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LATE CABLEGRAMS.
Following are late cable messages from the
I S. M. Herald :- v
I London, April 17.
Eight hundred tenders were received for the
Victorian loan, the total applications amounting to
£13,G00,000. Tenders at ¿6101 9s 6d will get 50
per cent, of the amount applied for. It is now ex-
pected that the average price obtained for the
stock will be .£101 11s.-Later : The official aver-
age price obtained for the loan is Ü101 10s 3d.
The stock is now selling at 35s Od premium. A <
syndicate applied for £3,500,000. j
Captain Henry Coey Kane, R.N., lately in com-
mand of H.M.S. Calliope on the Australian station,
is an applicant for the command of R.M.S.
Excellent, a sailing veBsel used as a gunnery ship
at Portsmouth, and lately commanded by Captain
Compton E. Domvile, R.N.
The master bootmakers have agreed to provide
workshops for the men, instead of requiring them
to perform their work at home. The masters have
also consented to arbitrate upon the other points
in dispute.
The Portuguese Governor of Mozambique has
been directed to recall the Shiru expedition, which
was reported as being about to leave for the region
inhabited by the Makololo tribe, to attack the
natives.
The Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, Chancellor of
the Exchequer, delivered the Budget speech in the
House of Commons this evening. He estimated
that the expenditure of the United Kingdom for
the year would amount to .£86,857,000. There was
an available surplus of £3,549,0C0. It was the in
tention of the Government to create a coinage
fund to restore the gold currency. The fund
would be credited with .£600,000 arising
from the Mint profits on the circulation
of silver. The duty on silver plate would
be remitted to the extent of £80,000.
The duty on tea would be reduced to 4d
per lb., and on currants to 2s per cwt., Greece
having made important concessions in this respect.
The house duty would be reduced by ¿540,009.
Several nti lor reductions were also indicated. The
duty on British and foreign spirits would be in-
creased by 6d per gallon, the proceeds of whijh,
with the additional beer duty imposed last year, I
would be handed over to the local authorities. Mr.
Goschen announced that the Government contein- i
plated reducing the postal rates to India and the
colonies, by all routes, to 2|d, provided that the
colonial governments concur in the proposed reduc-
tion. He estimated that the loss to the revenue
occasioned thereby would amount to ¿680,000
April l8 : In his Budget speech Mr. Goschen an-
nounced that the expenditure last year amounted
to ,£86,083,000. The receipts were ¿63,000,000 above
the estimate. The revenue derived from alcohol
showed an increase of ¿61,800,000.
Lord Carrington returns at the end of his term
of Governorship, which is in December next. The
Marquis of Lothian is still spoken of as his suc-
cessor.
The Prince of Wales will propose at the annual
ballot in May, and Lord Brassey will second, Mr.
C. G. Miller as a member of the Boyal Yacht
Squadron.
Sir Thomas Elder and Mr. E. Barr Smith, of
South Australia, will return to Adelaide in Decem-
ber next.
It has been decided that the permanent govern-1
ing body of the Imperial Institute shall contain 35
colonial members. North America, 11 members,
Australasia 12, Africa 3, Fiji 5, Tasmania and
Western Australia 1 each, and the other Austra-
lian colonies 2. *
It is reported that the Orient Company, Messrs.
Donald Currie and Co., and other shipping firms
are negotiating for the purchase of the Tilbury
Docks. They also hope to be able to arrange
special terms with the dock labourers.
A cable conference will be held in Paris on May
15. Sir Arthur Blyth, Agent-General for South
Australia, will represent the colonies.
Forty thousand miners in Silesia, a province of
Eastern Prussia, between Poland and Bohemia,
who are on strike, are resorting to violence in the
agitation. Great numbers of men are scattering
over the country, pillaging the villages, stopping
the factories, and menacing townspeople and others
who resist them or refuse aid. Already a series of
conflicts have taken place between the provincial
military forces and the desperate men. In these
fights many of the strikers have been killed or
wounded.
The ingenuity of Mr. Goschen's budget, as sub-
mitted to the House of Commons last night, is
praised by the press.
The Hon. James White's Australian horse Kirk-
ham íb to run for the Two Thousand Guineas.
There is no betting.
The British Admiralty is building two gunboats
for service in the Imperial interests in the rivers
Shire and Zambesi, in South-Eastern Africa. They
will be used to patrol the rivers and protect naviga-
tion.
If Miss Amy Sherwin, who is to take parn in the
Kembte matinee, is successful, she will be offered a
London engagement.
Building operations throughout Chicago are
paralysed owing to the general strike of carpenters
in that city for the eight-hours principle. The
carpenters of Indianapolis, the chief city of the
State of Indiana, have also struck work.
The following -team has been selected by Lord
Sheffield for the match against the Australian
Eleven :-W. Grace, W. Newham, A. E. Stoddart,
W. "W. Read, Shrewsbury, Attewell, Briggs, Peel,
Humphries, Lohmann, and Pilling.
The Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, estimates that the cost of the proposed
reduction in the rates of ocean postage will be
JE105,000.
Mr. H. C. Raikes, Postmaster-General, will re-
sume parleying with the Agents-General imme-
diately the House of Commons shall have approved
of the Australian mail contracts.
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