LONDON MARKETS.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 140, 23 May 1892, Page 2

LONDON MARKETS.

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. ' Lospos, May 12. The Antwery wool sales closed'tb-day. The market was animated, and the rise in good qualities were fully maintained. ■ Inferior sorts were rather neglected. Out of 9700 bales offered 5000 were . sola. Nearly all the consignments' from Aua« tralia were withdrawn. New Zealand long'berried wheat is quiet at 38s ; South Australian wheat is weaker, at 38s 9d ; Victorian wheat is flat at 38s 3d. Canterbury mutton is quoted at 4£d per Ib, Canterbury lamb at 6^d, and New Zealand beef, hindquarters, at 3£d.

The Eeceot Earthquake in, Japan * Bit by bit during 1 the last three months (says the Tokio correspondent of, Ta.e Times) there have .come to light some ' more- : exact particulars oftbe ereat earthquake of the 28th October than could bn #iven directly fatef itpoccurrence. These show, among 1 other thing?, that the magnitude of; the catastrophe was at first, a vood deal under-estimated in nearly every respect. The number of people killed and hurried to death for instance, is how found to bare been j about 10:000 instead of 8000 i and the number of injured to have been 15,000 inbtead; of 10,000. The area of the severely shaken district — taking in its measure, that in which brick buildings suffered—is estimated by Professor Milne, in ;a recent monograph, on the subject, at 4400 square miles. The same authority adds that the disturbance distinctly shook about 92,600 square miles of Japan's territory ; that tremors were noticed at -Shanghai; that delicate instrumenta may possible have been affected even at our Aniimdes ; and that if Japan had been suntounded by terra firma instead of water, the land area directly agitated would have been as much as 400,000. square miles. It is now certain that the locus of most potent.energy wa3 in the Mino, mountains, to the north of Gifu, as suggested in my former letter. The Neo VaUey in; that: region, happily containing but a few. inhabitants, presented to tbe bewil(iere.l gaze of the ...half, dozen adventurous spirits wh<> .hurriedly Visited ifc soon.after the disaster, a, scene of past, havoc so tremendous arid terrible, as to have changed almost the. whole face of nature.,-. Unfortunately, the circumstances of time and the difficulty and dangerof travel forbade any thorough examination of the valley and its environs Explorers.' however bold and ardent, couM Hardly be expecterl to stay long enough for that purpose io a region; where the. stijl palsied earth ;kept-;groaniog [.an!', quaking under'"'tueir'lee'C ami where the shattered hillsides over which they had to Wamble'were-from lime to time breaking away, with a deafening roar, in stupendous landslip?, themselves great enough to produce local'earthqhakes on a small scale. Leip XIH The Pope is now eighty- two years of age,/, Leo XIII bus.occupied the chair of J St'.' Peter, for fourteen years, and although/ there have been many rumours' "of the .unsatisfactory state of his.healthlately, there aeems to be no good, reason why he should not occupy it for a good many years loDger. His Holiness' mode or lite ii? of the simplest, lie usually rises at six o'clock in the morning, offers the sacrifice, pf the mass, and then beginihisvs pi-king, day. For breakfast he has a single glass of coffee, tea, ir milk, and alter going t.hrough his papers, begins to receive about- bine. From that hour till- one iti the afternoon the ttitorisc of visitors; never sladk6n«i: -He then returns to' his papers ana his books until three, when he dines. The dinner of His Holiness is ;df the same frugal character as his breakfast—;alittle .'soup, two courses of; meat Vegetables, and desert j)f friiik, with.one glass of ■wiue v. &fi&%vastihe goes out lor adfrveV r 6r jPwalkj in i the garden of the Vaticniu fie afterwards resumes his papers. Between nine and ten o'clock all the/ Papal- household assemble, for- thfr "ilosarjr and then retire tb'resf. : "Ali:jougn " the Pope wears •.spectacles, e ft rea.diag,:;.Uis eyesig^froon.^Dues jVpry good. ;<When he jras ia; young 1 man he was very shorteightedpibut •■aar-' he grew older his sighti jbecame jbetter, and at seventy ii \vas pester, than when he was twentyryeare of age. , A bon mot of His Jlpliness at last Christmas; receptio|n taay not jikve beenlorgoUen. It was fldidresseid to.Cardinal Parrocchi, wh,p,is Relieved ; in many quarters to be heir presumptive to the chair of St.,P,e.ter. ..When the.Cardinal had wished I ,' him a fiappy' new year the Pope said,.-with 'a twinkle in his.eye,. " Thanlk''\ou, your^flmmence, I hope,, to be stiU.he^elon thf.eve; ofnext new year to receive once more your sincere congratulations," ; , .;

. 'j. r 'i :- A&*\ JW*&*A<ir-* .-^-j.:»m.;.^a- j-waMaa"*^ A Stormy Session Predicted It is said that Mr Ballanca anticipates a stormy . session, says the Auckland Herald. In all probability he will have it. He has certainly done everything during the recess to increase the storm, He has evidently been carried away by the position in ■ which he round himself last session and the incidents of apparent good fortune which have occurred. Reas onable appeals have been ra&de to him to modify the taxation proposals in certain respects in which I hoy have been shown to be impracticable, tyrannical, and injurious.- He has held out no hope that he will do nny'hing of the kind.- On every occasion when he has spoken, he has reiterated his conviction that the nationalisation of the land is the ultimate goal of his legislation. Thure are to be no more freeholds. Only the other day he asserted that the Government might next session I increase the amount of the graduated tax. «_„_