel Paukhurst, and Mrs. Drummond—of attempting to provoke a breach of the peace in connection with the recent attempt to “rush" the House of Commons, was continued at the Bowstree,t Police Court. Miss Christabel Pankhurst elicited from Mr. Lloyd-George, who was called as a witness, the fact that he was present at the Trafalgar Square meeting on tae 11th inst. Mr. Lloyd-George said he considered the demonstrations were formidable, but thought the suffragists' appeal to the public to “rush” the Commons was not very serious. Mr. Herbert Gladstone was also called as a witness, and said the “rushing” of the Commons meant the employment of force. The result of the suffragist demonstration against the House of Commons was that 37 arrests had been made and 4Q watches and purses stolen. Defendants insisted that Liberal statesmen had encouraged the suffragists to adopt the line of action they had followed. Local Option. In (lie House of Commons, the Government's amendment to clause 3 of the

Licensing Bill was adopted by a majority of 160. It provides for a two-thirds majority for local veto purposes after the end of the time limit. Factories in Ireland. There is a prospect that as the result of the representations of Mr. John Redmond, the notes! Irish Nationalist leader, who recently visited America, several American manufacturers will start factories in Ireland. This follows upon the new British patent law requiring articles protected by patent to be manufactured within the United Kingdom. Old Age Pensions. Mr. Lloyd-George (Chancellor of the Exchequer) states that up to Saturday, 273,862 claims for old age pensions had been presented in England, 13,160 in Ireland, 49,077 in Scotland, and 13,615 in Wales. On the introduction of the bill it was officially estimated that, at the present time there were 2,116,000 persons aged 65 years and upwards, of whom 1,254,000 were 70 years and upwards. Of the 1,254,000 (it is further estimated) deductions due to disqualification on one or more of the grounds common to all old age pensions schemes would reduce the number of eligible pensioners to 387,000. To provide those with a weekly sum of five shillings each would roughly cost something over five million pounds. The estimate, it will be seen, was a remarkably accurate one. The Sculling Champions. F. J. Pitman, ex-amateur champion sculler of England, presented Ernest Barry with the ‘’"Sportsman” Cup and medal, which accompany the professional sculling championship of England. The presentations were made at a crowded and enthusiastic meeting in the Hammersmith Town Hall, the Mayor presiding. Geo. Towns, who was defeated by Barry for the trophies, met with a cordial reception. He suggested that Barry should take a trip to Australia to meet some of the local men before sculling the holder, W. Webb or his challenger, R. Arnst, for the championship of the world. The Unemployed. The London County Council has authorised work to absorb the unemployed, including the expenditure of a sum of £281,000 for the electrification of trams, but negatived the scheme to expend a million in electrical traction and street widening. The Great Motor Race. Seventeen cars started in the race for the Vanderbilt Chip in New York. Geo. Robertson, driving an American car, was the winner, covering the course of 258 miles in 241 minutes, an American record. A quarter of a million spectators witnessed Ihe race. Many minor accidents occurred, but none resulted fatally. Only the first two ears finished, owing to the spectators rushing the course after these had passed. The SuffragistsAfter hearing twenty-seven witnesses at the Westminster Police Court, Mr. Curtis Bennett, the presiding magistrate, refused to permit, the. waste of time of the Court in listening io a further string testifying to the orderly nature of the suffragette crowd outside the House of Commons on Tuesday evening. He bound Mrs. Pankhurst and Mrs. Drummond in £2OO to keep the peace for r year, the alternative being three months’ imprisonment. Miss Glyislobel Pankhurst was bound over In £lOO or an alternative of 10 weeks’ imprisonment. Miss Pankhurst mode pn emotional speech of an hours’ length, and then burst into tears. Mrs. Pankhurst also concluded •’ speech sobbing. After the magistrate’s sentence the prisoners dramatically elected to go to prison. The Court officials failed to suppress a loud and continued suffrage! Ic demonstration in the Court. Home Rule. Mr. Asquith states that Mr. Winston Churchill's references to Home little in

liis recent speech al Dundee were mad* on his own responsibility.

Mr. Asquith adheres to bis declaration made early in the session as to the Government’s intentions.

Mr. Winston Churchill, speaking to hi* constituents on 9th inst., described tho Liberal party as the Horne Rule party, adding that the party should not bind itself nt next election not to present a policy for the proper pacification of Ireland. Wool Sales. Brisk general competition was maintained till the close of the wool sales, Americans bidding keenly. The quantity sold for tho Home, market was 100,509 bales, for the Continent 102,000 bales, and for America 9000 bales, 37,000 bales being held over. Compared with the July sales greasy merinos generally were unchanged, good parcels occasionally realising fivq per cent higher, scoured merinos 10 per ceng lower, fine crossbred par to five per cent higher, medium coarse par to live pee cent lower, scoured stipes a penny lower, lambs unchanged.