satisfactory. It is right to say that a labour ordinance, dealing with the whole question of native employment most satisfactorily, has been enacted by the Commonwealth Government.

In the same humane spirit the deportation of the Kanakas was carried out. Over 4,000 were returned to their island homes during the year, without occasioning any of the ill-feeling predicted when the movement started. It is true that a report reached Sydney of quarrels between some of the returned islanders and the local natives at Malretoa, and according to this account several lives were lost and much blood was shed in the affair. Inquiry was made into the matter, when it was discovered that a quarrel had certainly taken place, but without entailing the serious consequences alleged.

1. The King and Queen arrived at Chatsworth on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

The South African Football team, on the last match of their tour, at Cardiff, were defeated under Rugby Union Rules by seventeen points to nil.

The Ryde lifeboat was capsized off the pier and drifted to Southsea; two of its crew of nine were drowned.

3. General van der Launitz, Prefect of St. Petersburg, was shot and killed in that city, the murderer afterwards shooting himself.

5. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, and the President of the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches published a joint manifesto to the nation in favour of the movement for promoting the better observance of Sunday. The body of Lady Burdett-Coutts, after lying in state at her residence, was buried in Westminster Abbey, the procession being witnessed by large crowds. By her will, the provisions of which were published on January 10, she left all the property at her disposal to her husband, and appointed him sole executor.

7. The White Star Line announced its intention to transfer its four fastest Atlantic liners from Liverpool to Southampton.

8. The Shah of Persia, Muzaffer-ed-Din, died at Teheran.

9. General Pavloff, Military Prosecutor-General, was assassinated in St. Petersburg.

10. Field-Marshal the Duke of Connaught, Inspector-General of the Forces, left London with the Duchess on a tour of inspection in Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Hong-Kong, and Egypt.

11. It was announced that a Council of Judges of the Supreme Court

had decided that the Long Vacation should begin on August 1, not August 13, and the Michaelmas sittings on October 12, not October 24.

11. At Jersey, Thomas Connan and Marie Leguen, his sister, were convicted of the murder of Pierre Leguen, the woman's husband, about July 17, in a cornfield on the island. Connan was sentenced to death, Leguen to twenty years' penal servitude.

12. The result of a poll of the Law Society showed that 1,169 votes had been cast in favour of appointing a committee to inquire into the method of keeping solicitors' accounts and the conduct of professional business, and 609 votes against.

- The Duke of the Abruzzi gave an account before the Royal Geographical Society of his exploration of the Ruwenzori Mountains in East Africa. King Edward VII. moved the customary vote of thanks. 13. The ship Penywern of Liverpool, from Chili with saltpetre, went ashore near Cuxhaven; her crew of twenty-four were drowned.

14. At Kingston, Jamaica, at 3.30 P.M., three shocks of earthquake at intervals of fifteen seconds wrecked the town and most of the houses in the parishes of Kingston, Port Royal and St. Andrew. A fire followed, destroying a portion of the town, including many public buildings. The loss of life was ultimately estimated at 700 or 800, the injured at 1,000, the damage in Kingston at 2,000,000l. The depths in the harbour were considerably altered. There were further shocks, especially on January 22, but no further loss of life.

16. It was officially announced that the Secretary for War was unfavourable to the projected Channel Tunnel.

18. The inquiry into the Elliot Junction accident of December 28, 1906 (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1906, p. 39), resulted in a verdict blaming the driver of the North British train and in a less degree the stationmasters of Elliot and Arbroath, and declaring that the lack of appliances to keep the line clear under exceptional circumstances, and the lack of proper supervision, contributed to the accident.

19. Mahomed Ali Mirza, Shah of Persia, crowned at Teheran.

In a dense fog in the Channel the Red Star steamer Vaderland, from New York to Antwerp, ran down and sunk the Dundee steamer Naworth Castle; no lives lost.

In consequence of an intimation from Sir A. Swettenham, Governor of Jamaica, that American aid was not required by the sufferers from the earthquake, Admiral Davis, U.S.N., retired with his ships from Kingston. The correspondence caused severe comment in England and America.

At Blackheath, under Rugby Football Rules, Blackheath beat Richmond by twenty-three points to six.

21. It was announced that Mr. Robert Wallace, K.C., M.P. for Perth, had been appointed Chairman of the London County Sessions, in place of W. R. McConnell, K.C., deceased.

The final report of the Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin, was issued as a Blue-book. The Commissioners were unani

mously of opinion that Trinity College could not be so altered as to make it acceptable to the Irish Catholic bishops, but were divided as to the association with it of a Roman Catholic college. A number of alterations in Trinity College were recommended.

21. A strike took place of music hall artists and musicians in London. It was eventually settled by arbitration.

The Home Secretary issued a draft of proposed cab regulations for London by which cab fares were revised, and taximeters and motor-cabs were recognised for the first time.

Severe frost was recorded throughout Central and Eastern Europe. At Berlin the temperature was 2° F., at Vienna - 6° F., at Constantinople 19° F. Athens was covered with snow.

-

At Sotheby's, a series of twenty-five letters by Dr. Johnson, chiefly addressed to Mrs. Piozzi, realised 2401., and a letter by Marie Antoinette, 1,9007.

--

The railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico to Salina Cruz on the Pacific was opened in the presence of President Diaz, the Ministers, and the Diplomatic Body.

24. It was announced that Mr. Birrell had been appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in the place of Mr. Bryce, Ambassador to the United States, and that Mr. McKenna, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, would succeed Mr. Birrell at the Board of Education.

Mr. William Whiteley, of Westbourne Grove, the "Universal Provider," was shot dead at his office by Horace George Rayner, who claimed to be his illegitimate son. The murderer shot himself, but recovered, and was convicted and sentenced to death on March 22. His account of his origin was not substantiated, but his story excited sympathy, and after popular agitation, his penalty was commuted on April 1.

25. First ballots in the German general election. The "patriotic' successes caused enthusiastic demonstrations before the residences of the Kaiser and the Imperial Chancellor.

26. At the Labour Party Conference at Belfast a resolution in favour of the extension of the suffrage to women on the same conditions as men was rejected in favour of a proposal advocating "general adult suffrage," and condemning the partial enfranchisement of women as retrograde.

28. The anniversary of the first settlement in Australia, January 26, 1788, was celebrated by a banquet in London.

Colliery explosion at the Reden pit, near St. Johann, Rhenish Prussia; about 160 lives lost.

29. At the Parliamentary bye-election for North-East Derbyshire, vacated by the death of Mr. T. D. Bolton, Mr. W. E. Harvey, the Liberal-Labour candidate, was returned by 6,644 votes against 5,915 given to Dr. Court, Unionist.

30. The appointments were announced of Mr. W. Runciman, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary of the Local Government Board, to be Financial

Secretary of the Treasury vice Mr. McKenna; Mr. C. E. Hobhouse, M.P., to be Under-Secretary for India vice Mr. J. G. Ellis resigned; and Dr. T. J. Macnamara, M.P., to succeed Mr. Runciman at the Local Government Board.

30. It was announced that the Mastership of Selwyn College, Cambridge, vacated by the appointment of the Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick to be Dean of Ely, had been filled by the appointment of the Rev. R. Appleton, M.A., Fellow and sometime Tutor of Trinity College.

31. At Beaufront Castle, Northumberland, while out shooting, Lady Dorothy Cuthbert, daughter of the Earl of Strafford, was accidentally shot dead by her husband.

FEBRUARY.

1. It was announced that the late Mr. William Whiteley had left a large sum, possibly 1,000,000l., to provide homes for the aged poor.

Miss Ellen C. Higgins, B.A., appointed Principal of Holloway College in the place of Miss Emily Penrose, resigned.

2. The King and Queen left London for a private visit to Paris. His Majesty and President Fallières exchanged visits next day, and the welcome accorded by the Paris populace was described as "almost affectionate."

The second interim report of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis concluded that human and bovine tuberculosis were identical, and that the human subject could be affected with the disease through milk, and recommended more stringent prevention of the sale of infected milk.

At Cambridge, the proposed alterations in the Mathematical Tripos were approved by the Senate the first Grace altering Part I. and abolishing the Senior Wranglership and Order of Merit, and enabling it to be taken earlier, by 776 to 644; the second, altering Part II., by 780 to 638; the third, relating to the temporary provisions necessitated by the changes, by 777 to 637.

Ruskin Park, Denmark Hill, London, was formally opened by Mr. Spicer, Chairman of the London County Council.

5. At Ardeer, Ayrshire, an explosion at nitro-glycerine works was set up by an attempt to thaw frozen glycerine; three men killed, two injured.

8. An explosion on the French torpedo-boat 339, on speed trials off Lorient, killed nine men and seriously wounded a tenth.

9. It was announced that Dr. Donald MacAlister, M.A., M.D., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, had been appointed Principal of the University of Glasgow, in succession to Principal Story, deceased.

-

The King and Queen returned to London from Paris.

11. A violent explosion in the Chemical Research Department at Woolwich Arsenal, attributed either to cordite or to certain new and secret explosives, greatly damaged the buildings and also many shops and houses in Woolwich and Plumstead.