GENERAL CABLES

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 821, 20 February 1903, Page 1

GENERAL CABLES

By telegraph—Press AssociationCopyright. London. Fob. 18. Lord Charles Beresford lias accepted the command of the Channel squadron. Yorkshire has disapproved of the proposal to widen the wickets. The Duke of Devonshire, speaking in the House of Commons, said it was impossible to deny that certain elements of risk and danger still existed in the Venezuela question. In a Blue Book on the Kano cam" paign, Lord Onslow complained of Sir F. Lugard not informing the Government earlier what the position was, to enable them to judge of the necessity for the expedition, but agreed that the action of Sir F. Lugard, taking in the circumstances, was inevitable. Mr Root comes to London to arrange the Alaska boundary preliminaries. The Scotch Court has ordered the Clyde Shipbuilding Company to pay Spain £67,000 for delay in delivering destroyers. The Pacific Cable Board decided to replace the deficient land line from Grapplera Creek to Alberui with a cable, and is negotiating with Signor Marconi to experiment with wireless telegraphy between Fanning Island and Honolulu. The concluding tests between the Scotch and Belleville boilers resulted in H. ivl.S. Minerva, fitted with the former, winning the raco from Gibraltar to Spithead. The Hyaciuth broke dowm, and abandoned the trial. Mr Austen Chamberlain, speaking in the House of Commons, said tlio Government had absolute confidence in Sir F. Lugard, and did not dream of accusing him of unnecessary provocative action in connection with the Kano expedition. Sir .Henry Norman unveiled the memorial to 10 Fellows of the Colonial Institute who have fallen in South Africa. Yulionsun has resigned the Governorship of Shansi, China, alleging illhealth, though really owing to the Powers’ protest that he was concerned in the missionary massacres in Hunan. New York, Feb. 18. Thore are ten inches of snow in New York. Five thousand persons are engaged in clearing the streets. There has been a rise of 30 per cent, in Venezuelan import duties, and a considerable increase of the export duties. Coffee and cocoa are subject to the Columbian treaty’s ratification. ! America has purchased the Panama Company’s property rights for 40 million dollars. The protocol, settling American claims in Venezuela, concedes America advantages not granted to the other Powers.

Sofia, Fob. IS. M. Dan elf, tlie Bulgarian Premier, has made an emphatic declaration in the Sobranje that Bulgaria would assist the Powers in the pacification of Macedonia. Perth, Feb. 19. The plague patient is dead. Another case is reported. Sydney, Feb. 19. Pain has extinguished the bush fires at Dungog. One hundred and teu entries, inclu' ding Major Taylor and several New Zealanders, were received for the Sydney £IOOO bicycle handicap. The vital statistics for last year show 13,000 births and 3937 deaths. The death rate now stands at 11.71 per thousand, a decrease on the previous year. Cancer and phthisis show an increase, while pneumonia increased 21 per cent. The marriage rate is higher than for ton years past. Twenty per c-ent. of the marriages were contracted at matrimonial agencies. Melbourne, Feb. 19. The Income Tax Bill passed the Committee in the Assembly. An amendment was made that local mutual life insurance companies should be taxed at a fixed rate of a shilling on their investments, and as foreign companies did not invest largely locally they be taxed on a sum equal to 25 per cent, of the premiums received.