'Frisco Mail News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 184, 6 February 1897, Page 2

'Frisco Mail News.

♦ (Per Zealandia at Auckland.) Sir Thomas Sutherland, chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, made a statement to the stockholders of that Company on December 12th that trade with the port of London is waning. The two chief reasons given are the exorbitant dock charges and the dearaess of London labor. William Prince, the proprietor of ft small dingy wine bar on the Strand, Lendon, died on January 3rd, leaving personal property amounting to £400,000. He made this fortune in thirty years solely by this bar, although, unlike other public houses, it was never open on Sundays and holidays. The chief feature of the English real estate market for the year 1896 was the large number of noblemen selling. The Duke of Devonshire sold a fine estate of 3000 aores in West Cork, including the town of Bandon, to Sir John Knot for £250.000 ; Lord Asbburton disposed of a Wiltshire property of 10,000 aores ; Lord Churchill sold the magnificent Combury Park, of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, consisting of 5000 acres, with the historical mansion which was formerly the hunting lodge of Henry II. ; and the Marquis of Queensbucy disposed of his East Kirmont estate to a Huddersfield manufacturer. It is stated that the Duchess of York will shortly again go into temporary, retirement, and it is rumoured that the Duke of York will be promoted to be ft Bear- Admiral, at which there is a great deal of ill feeling, as he will thereby overstep more than one hundred captains who are his seniors. A sensational account of the discovery of a race of tailed men has appeared in a recent number of L'Anthropologie. Ac* cording to an abstract of the paper which is given in Nature, M. Paul D'JSngoy, in the course of a visit to the IndosCbinese region, between latitude 11* and and 12-, captured an individual of the Moi race, who bad climbed a large tree to gather honey. In descending, he applied the Hole of his foot to the bark, climbing, in fact, like a monkey. On examining his captive, the French explorer and bit Annamite companions were surprised to find him the possessor of a caudal appendage. M. D'Engoy saw the common dwelling of the people to which this man belonged, but the others bad fled. This dwelling consisted of a long, narrow tunnel-like hut, made of dry leaves. The tail, we are told, is not the only peculi* arity of these people. All the Moi whom D. D'Engoy has seen in the settlements have very accentuated ankle*bones, looking like the spur of a cock. All the neighbouring nations treat them as brutes, and destroy these remarkable people, who are believed by the author to have occupied primitively the whole Indo-Chinese peninsula. On the 11th instant the Most Rev. Francis Redwood, Roman Catholio Archbishop of Wellington, N. Z., who has been on a visit to Rome, had the honour of being received in personal audience by His Holiness the Pope, who conversed at some length with the New Zealand Archbishop, and expressed deep fatherly interest in the welfare of the Roman Catholic Church in that colony, and of its members, to whom he sent his pastoral benediction. Baron James de Hirsch, a brother of. the famous Baron de Hirscb, chairman of the New Zealand Exploration Com* pany, died very suddenly in Paris ft few days ago. The late Baron lived for some years in New Zealand, and married Miss Dalgliesh, a New Zealand lady. Ha was a prominent fignae in the financial world of Paris, where he hnd a large following, and where he did ft good deal of business with New Zealand mines. William Bannister, Superintendent of the Manchester police force for nearly a quarter of a century, was on Wednesday Dieember 30tb, dismissed and fined for what is called in the charge-sheet " neglect of duty." Other officers involved with him escaped with a caution. Ban* niater'e actual offence was working dis* orderly houses for his own profit. He was actually part owner of a disorderly i home himself. He would hare bean en* titled to a pension of £200 a year it be had ooznpleted 25 year* of service, bni this he forfeits by his dismissal. Man* cheater is excited about the affair. Mr E. T. Hooley, the English million* aire who has attracted so much attention by his recent purchase of country seats, has appeared in a new character— that of the propounds* 1 of a great scheme for old- age pensions. He suggests that ft fixed duty of fire shillings per quarter be levied on imported wheat and 5 par cant of this be invested in a pension fund to provide all indigent persons above 60 years of age with a pension of 15s weakly. It is talked of in London just now that a young nobleman a leader of English 11 smart " society, holding a place in the present Government, and generally supposed to have not only a large income but great accumulated wealth, has been called opon to repay a loan of £150,000 which during his minority he obtained from the late Baron Hirscb. As a result of this demand be has been obliged to close his great country mansion and enter upon a oourse of rigid retrenchment of all his expenses for years to come. Easy terms were offered by the Baron's executors, but he mortgaged his income to pay off the debt immediately. English gunners have smashed a cap. tive balloon at Snoeburyness at a distance of 2000 yards, using 15 pounders. This explodes the idea that baUoonn are useful for reconni»«ance in war.