SATURDAY'S CABLES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 9 December 1907, Page 2

SATURDAY'S CABLES.

Loudon, December (l, '■the Admiralty muiuus to construct lorwwitli ii-iuvm oasin at itosytli, near tiie l-'oru Jiritlge. its area will u« oti acres aud its depth aifft. at all tides. The quay will be able to accommodate 22 battleships, or 44 banked two abreast. There will also be a graving dock, always accessible to the largest warships, giving access to the basin, and also u constructing and graving dock. The latest Cuuard liner, the Mauretauia, beat the record of the Lusitanii for the trip across the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool by 20 minutes. Lord Milner, speaking at Oxford, advocated the establishment of a Wages Board to fix minimum wagts to sweated industries. The State, ho said would thus do for the weakest bodieß of workers what the organises trades did lor themselves. The Daily News applauds the speech and urges the Government to act on it.

Mr. J. Horsburgh and an assistant are about to leave for New Guinea, where they will make a.collection of fauna for the Royal Zoological Society's exhibition of Australasian fauna to ba held in June next. . Mr. Seth-Smith, a member of the Council of the Zoological Society, is also proceeding to Australia to secure collections of fauna. He offers Australian zoologists, other collections in return for their nativa specimens. The Marquis of Lansdownc, speaking at Sheffield, ridiculed the idea that the House of Lords was an intolerable and pernicious anachronism, though he was aware that the House was' not perfectly organised for purposes of legislation. There might be an improvement, he said, if the experienced peers who now did most of the revision work .were assisted by other peers chosen in a dif-. ferent and less haphazard fashion than at present.

New York, December 6.

Ten thousand miners have struck at Nevada, the mine owners having refused the men's demand for recognition of their union. Troops been seriT to preserve order. The estate of tho late Mr. Hovermeycr, the American sugar king, is valued at £15,000,000. Deceased bequeathed £750,000 to chirities. The Convention of CaKfornian fruitgrowers at Maryville unanimously recommended the appeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act and urged Congress to admit a fixed but liberal number of Chinese and Japanese on the same conditions as' applied to European immigrants. The memorial from the convention declares that the industries are threatened with extinction, and that there was no evidence that the States in the West suffered trom the presence of Chinese > prior to their exclusion. John Irish, a journalist, declares that the real peril of the country is immigration from southern and south-east-ern Europe. The present condition of affairs in the fruit-growing regions, he asserts, is due to the work of labour agitators, who are themselves mostly aliens.

Mr. Foraker declares himself a candidate for nomination for the coming Presidential election.

Fourteen persons were suffocated through tne outbreak of a fire in the tunnel which is being constructed between New York and New Jersey. In his annual report to Congress, the Secretary to the Treasury, Hon. G. B. Cortelyou recommends legWation in the direction of providing greater elasticity in the currency. He suggests the division of the country and the retention in each section of a larger proportion of bank reserves. He also suggests that the law limiting the retirement of circulation should be ao amended as to leave the amount to the direction of the Treasury.

Sydney, December 7. ' A Syrian named Moses was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for demanding money from Samuel Hordern, the well-known and .wealthy merchant, under a threat. Judge Docker undertook to recommend the release of Moses on sureties being provided that he would return to Syria.

The report of the Registrar of Trade Unions shows that the number of members of trade unions in the State at the end of IfIOCI was 88,428, and that the funds of the unions totalled £82,053. The Commercial Banking Company has informed the Government that the Bank could not agree to the Government's terms for the proposed advance to the Lithgow Ironworks. In the Assembly a statement was made that the Bank had decided to close down on the

ironworks, and appeals were made to the Government to devise means to keep the work going. Premier Wade, in reply, stated that he had no official information on the matter. He could not say what further isteps would be taken, hut tho Government was prepared to make efforts to prevent the dislocation of the industry. Melbourne, December 7. Lily Kean, a girl who wis suffering from melancholia, rushed into the sea here. Her sister went to the rescue, but both were drowned. Adelaide, December 7. The Legislative Council ratified the agreement to transfer the Northern Ter ritory to the Federal Government. * In the Legislative Council several members, hotly resented remarks made by a Legislative Councillor regarding ! the reception given to Mr. Keir Hardie in Parliament House. They urged the Premier to take action in view of the reflections cast on members of the Assembly. One member characterised the remarks as "an Insulting and blackguardly insinuation."

s - LATEST CABLE NEWS

(By Cable.— Press Association.—Copyright).