GENERAL CABLES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 696, 16 December 1902, Page 1

GENERAL CABLES.

THE EMPIRE I.EAUUI:

By telegraph—Press AssociationCopyright. BONBON. December 11. 'I he Agents-Oencral attended the Empire League meeting in the House of Commons. Lord Onslow, who is presiding, noted with .satisfaction thatthe outcome of the Colonial Conference was a substantial practical contribution towards closer union. It gave the germ of wlmi- might hereafter become a great council of the Empire. POPULAR I.ORB STRATI ICONA, OTTAWA, December 11.

The Montreal Chamber of Commerce are inviting other Canadian Chambers to unite in a petition to the King to appoint Lord Strathcoim as the next Governor-General. TROUBLE WITH i)J NI ZULU. DURBAN, December 11. Dini/.tiltt refuses to surrender to the Natal Government a quantity qf captured Boer arms and ammunition. AUSTRALIAN NEWS. SYDNEY, December 1.7,

In the report of the Murray River Commission, it is stated that weight of evidence supports irrigation as of greater importance than navigation. One of the small-pox patients is dead. Mr Reid, speaking at Maitland, scathingly denounced Sir E. Barton's attitude on the hatter dilliculty, There was a point on which Australians would neither forgive nor forget, and that was when a statesman filling high offices administered the .law so as to' attract thr ridicule and odium of the whole of the British Empire. MELBOURNE, Dec. 15. Sir E. Barton, in a minute on the hatters' difficulty, points out that- no application for exemprion was made until the Pith. The application was opposed by the president and secretary of the Australasian Association of Felt Hatters. Sir Edmund Barton expressed regret that the application was made so late* Sir Edmund Barton lias replied ta Mr Seddon, appreciating his generous oiler. He says that lie left it to the States to respond to the oiler without Federal intervention.