LATEST CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1924, Page 1

LATEST CABLE NEWS

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION A SCHOOLMASTER’S -WAIL. LONDON, April 22. A delegate at the schoolmaster’s conference deplordd the fact that ten out of seventeen hoys in his class admitted having sweep-stake tickets in their lockers. He urged that school children should he given better training to meet the world’s temptations. Instead vf sending boys out to work when they reached the age of fourteen it would he bettor to pay thorn an honoraiium to remain at school longer. This would fie. a wiser investment than paying unemployment- doles. The present system was creating a generation with a hang-dog look, with resentment in its heart, and with eyes always east down searching for cigarette butts.

AIARITZ ON TRIAL. Capetown, April 22. At the treason trial liv a specii 1 Court, ex-rebei Maritz pleaded guilt to treason and other charge; in cor nection with Hie rebellion, except tli align 1 .mis concerning the handing ove of equipment and horses to the Gci mams, and inciting members of the dc fence force to rebellion. In a writte ‘ statement lie denied that ho had eve ; worn a German uniform or carried.on movements in co-operation with tli Germans. He states especially that h never received money from the Gei limns, except two thousand marks t assist him in his (light to Angola Sentence was deferred. THE AIOUNTBATTEN BABY. LONDON, April 22. The Mountbatteu baby has lx?ei christened. The J Vince of Wales, win is Godfather, and Lady Patricia Rani tay, who is Godmother, attended tin ceremony at the Chapel Royal in S Janies Palace. THE BETTING CRAZE. LONDON, April 22. “In some working class districts tin bookmaker conics round with the regu lai'ily of a milkman in order to take house-wives’ bets while their husband.' arc away at work,” states Mr W. Ran dull, Secretary of the Turf Guardiai Society, writing in the Society’s Yeai Book. He says that these women him nulling with which to hot except theii house-keeping money, and when the\ lose they are compelled to resort to all sorts of shifts to keep their home going until next pay day. Mr Randall estimates that half a million men and women habitually make small bets, these seldom exceeding 2s Gd, with street bookmakers who are illegal. The total annual volume of street betting is about £6,250,000. The total volume of all betting, including covering bets laid over and over again, is one hundred and forty millions. Mr Randall adds that 98 per cent, of the money betted with office bookmakers is returned to the backers and iliettcd over and over again. He estimate-. tln- bookmakers win four millions annually. LABOUR PAPER’S CRITICISM. LONDON. April 23. The “Daily Herald” characterises Mr Lloyd George’s speech as an utterly ab.uiid statement of the position. The paper points out that Labour is officered as an independent party. Mr As<l uitli dcclnrc.l his party was comprised of independent Liberals who can, if they like and if they dare, combine uitli I in' Tories to defeat tlie Government. They then have to answer to their constituencies for that defeat. Jl is that fact which causes them uneasi-Uc.-s. SHIRE HORSE SHOW. LONDON. Fell. 23. i'ho -.1 -*>lll annual Shire Horse Show opened yesterday in tin* Royal .Agricultural ll.all, Islington. So far as the judging progressed some particularly good young slock was seen, while the general level or quality was high. One of the weight-pulling uonmnstretions arranged this year, that •.ii granite ,-.et ts. took place on the road out side the hall oil Monday aiteruoou and resulted in an astonishing display by an 8-ycars-old brown gelding named Umber, whose weight is Kiewt., belonging to Liverpool Coroporat Umber was the wheeler in a team of 2, harnessed one before the other, to a 21-tons dock wagon. The first pull was made with a load of 10 tons, which was increased gradually to 10 tons. With this load, making in till 18V tons, to pull. Umber shifted tlie wagon more than 5 yards before the 'front (trace) horse added an ounce of its own strength. MR. LLOYD GEORGE. LONDON, April 22. Air Lloyd George, speaking at T.lanfnirfeelnlii, declared it absolutely untrue that there was a revolt among the Liberals against Mr Asquith. Thc:c was however, a revolt against the humiliating conditions under which the i Liberal Party were expected to keep in power a Government which never concealed its hostility towards the Liberals. The Labour speakers said the Liberal Party was done for. They were told there would lie no election ior two or three years, and meantime, tho Liberals would be open to draw Labour over ihe rough roads of Parliament, and would finally be slaughtered. Afr MacDonald, he claimed, in three niontlis, had dissipated the stock of goodwill of those who put Laboui in office. The Labour party should reconsider its attitude before it was too late.

U.S.A. SCANDALS. WASHINGTON, April 22. Ex-Attornev General Dougherty gave the scandals situation a new turn when lie issued a remarkable statement, declaring he lias affidavits and documents, signed by witnesses appearing before the Senate Committees, averring that: “Words were put into their mouths, and that they were corruptly influenced to tell untruthful stories of a character injurious to me.” The statement, while bristling with counter accusations, makes the unusual plea that tlio American people will not listen to destroyers of character. The Senate Committee which had been dragging on day after day, revealing apparently without end the details of every imaginable kind of corruption has been methodically enquiring during the last few clays into the disappearance of confiscated liquors from the vaults of the Department of Justice, which, witnesses affirm, were distributed among friends throughout Washington and various high officials. Mr Dougherty’s statement declares this untrue, and says he is not a hypocrite who ostensibly enforced the law, and drank privately, and furnished hi, friends with drink.

BRITISH £ FOREIGN ITEMS.