The Wide World.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 15, 13 April 1910, Page 7

The Wide World.

CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF.

IMPERIAL. The second stage of the Government’s) proposals was reached tins week, when, the House passed Mr. Asqurth’s motion:( ■’’That the House resolve itself into a; teo-mmittee to consider the relations of; the two Houses and the duration of! 4*arliasnent.” During the debate, Mr. Al-< ifred Lyttelton gravely rebuked Mr.; Churc-hill for imputing to the King a policy that the King was unarMe to deny.! •Mr. Lloyd George, who concluded the! tfebate, declared that it would be better! Jihat’ the-Liberals should be out of office) for a decade than that they should any; longer submit to the mutilating of bills) f>y the House of Lords. Mr. Asquith’sl snotion was agreed to by 358 votes to! £52.. i

In committee, Mr. Haldane moved that first of tTe Government’s resslntions, de-i daring; the expediency of disabling by( ;Jaw the‘Lords from rejecting or amend-i I 'ing; money bills. He declared if thel Liberals failed to establish a real revis-j sng •■second. chamber the Conservatives,; under the guise of reform, would, etrengthen. the hereditary principle. Mr.j Austen. Chamberlain replied that that X'iberals’ reform of -the House of Lords! was a .sham, and was only referred l&i in order to give Sir Edward Grey andi Mr. -Haldane a shadow of excuse fori retaining •office. The recent illness from which His, Majesty* the King suffered was more, -eerjous.than was originally announced,, “slight chill” being really an at-J liack of influenza, which confined Hisi ((Majesty^.within doors for several days,] ‘Lie is now on the road to recover}’. The trouble in the Durban, Northum-iberland,-and South Wales collieries over! ythe operation of the Eight Hours inj Mines Act is now over, and the-resump-, ftion of work will follow next week.: There have been many instances of diraj poverty as a result of tfie strike. Thu co-partners in Sir Christophe? iFurnOss and Co.’s Hartlepool shipbuilding concern have, by 598 votes to 492,, (voted against the continuance-of the-co - partnership scheme, though the men. as; copartners received 9 per cent upon; jtheir money, in -addition to their wages.; •Sir. Christopher Furness states that the< firm’s workmen were favourable to the) scheme if' the trades unions had left 1 (them alone.

A Parliamentary paper has been issued' containing the impressions of Sir Charles ■tucas, head of the Dominion’s Depart--chept, during his recent visit to Austra--fiasi-a. The need for quick mails and ■cheaper s cables was strongly urged byj ®if Charles,. who. said that nothing was l snore admirable «u Australian public* life' dhan the -effort’ to keep permanent offi-t Cails outside the scope of political influ-f ene-e. It would be difficult to point to) tany part of the world combining more) (advantages within the same space than) SNew. Zealand. British interests in thel SPdcilic called imperatively for much bet- 1 iter; communication between the Pacific] (Islands. The price of sugar in England has advanced 30 per cent, and a sugar famine is. threatened. The liner Cairnrona, carrying emigrants for America, caught fire off (Beachy Head. Seventy -passengers were injured, but no one wasrakilled. ■ The first clause of the Veto Bill has been passed by the Commons Iby a majority of 102. COMMONWEALTH. In the Commonwealth the Fusionrats •nd Labour party are both actively preJ>aring for election day (Wednesday Wiext), and both parties are very confident of victory. Labour has secured a (majority in the South Australia State this week, defeating the Ministerialists, and this victory has resulted in a redoubling of energies.

The schooner Countess of Ranfurly, formerly owned by the New Zealand (Government, while voyaging from Sydney (to the Islands, was wrecked on the coast ®f New Caledonia. No lives were lost.

■ Eighteen cases of smallpox, several of them fatal, occurred among the passcnikera of the R.M.S. Otway, the infection

liaving been carried by an Indian boy who boarded the vessel at Bombay. The ship has been released, but all the passengers are in quarantine at various ports.

The Miners’ Lodge at Newcastle has passed a resolution that the miners shall not produce more than a certain amount of coal per day until the release of the strike leaders. FOREIGN. A feature of the week on the Continent has been the number of accidents to aviators. Three German balloonists; were killed on Monday by their balloon, falling into the Baltic Sea, and another/ was killed the same, day by a fall in Pomerania. The well-known aeropla-: naut Leblon was killed by a fall from a. BJeriot aeroplane in San Sebastian, Spain, ■while Dr. Alberti, a German flying man,, was badly injured by a forty feet fall' from a machine of the same pattern. The new French tariff, which has been enforced, invests the Government with, retaliatory powers in eases of undue l (discrimination. The general opinion is that Britain lias been treated as leniently as possible. The chief feature is a number st new classifications directed again? Germany, but indirectly affecting Bril: ! •fx .it Roosevelt purposed seeing the I- but the arrangements have fallen through, the Vatican intimating as a necessary condition that Mr. Roosevelt must not offend the-Pope’s susceptiflnlit'ies as Mr. Fairbanks (eX-Vice-Presi-dent of the United States) recently did, iby attending the Methodist Church in ■Rome, which is said to be hostile to the (Pope. Mr. Roosevelt declined to make this promise.

At an auction in New York, Turner’s picture, “Rockets and Blue Lights,” sold for 25,000 guineas. The Egyptian General Assembly lias rejected by 66 votes to 1 the proposals for the renewal of the Suez. Canal concession.