NEWS BY MAIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 42, 30 May 1910, Page 7

NEWS BY MAIL.

WARSHIP BOOM. SIXTY MILLIONS STERLING ON NEW SHIPS. London, April 7. The failure of German firms to capture the contract for the building of the new Turkish navy from British yards calls attention to the enormous amount of work of this iidnd secured for British workmen recently. The British shipbuilding and engineering industries are, says the naval correspondent of the London Evening News, in for one of the biggest "booms" that 'have been known for a long time. At the present time there are under construction for tke British Navy four battleships and two armored cruisers all over 15,500 tons displacement. The keels of three more ships, on which work has already been commenced, 'liave been laid down, to be followed by the Thames-built ship, the Thunderer. A little late in the year we! shall see two great Dreadnought cruisers laid down for the Australian and New Zealand fleets, and by the close oi the, financial year 1910-1911 the five armored ships provided for in the new naval programme will have been commenced. Thus during the year no fewer than seventeen armored ships will be unuer construction for the British Empire alone, and every week occupied in the construction of each of those ships means the employment of no,fewer than seven thousand men at ah average weeklywage of 33 shillings. But this does not exhaust the armored construction in which British shipbuilders will be engaged. Of the three Dreadnoughts for which the Brazilian Government have provided one has already heea completed and two others are still under construction. Then :he Turkish Government are reported no have jibu-c-i with British firms orders for three armored ships at a total cost of £5.000,000. Portugal is entering upon a reorganisation of her naval forces, from which Messrs Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. and Messrs A. F. Yarrow and Co. are both expected to profit. Thomeycrofts are already building a mine-layer for the Portuguese navy. In addition to these armored .<:!••.* there is a large number of cruisers building and provided for. The following list shows the firms engaged in the enormous output of fighting shipping:— Messrs Armstrong, Whit worth and Co., Elswick, Newcastle: —Monarch. British battleship, to be completed March, 1912; Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian battleship, to be completed in 1912; a Turkish 'battleships, not yet laid down; Newcastle, cruiser; Weymouth, cruiser; Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia, cruisers, for Brazil.

Messrs Vickers, Sons and Maxim, Barrow:—Princess Royal, Dreadnouguts muser, to be completed March, 1912; Liverpool and Dartmouth, cruisers; Sao Paolo, Brazilian battleship, to -be'completed end of 1910; a Turkish battlcsnip not yet' laid down.

Messrs John Brown and Co., Clydebank, Glasgow:—A colonial Dreadnought cruiser, not yet kid down; a Turkish armored cruiser, not yet laid down; Bristol, cruiser; Beagle, Bulldog, Fx\hoiiiid, Acorn, Alarm, and Brisk, torpedo-boat destroyers.

Messrs Beardmbre and Co., Glasgow: —Conqueror, battleship, to be completed March, 1912; uiouccster and Falmouth, cruisers.

The Fairfield Shipbuilding Co., G'as-I gow:— A colonial Dreadnought cruder, not yet laid down; Glasgow, cruiser; Grasshopper, Mosquito, Scorpion, Comet, Chameleon, and Goldfinch, torpedo-boat destroyers. Palmer's Shipbuilding C, Jarfow-on-Tyne, are building the battleship Hercules; the Thames ironworks the battleship Thunderer and the destroyer Nautilus; the Loudon and Glasgow Snipbuilding Co. the cruiser Yarmouth and the destroyer Rattlesnake; and Scott's Shinbuilding Co., of Greenock, the battleship Colossus.

Altogether, there will be under construction in the United Kingdom during the coming twelve or eighteen months the following ships:—

Armored ships (22) £38,500,000 Small cruisers (22) 8,500,000 Destroyers (22) y,500,wd Submarine (22) 750,000 Floating docks (4) _. 1,000,000 Other warships and auxiliaries i,«w,000 £59,250,000 An official estimate gives the proportion of the cost of shipbuilding, which is spent in labor as 70 per cent. Seventy per cent, of the above sum i 5£41,475,000. Spread- over thirty months this means that for each of 130 weeks £319,033 will be paid out in wages, giving constant employment for that period to an average of over 182,000 men at 35s a week. CABMEN FIGHT FOR A LAUNDRESS. DUEL WITH WHIPS. Paris, April 4. Two cab-drivers, Jean Thibault and Pierre Roux, who occupied the same stand in the Boulevard des Batignolles and had been on excellent terms, quarrelled last week on making the hapless discovery that they were in love with the same washerwoman.

Neither of them had proposed to Marie Hamard, the all-unconscious object of their affections, and they decided to fight the matter out to settle who had &° better claim before either, of them approached the said object of their affections.

A combat took place in a quiet street. It was a duel on totally novel lines. There were no seconds, and the weapons used were whips, with which the combat-1 ants mercilessly lashed each other. I They were exhausted and bathed in blood when the policemen arrived on the scene and took them to the police station. Yesterday morning they were dismissed with a caution, and happily their enmity has again turned to friendship, for the washerwoman, hearing of their story, hastened to the cab-stand, where she expressed her regret at having caus-

Ed the trouble, and added th;it J he had already 'been engaged lor some time to a plumber. TRANS-AN DINE TUX.Nj<X. TRAIN THROUGH TIIK ANDES. f intiago de Chile, April 5. The first train between Chile and .Argentina, :.>y way of the Tiaii.s-Amiiiie ■ tnnel, was inaugurated, to-day my me .V.misters of Industry of the" two Republics. Great enthusiasm prevailed, and the train's departure \v;;s witnessed by a large concourse of people of both countries.

The new tunnel is about two miles long, and is at a height of 10,500 feet —nearly 1500 feet higher than the highest carriage road in Europe and more than 3500 feet higher than the Alont Cenis, St, Gothard, and Simplon passes. The completion of the tunnel enables passengers to travel from Buenos Ay res to Valparaiso in from thirty-five to forty hours at any time of the .year. Previously travellers could only cross the Andes in the summer.

MILLION DOLLAR RESTAURANT. OWNERS OF AN EPICUREAN PA I ACE FAIL. New York, April 7. The United States Restaurant and Realty Company—the owners of the vafe de l'Opera, New York's million-dollar restaurant—made an assignment to-cay for the benefit of the creditors. The Cafe de l'Op'era is the restaurant of which M. Henri Pruger took charge, and for which post he resigned the management of the Savoy in London. The hotel, which extends from Broadway to Seventh Avenue, between Fortyfirst and Forty-second streets, was opened in December of last year. It is a .building of *'ia-lit. storeys, .but without sleeping ai.\o)..:,'!hiaiion. The deconationa are of an elaborate and costly character. The pictures alone cost £16,000. M. Pruger, who a salary of £IO,OOO a year, sail, '.nt'oro he sailed for New York, that lie intended to introduce the :Savoy system in the new cafe.

A millionaire syndicate was declared to be behind the venture, which was to "combine the charms of Delmonico's, Sherry's, and Rector's, the fashionable American restaurants, with all London's novelties."