CONDENSED CABLE NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10192, 20 March 1911, Page 7

CONDENSED CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.

Approval has been given to a proposal to secure a direct line of steamers between Australia and Manchester.

It is intended to increase the Government dock at Freemantle to 700 ft., in order to accommodate the Federal cruisers.

Defects have developed in the steering engines of the Federal destroyers. Several times they have refused to work, endangering the vessels' safety. Experts are puzzled. The engines may require to be replaced.

Mr W. Joynson-Hicks (Unionist), has been returned unopposed as M.P. for Brentford (Middlesex), in place of Lord Alwyne Compton (Unionist), who resigned for private reasons. The newspaper Englishman, published at Calcutta, states that China proposes to prohibit the importation of Indian tea, and reduce the duty on the exported Chinese article.

An official correction makes the total of deaths from plague in Manchuria 190,000. (It was stated yesterov I that Eastern files gave the number r f [deaths at 19,000,000. However, according to latest available statistics, the total population of Manchuria is~ only 16,000,000). The Commercial Agent in the East reports that 26,000 pounds of mutton will be required this year by the War Office in India. Tenders az-e to be sent to the Quartermaster-Gener- j al in India before 15th April next. i

The first-class twin-screw torpedo gun boat Jason (810 tons), as parent ship, and six subsidised trawlers, will shortly be stationed at' Grimsby. Three hundred fishermen are being enrolled. They will be specially trained in minesweeping, and be liable to service in the reserve.

The following item has been supplied by the Commonwealth cable service :—During February the following British subjects left the United Kingdom : For Australia. 3996; Canada,' 7295; New Zealand, 503: South Africa, 1915. The Australian figures show an increase of 90 ner centum on the two months ended February. The Right Rev. Dr. Ingram, Bishop of London, states that he had practically decided to offer himself as a missionary for service in Canada, as an example to the church, and it was only after three months' prayer that ho resolved that his work in London had a prior claim upon him. j The Royal Geographical Society has awarded the Founders' Medal to,Cal-, (V ;.w,lio o ; 3^^V-^3!iQh i .«[s:.-' proration work in Asia. The Patrons' medal has been awarded to Dr Char- j cot, the French Antarctic explorer. i

The schooner Marivonrilc was sunk as the result of a collision with a trawler at St. Pol-de-Leon, in the Department of Finisterre, on the north coast, thirty-one miles north-east of Brest. Twenty-six person s were drowned. (The Marivonnic was a wooden vessel, 158 tons gross, huilt in 1895, and owned hy E. Dulfilliol and Sons).

An inter-State Conference of Minis ters of Agriculture, at Melbourne, ieeided that experiments be made in a!) the States with the spraying Jf iotatoes affected by the Irish blight. The conference held that the evidence removed all doubt as to the efficiency of the method, which is to be made compulsory. The Secretary of State for War, Mr Haldane, has issued a circular through the Director of Army Contracts. The circular announces that the minimum weight of quarters of Australian beef supplied under the present contracts has been reduced to 1651bs or 1301bs in the.case.of fore-quarters, without i flanks and briskets.

During hi© nearing ui> Viterjjo of; the case against the Caniorrjgte charged with the murder of Quocolo and his wife, Morra, leader o.f-the actual murderers, was described' as the worst blood-stained criminal on record. Morra' declared that he was as innocent as a do\:£. He is endeavouring to prove an jalibi. Three New York citizens are included in the indictments before the Federal Grand Jury at Chicago, alleging frauds in connection with Alaskan coal land transactions against the United States Government, the amount involved aggregating two million pounds sterling.

An outcome of tip famous Osborne judgment is that a perpetual injunction has been made restraining the lllawarra Colliery Employees' Association from joining the Coal and Shale Workers' Association of Australasia. The. case is the outcome of a proposal that the lllawarra Association should subscribe funds to the other association.

A girl was charged with l>ehaving in an offensive manner in a public place. She appeared in-court dressed in male clothing. For three months she had posed as a boy, and worked at various employments—for a time as a policeman's assistant. The court decided to give her "a chance, condition- ' ally upon her assuming .proper ;.t*Jothi ing.

The Royal British Institute, at Lon- M don, with a view to identifying itself M actively in the furtherance of Empire n trade, has formed a committee to arrange industrial conferences, ■■regulate and co-ordinate Empire trade conditions, and make known the opportunities existing in the overseas dominions for British trade and capital. The New York Electric Lamp Trust has decided to reduce its prices by onei third. 'This is an outcome of the institution by the Government of a, -Irs? solution suit. (A Government suit, alleging conspiracy for restraint «"f trade, has been commenced against thirty-five . comnanies ma mi fact arm,'!; incandescent electric light burners. The.concerns mentioned arc alleeod to form one of the powerful trusts in the United States'). The steamer North Point, botin.l foPhiladelphia with a cargo of crMsotr 1 was leaving the Thames when she sud- i denly hurst into flames in every pnit. The crow, numbering fifty, was rescued. The vessel was beached. The North Point, a vessel of 's2lfi tons gross, was built in 1900 by J. L. Thomson and Sons, Ltd.. Sunderland, and was owned by tlio Norfolk and North American Steam Shipping Co,, Ltd. Two Customs officers at Fremantle have been recommendod for dismissal on account of laxitv of duty in allowing Chinese to land. (Last month a ; " trial of a Chinese storekeeper and a Chinese interpreter to the Customs Department, on a charge of smuggl- ' ing in Chinese, resulted in interesting";, I disclosures as to h|ow new chum Chinese reach Australia. According to a} statement made, by, r the accused'.'stores .'' 1 keeper, this was managed by means [of faked birth certificates, and the , connivance of certain customs officers. ■The statement claimed that all the Customs officers were friends of the j accused). I