MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1924, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

[ 11 F.t'TKitS TELEGRAMS.] CHINESE SITTATIOX. (Received this day at II. go u.m.) PEKING. Aug. 2S. There i-. a slight change in the situation and little interteia-nee in i-iiiii-jnnnieation with Shanghai. Refugees tiro imitring into Slianglmi. JAPANESE AFFAIRS. (Received this day tit ll.go a.in.) TOIvfO, Aug. 28. (iovernment Ittive appointed a speeitd emigration commission of which the Foreign .Minister is head, to study tile problem e-.pi . tally ;:i view of tin- increasing population, v.liieh is in excess of half a million annually. The Commission will investigate the possibilities of more intensive cultivation in Japan, and tilso the development of the piesent waste lands in llokkuido. Sleeping sickness continues to spread, the Health Department reporting eleven hundred eases now on the island ol Skikko with several hundred more on the nisii ll island. Physicians report seventy per cent, of those who died were between sixty and seventy years of age. Only ten ]> • r lent, were under twenty.

CHARGE OP MFRDKIL VERDICT OP NOT Oril.TY. (Received this day :it. 12.80 p.m.) LONDON. An;/. 28. A jury, on wlii'li were live women, unanimously returned ;i verdict- tlint King wns not guilty. nfter 2i minutes deliberation. King throughout. maintained an lineoneerned demeanour, and unflinchingly faced a searching hour and a-lialf eross-exainination. Tile defence’s tlieorv was that the cheese touched the arsenic on tile pantry shelf. A feature of the ease was the address of the prosecuting counsel, who declared King intended to poison the family, hut the mother was poisoned through taking the fond intended for the father. The motive ol the crime was the animus of the son against the father, in compelling him to he an accountant instead of a chemist. Counsel declared tlie accused's evidence was characterised l v deliberate lalsehoods. The Judge, in summing up, said the chargo appeared In he inherently improhahle. Tin* anmnineemetit, of the verdict was loudly applauded and the court had to be cleared. BRADFORD INTERESTED. EFFECTS OF GFR.MAX-FIiAN'OO TREATY. f“TriK Tutus” Ski-vtrio] ("Received this day at 1.80 p.rnA LONDON', A units I 28. Bradford is deeply interested in the annotineiunent that Air .MacDonald is appointing a committee to consider the elfeet.s on British trade of possible European combinations. particularly since Air Snowden definitely mentioned the wool textile industry anion" those threatened hv the proposed Franco(lermnn trade pact. A trade supplement of a Bradford publication emphasises the fact that A lease Lorraine possesses an important wool textile industry and France may well use the evacuation of the Ruhr in order to bargain for preferential treatment for Alsace products imported by Germany. Mr AlacDonald lias already been warned of this danger. There is no doubt that once fiormany s linaneittl stringencies are eased. she will become a keen coinpetitor lor raw wool. The supplement adds : ‘The recent movement in Bradford values is largely due to speculative buying for the purpose, either of preparing to meet the increased German demand, or increasing stocks. Y\ htle yet (icituau competition is felt only to a restricted degree, the result has been a- general advance in prices for wool tops and varus.”