BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 869, 16 July 1910, Page 14

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

" .. — -*—: ■ . LONDON SUMMARY. THE SECOND CITY IN GREAT BRITAIN. EXTENSION OP BIRMINGHAM'S ■■ • BOUNDARIES. London, Juno 3. The effect of the provisional order for ■' tho extension of Birmingham's boundaries, which has just been granted, is to r aiako that city the second in Great Bri-' . - tain. The Local Government Board has granted practically all the Birmingham .Corporation. asked'. for, sanctioning , tho -. I inclusion within the city of Aston "■■ Borough, Eddington,. Handswof th, King's Norton, Ndrtbfiold, und Tardier districts. Birmingham will now have a population • approaching 900,000 and a rateable.value ,of over .£4,000,000. The population fi'g'■■jures of the chief cities of the Empire jwill now be as follow.—London, 4,795,757; '•Calcutta, ,1,240,000; Bombay, 1,070,000; .. IJBirmingham, 900,000. ; A RACE WITH DEATH. Thousands of spectators watched i> desperate race with death during a fire ' iwhich broke out on the steamer Laviuia .Westore, which was undergoing repair on a pontoon just below Wearmouth Bridge, Sunderland. A boy and a hiau, named respectively Patterson . and v Mills, vjero ' working in the forei>eak, when a heated rivet accidentally fell among some oakum, .which blazed up and cut off their reitrcat. They were in danger of being suffocated or burned to death. Fortunately one of the workmen thought of pumping ,air to them by passing air-pipes through ]the rivet holes, while a gang of men ■ eet to work to cut away a yard or so of half-inch ironplate in the .bulkhead in . order to release them. The plate gave way after half an hour's strenuous labour and the captives were released.. ; ;' ' WRECK EXPLORATION. • A business company, with a romantic .object, has just been started by Captain Charles A*. P. Gardiner. The National '■" /Salvage Association—for that is its name ."S.—will, undertake tho exploration of I thirty-two known wrecks containing Specie and other valuables estimated at '■:. ever four millions sterling. Sixteen \ wrecks have been located and surveyed, •-, • ■■"■" and the new company are now offering to the public 76,000 preferred participat- •' './.'- ing ordinary shares of £X each. The cap- ,' tain.has prepared an interesting report , ior the directors, in which he" refers'in detail to some of the wrecks. One ship, ; : says the:: report, had a cargo including i .' /720 bars of gold, 1400 bars of silver, nine '(boxes of precious stones, the aggregate . Value of which is calculated at over i ,; : , iI.OOOjOOO. - ; . ' IRISHiPACTION HGHT. Newmarket, a village in the north of ; : co. Cork, has been the scene of a serious ■faction fight between the followers of Mr. ' '.William. O'Brien and Mr. Redmond, re-.-: '; suiting in. the death '61 a young man • .named Regan. The fighting between the ,' parties, who numbered at least a hundred : on each side, began at an early hour, and "was kept up at intervals during the. day. , Jt finally terminated in a fierce riot in : , which, it is alleged, bottles, .stones, and } '-" ■ revolvers were .used. Even ' the. children ' : in-the village toot'part. ' A number of i houses were wrecked, and the police at . last'; were" forced to threaten to shoot. : This threat, having no\effect,, the constabulary fired two volleys over-the J ■ people's heads.' The:crowds then scat- i : -'■.. tored, and it was found that Regan, who i ;•■■■• had not been taking part in the riot, had' i ' been shot in the head., He died soon < :. after. - ._ • . : '. j '-'/■.' ;. '.DEAR MEAT CRISIS. : i : A situation of=■ 'great; seriousness has \ - arisen in connection witli the meat irade. > : The shortage of supplies has reached such .' a stage that the National Federation of < Meat Traders has issued an official notice ' '■ ' warning the public that an all-round rise ; in retail prices has become absolutely in- J writable; The probable increase will avcr- "'■" a«e at least 2Jd. a pound, according to a < '■'■': leading London "<>ufcher.. The main cause > . of the extraordinjfry shortage is to be ( : found in the stringent embargoes which •■ ■ have been placed on the importation of < live cattle from certain ports in the ' :■'' "United States of America and Canada. : ■■'.' While the embargoes have in view the < prevention of disease, their. effect. on the j meat market is simply disastrous. _ -. ' ; — '"•' 1 CANADIAN SALMON. ! Twenty thousand tons of salmon, which , a few weeks ago were swimming about 600 ( miles north of Vancouver, are now m , ••London. They are known as spring j salmon, and are the very-best ot the ( 'seven kinds caught in British Columbia, , equalling: in flavour the finest Scottish ) fish. Spring 6almon have never been im- , - .ported - direct; into England before-in- , Ideed. they are only known here through 1 ■email quantities of smoked fish sent by , 'way of America to Germany, and thence , to England. It is anticipated that-the , present enterprise, engineered-by the .j Fishing Syndicate of British-Columbia ] (Limited), will create something of/a.re-' , volution in the salmon- trade.- , ! ."■ ' ' ' ' "■ '"- ■ i MME. MELBAIS RETURN. The reappearance of Mme. Melba at Covent Garden in "La Boheme" was in -. . every - way a triumph. -There was a crowded house; and, on the fall of tho curtain at the end of the first act, tho prima donna was greeted with an enormous burst of cheers. The enthusiasm ~ did not subside until she had appeared ' so. fewer' than ten times before the curtain. Mingled with the loud cries for "Melba!". -were . the . unmistakable ■ "coo-ees" of the singer's countrymen. At , the fall of the: final curtain another demonstration of popular admiration and affection was forthcoming, and Mme. Melba was compelled to appear more than twenty' times. J ■ / - FIRST. RADIUM SAFE.A most ingenious safe—the first of its ' kind—has just been constructed by Messrs. Chubb and Sons to protect ra-' dium,.which is worth over .£400,000 an ounce,-from burglars. As radium eman- : atiohs can penetrate-steel, tho safe, to be radium tight, had to be made with a. ■'. steel outer case enclosing an interior shell - of lead—tho only'-metal- which, radium • .cannot penetrate.' Another feature is an •appliance for preventing tho loss of the emanations accumulated in the coffer •when- the door is opened. Two valves (have been inserted in the door. Before Sit is opened tubes with mercury will be ' j passed through, and' will collect, and' : .store the emanations. Tho safe, which weighs a ton and a half, can hold more 'than .£1,000,000,000 worth of tho preciousmetal. STREET PERILS. : Although .the complete statistics of street accidents for 100!) have not yet been published, an alarming story is told by those figures which have been made public. In 1891 the • number 1 of people killed by vehicles .in the area controlled by tho Commissioners of , tho Metropolitan Police was 147. By 1901 this number had increased to 18G, and last year.it was more than twice as large as the number for 1901—namely, 306. Again,- 16,536 people were injured in 1901), as against 9197- in 1901 and 5637 in 1891. Motor vehicles were;.responsible for 160 of'tho total number of fatalities, and mechan-ically-driven .'vehicle's shared to the extent of GSES in last year's total number of accidents. - . PARIS IN LONDON. May, 1912, will, it is hoped, see the completion of the Palace of French Industrics, on which work is shortly to bo ~ - begun on the long vacant site between Aldwych and the Strand. The site comprises 124,000 square feet, and the;building, which will have an imposing frontage on the Strand, will cost between ',£600,000 and .£700,000. -' A number of shops aro provided for in the plans, which will in- : elude a theatre seating 800, a restaurant, ond open-air courts and gnrdous. It is intended to found a French club in. connection with tho Palace, so that it will.

become a convenient centre for the French colony in London. A big company with a capital of .£1,000,000 will bo lloatcdskortly to carry the scheme out. AN EMPIRE EXPEDITION. Captain R. F. Scott has left on the Terra Nova en roato for the South Pole. Ho is duo at Cape Town on August 1, at Melbourne September 13, and Lyttclton (N.Z.) October 13. Speaking at a luncheon given in his honour by tho Royal Geographical Society, tho explorer said that ho realised that there wero in this great Empire—and he had tried to raako it an Empire expedition—many sources-of supply of good men. Of. tho hardy breed which Newfoundland had produced they had an example. Canada was represented by Mr. Wright, and they had others from Australia and New-Zea-land. Tho expedition is taking two kinematograplis, a large stock of special plates for securing tho effects of tho Antarctic in colours, and photographic equipment of a most complete nature. CANADIAN. ART EXHIBITION. Tho exhibition of pictures by Canadian artists, which was to have been an especial feature of the Festival of Empire at the Crystal Palace, will be on view at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, for three weeks in July. The exhibition will consist of: 120 pictures and a. number of pieces of sculpture, selected by the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and representing in addition the Canada Art Club of Toronto and the Ontario -Society of Artists. Mr. Edmond Dyonnet, tho commissioner from tho Canadian- Academy,' had sailed for England ivith' Ch't> pictures when the death of King Edward"'occurrcd. He had almost despaired of showing the works when the directors'of tho Walker Gallery.offered hospitality—"Standard of Empire.". .