BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 955, 24 October 1910, Page 8

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

LONDON SUMMARY. DEATH DUTY INCREASE. London, September 0. According to tho report of the Commissioners of Inland .Revenue for the year ended March, 1910, the net receipts from estate and similar duties was .£21,754,833, of which estate duty yielded .£17,409,359, on increase of £3,295,465, and legacy duty £3,527,006, an increase of £191,428. Seventy-nine estates, as against 74 in 1908-9, were valued at more than £250,000. Estates valued at more than £100,000 were left by 168 persons, and five of these left more than £1,000,000. Tho ii've millionaires' or multi-million-aires' estates paid £3,426,730 in duty. ENGLAND'S INCOME. The report also shows that there was an increase in the gross income of tho United Kingdom for 1908-9, which stood at £1,009,000,000, of £29,000,000 on the figures for 1907-S.' There was a decrease, of £6 in the average salary (£233 per head in 1909) received by employees. Twenty men, not employees, draw incomes of £50,000 from business, as compared with 14 in 1908 ,• and 284 persons . draw incomes of between £10,000 and £60,000,- as against 219 in 1908. lu 1909 there were 202 cmployees with salaries over £5000, as against 109 in 1908. The income from foreign investments was 88 millions in 1909, as compared with 73 millions at the beginning of 1906.' WHITE CITY WEDDING. The marriage has taken .place .at tho Formosa, Village, at the White City,, of Sarongai Busabiree, a young man, 24 years of age, with the reputation of a mighty hunter , among his fellow-tribes-raon, and Rugig'asela, a maid of 21, wno is considered by her friends to be possessed of groat personal charms. At an early- hour the village was garlanded with corn and leaves, and the native occupants bedecked themselves with fincry of a gaudy character. In the afternoon the bride and bridegroom were temporarily separated from the other natives, who. occupied tho.time in making ,a procession round the exhibition, carrying instruments of war, and chanting woird songs. Afterwards a pig was killed, and the carcass at once singed over a fire of rushes, skinned, and cut into small pieces. The pieces wore placed in pots and sot to boil over charcoal fires. Before this had happened the bridegroom had-to fetch the bride. She offered resistance, and wept a great deal, -but, seizing hold of her, the man placed her upon his back, and, surrounded by his yelling friends, carried her to the open hut. There they .'all squatted round • a table raised but two to three inches from tho ground, and ate the wedding feast, after which the ceremony was completed by a series of war dances. .' WOMEN'S CORPS IN CAMP. .' For the first time- in tho history of the Army, a .corps solely composed of women has taken the field.' This enterprising body is the Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps, and it is now in camp at Swanage, Dorset. The business of the corps is to help to convey tho l sick-and wounded from tho clearing hospitals to the big hospitals • at the . base of operations. Every 'lady joining will have to pass an examination in first aid, nursing, and other subjects of a.similar .nature. On joining every • member has to sign an agreement undertaking to place herself at' the disposal of the War Office upon the mobilisation of the Territorials, and to serve cither at home or abroad, as may ■be required. ■ ; . TRAINING CADETS. ! The' four-masted barque Port Jackson, 100 Al at. Lloyd's, 2300 tons, sailed this week from the South-West India Docks, bound for Sydney, New South Wales, with 40 cadets, who are to be trained to become officers in mail and passenger: liners. Tho round voyage will last about nine months. . The Medway, a somewhat larger ship, sailed about four weeks'ago with 22 cadets on board.for Sydney arid Newcastle, New South Wales. These two first-class sailing vessels will bo ovjned by a new private company, which will be known as "Devitt and Moore's Ocean Training Ships (Limited)," and managed by that firm. Among the shareholders aro the Union-Castle and .the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Companies, of London; the Cunard and the Booth lines, of Liverpool. These companies have joined Messrs. Devitt and Moore in the training scheme, which has been carried on by that firm for 20 years, as they- realise that it is only in sailing ships that - a thorough and • practical ' training for officers can be obtained. H.M.C.S. The cruiser Niobe has been 1 commissioned at.Devonport for service' with tho Canadian naval force, and she will be used as a training ship at Halifax. \The ship has been brought quite up-to-date, and a feature'of her commission is that there will be no allowanco of rum on board. Tho Niobe has been purchased by the- Canadian Government from the British Admiralty, which has fitted the ships out for their futuro service. Tho Niobe's rofit was to have been completed by the end of/July, but when Rear-Admiral Kingsmill, director of the Canadian naval force, inspected, the ship during that month, much mora extensive alterations were decided upon, and although the ship has commissioned she will not be ready' to leave for Halifax for at least a month. The new ship's company are wearing tho initials H.M.C.S. (His Majesty's Canadian Service) on their cap ribbons, in place of tho customary H.Sf.S. ■ DEFENCE OF SALVATIONj ARMY. General Booth, speaking at tho Grand Theatre, Battersea, has replied to charges made against the administration of the Salvation Army recently. He said that poor people were told ■ that . the general was piling a colossal fortune for himself, but failed to state how it was that he, ever since the army started, had never taken a-'ishilling from its coffers for his. own support. Then the samo people whispered that the general lived in magnificence, occupied a princely mansion, and seldom ate except out of silver 'dishes. Nobody had over.seen him living in an extravagant mansion of his own. It was also alleged that the' army and its general did not publish audited accounts or a properly endorsed balance-sheet. At the same time, those people failed to tell the public that the accounts of the army were absolutely in the lauds of one of the first accountants' in the City of London, who had the most; perfect control over them. They also failed to state that, ever since the army : came into existence, every year a balance-sheet bad been regularly delivered at the homos of. its subscribers. ATTEMPT TO WRECK EXPRESS. A deliberate attempt to wreck a Great Western express from London to Plymouth has apparently been made at the level crossing at Stafford Bridge, between Stoke Canon and Exeter, where the gradient is very steep and a great speed is obtained. Ths driver states that he and his'mate were flung against the walls of the engiuo cab by a violent impact, and it seemed as if tho engine had jumped tire rails, though happily this was not the case. Ho promptly reported the affair, and examination showed that a largo steel lifting jack had been jammed between tho timber of the level crossing and the nictate, obviously with the intention of derailing the engine. The jack had been smashed. One hundred and fifty yards away on the opposite rail, was found another broken jack, which, it is assumed, was placed on the off rail near the first-noted obstruction. The right wheel of tho origin* must have kept to the rail, and wrenched the jack along until it -smashed. DISPATCHES IN A BLOATER, Two boy scouts have walked all tho way from Cardiff to London—a distance of 220 miles—with a dispatch from tho Lord Mayor of the Welsh city to the Lord\< Mayor of tho English metropolis. They started at 9.30 a.m. on Friday, and reached tho Mansion House early on Tuesday evening. They, had to make ooaay-detonrs .on- their- journey .in order

to prevent the letter from falling into the hands o£ hostile boy scouts, who tried to capture it. They had many adventures on their way; they stopped a runaway horse, helped an injured cyclist, slept in a barn, and, in the last stage, tramped all-night to be in. time. In case they were caught.and searched by the enemy in London the letter was concealed in a Yarmouth bloater from which the roe had been first extracted. RHODESIA'S DIAMONDS.. ! The De Beers Consolidated Mines (Limited) liavo decided to appeal to the Hou6o of Lords against the.judgment of Mr. Justice Swinfen Eady, in their ' action against tho British South Africa (Chartered) Company. . The British South Africa Company sought to set aside an agreement by which the De Beers Company claimed the exclusive right to mine for diamonds in the wholo of the Rhodesian territory, and in any territories to which they may become entitled. The action came beforo Mr. Justice Swinfen Eady, who gave judgment in favour' of the British South African Company, and this was upheld by the Court of Appeal. It is against this judgment that the De Beers Company will now appeal. ,£750,000 PALACE. '. ' v Within a few weeks, probably early in Octoher, tho work will be commenced of. clearing the' site in the Strand on which 1 , is to be erected the Palace of French. Arts and Industries. The site, which' has a frontage of 650 ft. to Aldwych, comprises 124,000 square feet, and the buildings to be erected are estimated to cost <£?50,000. The main elevation will be on the Aldwych side, and a very handsome facade will face Kingsway. Tho buildings will be in the French Renaissance style, and.are not expected:to be finished until early in. 1913. ; There will be upwards of one hundred sbops, and eight hundred suites of offices in the palace,, A French club, open-air cafes, a. French theatre, gardens, and a permanent French industrial exhibition will be among the attractions. DECREASE IN PASSENGERS. According to a Blue-book just issued, containing the annual railway returns for ISO 9, tho total amount of authorised,capital of railway companies' in the United Kingdom was ,£1,403,000,000. The total amount of capital actually paid-up at tho close of 1909 was .£1,31(1,000,000.. 'The gross receipts of the companies in 1909 were JC110,700,000.' The receipts from passenger traffic fell during the year .by about half a million, but this was counterbalanced by an increase . of about .£'ooo,ooo in receipts from goods traffic. ..There were 3,000,000 fewer third-class passengers carried in 1909. as' compared wilb : 1908. , The total number of ordinary passofigers carried last year was just over 1265 millions. The total working expenditure of the companies fell last year'from .£76,408,000 to £75,038,000. :. . LONDON'S 145,000 PAUPERS. |; The growth of London's army-of indoor i -paupers is -the. most. striking feature of the half-yearly Blue-book on Pauperism, issued by the Local Government Board. 1 here '.were 145,234 men, women, and children, excluding "casuals/' but including insane paupers, in , receipt of Pqpr Law relief in London on January 1, 1910. Here are tho numbers of London paupers, excluding insane and casuals, at periods between 1872 and 1910:- ; Indoor. Outdoor. ' Total.' 1872-6 ......... 35;i75 71(162 " 107,337 ! 11)82-6 ......... 49,470 .40,832 90,302 1892-6. ......... 58,725 • . 40,792- '99517 1902-6 67,389 . 46,955 114314 1910 ............ 74,120 45,011 . 119,131 ' SISTERS' HEROISM, ;' ' _ : A seven-year-old boy named Douglas Brpcbngton, living in Cardiff, fell into a boiler recently and' was terribly scalded. He 'began to recover, but there was no renewal of the skin on his right arm, which had been scalded from 1 the shouldorto tho -finger tips. -The doctor stated that the only: way of saving the arm was by grafting skiu on it. The' boy's elder sister,, named Madge, thereupon volunteered, 'and underwent the painful op-' eratio'n-of having large portions of skin e si from,both Aer thighs.-- It was then found,'that more skin was needed, and, although she knew the pain her sister had undergone, . Dorothy '- Brockington volunteered to' make' a similar sacrifice. Thanks to his sisters' devotion,' the'boy is now well on tbe road to: recovery.— "Standard of Empire."