CABLE NEWS.
[Pbess AsaooiATiowj.
London, January 11, Defending: the Government's Policy. Mr W. B. Perceval, in a letter to the Times, traverses the statements in &n article published by that paper, ar.d denies that it is the intention of tbe Wow Zealaod Government to make loan coropnnies or banks conductirg legitimate business pay more tban formerly. . Baron Hirech is appealing foy edditional land in the Argentine Bepablic. Three colonies in Buenos Ayrps are already populated. Twenty thousand Russian Jews, will be sent to the Argentine this year. The house of Sir John Millais, at Perth, Scotland, has been destroyed by fire..
Australian.
$; Melboubne. Last night. r£ooo&6t*uctin_ a Ministry. At a Cabinet meeting to-day Mr Munro, tbe Premier, accepted the Agent- Generalship, Bnd Mr Sbids succeeds Mr Munro as PrUnier. Sir F. Sargood and the Hobb. Messrs Davis, Ham, Bnd Fraser members of the Ministry in the .Council, resign with Mr Munro, as they oppose the one-ruanonc-vote principle, which is to be the chief plank io tbe platform of tbe reeonstrocted Ministry at the general elections.
The Influenza Epidermic.
■ :[Pjbess Association.], London, January 11. Most of the London hospitals are full with influenza patients. Three hundred and twenty nine cases •re reported on ihe werab'ips at Malta. Seventy deaths from irflueoza have oc curred in Paris. Mr S. D. Wsddy is seriously ill. Admiral McKenzie has died from in" flaoDza. ■ '. ...
MORTALITY IN AUCKLAND.
