BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 May 1921, Page 2

BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. BILLIARDS. .Received This Day af"B a.m.) LONDON, May 8: Newman with a score of 16,000, beat Lawrence, 15,036. Smith, 16,000, beat Inman 14,112. GOLF. LONDQN, May 8. In the final at Southpark, Abe Mitchefl, after an even struggle to the 29th hole, won four holes successively, beating Duncan five and three. One of Mitchell’s drives measured 310 yards.

MADAME MELBA’S FAREWELL

LONDON, May 8,

Madame Melba was greeted with tumultuous enthusiasm at her farewell concert at Albert Hall, which was crowded, the King and Queen amd Duke of York unexpectedly attended. R USSO-GERMAN AGREEMENT. PARIS, May 8. A Russo-German trade agreement has been signed. It is terminable in three months, and the authorities charge the commercial delegation enjoying diplomatic prerogatives, and merchant ships to have the customary privilege, and speedy resumption of interpostal telegraph services, and the exchange of prisoners and political propaganda is barred. BIG FORGERIES. VIENNA, May 8. A gang of forgers of Italian notes have been arrested. Notes were found to the value of three and a half million sterling. The gang had an elaborate printing plant in Milan and Genoa. The notes havo chiefly been circulated in Austria. WESLEYAN CHURCH, LONDON, May 8. The Wesleyan Synods are considering a definite scheme for union, similar to the Australian scheme, embracing the Wesleyan and Primitive and United Methodists. FRANCE AND THE VATICAN. PARIS, May 9. “La Libcrte” states that the French Government will shortly resume diplomatic relations with the Vatican. AN ART SENSATION. WORKS OF FAMOUS PAINTERS REJECTED.

LONDON, May J

Artistic Londin is bewildered by the spectacle of famous painters like the Hon John Collier and Air Hugh Riviere trundling home pictures rejected by the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy. Air Frank Salisbury vigorously attacks the new school’s policy of scrapping works of genius by artists of reputation because they conform to traditional canons of taste. Air Salisbury condemns the substitution of artistic novelties of inferior merit, and says that rejection will ruin some of the the most pop'dar painters, whose customers insist on : a ing works of fashionable artists. He says that the Hanging Committee preferred the immature work of young women in their teens, making a fetisli of individualism. Art critics declare that the committee represents the triumph of twenty-years years steady undermining by the New English-Art Club. JAPANESE PEARLS. HATTON GARDEN’S VIEW. LONDON, Afay 5 .Many dealers hold the view that Japanese faked pearls are really not fakes. In all respects they are the same as pearls obtained in the ordinary way with the exception of the artificial shell inside.

Hatton Garden experts admit that the revelation is the most important event in its history, and map revolutionise the pearl shell industry, because it is impossible to distinguish the oldfashioned from the tiew-fflshioiled pearls by the existing tests. The question is asked if these samples are obtained in a few months, what will happen if the cultivation lasts for years. Ihe iepj> —the* biggest and most beautiful pearls in the world.

M’s.P. SALARIES. (■Received This Day at 8.40 a.:n.) LONDON, May 9 In the Commons, Hon A. Chamberlain announced that Government intends to submit to the House, proposals making members’ salaries entirely free from incn e tax ; also providing first -class railway fares between London and their constituencies and homes. PROCESS FOR STEELMAKING. (Received This Dav at 8.30 a.nr.) PARIS, .May 9. Basset, ft French chemist, has disc- vered a process for steelmaking in one sixth of the time now required. The p'ineipal novelty of the process is the injection of hot air, and coal dust, into the furnace, obviating the use of coke.

CABLE NEWS.