BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Evening Star, Issue 3683, 11 December 1874, Page 2

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

ARRIVAL OF THE CLAUD HAMILTON. Bluff, December 11, The s.s. Claud'iHamiltou left Melbourne at 6 p.m. on the sth inst., and arrived at th« Bluff at daylight on the 11th. She brings thirty-four saloon and thirty-five steerage passengers, and 280 tons cargo for all ports. She sails for Dunedin at 5 p.m. Passenger List.—Mrs Yon Blarcom, Master Von Blarcom, Mrs Charles, Mrs Tolmie, Misses Tolmie (2), Master Tolmie, Miss Cooper, Mrs Caine, MLs Johnston, Miss Baxter, Miss King, Mrs Chamberlin, Messrs Von Blarcom, Charles, Chamberlain, Hellier, Hunt, Cooke, Gellibrand, C. Cellibrand, and twenty-nine steerage; also 250 tons of cargo for Dunedin. REUTER’S SPECIAL TELEGRAMS. Berlin, December 1. Bismarck, speaking in Parliament, declared that the policy to be adopted towards Alsace and Lorraine would be solely guided by the interests of the Empire. Paris, December 1, The Assembly has met but the proceedings were merely formal. All parties agreed to defer the Constitutional discussion till January. London, December 2. The attendance at the wool sales is declining, and competition becoming languid. 60,0*0 bales were sold, and 2,5*0 withdrawn. The Budget speech, delivered by the Treasurer, was well received. Captain Strahan, Governor of the West African settlements, assembled the chiefs at Cape Coast and delivered to them a m ssage from the Queen, expressing the determination of the British Government to abolish slavery. The chiefs assented, but stipulated for permission to retain their actual slaves, if kindly treated. The steamer La Plata, with the South American cable on board, foundered off Ushant, It is feared that sixty pe,sons have perished. The Benchers of Gray’s Inn have unanimously disbarred Dr Kenealy for his conduct in the Tiehborne case. LATEST AUSTRALIAN, Melbourne, December 5. Parliament has done some good work in the matter of practical legislation, but the subjects dealt with have been mostly of local interest. The Payment of Members Bill has passed the Assembly and reached the Council, where notice has been given for a call of the House for its consideration. The Judication Bill, which passed the Assembly, contains a clause providing for Grand Juries in certain criminal cases. Attention has recently been aroused to the gross evasions of the Land Act, and an amendment of the existing law is loudly called for. A writ has been issued for Richmond, and two candidates, Messrs L.L. Smith andßosisto, are in the field. Rumors ns to the probable and early resignation of Judge Fellows are current. The population of the Colony at the end of September was 803,000. Mr Ducane, late Governor of Tasmania, proceeds to England to-day by the steamer Northumberland. He received quite an ovation on leaving Hobart Town. Yesterday he was present with Governor Bowen at the Parliament and Press cricket match, and made a most admirable speech. A severe shock of earthquake was felt in the Gippsland district early on the morning of 30 th November. Mining machinery was stopped, underground working displaced, and articles fell from shelves. The shocks lasted over an hour and a-half. The Macgregor, with the Californian mails, reached San Francisco on the 26th November. The Normanby, with the Torres Straits, left Batavia on the 25th November, having been detained five days for the Suez steamer. The Suez mail steamer Ceylon is expected to reach here about next Saturday, the I2th inst. The Transit of Venus parties have left for their respective stations. Mr Matthew Harvey, Commissioner of Public Works in 1863 and Acting President of the Legislative Council, is dead. Laud in Collins street recently sold for L4OO a foot. Madame Ristori’s agent has engaged the Opera House for next August. Great preparations are being made by the Catholics for the reception of Archbishop Goold. Measles is very prevalent ail over the Colony, and several schools are closed in consequence. The Garrison Artillery are bivouacked. The Old Church of England Grammar School boys intend presenting Dr Bromby, the retiring head master, with a testimonial of 350 sovereigns. The conference of stock inspectors, held at Sydney, recommends that the prohibition on the importation of cattle from Europe should be rescinded. Sydney. Mr Parkes has issued an address, but it announces nothing more than was contained in •■he Governor’s speech at the opening of Parlia "ent. King Cakobau has arrived in Sydney as the -uest of the Governor, and was accorded an official landing. He is very anxious to visit Melbourne. The Governor has presented him with a yacht in the Queen’s name. F. M'Calhun, who was sentenced to death for the Ci .cular Quay murder, has had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for iife. The writs for the elections have been issued, md are returnable by 25th January. Educational reform is to be made the prominent topic of the elections, and already the Denominational Defence Society and the Educational League have their candidates, Mr Arnold ie unlikely tp :

offer himself for the Speakership, andMr Allen, the present Minister of Justice, will probably be nominated. Adelaide. Mr Ernest Giles is about to proceed on an expedition to Perth, proceeding to the southward of Forrest’s route. ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL. Auckland, December 10. The Oyphrenes, wich the San Francisco mail, arrived this morning. She left San Francisco on November 10, three days behind time. This was caused by the long passage made by the Atlantic boat. She encountered terrific gales for three days between San Francisco and Honolulu, and left the latter place on 22nd November. She had dirty weather and head seas since. She brings a large cargo, forty passengers for Australia, and the following for New Zealand : —Mrs Veal and family, Rev. Dr Atcliffe, Rev. A. R. Tomlinson, Rev. Dr Copland (for Otago), Messrs Hoare, Robert Graham, and twenty in the steerage. EUROPEAN NEWS. At the Lord Mayor’s banquet Mr Disraeli referred to the annexation of Fiji as a proof that the Government would maintain a National Colonial policy. The West Yorkshire colliers who were on strike have resumed work pending arbitration. An extensive lock out in Lincolnshire is threatened, the farmers insisting on a reduction of three shillings a week in the wages of farm hands. A terrible cyclone at Bengal caused the loss of 2,000 lives and many wrecks. The marriage between Princess Thyra of Denmark and the son of the ex-King of Hanover is reported to be broken off. An Imperial German decree has established a Representative Assembly for Alsace and Lorraine. Fifteen hundred persons are sick with typhoid fever at Darwin, in Lancashire, being more than one-sixteenth of the entire population. The first attempt of the Prussian Government to have the priests elected by the congregation failed, the congregation refusing. In the crush at the Lord Mayor’s show several persons were killed and injured. The English Agricultural Laborers Union have adopted the proposal submitted by the Mississippi deputation, to despatch five million laborers to the United States. Extensive migration is going on, and creating alarm in Great Britain. A famine in Samaria, of a most desolating character, is causing great ravages. J ohu Laird, the shipbuilder is dead. The Municipality of Naples propose to grant Garibaldi six thousand dollars annually. A conflagration at Griffiths, Asiatic Russia, caused great loss of life and property. The Governor of Syria has been instructed to suppress all Protestant schools. A French lawyer, named Fonneus, who secured the election of himself as Bang of Patagonia, has been arrested as a usurper. Mavigdor, a banker at Nice, has committed suicide. Rochefort, who established ‘ LaLanterne.’at Berne, having wandered over the French boundary, narrowly escaped capture. Cardinal Cullen and the entire Catholic Episcopate have issued a pastoral denouncing Professor Tyndall’s speech at Belfast as a revival of paganism. The Government has entered an action in the Ecclesiastical Court against the Bishop of Peterborough. The latter refuses to notice it. Class differences in Montenegro, between Russians and Turks, led to several murders aud disturbance. The Government of the Porte have informed the British Foreign Office that they will punish the offenders. I he steamer Mary, from Glasgow to Trinidad, foundered. Ten persons went down with the vessel; the remainder took to the boats. One boat, with five men, is supposed to have been swamped, i The Pope, addressing the Bishop of Verdun, said he trembled for the dangers threatening France. In the Argentine Republic, the desertion of ; troops for the purpose of joining the rebels has greatly weakened the Government, whose downfall seems imminent, as it is now too weak to engage with the rebels in battle. Nana Sahib was discovered through his applymg to the Maharajah of Scinde for protection. He gave an interesting account of his wanderings, and denied his connectien with tke Cawnpore massacre. He subsequently wished to withdraw his confession. His identity is doubted, because he appears too youtnful. The Earl of Derby has counselled the Dutch to abandon the Achcenese war. - The Prince of Montenegro applied to the Russian Ambassador, asking for an investigation of the conflicts between the Russians and Turks. The Ambassador replied that he was watching the course of events, and would see justice done. The Cuban insurrection is likely to be terminated by the popularity of General Concha, who recently arrived, and has been received by all classes with acclamation. The Spanish Ambassador urged Lord Derby to take precautions against the shipment of war material from England to the Carlisle. Lord Derby sharply replied that the indefinite continuance of the war in Spain showed great want of energy, aud that the Spanish navy, if vigilant, might render landing the Carlists’ war material impossible. The details of the famine in Asia Minor are of a very harrowing kind. 150,000 persons have already fallen victims, and emaciated men, women, and children are pouring into adjoining cities begging bread, AMERICAN NEWS. . . . November 10. . I he Louisiana political disturbance resulted in an unsuccessful attempt to shoot Governor Kellogg. Three shots were fired. A gale and tog at Lake Erie resulted in the wreck of many vessels and the loss of 400,000 dols. worth of property. Advices from Venezuela announced that the Provinces of Cara and liarcelona had risen in revolution again 't President Branco. Father Genderraan, a priest of the German Catholic Church at Philadelphia, absconded with 40,000 dols. of funds of the Church. He is supposed to have eloped with % young lady, organist of the Church. ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS. {Special to the Dunedin Evening Star.) The San Francisco papers confirm the reports of plundering on the Pacific railroad by gambling robbers. The plan of operations is chiefly to beguile unsuspecting passengers into swindling games of cards. The Sophia Joakim sailed from London for Otago on October 6. The San Francisco firm of Morgan and Sons has failed, with liabilities, in San Francisco alone, of half a million dollars. The cause of their failure was buying up all the freights in anticipation of the wheat crops. The fall of wheat at Liverpool, followed by the fall of freights, landed the firm in difficulties. The Dublin gasworks have been destroyed by fire. New gold diggings have been discovered at the Cape of Good Hope. Hundreds are flocking there. The veins are said to be rich and extensive. Owing to the increase of the Prussian army Germany adds 20,000 troops to her annual contingent. The Prince Imperial of France is to mam’ the Russian Grand Duchess Marie. The Bona partisfcs consider it an important event Forty-two Protestant societies are holding conferences in Paris to maintain the rights of conscience. ° Trade is in a bad condition in New York Ninety thousand laborers and mechanics are unemployed. -V fund is being raised for the relief of sufferers by the grasshopper plague. At Nebraska, a prize-fight between Allen, the American champion, and Jem Mace, for the championship of the world, is on the tapis. ihe London Times’ thus refers to Gardiners and Sullivan’s release:—“We don’t in tend to allow either Mr Gardiner or Mr Sullivan to land here if we can help it, and the Americans are determined that you must find i some other dust hole to shoot your discarded < rubbish iu thah the States,” The ‘ Timbß ’ says j

the freeing of these wretches does not evince a very high standard of local morality, but it adds, that “ bearing in mind our own clemency to wife-beaters and kickers in England, we have no right to be too exacting in this sense as to our Australian progeny.” . , ... Auckland, December 10. A deputation, waited upon the Governor yesterday afternoon to urge the retention of the Native Lands Court Department at Auckland, and his Excellency promised to forward the petition to his responsible advisers. [Sent 12.15 p.m.; received 6.20p.m.l The Luna leaves to-morrow morning at eight. The ban I rancisco mail is not sorted yet. All the mails for the Colony have been up owing to the want of a mail agent when the Oyphrenes sailed. . Napier, December 10. A proclamation creating Napier a municipality has been received. [Sent 11.45 a.m.; received 6.40 p.m.] Wellington, December 10. It is notified in the ‘ Gazette ’ that the In* spection of Machinery Act, 1874, has been brought into operation in every Province of the Colony, and that Mr Joseph Nauo.<rrow has been appointed Chief Inspector of Machinery. December 11. Dr Hector has been informed by Major Palmer that Professor Peters at Queenstown states he got good observations of the first and second contact of ingress, but lost the egress. It is advertised that the reclaimed land has been withdrawn from sale, in consequence of the arrangements entered into by the Provincial Government with the Municipal Council [Sent 10.30 a. ra., received 12.40 p m.] The following tenders have been received for 60.000 sleepers for the Mataura and Clutha railway. Accepted, Donald and Petersou, Invercargill, 30,000 at 3s. Declined, Calder, Blacklock, and Co., Invercargill, 60,000 at 3s 6d ; John Howe, Lawrence, 20,000 at 3s 10d. Eighty-two thousand sleepers for WintonKmgston railway, Calder, Blacklock, and Co.. 82.000 at 3s 6d, declined. This was the only tender. [Sent 10.26 a.m., received 12.40 p.m.] (From our own Correspondents.) Auckland, December 11. A robbery was committed aboard the Otago Whaling Company’s ship Splendid at Russell Seven of the crew broke into the store, stole a quantity of rum, and then deserted in one of whaling boats. A rewaid of L2O was offered by the captain. In the evening the deserters were captured by a party of Maories, who delivered them up. The Maories wanted to extort LlO more before giving up the boat, but the captain threatened to take it, whereupon they handed it over quietly. [Sent 10 a.m.; received 12.46 p.m.] rm. . v „ , Wapieb, December 10. . The New Zealand Gazette,’ of the 3rd mst., proclaims Napier a borough. The circumstance was heard for the first time to-day. Madame Goddard’s concert last night was immensely successful She gives another performance to-night and proceeds to Auckland to-morrow per Hero. The Jockey Club has appointed a committee to arrange a race meeting in March.