ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1346, 20 September 1886, Page 2

ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

GENERAL SUMMARY.^ On August 27th Lord Salisbury conducted the experiment of cutting oats with electric machinery. Forty four steamers and thfrty-threo sailing vessels are reported to be rotting at Glasgow docks. The fact la attributed to the low freights'and generally depressed state of business The British Government has decided to appoint a Commission to inquire into the expenditure of the principal departments of State, and Mr Chamberlain will bo chosen Chairman. The statement is also made that a small Royal Commission on the currency question will be appointed with Mr Goschen as Chairman. The various generals' of the English army districts have ordered volunteers to practise picket duty, and be in readiness to quell macoevres. Each volunteer is to he supplied with twenty ball cartridges. It is understood this action is taken under the expectation of a renewal of the dynamite outrages and disorder In the Northern and and Midland counties of EnglandIhe London Socialist Leagne have passed resolutions strongly condemnatory of the authorities of Illinois for sentencing to death the Chicago anarchists. A sensation is caused by the statements made in Court in London in connection with the sffiirs nf the Briton Medical and General Assurance Association.' The hearing of the petition for winding up the business of the Association was in progress and during the course of the proceedings the Judge sta’ed (that the failure of the concern was due to defalcations, which would exceed £IOO,OOO. He declared that every effort would be made to unearth and punish the miscreants who had caused the ru : n of the Association. A foreign lady, who lost £12,000 at Monte Carlo gambling tables, committed suicide in a village near Grenoble on August 22nd. This is the sixtyseventh case of self murder since the opening of the Monte Carlo season.

Advices from Tonquin to August 10 h say that cholera of a violent character baa attacked the French troops there. The chief of the medical staff had succumbed to the disease. The Board of Health of New York have exchanged communication with the sanitary authorities of San Francisco with reference to the Cholera epidemic, which the cable reports as raging at Tonga and Yokohama, Japan. The elections took place in France on

August Ist. Th« returns received show the election of 100 Republican T epntdes to 40 Conservatives. The Republicans gained nine seats and lost seven. An imbeci'e widow named Lebolr, re* aiding at Seiles, St Denis, was burned to death at the stake by her sons on Anguat 16th. While she was burning they sprinkled h”ly water over her, and when arrested said they had destroyed her for religions motives. The woman was six y years old, and had the name of being a sorceress A transport with convicts sailed from Toulon on August 20th for Martinique, but put hack on the 220 d, and reported that the convicts had revolted and tried to gain possession of the ship. Two oannooa loaded with grape were fired on the rebels, and many of them had been killed. The finances of the Russian Government are represented in a worse condition than ever. Notwithstanding the extraordinary efforts that have been made to increase the receipts from the public , t*xes the returns show a decrease of 30,600,000 roubles for the year, with a steady increase in the expenditure. Owing to the rainy weather during the fortnight ending August 10th, grain was rotting in the fields and the Russian farmers are greatly depressed. A despatch from St Petersburg, dated August 20th, says that the steamer Vera, bonnd from Astrabad np the river Volga, whore she plied, was bnrned on that day and 200 lives were lo t. The fire was caused by the fall of a lamp in the saloon. The majority of those on board perished by drowning.

a AMERICAN SUMMARY, i, The desire to jump off the Brooklyn f bridge Is growing. Several candidates for 5 the perilous honor have presented themselves. A new idea is that advanced by a Maine man, Charles E. Bishop, who 1 proposes to ascend by a balloon over the bridge 150 feet and drop from that * height. f Three British schooners and one r American have been seized by a United States cruiser for illegally capturing fur seals in Alaska waters. The affair is likely to lead to some correspondence between the United States and Great Britain. A Chinese Society discovered in New York offers, for 200 dollars a head, to beat the restriction law, and to get any Chinamen desired into the United States from China. The Executive Committee of the Dish 3 Parliamentary Fund Association have decided to place £53,000, collected by the ) Association, in the Bank of New York, at r 1$ per cent interest, nntil it should be ! needed by Parnell and his party. * Difficulties and contentions among the 1 Trades Unions and Knights of Labor in 1 the Eastern Sstates threaten the direolu- * tion of the latter organisation. The printers have withdrawn thirty-five dele- . gates. I Colonel William H, Gilder, accompanied by Lieut. Griffiths, left New York ' on August 21st on a journey to the North Pole. They will proceed direct ' to Montreal, from whence the whaler Victoria will take them to Greenland. Gilder expressed the utmost confidence that he would succeed. At Dungannon, on August I6th, bauds of Nationalists paraded the Protestant quarter of the town denouncing the residents there. The riot ended in several persons being I jured. The police prevented desperate fighting by forcing their way between the Catholics and Protestants. According to the Irish Times (Loyalist) Mr Parnell is about to embrace Roman Catholicism The Convention of Irish sympathiser* in session in Chicago during the middle of August excited seme attention on the part of tbe London press. The Times of August 20th gave prominence In ita columns to a letter suggesting the prosecution for trrason on their return home of the Canadian delegates and other British subjects who figured In the Chicago Convention. Archbishop Groker, in an address on August 20th, while advising moderation said the people should exhibit sufficient firmness to show the Government that if war was made npon them they would resist. He cautioned them to avoid crime, but exhorted them to continue first until the rights of Ireland were restored. The eviciiona in the Gondeadave district of Donegal were concluded on Anguat 22nd. The total amount of rente concerned dees not exceed £SO yearly. One hundred and fifty policemen and bailiffs, and sixty cm and boata, were engaged for eleven days in the proceedings at a cost of £IOO per day. The people were steeped in poverty, and the scene is described as pitiful- . An immense meeting was held at Car-rick-on-Sufr on August 23rd to start an Irish Parliamentary fond. Resolutions ware adopted declaring that tbe people would continue the Home Rule struggle for years if necessary, The wildest enthusiasm was exhibited, the audience standing with uncovered heads and singing, ‘*God save Ireland.’’ Large sum* of money have been subscribed. THE EASTERN CRISIS. Prince Alexander Joseph, of Bittenburg, abdicated, according to .a despatch

from Sofia of Angmt 22ad, on Saturday, the 20th, and was escorted over the frontier. Tha populace and troops quartered in the capital, .unrounded the palace early in the morning, bill there was no disorder. After the abdiction the populace assembled and adopted resolutions praying the Czar to re-extend his sympathy to the Bulgarian people. The assemblage then proceeded to the palace of the Russian agent and submitted to him the resolutions, all kneeling. The agent assured them of the Can’s friendship. M. Zmkcff, the nominal head of the new Government, was the prime mover of the revolution. The Cologne Gazette and Berlin Post express the belief that the event will tend to preserve peace. They say Prince Alexander's qualities deserved a better fate, but England having refused him active support against Russia and Tarxey, and being afraid to risk war In behalf of Bulgaria, and the Gaetein meeting showing the alliance was unbroken, his Boaitl- n was hopeless. The peop'e of Bulgaria rem»ir | ranquil. Oa the 22rd the capital was gaily decorated vrtb fUgs, and at night illuminated. The Premier issued a praclam*tion announcing the formal abdication < f the Prince, stating that he renounced the throne for ever, being convinced that his reign would be fatal to Bn’garia. The news caused a heavy and rapid fall on the Vienna Bourse. Despatches of August 25th out a somewhat different f*oa upon Prince Alexander’s abdication It was not voluntsry, but forced by the Zank ff party. A oonnter revolution has set in. auat

by all the troops. The provincial Govern mens was overthrown, Clement Gromff and Zank. ff were put in prison, and the old Ministry reinstated. A deputation has pone in search of the Prince to assure him of the loyalty of the Bulgarian peo.de and to invi'e him to re'-r.rn Tne soldiers everywhere throuahout Poumelta declared for Alexander, vh> was at Bemi, Russia on the 26th, on his way to Austria. Reports of fighting in Bulgaria were received In London on August ts’b, and it was also slated that a sanguinary encounter had taken place among the troops at Jassy, Boutnania, resulting in the killing and wounding of many on both aides The general impression is that civil wsr is unavoidable, Russia will Intervene with troops to restore order, that Turkey, as Suzerain, will occupy the Balkans, and that a bloody war wl 1 be the result All communication between Turkey and Bulgaria has been stopped. Great excitement prevails in Starabonl owing to a belief that Russia intends to occupy Bulgaria. Griers were give", to recruit 30,000 men In Syia. Prince Alexander has written a sharp letter to the Czar, expressing his amazement and Indignation. When the King of Servia heard of the event at Sofia he ■aid, “It is the greatest public infamy ever perpetrated in Europe. If I knew where Alexander was I would t fi;ph m all I possess to aff >rd him assistance.” Pticoi Alesander reached Breslau on August 27th. The Powers have acquiesced in Kngland’a suggestion cot to interfere with bis reinstatement, and unless Alexander has a strong personal cbject'on to again rule over Bulgaria, he will make his triumphant ent-y in to Sells in a few days.

DISASTER A N THE FALKLAEDS. A despatch from the Ut ited States Consnl at Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, was received at Washington on Angust 17, giving an account of a slip of peat which oocnrre 1 on the night of June 2, causing a loss of life and great destruction of property. Extending the entire length of the south shore of the harbor, and at a slight elevation, is a peat bed. from which laboring people procure their fuel. There are no channels to drain the bog, and large quantities of water collect there during the long rains, which at certain seasons last for days at a time. For three days previous to the disaster a rain storm had prevailed. At about eight o’clock in tho evening, the bog began to quake, and finally, with a noise like thunder, it broke loose, rushing down upon the town, carrying everything in its way, blocking up streets in places to the height of six or eight feet. Solid porches and iron lamp posts were torn away, and boat houses disappeared before its march. The bewildered and terrified populace believed their town was being destroyed by an earthquake or an avalanche. It lasted only an hour, but its path was one of great devastation. A mass of scattered peat lay over the town. Two lives were lost. The people feared another disaster, and were constantly on the alert. PERILOUS FEATS AT NIAGARA. The latest craze for notoriety is the navigation of the whirlpool at Niagara Falls. A cooper named Graham recently made the trip concealed in a barrel specially prepared, and on August the 20th ventnred again in a barrel with his head exposed. Both experiments were successful ; but .« fisherman named Scott attempted the feat the same afternoon, and perished. He swam in a cork suit. An hoar after he started his body was picked np nesr the town where ha had lived The body was not much marked, but the indications seem to show that the fores of the water expressed the breath put of the man. Buffalo, N.Y ,1s full of “ cranka” wanting to distinguish themselves in their way. One Jacob Fcumber. a cooper, of Manchester, proposes to float in a barrel down Niagara River on the Canadian side, plunge over Horseshoe F-lla, and con'lnue through the rapids to Lewiston. Graham, though successful on two occasions, had a tough time, and says he had enough of it. On Sunday, August 22nd, William J. Kendall, of Boston, guarded by a cork vest, swam the rapids successsully for 1000 dollars, bis portion of a wager of 10,000 between Boston parties. There were few spectators. Kendall says when he reached the spot where Captain Webb is supposed to have lost his life, his feet seemed to go from under him, and a huge wave struck him on the bead and shoulders, knocking him unconscious for a few moments. He found his swimming abilities of no use whatever, and never expected to cone oat alive. When entering the whirlpool be was so benumbed and partly nneomclons he did not use a limb. fie did not know what he was doing. The current took him right into Uu main eddy, and socked him down like a flash, keeping him down fully fifteen seconds. Upon teaching the under current he was shot out of the pool fully fifty feet from its centre. When he had reached the surface of the water he had partly recovered consciousness, and knowing there was no time to spare before he was dashed down the lower rapte's, swam to the shore. He fainted, and It took half an hour to bring him to. “Would he make another try?” he was asked, and emphatically “ No,” he replied ; “ there’s not money enough in the world to repeat this afternoon’s experience. A child would have the same chance to go through the rapids and come out all right as an experienced swimmer.” It took him three inmates to go from the taihoad bridge to the whirlpool. Kendall is twenty-four years of age, 6ft 2in in height, weight 1951 b, and is well proportioned.

1 destructive FOREST f IRIS. Despatches of Angust 12th mention that tremendous forest fires raged in Wisconsin, near the towns of Green Bay, Eltras Rellvije, Dopere, Lanty, and elsewhere, causing mqch distress and loss; Several families were burnt out in the town of Denmarok, and stripped of all they possessed. The residents all packed up their goods, and there was a regular exodus to

Gieen Bay and Manitoba. The streams have dried np, and bodies of suffocated cattle lie strewn along the road Tranche* and firebreaks did not stop the flimer The people in the threatening towns slept out of doors, ready for any emergency. Large quantities of provisions have been sent to the sufferers More than a dozin cases of human cremation are reported. Despatches of the 14th stated that the fires were extinguished by unexpected and plentiful rains.