estates was increased. At the general elections a Referendum was taken on the question of the prohibition of the liquor traffic. To bring about total prohibition it was necessary that 60 per cent. should vote in its favour. The voting was 255,866 for prohibition and 202,608 against it, or 54 per cent. in the affirmative. The proposal was, therefore, decided in the negative, but the temperance party, having polled a much larger vote than was anticipated, was greatly elated. The Government inaugurated a national providence scheme to insure men against accident, to provide for widows and children, and to give financial assistance in maternity cases. The Dreadnought cruiser New Zealand, presented by the Dominion to the British Government, was launched by Lady Ward, the wife of the Premier, at Glasgow. The compulsory training of youths was initiated and the first instruction camp held. The census gave the population at 1,780,000 exclusive of Maoris, a gain of 100,000 since 1909. Acting in conjunction with Canada the Government decided to subsidise a four-weekly mail service between Auckland and Vancouver.

III. POLYNESIA.

Unsatisfactory reports were received from the New Hebrides of the working of the Anglo-French condominium. In the French Chamber in April M. Augagneur complained that the British Presbyterian missionaries claimed to override the authorities and had their own tribunals and prisons: while these missionaries and others declared that the Court was a farce, and that liquor and cartridges were sold by the settlers to natives, women kidnapped, and children recruited illegally. In July the exportation of arms and explosives to the islands was prohibited in Australia. A revolt of natives in Espiritu Santo Island in March was soon suppressed. In Jokoz, a small island near Ponape, in the Carolines, a revolt against the German authorities provoked by their road-making was suppressed by German men-of-war early in the year; fifteen natives found guilty of the murder of Germans were executed, the rest of the tribe was deported to Gap. In Dutch New Guinea a British scientific expedition made numerous discoveries, including a new race of pygmies.

PART II.

PART II.

CHRONICLE OF EVENTS

IN 1911.

JANUARY.

1. The "pauper disqualification" for old-age pensions in the United Kingdom ceased to be operative. The additional annual cost had been estimated at 2,000,000l.

- The body of a French Jew, Léon Beron, was found in the early morning on Clapham Common. (See post, March 14.)

2. The New Year's Honours List published. The five new Privy Councillors included the Master of Elibank and Mr. W. Abraham, M.P.; the eight new Baronets, several Liberal members or ex-members of Parliament, and Mr. Henry Waechter, a benefactor of the Territorials; and the thirty-five new Knights, Drs. Sidney Colvin and G. F. Warner, of the British Museum, Mr. G. L. Gomme, Dr. David Ferrier, F.R.S., and Mr. Joseph Lyons, a liberal donor to the Territorials. The G.C.B. was conferred on Admiral Sir Archibald Douglas, G. C.V.O.; the G.C.M.G. on Lord Balfour of Burleigh and Lord Robson, for services respectively in connection with the Royal Commission on Trade Relations between Canada and the West Indies, and the Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration; the K.C.M.G. on (amongst other recipients) Lord Islington, Governor of New Zealand, and the Hon. A. B. Aylesworth, Canadian Minister of Justice, for services in connection with the Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration; the G.C.S.I. on Sir Steuart Bayley and Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick, respectively Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal and the Punjaub, and on Sir W. Lee-Warner, Member of the Council of India. Ten other gentlemen received knighthoods, either as Colonial officials or for services in connection with the Empire.

-A statue of General Wolfe was unveiled at his birthplace, Westerham, Kent, by Earl Roberts.

In Paris, an International Rugby Football match between France and Scotland was won by France by sixteen points to fifteen.

3. Affray at Sidney Street. (See English History, Chapter I.)

A

3. The first Postal Savings Banks opened in the United States.

4. Violent earthquake at Vyernyi, Russian Turkestan; about forty persons were killed and houses destroyed; other towns suffered more severely. Shocks were also felt in Southern Italy, Spain and Southern France. A second shock occurred in Russian Turkestan on January 9, and a third, killing 200 Kirghiz, on January 13.

At Melbourne, the second Test Match between Australia and South Africa was won by Australia by eighty-nine runs.

10. The Royal Commission on Canals and Waterways (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1909, Chronicle, Dec. 28) published a tenth volume, containing the results of special investigation into the cost of providing the needed water for the four main canal routes known as "the Cross" : (1) Birmingham to Brentford; (2) Norton Junction on line No. 1 via Leicester and Nottingham to the Humber; (3) the Mersey to Birmingham; (4) Birmingham and Wolverhampton to the Severn. The total cost of water-supply arrangements for waterways admitting 100-ton vessels was put at 429,000l. ; for 300-ton vessels, 765,000l.

11. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Promotion of Scientific Research, promoted chiefly by leading bankers and manufacturers, was formally constituted in Berlin.

12. Serious rioting in Bombay between Sunni and Shiah Mohammedans at the Mohurrum celebrations. Eventually the crowd was fired on by troops and forty-two were killed and wounded.

Severe northerly gale with snowstorms; numerous minor shipping casualties on the British coasts.

13. At Adelaide, the third Test Match between the South Africans and Australia was won by the former by thirty-eight runs.

At Amsterdam, Rembrandt's "Night Watch" in the Ryks Museum was damaged with a knife by a discharged naval cook.

17. In the French Chamber of Deputies, M. Briand, the Prime Minister, was twice fired at by a lunatic ex-schoolmaster, named Jizholme; M. Mirman, Director of the Assistance Publique, was wounded.

The German submarine U 3 sank in Kiel harbour; she was raised early next morning; of a crew of twenty-six, the commanding officer and two seamen were lost.

In the King's Bench Division, the Hon. Claude Hay, late Parliamentary candidate for Hoxton, recovered 50l. damages from Mr. Smithers, Chairman of the Hoxton Liberal Federation, for authorising publications in Liberal newspapers, suggesting that he attempted to influence the voters by addressing the children in the elementary schools.

18. After three days' trial in the King's Bench Division, the action West v. West resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff with 1,2501. damages. It was brought by the wife of Mr. Horace West against Sir Algernon West, her father-in-law, for stating to various friends and to the Lord Chamberlain that her separation from her husband was due to her extravagance, and thereby stopping invitations to Court and other entertainments. Mrs. Asquith was among the witnesses. An appeal by Sir Algernon West was allowed by the Court of Appeal on May 23.