BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 14

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LONDON SUMMARY.

MR. LLOYD-GEORGE EXPLAINS THE FINANCIAL POSITION. ' : A SURPLUS OF .£2,982,000.. The financial position of the country ■was explained in the House of Commons by Mr.. Lloyd-George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He said that, .with the exception of Customs and Excise, all the taxes imposed had como up to expectations, and in some cases had exceeded them. Making allowance . for taxes which had still to be collected, ■there would actually be a surplus of ..£2,982,000, which, he added, would have been increased to .£4,200,000 if the original Budget had been passed. Dealing . with' the taxes which had not been collected owing to the rejection of the Budget, ilr. Lloyd-Georje gave the following estimate of the principal amounts still unpaid:— £ Income tax (inclnding supertax) ..; ;....... 23,455,000 Land tax and inhabited' house duty .......... 1,910,000 Land- value duties .._ . .... 490,000 Licenses '' ...;.'..; 2,100,000 Death duties' 1,380,000 Increased spirit duty 301,000 Tobacco duty „ 106,000 Motor-car licenses 260,000 The total amount of uncoUectcd taxation was .£30,436,000, which, allowing for deduotions, would .be .£29,230,000 net. Finally, : Mr. Lloyd-George stated that the total expenditure for the year was i! 157,945,000, and the total revenue actually received £131,697,000. This left a realised deficit of and arrears . to. collect .£29,230,0110. DREADNOUGHT HOAX • SEQUEL. The amazing hoax perpetrated by the . "Abyssinian princes" on the officers of Ms Majesty's ship Dreadnought has had a sensational sequel, according to the "Express." It appears that it was found impossible to bring home to the offenders any actual breach of the law. How-' ever, from the moment when they became aware that a practical joke had lieen played on them the officers leagued themselves together to. discover the identity of the men who had been guilty of such a gross insult to the British Fleet. After inquiries the addresses of the "princes" were, obtained, and a command was. forwarded to each of them, explaining that his presence in London was desired. Three of. the "Abyssinians" meekly obeyed the written request. One was seriously ill in bed, while the "lady prince" was absolved from invitation. Ono of the "princes" was ordered to , call at the residence of Admiral Sir William May and offer. a full apology. He proceeded straight to the house, but after being fcept waiting on the doorstep for fully twenty minutes, received a curt message form the Commander-in-Chief that his presence was not desired. The two other "princes" who.wore the instigators of the hoax were dealt with less leniently. They wero invited to a, certain house in London and vigorously caned Try young members of the insulted Service. ' ■■■■'.•

WIEELESS A demonstration o£ wireless telephony Mas given recently by Mr. Grindell Matthews at the offices of Messrs. F. Kouse, Pool, and Co., New Broad Street. The instruments were : placed in two apartments separated. ■. from one another .by eight rooms, and a clear •distinct conversation . was kept up between them. Th« invention is |compact and portable, the whole instrument being contained in an ordinary sized- box. It is claimed that by its ."means, it will be possible to communi--cate from'land or from a. battleship with * submarine whilstin motion; to estab-* iish speech between' moving bodies of troops : during manoeuvres, or war; to apeak to ships at sea from land, or from i ahip to ship at sea; to communicato with airships; and to speak from your- house to a distant motor car in motion. At' the present, power has'been transmitted over 7j miles at sea, and speech has been accomplished over half a mile in the busiest part of London.

FAMOUS E.A.'S DEATH. , ■ ' ' The death has occurred at' Iris ■ reslitu.ce in Portland Place of Sir .William Quiller Orchardson from weakness of the ieart. Hia fatal illness had only lasted a fortnight. A busy worker to the last, M celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday by working all day in his studio to complete his portrait of Lord Blyth for the Royal Academy.".. Perhaps the beet known and most typical of his pictures is "Napoleon on' Board the Bellerophon," which was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest, and now hangs in the Tate Gallery. Other well-known pictures of his were "Queen of Swords" and "A Marriage de Convenance." Sir William was knighted in 1907. His eldest son, Mr. Charles Quiller Orchardson, is an artiet of distinction. Sir W., Orchardson was chairman of the executive committee of the British Fine Art Section of the forthcoming Japan-British Committee. He will be -represented at the Royal Academy this year by three portraits, those of Lord Blyth, Mr. E. A. Abbey, E.A., and the chairman of the London County Council. THE SENTENCE ON A CHILD. Charles Bulbeck, the thirteen-year-old first offender, who was sentenced by the Haywards Heath magistrates to six (strokes , with a birch rod and seven years' detention in a reformatory for the theft of a fivepenny lump of coal, has been released from Portsdale Industrial School 'by. order of the Home Secretary, loud cheers were raised in the House of Commons when Mr. Churchill announced that the boy had been eent home. The Home Secretary, replying to a number of questions, said that he had received from the Haywards' Heath magistrates a report in which they said that they desired to send the boy, not to a reformatory, but to an industrial school. In his opinion the birching was adequate punishment for the offence, and any further term of detention to which' the boy was sentenced, should be remitted.

WORK OP LABOUR EXCHANGES. The Board of Trade "Labour Gazette" i>r April, just issued, contains a number flf figures'in reference to the work of the Labour Exchanges during February and March. There were ninety-threo of the exchanges open during March and eight more will be added this month. The pees total of applications received will be seen from the following table: — February. March. Men 179,082 ... 35,242 Boys 14,479 ... 9,822 Women 18,961 ... 17,246 Girls 4,311 ... 3,809 Totals 218,813 ... 126,119 The number of vacancies filled was 12,628 in February and 20,395 in March. The proportion of vacancies filled to vacancies notified has risen from 60 per cent, in February to 69 per cent, in March. Tho proportion for tho different classes in March was:—Men, 75; boys, 67; women, ■ 53; girls, 56. The classes of vacancies which it has proved hardest to fill are those for men engaged in boot and shoe ■ manufacture, and for women and girls in the textile and clothing trades. PRIMROSE DAY. Tuesday, April 19, was Primrose Day, f and in memory of tho twenty-ninth anniversary of tho death of Lord Beaconsfield the statue of the statesman in Parliament Square was beautifully decorated. At the base of the statue itself there had been placed at each corner Nile lilies and stars consisting of primroses, \yith hanging evergreens round' tho four sides of -thf-biise. Below and in front of the etatue was a representation of a map of the British Empire, tho Mother Country and her Dominions being outlined in red flowers. Round the map was the inscription, "Imperialism and Unity." On the right-hand side of the statuo was a large emblem with tho Prirnroso League monogram, P.L., worked in primroses. Oα the. left sido of tho statue, on a ground

of primroses, was an earl's coronet worked in flowers of different colours, over which was the legend: "linpcrimn et liberlas," and underneath the words: "itcligion, Constitution, and Empire," thoso being tho. motto and watchwords of tho Prinii rose League. LONDON'S FINEST CLUB. ,The new club-house of the lioyal Auto, mobile Club, in Pall Mall, on tho sito of the old War Office, will be the finest in London. 15y the time it is opened in January next more than .£250,000 will havo been spent on it. Tho member on entering finds himself in a great oval hall iiOi't. w.\de, whero loft and right, and before him corridors stretch to tho principal rooms. One leads to the smoking-room, the other leads to the dining-room, and the third to tho great gallery, a baronial hall in Louis Quiuze style, with a stage, at one end and a gallery connected with the restaurant for lady guests at Ihe other. The lower ground Boor is occupied by a white marble swimming-bath, the gymnasium, the shooting gallery, the Turkish baths, the squash rackets courts, barber's shop, kitchens, and a billiardroom, and a club-room for -the servants. There will bo ninety bedrooms. PENNY POSTAGE TO TRANCE. A deputation of Unionist, Eadical, Irish, and Labour members of Parliament recently waited on Mr. Herbert Samuel, the Postmaster-General, urging the establishment of ponny postage with France. In reply 'to their arguments, Mr. Samuel said that the question was purely one of finance: If the reform cost nothing they would be only too glad to do it. He stated that an increase in tho number of letters carried would involve a proportionate increase in expenditure. If it were illogical to have penny post age with' the United States and refuse it to' France, it would be far more illogical to have it with France and refuses it to Germany, Belgium, and Holland. The net loss if it were adopted with France would, in the first year be, £90,000; and if it were extended to the rest of Europe the loss would be .£380,000. Mr. Henniker Ilcatou, M.P., previously pointed ont that while the postage to fiji, 11,000 miles distant, was Id., the postage to Calais, 21 miles distant, was 2Jd. THE JAPAN-BRITISH EXHIBITION. The first contingent of natives who are to appear at the Japan-British Exhibition has just arrived in Londnii. The party numbers thirty-four in all, and consists of twenty-four, inhabitants of Formosa—the most southerly island of Japan—and ton Hairy Ainus, tho aborigines of. Japan, who come from Hokkaido. The Formosaus are of somewhat bloodthirsty habits, -and it is stated that the men who havo come to the ■; exhibition were recently concerned in a family quarrel ending in the murder of a number of relations. The Hairy Ainus are more tractable. The. most.■.curious of their customs is the tatooing, of the lips of the. vt'oniankind to. resemblo moustaches. Their costume consists of garments ..made from coloured bark. ■ . SCHOOL MEALS. The Board of; Education. has just completed its first report on the working of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 1906. The total number of meals supplied—outside London—was '■ 2,751,326 in 1907-8, and 9,701,789.am 1908-9.. The authorities who fed the largest, number of individual children were:—Birmingham; 92C2; Bradford, 5963; Cardiff, 5513; Leeds, 51C3; Manchester, 5785; and Newcastlc-on-Tyne, SSBi. At Suiidc-rlaha, 1,066,900 meals were provided without expenditure from the rates. In the year ended March SI, 1909, the London County Council supplied 4,516,771 meals at 132 schools, 218 centres, and 87 restaurants. The weekly average number of children fed was 39,632, and the average cost of the meals was about 2d.—"Standard of Empire."

Lovers of drama in its most intense and powerful form throughout Australasia have doubtless felt keen regret at tho announcement recently mado of the retirement of Bland Holt, but though that regret must still exist, it is: gratifying to nptojhat..though the genial''Wtor-maneger may l be rio longer so prominent, his work will be carried on. , Allan Hamilton, the well-known theatrical manager, has entered into partnership with Max Maxwell,, for some years leading man : for tho Bland Holt Company, and, by "arrangement 1 with, Mr. Holt, the new firm will produce tho following well-known and successful plays:—"Women and Wine," "In Lonoon ■ Town," "Revenge," "Lights of London," and "Women's Hate." They have also secured scenery by the late eminent artist, .John Bruncon,: together. with complete wardrobe and effects, such as were always distinguishing features of the Holt management. Tho company will inaugurate a limited Wellington season at the Opera House on Saturday evening next, staging "Woman and Wine "