BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 787, 9 April 1910, Page 13

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

: LATESTNEWS: FROM LONDON. A VIOLENT GALE. ■: {EXHIBITION OF, NEW .ZEALAND ; ■*; ' V'y\i PRODUCTS. : :■• •- '; London, February 25. • '•''■ The/United Kingdom has been'visit! d iy:agreat galo of exceptional iviplence. Houses and buildings in many places have been blown down by ' the wind <says the/'Standard of Empire"),'trees •uprooted, and there was hardly a streot in; the metropolis wherechimneys, windows, signs, or slates.were not blown off.r- Several cases of death and injury from falling debris have been reported. many .parts of thej seaboard. disaster, and loss have been reported,, a number of ships and small craft being idisabledor wrecked, with loss of life. JChe Italian ship F. S. Ciampa, 1478 .tens, .was driven on to the rocks/in Dunworley Bay, west of the Senn Heads,' -and became an entire; wreck, all hands, 'irmmberirig twenty-four, being-lost. A [French full-rigged; ship, the Marechal Snchet, of. over 2000 tons register,'and With a very valuable cargo of mahogany j from Japan, stranded on the Shingle iSands near Margate and broke' her Iback.;. ,

JAPAN-BRITISH EXHIBITION. The New Zealand exhibits at the .. Sorfccoming Japan-British Exhibition torilllcover the whole range of the Do- : Inrinion's products. A fine collection of red-deer's heads and other such < trophies will bo arranged on the walls of lie pavilion which has been engaged. 'Other exhibits will include a collection ft kauri gum, valued at £5000, lent.by she collector, and the show-cases will contain frozen meat and poultry, dairy produce, fruit, ; fleece wool, woollen jgoods, 1 and specimens of- minerals and jgoM-bWmg of hemp, Icopo, and '.twine, tinned . meats, . pre- , Iserved fruits and' jams willillustrate jsome of the principal industries of New Zealand. There wiE also be. a display jof sheaves of com, and on the waks of She pavilion will be exhibited specimens .-.. tof-dfierent kinds of wood, Maori carvlmgs_ and photographs and paintings illusIfcrataig the scenery.and commerce of the ' (oversea State". -The New Zealand Sbip- :'. png Company will' exhibit a model of a . State-room on board one of their liners.

,") THE MAXIM BIPLANE. Sir Hiram Maxim, the veteraninven- :/.'. tor, has nearly completed an aeroplane "'. > -he hopes will '.really: solve ; the problem ' of tight.. Every inch of the jaacbiiip has boon built :to .. his own '•'■ '■■'., ideas, iind it is. stated that it differs pmtrrely from .any other biplane.. Be- ' yfcween..the extreme points of.tho planes .the machine .is 44ft.; the engine is a' : rooraylinder 30-h.p'. one, weighing/ ■l&ith: circulating pump, oil pump, mag- ' heto, and carburetter 2201b. ■ Two perBons besides the driver can be carried. JEhe machine has', three screws, and Sphere: are horizontal .rudders fore and laft and .a; vertical"rudder. One"of the' . ioveffies which erfiance the appearance jof'. the aefoplane ; is a BpeciaUy' treated bilk ...with. which, a, greai; part of .the Jfiameworkwwvered. The. material is Iboth waterproof and: oilproof. lake '(tissue I paper, to. the "touch; it. takes the pressure of a strong /man 'to .get ' a timmb or a finger; through it, and it can' be torn only with; considerable • ieffort.: The fabric!is.so light that two Equaie yards of it weigh only an ounce. v.iWheri,.completed the .machine' ; wiU:;';be' . teteered by a gyroscopic.' regulator.' [■. \ : ; ; : THE DREADNOUGHT.HOAX.; V ' ;'A'_' delightful.Uttle incident; in; con:necticm with' the'recent sham Abyssinian princes Hoax on the Dreadnough ihas just come to light. TW story is—• . to use the words of ; the "princes"— (indeed remarkably ■ lovely). The incident was" ; the unwitr , ■ j jting encounter between the sham princes and a real Prince related to the British Royal Family. The latter was in charge of a duty boat, which. crossed •-'■' in front of the, pinnace conveying the . . Abyssinian royal party.''' When . the "•' ■: young'_■ Prince—the real one—arrived at '■/;■ ijia,snip he was amazed at being reprimanded one of his-super jor officers for "crossing the bows of royalty."

•:V'; HALLEY'S COMET. /; l Professor H.H. Turner, the. Sayflian (Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, gave k. very interesting lecture at the Royal Instrtution on Bailey's- Comet. He • pointed ; out that, the history of the comet, had- been, carried back to .240 B.C. In connection with the dates ■ of " ■' its appearances 1066 was' the date,:of : - jthe Norman. Conquest,■' in■ j 1531 Henry iVJJU. was declared head of the ■ Church '.*>f England, 1607 saw the foundation of '. (Jamestown, with which the history of 9&e United States might be said to be- . gin, while 1758 was tho date of the Sbirth of Nelson. There was a curious between the general ■ elections m England in 1835 and 1910; in those iwo years'the number, of. Liberals in the previous Parliaments was sl4and . '513," and after the elections 385 and 897; while the Opposition the elections, in the two years numbered "144 and 157, and after them 273 in both '~- cases. He suggested that the institu.daon, should bottle- large quantities of . ; air on-May. 18, .when the world :would !' toe-in the tail of.the comet, and find But what, was really in the.comet'B tail.. '.; DESTRUCTION OP ATAULT-a ; j " An outrage of a ;mosi abominable . charaoter has been committed -.bysomo taknbwn miscreants in'Cefn Cemetery, ;■.. tear. Merthyr, South Wales, the family -:. vault of Sir William T. Lewis having '■: lieen • forcibly entered and the. coffin of .Lady- Lewis broken open. Tlhe-dis-' "■ covery was made by the sexton of. the cemetery, who,' on going his' rounds, found that the outer gates'to the vault ',bad been forced open by breaking two , krge'blocks by which they were. se- ..'•; cured. There was a massive teak door to the vault, and this to' some extent bad resisted attack, but the.criminals had managed to batter down's, portion of it. and make''; an aperture large enough to admit a man. Although the Md of Lady Lewis's coffin had been torn off, the body did. not appear to have ' been disturbed. It has since become known that the graves of Colonel 0. R,. Lewis and two other, persons in the neighbourhood have been desecrated. .'■ SIR JOHN TBNNIEL. : Sir John Tenniel, the most famous of all "Punch" cartoonists, celebrated his'ninetieth birthday on February 28. This winter he has been kept indoors by i a cold, but otherwise he is remarkably : well and mentally . alert. Uufortunately, increasing blindness deprives him of the pleasure of reading, but he is still ahle to follow the course of events with great keenness. Mr. Henry Silver and Sir John aro the sole' survivors now of the "Punch" staff of the 'fifties. Sir John Tenniel's first ; cartoon was 'drawn'in 1851. From: that time.'until the. death of John Leech, in 186-1, ho Bhared with Leech tho honour of draw--1 ing the principal cartoon. Afterwards, until January, 1901,• the, weekly work ...' devolved entirely on-Sir John, save for a month's holiday in the autumn of ; 1878.:, "'; £140,000 FRAUDS. Frauds -involving sums totalling , nearly- £140,000 have been revealed by investigations'into the financial affairs

of Mr. George Franklin, one of the leading publib men in Southampton, who committed suicide in London recently. Franklin was a builder and an estate agent, and tie plan ho adopted with regard to lis frauds is exemplified in the case of Abden Park, Portswood, when ho purchased a large block of building land. Houses were built on it, but also before they were finished Franklin obtained first mortgages on them.', At the same time.lie topk out other first mortgages on tho same properties, forging tho deeds, it is alleged. In several case's six and even eight "first mortgages" were in existence on tho samo property. Franklin, bowever, was. at last unablo to. pay tho interest on tho mortgages, and suspicions were aronscd'when tenants received letters from the different mortgagees that the rent was to be paid to no. one but the writers. It is feared that many people have been ruined.

; -THE GREAT STORM. . Passengers. by the Belfast to ,Larne express on. tho Irish branch of the Mid r land Railway met with an alarming accident between Kilroot and White -Head. The train ran into a mass of earth, the result of a landslip on the rails owing: to heavy rains.' The engine and tender left the rails and fell over the embankment' into Belfast Lough, then at high tide. Three of the carriages also left the rails and embedded themselves in tho mud half-way down the sea embankment, two turning completely over. The passengers were fortunately all rescued, only four being seriously injured. Between two' and three hundred telephone lines were blown down in London alone, and as yet it is not possible,; to estimate accurately the extent-of the damages in the suburbs and the provinces, but' it must be very serious.- Off the mouth of'.the Mersey it is reported that the gale blew at ninety miles an hour. .

, DEATH OF MR. "A. ; WALTER.•■'■; : Mr. Arthur . Fraser Walter, second son of the late John Walter, chief proprietor of the '.'Times/' has died'at the age of 64. It was duo to a. domestic tragedy which occurred in 1870 that he succeeded his father at the death of the latter in 1894. ".■■/' John Balston Walter, his elder brother, left Oxford in 186S and went for a two years' journey round the world. On Christmas Eve, 1870, he was drowned whilo skating on the'lake at Bear Wood, within 48 hours after his return at the age of 26. Mr. John Walter, the eldest son, succeeds his .-father-as chairman of. the limited liability .company into which the "Times" was formed in 1908. Ho is • an experienced journalist. -. Tho chronological record' of.' the Walter family is as follows:— ■'■'.-■'.

John.Walter the First founded the .': ' '"Daily Universal Register" in 1785. . (It became the "Times" in 1788.) ■ John Walter the Second, who controlled ' the paper from 1812 to 1847. John Walter the Third controlled the .':■;.--paper from 1847 to 1894. "• Arthur Fraser Walter succeeded to the control of the paper -in 1894.

£1,000,000 LEGACY. ■In the' Chancery Division Mr. Justice Eve has given- his decision in the pro-' ceedings relating to Mr. William Whiteley s legacy of a million sterling for the erection of homes -for the aged poor, to be known as the''lWhiteley Homes." The question' raised was whether the majority of • the trustees had power to , bind the minority, and whether the intention of Mr. Whiteley was ; that the homes should, be erected on one site only. The judge 1 decided that the trustees were, not entitled to select more than-one site upon which might be-constructed; a cheerful grouping of homes, as contemplated'hy'Mr.' Whiteley. : Healso ibr.all ad-ministrative-purposes the acts'of the' majority should bo regarded as the acts j of the whole number..,.-.-.''