OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 87, 8 May 1909, Page 4

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMARY OF WOULD HAPPENINGS. Loudon, March 20. The French Aerial League numbers j 10,000 members. y, | The deaths attributed directly to inllueaza iu London last week numbered j 101, compared with Uli in the previous o . week. ~, Germany, which is hoping to capture' jt ■ Canadian'trade, hopes that a commercial 0 I treaty between the two countries will t] shortly be established. \ v I Belfast Harbor Board are to spend J( : £30,000 in detpening the Victoria Chan- £ ;nel so that larger vessels may be built & ■in the shipyards. f I The Congregational Union proposes to I raise an endowment fund of £250,000 [, to provide every minister with a mini- v mum stipend of £l2O. t An infernal machine has been found at the "Englishman" office in Calcutta, and Mr. Kingsforu, magistrate, had been i the object of another attempted bomb . outrage. . Twenty princes, ten princesses, and at least fourteen millionaires are at present . staying at Monte Carlo. Five million letters are undelivered " Paris owing to the strike of postal and , I I telegraph employees. By beating Ireland at Rugby football ] '. I Waies gained her fifth international i I match this year. | ' Cibot and Orpce, France, were the j winning team in the six days' "gos-as-you-please" race at New York. They ' covered 732 miles. ', Fifteen thousand miles have been , added to the British Empire by a new '' treaty with Siam. c Mr. Birrell points out that, contrary '" to popular impressions, the volume of C Irish trade, as estimated by exports and f imports, has increased by £17.000.000 II in the last four years. Having completed the arrangements for the establishment of a National ISauk of Turkey, with a capital of £1.000,000, ■r Sir Finest Cassel has leit Constani- tinople. ic Charges ol' murder have been brought d in the Venezuelan courts against exr- President Castro, who announces that he c- will leave Dresden for his native ennuis try on 20th March, •d Criminal statistics for 1!)07 show that e» there was a substantial increase in the 't number of serious crimes in England and le Wales, wliile the work of capturing the n, criminal was not carried out so sueit cessfully.

• The sailing-ship Margretha was sunk in the North Sea at the end of a twenty months' voyage, and u number of her crew and the captain's wife and child were 'drowned.

Joseph I'etrosiiio. a famous New York detective, was assassinated by agents of the "Black Hand" Secret society in I'alenno, after he had Sent more than 500 members of the organisation to prison in New York.

Working 3000 ft underground in a mine at Couillct, Belgium, live men were surprised by a sudden inrush of water, and though they reached the cage and signalled to be drawn up, were drowned before that could be done.

An order has been given direct from the Wright Brothers to an English firm for the immediate construction of six of the famous Wright aeroplanes. Short Brothers, of Battersea, have been entrusted with the order.

In the collapse of a palace in Messina, a'married couple, who had taken up their abode there a few days' ago, were buried as they were dining, and a woman was seriously injured.

Assuming "that a rfrt docs a farthing's worth o?"damage daily, Sir C. McLaren, introducing a Bill giving local bodies powers to 'take steps for their extirpation, calculates that the '10,000,000 rats in this country do .ti 15,000,000 damage annually.

The profits from tlw Leicester municipal gas undertaking this year amount to .C 34.085, after interest and sinking fund have been provided for. Since 1885 the gasworks have provided :C1i85,952 towards the relief of the rates.

A congre-s was opened on Monday in Charlo'tteiiburg on the treatment of juvenile offenders. There are twentysix children's courts in Prussia. In recent years the number of juvenile offenders in Germany has grown about three times as fast as the total number of offenders oi all ages. To mark the centenary of the establishment of Red River Colony by Lord Selkirk, it has been decided to hold a world's fair in Winnipeg, the site of the colony, in 1012, lasting five months, and the Dominion Government is to be asked to contribute 150,000 acres of land to help to finance the project. The nlimber of uiiburied bodies still lying under the ruins of Messina is estimated at over 70,000 (writes a Rome correspondent), and although l\ great number of soldiers are now engaged in their removal and burial, still over a year will be required before this work is completed. TAXATION OF- BEER. The Finance lleform Committee of the German Reichstag has adopted the Brewing Tax Bill, but with a scale of taxation according to the aiudunt of malt employed, which differs from the Government proposal. The Bill has been assailed in almost as many petitions as a British licensing Bill. The petitioners urge that as a result of the modest essay in beer taxation of HlOti, brewery I shares have fallen and dividends have been reduced.

QI'F.EX'S ACCIDENT AT MESSINA. Queen Elena is stTT! suffering from her accident at Messina at the beginning of January, when she was knocked down by a terrov-stricken woman on the point oi' committing suicide. The Queen, at the time, refused medical aid. although she was suffering from hemorrhage of the lungs. She is now feverish at night, and it has been found that one ot her left ribs is broken, and her Majesty is obliged to carry her arm in a sling. Everyone is admiring her pluck and endurance. "

CHINA TRYING TO RESTORE HER NAVY. ' Advices received front Pekin tell of efforts to restore the navy of China at a cost, of .t25.0c0,000.. "Admiral Sa had been summoned to I'ckin to consult wit It the Prince Regent regarding a scheme to provide funds. Naval ports and docks arc to Tie established, foreign exports engaged as advisers and instructors, and naval colleges established. A naval board has been appointed. RAILWAY ACCIDENT. An extraordinary accident occurred on Wednesday at the Canadian Pacific railway station. Wiu'dsor-street, Montreal. An express train from Boston dashed into the station at the rate of forty miles an hour, ploughing through the platform and into the waiting-rooms. The drive,- jiifTTircman had been thrown out of the locomotive through the blow-ing-out ot the boiler-plug of the engine, and it was left without control. Thc loss of life was singularly small. Five bodies were extricated from the debris, and over twenty persons were injured. None of""fiie pasengers ill the train were seriously hurt.

TIIE CRIiIES OF THE "III.ACK HAND."

Feeling iu New York has been deeply stirred by the murder of the New York detective. Lieutenant Pelrosino. at Palermo, Sicily, where he had been sent to obtain evidence to secure the deportation here of Italian criminals, lie was seeking to track the raiuilicaluius ill Italy of the "Hlack Hand"—the terror of I he Italian colonies of New York. The "Black Hand" appears to be not so much a secret society like the

".Mafia" and '"'amorra." but a collection of individual blackmailers working in groups and using the sign of_ the black hand. Their practices of boinb-flirowlug, arson, and assassination iu the Italian quarters, if they failed to extract blood money from thei,- victims, have long been the despair of Police Cotnmissioiicr"ningiham. Tn 1007 twenty-one "Black Hand" outrages were recorded—tenements were destroyed by bombs and men were found mysteriously shot or else stabbed with numerous stiletto wounds. Tu 1008 there were twenty-three smiilnr crimes.