BRITISH ELECTIONS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 211, 15 December 1910, Page 5

BRITISH ELECTIONS

STATE OF THE PARTIES. Bj Cable —Press Association —Copyright. Received 14, 10.40 p.m. London, December 14. LIBERALS. England 174 Scotland 35 iWkles 25 Redmondites 00 O'Brienites 7 L# 301 CONSERVATIVES. England 214 Scotland 8 Wales 2 Ireland 16 u 240 V - UNWELCOME NOTORIETY. : Received 14, 10.40 pjn. London, December 14. Lan Malcolm, at one time private secretary to the Chief Secretary, stated that he bad cabled Sir Wilfrid Laurier, asking whether he thought he was subscribing to a separation scheme or a federation on Canadian lines. Sir "Wilfrid Laurier replied that in the heat of the campaign he did not like to say anything which; seemed like interference. He added, "I notice my name lias been used in that way, and I must protest my strong desire to have' it kept out of the contest." ELECTION RIOTS. i , Received 14, 10.40 pjn. London, December 14. During election riots at Wexford, a mob attacked the police, who charged several times. A number were injured. A SURPRISED MEETING. Received 14, 10.40 p.m. London, December 14. At a Nationalist meeting at Dundrum, at which Professor Kettle and Mr. W. Field were the speakers, using the upper part of a disused mill, the floor collapsed, and precipitated thirty upon the horses in the stable below. >Six persons were seriously injured.

HOME RULE. A BISHOP'S LETTER. Received 14, 1020 p.m. 'London, December 14.

Bishop Durham, in a letter to the Time*, calls attention to the silent surrender by non-conformists of Britain of the 'lrish Protestants to the tender mercies of the Pamellites and the Catholic majority. The Times says that the Earl of Aberdeen's assurance as to the baselessness of alarm about Home Rule does not count for much to anyone knowing history, and it counts for nothing in Ulster. Lord Lansdowne, speaking at Plymouth, declared the verdict of the elections was inconclusive. The great political parties were again nearly evenly balanced. The key of the position was held by two factions, who were able to dictate terms to the Ministry.

Mr. Churchill, speaking at the Isle of Wight, said the referendum, which the Tories claimed -would keep the flies off the meat and teach the canaries to sing "Rule Britannia," was only a fortnight old 1 , and its proposers had not given the policy that attention which a parish council would give to th« laying of a drain.

CONTESTED ELECTIONS. London, December 13. BODMIN. Lt,-Gen. Sir Pole-Carew (U.). 5121 Foot (L.) 4980 [January, 1010: Grenfell (L.) 5133, Pole-Carew (U.) 5083.] A Unionist gain. MID-TYRONE. Mac Ghee, 1910: Brunskill (U.) 2475, Valentine (N.) 2070, Muraaghan (1.N.) 1244.] A Nationalist gain. NEWMARKET. Sir C. D. Rose (L.) 4786 G. H. Verrall (U.) 4387 [January, 1910: Verrall (U.) 4752, Rose (L.) 4632.] A Liberal gain. TORQUAY.

Burn (U.) 5101 Sir F. L. Barratt (L.) [January, 1910:' Barratt (L.) 5104, Lopes (U.) 5093.] A Unionist gain.

Out and away the most interesting man m the present Parliament has been at last re-elected —Mr. Llovd-George, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is not exactly a boy—but he is very young for the great portfolio which he holds, being only 46. Before Mr. Lloyd-George, five years ago, was made one of the official leaders of the party, he had made himself, with Mr. Winston Churchill, one of its unofficial leaders. The nimble-minded little Welshman could not be suppressed either by his own side or by the other. He began as a hot-headed Pro-Boer. He likened the treatment of Boer women and children bv the English to the treatment of the Cubans by Spain. And it was only his brilliant speeches against the Licensing and Education Bills that saved his reputation from the effect of these extravagant attacks. Once in office, at Board of Trade, and at the Imperial Conference, he immediately made an impression. When he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Asquith relieved him of the speech on his first Budget. It was a more or less ordinary Budget. Mr. Lloyd-George took the Budget speech himself the next year. That Budget was tne of the most startling that was ever proposed. Mr. LloydGeorge's rise within a year or two from the man who had to be helped with one Budget to the man who broke up Parliament with the next one is, probably, unparalleled.