GENERAL CABLE NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 95, 12 October 1911, Page 7

GENERAL CABLE NEWS.

f t (From the Australian Papers). J WORLD'S BIGGEST DRY DOCK. The Canadian Government has accepted Messrs Grifliths and Co.'s tender of £1,5(i2,50(> for the construction of docks, one of which will be tlie largest dry dock in the world. The leading European firms tendered for tiie work. MISCIII EE-MAKING MONK. The authorities at St. Petersburg are taking energetic steps to prevent a massacre of Jews in the Zarizyn district. The violent anti-Semitic tirades of a monk have caused intense feeling among the people, who have been aroused to the point of threatening life and property. A SERVIAN" SENSATION. A widespread plot to dethrone King Peter of Servia and to instal the Crown Prince is reported to have been discovered in Belgrade. The conspiracy is the outcome of the revelations made bv M. Nowakowitch, a former Cabinet Minister. M. Nowrtkowitch declares that King Peter actively participated in the conspiracy that culminated in the murder of King Alexander and bis consort, Queen Draga. Many of the leaders of the pre- I sent conspiracy have been arrested.

AN OVERCROWDED LIFT. The overcrowding of the elevator at the Oddfellows' Building, San Francisco, caused the steel cable to snap last week. The safety clutch gripped after the lift had dropped 50ft. Twenty-eight women and children escaped with minor injuries. They were rescued by the firemen cutting a hole through the steel top of the cage.

NO MORE FREE SMOKES. The cigarmakers at Tampa, Florida, are up in arms against what they regard as an invasion of their privileges. Hitherto the hands employed in the cigar factories have been allowed to take a certain number of cigars for- their own consumption. The manufacturers, however, have found that this custom has become a rather costly one, and they have therefore decided to discontinue it. Notices were accordingly posted in the factories informing the employees that no more free smokes were to be allowed. The men are rebelling against the new order, and it is not unlikely that 12,000 workers will quit work if the manufacturers do not reconsider their decision.

DEVELOPING MANCHURIA. According to the Kokumin Shimbun, a Ministerial organ of Tokio, the United States has obtained, by means of a secret treat}', a perpetual lease of 50,000 acres of land near Harbin, in Manchuria. The land is to be improved by the International Harvester Co. China will provide military guards, and will defray the cost of importing the necessary labor, the object being to employ part of the recent big loan in developing Manchuria.

LADIES FIGHT A FATAL DUEL. A tragic affair is reported from Cettinje, the Montenegrin capital. Two young Court ladies, Mdlle. Bridganivie and Mdlle. Maradies*, were rivals for the affections of Captain Mitchezaky, one of King Nicholas' aides-de-camp. They had always been close friends, and Captain Miehezaky, well aware that the pair were in love witlnhini, tried to avert trouble by bestowing no more attention upon one than, upon the other. This line of conduct 011 flic captain's part only had the result of making the two women bitter enemies, and the climax was reached when Hie three were present at a ball. Short 1\- before midnight two of Mdlle liridg.ii.ivie's friend called Mdlle, Maradie a-ide. and told her plainly that she would have to light for the man she was trying to win. Mdlle. Maradie nadily assented to a meeting with her rival, and arrangements for the duel having been quickly made the two women, with their friends, left the ballroom and drove straight to the forest outside the city. Armed with revolvers, the adversaries took up their appointed positions, and as they uirned and faced each other two shots simultaneously rang out. liridgnnivie dropped dead, shot clean through the heart. Maradie also was mortally wounded. She staggered a few paces and then collapsed. Her friends removed her to the nearest hospital, where, however, she died a few hours later.

THE HOME RULE BILL. Dissensions in the British Cabinet are assigned as the reason for the statement that II Home Rule l!i!l will he introduced in the House of Commons next April. After a preliminary discussion on the measure Parliament will dissolve, and the election will he fought entirely on the Irish question.' Mr. J. Redmond and M. T. P. O'Connor have their hands full with the pre-election campaign, and for this reason neither of them will accompany Mr. I). Boyle. M.P.. on his approaching fund-raising mission to the United States.

TRUSTS' TRIUMPH IX CANADA. Under the heading "Trusts' Triumph in Canada," the leading Hearst paper in Xew York makes some interesting comments 011 the Dominion elections. 'The darkest shadow of the elections," declares the paper, 'is the triumph of American trusts in Canadian politics. The trusts won the way they so often do in the United States by the same tnetliols. At the ftrst invasion Cauail:an voters go down before the money and the method of American trusts, and it may take years before they will bo able to free themselves from the shameful yoke. The hand of the American Republic was stretched in commercial fellowship across the boundary, but it has been rudely rejected. Perhaps Canada will stretch the next hand."

11ATLS r.V AKROPLAXE. The British War Office and the postal authorities are convinced that an aerial post is Impracticable until aviation has got beyond the experimental stage. The experimental service from London to Windsor has satisfied them thai aeroplanes are not vet to be depended upon. Carrying 781b of mail matter, the American Postmaster-General, Mr. F. H. Hitchcock, made, an aerial trip last week with one of the American army aviators, Captain Reck. During the flight, which lasted soven minutes, the PostmasterGeneral dropped a sack containing the mails, which fell within a few feet of -a. letter-carrier who was waiting to take delivery of the bag.