A LONDON SUMMARY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3150, 21 February 1911, Page 5

A LONDON SUMMARY.

ITEMS OF INTEREST BY LAST MAIL. NEW LAWS. Thirty-eight Acts of Parliament passed into law during 1910. Of these, several were in continuance or' amendment- of previous Acts, but there were some that provide new laws to be observed. The most interesting of these are the Census (Great Britain) and Census (Ireland) Act. Under these every person in the country on April 2 of next year is to he accounted for, with the full family history and genealogy, and even, in the case of Wales and the county of Monmouth, whether the person speaks English only or Welsh only or English and Welsh. In social legislation the two most important measures of the year were the Mine Accidents (Rescue and Aid) Act and the Education (Choice of Employment) Act. SOCIAL LEGISLATION. The first of these provides for the supply of appliances for rescue work and* for the training of men for ambulance work in connection with mining. The other enables local education authorities to give boys and girls under seventeen years of age information, advice, and assistance in the choice of emplovment. The Police (Weekly Rest Day) Act, which comes into force durino* the next four years all over the country, enacts that no constable of any coup tv* or borough in England or Wales shall be on duty more than six days in any week. “Greenwood’s Act” is the popular name for the principal piece of humanitarian legislation of the year—the Act which prohibits the export of unfit horses. Licenses for exportation or shipment of horses are required by the Act. It was introduced by Mr. G. G. Greenwood, the member for Peterborough. DEGREAE IN BANKRUPTCY. Many interesting facts are broughtout in the annual- review of the bankruptcies of the year, which appears as a supplement t-o v “Kemp’s Mercantile Gazette.” In the first place, the total number of failures that is, actuail bankruptcies and deeds of arrangement, was 9034 a decrease of 176 on 1809 and a lower total than in any year since 1888.. The heaviest fall has been in the number of failures in the 'grocery and provision trades, which -show a decrease as compared with 1909 of 151, while in the drapery, silk, and woollen trades there has been a total decrease of 84. Another large decrease is shown in the number of farmers failing, the total of 258 -being 65 bellow! the total of 1909. Even builders show a decline- in the total number of bankruptcies by 30. MANOEUVRES OF 1909. A memorandum -on Army training in 1910 has just been issued by the Army Council. It states that while the training of the Regular Army shows improvement in certain points, notably the use of advanced- -guards, night operations, march discipline, machine-gun training and cookery in the- field, there are other directions in which! progress has been disappointing. In particular, the memorandum indicates the desirability of a closer association of cavalry with the other arms during training. In methods of attack and defence- too little caution is shown. The march discipline of transport columns and the umpiring is also stated to- be disappointing.