BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 793, 16 April 1910, Page 13

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LATEST NEWS FROM LONDON. THE STANDARD NOVEL. WAGES AND FOOD PEICES. London, March 4. A considerable sensation lias been caused in the literary and publishing world by the announcement made by Sfessrs.. Thomas Nelson and Sons that from April 13 they will publish new novels by authors of the highest. reputation at two shillings. Many experiments have been made in connection with the ■ publication of novels of tho usual length and standard at a lower price than six shillings. It has been left to Messrs. Nelson to throw over the eixshilling novel completely and to offer the same book at two shillings. The first three books to be published are: "The History of Mr. Polly," by H. G. Wells; "Second String," by Anthony Hope; and "Fortune/ , by J. C. Snaith. A memW of the firm states |that instead of publishing, as has been the custom twenty to thirty indifferent novels a week and being content with tho small profit on each, they intond to devote all their energies to selling one book a month and reaping the larger profit on that. A DEADLY RAY. Details have been recently published of an extraordinary discovery which, it is claimed, will render war impossible. J. he "News of the -World," in which an interview with the inventor appears, however, does not guarantee all that is stated regarding this discovery. "Without mov-' ">g from this room," 6aid the discoverer to the interviewer, "I could destroy every living thing you see in the street below, and nobody would know who had •£??> h m™ ied aII P CO PIe into eternity. This mysterious, deadly agency has been offered to the British Government, says the newspaper. Doctors who give the high frequency eloctrical treatment nave found it a source of obscure and deadly disease in themselves. The inventor, therefore, experimented till ho wae' able 'to isolate a ray which might paralyse armies," Small animals subjected to it died* nnd by. a. mechanical device the ray. was tlirooted on a horse four .miles, away. The beast immediately dropped. down dead.

WIDENING OF FLEET STREET. No less a sum than iMOO.OOO is to be expended on the .widening of .Fleet Street --an improvement which, it is hoped, will he considerably' advanced, if not completed, within the next eighteen months. . Half of this sum will be contributed by the London County Council, and the remaining .£200,000 by the City Corporation. Notices to treat have already been served upon the various owners, and thus tar the negotiations have been satisfactorily conducted. The work of widening Fleet Street was begun originally in 185S, but so little progress had. been made withthe schaine ,that people despaired of it ever being completed. . v . \ FIRES OF, A,TEAR; According to the report of the Fire Brigade■ Committee of the London County Council; dealing with fires in London in 1909, tho number of fires was less than in the previous year, but more lives were lost. The comparative .figures were:— Total fires in 1809, 3197; deoreaso, 11. Serious fires in 1909, 62; five years' average, ; 'G4. Lives lost'in 1909, 103; in 1908,' 93. Six fire stations are now entirely equipped with petrol motors, and no steam motors have been. added since 1907. The total'expenditure for the year ended March 31, 1909, was JC22.425 on capital. account, and ..£268,958 on maintenance, and the rate was equal to 1.51 d. in the pound. Of the 103 lives lost, fiftytwo were "children under twolyo.years ot age, and of the' ninety-two , fatal firce, thirty-one were due to children.playing with fire or matches. The total strength of the fire 'brigade' is 1354. ■/ "' ? '•'

PORT OF LONDON RATES. : •The Board of Trade inquiry into the provisional schedule of port rates framed by the Port of London Authority has been opened by Lord St. .Aldwyn. Objections have been made by the railway companies to the provisions by which Roods coming in and by sea aro exempt,, while goods coming in by seu and going out by rail have to pay. A large amount of eyidonco has been, heard in support of objections by shipowners and traders at novel duties and expenses which had. been placed on. coastwise shipowners, which, it was said, would handicap carriers by sea in competition with railway companies. The point was regarded as important, and on behalf of .the Port Authority time was-asked to consider the matter.. , .

CANADIAN, EDITOR'S DOWNFALL. Sentence of seven years' , penal servitude was passed at Guildford Assizes upon Hall Franldand, forty-eight, for forging a cheque for £10. Tho prisoner had a bad record, including a term of seven years' penal servitude under the name of Gooding. Ho was formerly, a writer under the Admiralty at Devonport, and afterwards joined the Army, becoming.on promotion attached to the, headquarters staff of the Duke of Connaught. Finally he went to Canada, where he became editor of one of the leading news agencies in Toronto. Frankland stated that he was falsely accused there of forging a cheque for 400 dollars, but after he had been in prison four days, it was discovered that a grave mistake had been made, and he was at once liberated. He failed in an action for 'malicious prosecution, and after that returned to this country and fell to temptation.

A NOVA SCOTIA BARONETCY CLAIM. A new development has taken place in the Macdonald Peerage litigation in the Court of Session, Edinburgh. The action is at the instance of Alexander Wenworth Macdonald ■ Bosville) of Bridlington, against Lord Macdonald of Slate, and his curator, the Hon. Godfrey E. H. Macdonald, to have it declared that by the marriage of the third Lord Macdonald, in 1803, . the eldest son, • Alexander Macdonald, afterwards' Bosville, the plaintiff's grandfather, who was. born in 1800, was legitimated. In bringing the action the plaintiff desires to vindicate such rights as may have descended to him, bno of these being tho right to a Nova Scotia baronetcy, the peerage not being involved. . The curator has now withdrawn from the case. Although Lord Macdonald's representative has withdrawn his opposition, the case, being a consistorial one, requires to go to proof for the satisfaction of the Court.

LONDON'S EXPENDITURE. The following table from the annual statistics abstract for London, which has just been published by tho Local Governniont Board, gives somo idea of the '■ huge .interests of tho County Council These figures are included in the net aggregate capital expenditures in 1909:—

• . . ■ £ Asylums 2,830,066 Bridges and tunnels ... 6,139,350 Elementary education ... 16,773,823 Higher education 643,339 ■ Fire- Brigade 1,672,6-16 Main drainage 11,250,388 Streets 23,890,279 Tramways 9,483,562 And the total under this heading is no less than JC85,403,047.

FUND FOR OLD 'BUSMEN. The Queen, whose ready sympathy with those in distress has been proved again dftd again, has forwarded a ohequo for .£IOO to a fund organised by tho "Express" in aid of the old 'busmen who havo lost their pensionn through the eollapso of tho Omnibus Men's Superannuation Fund. Tho sum received now totals Some Among the contributors iH'o the Dukos of Westminster, Portland, and Bedford, tho Duchess of Somerset, the Earl of Lonsdalo, Field-Marshal lord Wolseley, Lord Dosborough, Lord Charles Bcresford, Sir Gilbert Parker, Sir. A, de Kothsobild, and Viscount Portmou*

A MlSEli'd ruIITU.N'E, rif'i 1 an ini * uest was lield oa Charles Phillips, an old man of 72, who died in Kowton House, VauxhalL Hβ was thought by his companions to be penniless, but after his death it appeared that fi e P*^^? d spmb , je3oo °- A ne Pliew said tuat Phillips went abroad to Australia as & yonng man, and nothing was heard of him for a long time. When he returned none of his relations suspected that he had made a fortune, but he believed now tliat the old mau made his 6rst money in Australia as an upholsterer. Tho witness said that ho believed also his undo f d . Pi;?"'? 'he™- The coroner stated that Pnillips's will-which left everything to the Royal Society for the' Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-was contained in a notebook. The old man'a signature did not appear on the face of it. I r of Wl Jesses gave evidence as to Ihilhpss parsimony. It was stated that the will will probably be contested. A verdict of death from natural causes waa returned. UNEMPLOYMENT IN 1909 AND FOOD PRICES According to an abstract of labour statistics issued by the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, the year lOTwas a gloomy one from the point of view of labours Three features stand out distinguishing the year as one of nigh unemployment, decreasing wagts dearer food. In all trades throughout the year 7.7 per cent, of the workers were unemployed. In some trades the figures were very high. For instance:— cv v -1J- '' ■ ■ i Per cent. shipbuilding „..„.„" 22.1 Building „_„ i{,i ■ Engineering „. u,g Furnishing _... 10.4 Changes in wages affected 1,150,319 workmen during tho year, the net loss being •£69,212. per week—that .is, during the yoar, .£3,600,000 less > went into the pockets of the_ wage-earners. In addition, this heavy loss in wages was accompanied by an increase in food prices, of which the following were the chief in London.— Per cent.' Per cent. lit a.., <iearer. dearer All articles .... 8.2 Eggs ; ..13.5 Bread 19.9 Cheese .„.. 0.4 I'lonr ............ 81.4 Oatmeal ._. 13.9 Beef „ 7.9 Cocoa ' >. 5.9 Mutton .. ■' 1.8 Sugar ......... 8.3 Bacon 26.2 Jam ..„ 7.5 Butter 3.0 ■ Pork was 0.1 per cent, cheaper, potatoes 18.3 per cent., and rice 4.0 per cent. Currants, raisins, tapioca, and tea were at the same prices as in 1909. The total number of trade disputes during the year was 403, affecting 299,019 workpeople." and oausmg a loss of 2,761,000 working days.

MONO-RAIL EXPERMENTS. The greatest interest attaches to tho experiments by Itr. Louie Brennan with tho mono-rail train invented by him, at Gillingham, Kent. Two hundred and fifty of the leading scientists of the kingdom and others, including the Hon. A. A Kirkpatriclc, Agent-General (or South Australia; the Hon. W. Hall-Jones, High Commissioner for New Zealand; Mr. Percy Inskipp, British South Africa Company: Atr. H. F. V. Jones, Canadian Bank of Commerce; and representatives of the great railways, were present. The experiments included running at speeds of five, ten, 15, and 22 miles an hour; unloading of eight tons weight, to ehow how quickly it can be done on this "system; stopping and starting; taking curves at high speed. ROMANCE OF HALF. A SOVEREIGN. Half a sovereign tied up in a red-cheok handkerchief, with two ears of wheat, have been received at the offices of the Festival of Empire and Pageant of London in St. James's Street, accompanied by a letter, which ran:- "I understand that you're fixing up a Canadian week at the Festival of Empire. Do it woil. You can't pay too much attention to Canada. She's only human, and she's the best-looking sister in the family. I want the best seat you can give me for the half,a sovereign tied up in the handkerchief,- and if I oan't come, myself I'll send ray grandson, aged seventeen. The. money's good, and I thought it might interest you- to see it. I have another at homo like it. When I landed at Quebec nearly, forty years ago them-, two half-soys, was all: I had in' the" world. My old mother herself tied them up in my handkerohief. The sample of wheat I send with this note was grown,by me on my own farm near Calgary, Canada." The officials at the Festival office have returned the half-sovereign, with a ticket for arosorved seat. ,

COMMISSION ON DIVORCE. The Royal Commission on the reform of the divorce laws has just begun its sittings in London. Lord Go'roll/expresident of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, is president, and among the members of' the commission are tho Archbishop of York, the Earl of Derby, Mr. Rufus Isaacs, K.C,, Lady F. Balfour, and Mrs, H. J. Tennant. The most interesting problem inquired into, at tho present, is that of divorce among tho poor; The witnesses agreed that it was impossible for the poor to obtain decrees on account of the expense, and it was suggested that county ccnrt judges should be empowered to grant divorces. The majority of witnesses were in favour of the granting of divorce decrees on broader grounds. Sir George Lewis, the famous solicitor, who gave evidence, said: "1 can conceive nothing more terrible than that a man or woman should be chained for life to a raving lunatic. Divorco should be granted . after two years' lunaoy on the superintendent of the asylum and other doctors certifying that the case is incurable."