OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 13, 9 February 1909, Page 4

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMAKY OF WOKLD HAPPENINGS London, December 19. Lord Jiosebcry has expressed his approval of the Swiss system ot compulsory training. The six days' cycle race at New York was won by an American team. A successful operation for cataract was performed on General Booth at his house at lladfcy Wood. A French naval launch was swamped oil" St. Pierre, Newfoundland. The whole crew of seven niun perished. Skeletons of me:i who walked on all fours like apes have beCn found in France.

Ail armoured motor-car is being built iu Uermany for use us an air-ship destroyer.

Mrs Carry A. Nation, the Kansas "saloon smasher," was mobbed on her arrival in (llasgow.

King Leopold is -taking steps to sell his private art collection, which is said to be worth over £2,000,000. The number of <leath sentences for the past eleven months is given as 1,01)1, of which 003 have been carried out.

. The directors of the .Metropolitan Opera House have offered a prize ol ten thousand dollars for an American opera. The competition is open only to native composers, Longboat, the Canadian-Indian runner, beat Dorunto ill a Marthon rave in New York on Tuesday night. The Italian collapsed after the 25th mile. Nearly 400 llritish M.lYs, " members of the oldest of Parliaments," liavesejit greetings to " members of the youngest" —the Turkish Parliament.

The King has written a- letter to Mr Andrew Carnegie thanking him for his generosity to the land of his birth. The Queen has purchased a large tourmaline from the collection of jewel exhibited by the Government of Queensland at their ollices hi the Strand.

All the labour organisations of America. are opj>osed to any reduction in the tariff, as protection is regarded as the only safeguard for higa wages. Kive castles belonging to the Kaiser are to be sold, liis Majesty having decided to reduce his personal expenses. At the Amherst sales eight panel* of tapestry were suld ior 12,000 guineas, and a suite of Lewis XV furniture fetched 7000 guineas. - If. is understood that i;i l!H0 further " Letters of Queen Victoria," covering the 2.) years following the death of the Prince Consort, will be published. An old mill building at Blackburn collapsed while being demolished. Three men were killed and four seriously injured. The telephone is one of the comforts of civilisation recently adopted by Afghanistan (says a Reuters telegram from Lahore).

A Bill is to be introduced in the United States Congress, in accordance with the suggestions inadehy Mr Koo.seveldt, whereby in ease of emergency a volunteer force of 2,000,000 men can he raised. The Kaiser has become ji teetotaler. He has temperance drinks served in champaignc bottles for his personal consumption at dinner., so that Ins "example .will not interfere with the taste of his guests. During a lover's quarrel a young miner near Glasgow cut his sweetheart's throat with a, razor, nnd left her dead on the footpath.

The terms of tile sale of the Cardiff Railway Company to tlio Tuff Vale Kftitwav Company show that the Marquis of Bute's interest will briug him in an illcome of over £112,0U0 a year.

Immigrants to the number 0f203,fi11? entered the United States during I lie ■past six months, a decrease of 70 per cent, ou the. corresponding number last vear.

The recent census show that the total population of China is 41)8,214,000, of whom 1i!1,552 are foreigners. Thus Chinamen alone form nearly one third of the population of the world. , Tt was .stated al the meeting of creditors of the British United Insurance Corporation. .Limited, that the company accepted risks more t'lmn £1.000,000, while its bank balance sometimes fell as low as £2O.

An express train iu which Mine. Sarah Bernhardt, the famous actress was travelling to St. Petersburg, was stoned licar Vilna (Russian Poland), as the result, it is supposed, of anti-Semitic feeling. Tho voting throughout the province of Manitoba on local option has resulted in a. drawn battle. Kildonau. where local option has k'en in force, returns to tire license, hut Kincrson, which has been "license'' went "drv."

As a result of the amendment to the Public Holiday Act. passed in the hist session of the Quebec Legislature, the salo of liquor in taverns on Christmas Day ami New Year's Day is prohibited throughout the provinces.

Over 2000 workers are now idle in Dublin owing to Ufa earhTs' strike. The stores accumulated owing to the strike include a. vast quantity of perishable goods which, in the interests of public health, ought to be speedily removed. A Johannesburg correspondent says that the celebration of Dingaan's Day, which for some years possessed a purely racial significance, is nearly losing his character, and becoming a day of general national thanksgiving throughout South Africa.

The French (lOvornment proposes to sulisi il nil* aluminium coins for the pr< 1 - M»ut lifon/.c. pieces ot ii*n ami fiw centimes. It was origi?mlly intended to make (lu i new eoim of nickel, like the existing 2o centimes pietfe*, but aJuiniuiiini has lirou decided upon sis possessing several conspicuous advantages. "While President Castro is tnkfcig liis ease sit a luxuriant Berlin hotel, the people of Caracas have been pulling down his statues ami burning bis povtrails. Fierce rioting lasted a whole day, involving a great destruction of property, some loss of life, and I be proclamation of martini lav. C'aslros sway over' Yenelnela is now regarded as enuled. "Mr John Burns presided at a dinner given to Mr "W. 11. Dickenson, M.P., in recognition of bis work for the metro-■ polis. and took occasion in proposing the 1 principal toast to attack tlifi present; statf; of London's government. Since j 1!)07, be declared. London had become n refuge far reaction, mil he uttered a warning Uguinsl a niggardly spirit, worthy of a filial! rrfhige or old-time I ve-itry."