BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1443, 18 May 1912, Page 14

BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

♦ NEWS AND NOTES OF THE WEEK. THE COAL STRIKE. London, April 4. At the time of writing the ballot of coal minors shows ft biggish majority against tho resumplion oi work. It tails, however, very far short of the twu-tliirds majority required if tho strike is lo continue. 'A curious feature about the voting has been the way in which the South Wales minors have turned from their ultrahostile attitude nnd voted for peace, while tho main fields of the Jlnglish area, which have always been nearest to a settlement, have proved recalcitrant. Another remarkable feature of the ballot is tho small number of men who have voted. In South Wales, for instance, 28,000 abstained; in Durham, HG,1!10. RIOTING AND LOOTING. But already something like 80,000 miners have gone back to work of their own nccord, and a little coal is onco again being dug and dispatched from the pits. Not in every ense, however, aro the men allowed to work in peace. At Glencraig, in I'ifeshiro, a crowd of 2000, including many women, gathered for the purpose of getting a dozen men to desist working. Tho police, who attempted to restore order, were greeted with volleys of stones, and the strikers wcro driven off only after fierce lighting. At Sowhill, Pontypool, there has lieen rioting, windows' in about thirty houses being smashed, and two men were severely injured. At. Houghton, in Durham, an attempt was made by miners to raid a theatre, and at Burnley, Bothwell, and the Cadeby Colliery riotous scenes have occurred. The Houghton affair was particularly disgraceful, as tho riots were accompanied by the looting of shops. The crowd also attempted to break into an ice-cream shop, but tho proprietors kept them at bay with a pail of dirty water she declared to ,bo vitriol.

INCREASED COST OP LIVING. Throughout the country distress is rainpant, and London has also been affected. In the metropolis, indeed, increases have everywhere taken place with regard to most of tho necessaries of life. The cost of bread and other foodstuffs has gonerally risen, while -ilio increased cost of coal has in several eases been accompanied by a higher charge for parallin oil. Milk is cheaper, however, and eggs are down in price. In Birmingham the gas supply has fallen so low that the corporation has cut

off the gas between midday ami 8 p.m., seriously affecting people who use gas stoves for cooking. Considerably over in wages has been lost by the workers of the country, while the fifteen greater railway systems of Great Britain will have lost directly at least J32,500,000 by the time the struggle is ended. i!G,5i5,000 SURPLUS. Tho account of the total national incomo for the financial year just ended shows that nearly every revenue Department produced more than was expected of it, and the spending Departments, cost less.- The.Navy, for instance, cost a groat deal less, because the work of building new ships was retarded by labour disputes. l'rom Customs and Excise, a revenue of =£72,029,000 was drawn, as against an estimate of w£G9,600,000, while the returns from property and income tax were put at <£44,300,000—m0re than half a million below tho mark. The total revenue was X185.0[)0,2CG. as against the estimate of .£181,710,000. This gives a surplus of Jt*3,ar-!,25(!. The Chancellor estimated the year's expenditure at <£181,83!),000, and only ,£178,515,100 was spent, leaving a balance of i,900. The realised surplus is .£0,515,000. THE NEW BUDGET. The Chancellor of tho Exchequer, in his. Budget speech, stated that 'this surplus will bo devoted to 'strengthening the Exchequer balances as a reserve (earmarked for the Navy). For 1912-13 the estimated revenue is ,£187,189,000, and tho , expenditure .£180,885,000 —thus leaving a surplus of •£3O-1,000. Tho Army is to cost .£170,000 more than last year, tho Navv .£308,000 less. So far tho coal strike has cost the revenue ,£400,000 up to 11-arch 31, and is estimated to cost .£BOO,OOO more in this financial year—a totnl of J51,200,000. The loss to the Post Office alone last month on account of the strike was <£(0,000. There will be no remission and no increase of taxation in the coming year.

RECTOR'S SON'S CAREER. Leave has been given in the Probate Court to presume the death of Edward Sidney Burrougli, the eon of tho Rev. John Burrough, rector of Hillborough. It was stated that at the age of sixteen the presumed dead man joined the niereantile murine, but in 1884 he deserted his ship in Australia, and was afterwards

convicted of stealing surgical instruments. In 1885 he returned secretly to his father's house, and was kept there unknown to his father. In October, 189. r >, ho married a servant in bis father's house, ami shortly after was arrested and sentenced to thirteen months' hard labour for burglary there. In 1SI)7 his wife saw him last, and in 1901 she married again. The -police had information that the man was seen about 1902, but the information was not conclusive. The man was interested in a sum of money amounting'to a little over i£2oflo. MUTINY INCITEMENT CHARGE. Mr. Tom Mann, tho Labour leader, has been oommitted for trial at Manchester Assizes by the Salford magistrates oil charges of having incited soldiers to mutiny. A police witness said that at a meeting at Salford Mann stated: "I have always been one to say to soldiers, 'Don't shoot your comrades. Turn your rifles round and shoot other people.'" At Penfold the accused read the first three paragraphs of the "Open Letter to Soldiers" (published in the "Syndicalist"), and said he was pleased to fake the responsibility for the passages. Mann denied in Court that lie had used tho

words quoted above. Ho agreed, however, entirely with the spirit and tho object of tho "Open Letter." He was allowed bail. [Cable advices have since stated that tho accused was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.] A .£IO,OOO ROBBERY. Burglars whose elaborate scheme for reaching their booty included boring three walls of a total thickness of four feet, succeeded during the week-end in robbing Messrs. Ettlinger, wholesale jewellers, of Regent Street, of jewellery estimated at more than .£IO,OOO. The burglars started work by effecting an entrance into tho Cottage Tea Rooms, three shops fitav from Messrs. Ettlinger's. There they had a good meal of cake, peaches and cream, and smoked some of the cigars and cigarettes they found. Thence they bored their way through a tv.-elve-incli wall into the next shop, and- proceeded further on their journey by making a hole leading into Messrs. Goodyer's counting-hnuse. They gained access thence to the jeweller's shop by piercing a hole about three feet square in the remaining wall. They ransacked the premises, broke onen the safe, and departed with articles valued, as stated above, at over .CIO,OOO. IDEAL HOME EXHIBITION. The Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia will bo opened on Friday, April 12, by Princess Alexander of Teok. Meanwhile, hundreds of workmen have succeeded in entirely obliterating all vestiges of "Tho Miracle" spectacle, and are now transforming tho area beneath the great glass roof into tho mq 5 t modern of domestic scenes. Everything that one sees will bo illustrative of the comfortable and convenient way of living. Tlio glass roof of Olympia—23,soo square yards—is being transformed into series of Adam ceilings copied from old houses in the Adelphi. A great attraction will be the Dutch Village of 2. r i houses. The streets will bo laid out in perfect semblance lo a pleasant township in Holland. There will be canals with bridge* and windmills and a bulb Held with 50.000 tulips in blown

IN HONOril OF DIC'ICFA'S,

Mr. Berkley WilUnn, lion, secretary to (.lie j)irjkoiH CenUiiary (JummUtw, static that (lie nppi'iil for i'mnU in aid ot jlif live grandchildren of lh« iiovnhl hii.s nou* bci'U cloK'd, lln' tf| !, nd Mm amounting to over , Hip appeal wt\p itiotiuurpk'd in conn'-ciion with tho of llif* WivUi ol lh<- iaiU'M- novelist. nnd Urn rr*»ll is fhnl fhn future of his grandrj;iiiffhter? i? provided .or "Tho rnonoy obloiuod," statoa slr. Bockloa

"is going to be invested by Lord Stralheona, .Uijjli Commissioner for Canada, in Canadian securities. These will yield such a handsonio rate of interest fur the next five years that each of the livo grandchildren will be assured of an annual ineoino of .£l5O. _ At the end of that time annuities wiil probably bo bought which will bring the total amount availablo for each recipient to .£170." THE SUFFRAGIST CASK. Mr. and Mrs. I'ethick Lawrence and Mrs. I'anlihurst have lieen commitf:e<l for trial on a charge of conspiracy in connection with the recent, suffrage disturbances and Airs. Tuko, who was also accused lias been discharged. A number of letters seized at the offices of the Women's Social and Political Union were read in the course of tho hearings at Bow Street. One woman wrote (hat every ono of tho Irish section slio was sending over would be prepared to go to prison, while another suggested that the leaders of the union should not pass a member "without a friendly smile." ifr. and Mrs. Pothick Lawrence were released on bail—amounting altogether to .000. BEDSIDE ARREST. A vordict of manslaughter was returned against Maurico Alabaster, now under arrest in Paris, at the inquest on an actress named Dolly lialsden, who was found dead in a Hat at Lisson Grove. A policeman, describing tho arrest of Alabaster in Paris, said ho found liim in bed. When lio addressed him, th« man jumped out of bed and made for tho window, but he was stopped by tho witness, who pointed to two French Army policemen with him armed with revolvers. Alabaster, ho stated, did not deny his identity. Medical evidence was given at tho inquest that (ho girl was .suffering from status lympliaticus, and that tlio slightest violence would cause death. The jury, in returning their verdict, held that death had been contributed to by the condition of status lymphaticus.

DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD. Tho Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed tho appeal of Frederick Henry Seddon, insurance superintendent, against t.ho sentence of death passed on him at tho Old Bailey for the murder of Miss Barrow, tho elderly well-to-do woman who lodged at his house in TolSington Park. Mr. Marshall Hail, who appeared for Seddon, claimed that there was no evidence that Seddon over purchased, possessed, or handled such a deadly poison as that to which Miss Harrow's death was attributed. Nor, lie hold, could it ho conclusively shown that there was motive, interest, or opportunity for Seddon to do such a deed. There was, lie stated, such an amount of prejudice iii the case that the Judge should have taken the strongest possible line in determining whether there was evidence to go to the jury for the prosecution. ITEMS OF INTEREST. The annual census takon by the medical ofliccr of the London County Council shows that on the night of l'ebru&ry 9 there were 1203 homeless people in the streets, on staircases or under arehes, in London.

The Admiralty have decided not to place on trial Frederick Ireland, the naval stoker who was sent home under arrest in connection with alleged acts of espionage while serving on board the destroyer Foxhound.