MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 153, 10 July 1901, Page 2

MAIL NEWS.

[By Telegraph, j (Per Ii.AI.S. Sonoma at Auckland.) San Francisco, June 20. Airs McKinley is slowly recovering from her serious illness. The trouble originated in a bone felon, which caused blood infection, and nearly cost her her life. She is now practically out of danger. A despatch from Paris states that under the terms of a secret convention with China, Franco will be able to protect the proposed line from Tonquin Into Yunan with French troops, exactly as Russia does in Manchuria. It is stated that Franco intends to exercise tho right, though the intention may now be denied.

In America the formation of trusts goes merrily on. A syndicate controlling most of he western railways will effect many changes. The success of steamer " lanes " across the Pacific Ocean a ventage by the Navy Department is assured. The lanes are 30 miles wide, and connect San Francisco with Honolulu, Guam, and Manila, San Francisco with Nagasaki, Puget Sound ports with Nagasaki and Honolulu, and Guam with Nagasaki. It is proposed to secure the adoption by Congress of Bear-Admiral Bradford’s plan for a coimuvheusive survey of tho Pacific Ocean The naval attaches of Germany, Gu at Britain, and Japan arc interested, and have proposed that their Governments should participate.

On June 10th a fire occurred in tho military hospital at Presidio, San Francisco. Two hundred sick soldiers were in the wards, and were only rescued by tho heroin efforts of the hospital corps and soldi r volunteer tire-lighters. A few firemen were slightly- burned. Several members of the Hospital Corps were overcome by the smoke. Not one of tho helpless patients suffered any injury. Tho life started under the library of tho hospital building, and burst through tho tloor above. The Hospital Corps, when the bugle brought them to their stations, proceeded to wrap the patients in extra blankets and to curry thorn to safety as quickly as if they were doing routine work.

Mr Hamilton Johnson, Special Commissioner of Uganda Protectorate, lias returned to London, alter an absence of two years. He brings stories of Uganda rivalling Stanley's Darkest Africa. The country surrounding Aloantelgon lias been totalh depo.minted as tho result of tribal wars, and consequently- it is marvellously stocked by game, being almost like tho lawns of an English park. Deer, zebras, aim antelope can be approached to within ten yards, and it is no sport killing them. Elephants and rhinoceros are also abundant. A prehistoric giraffe was discovered by the Commissioner, who proposes to maintain the region referred to as a national park. Ho photographed a race of ape-men in the Congo district, differing entirely from Stanley's pigmies, and secured phonographic records of their language. Ho says twelve varieties of rubber trees were found in inexhaustible supply. THE TROUBLE IN RUSSIA. The appointment by the Czar of General Peter S. Vat tnovsky as Minister of National Education appears to have given general satisfaction in Russia. Every section of tiie Press of the Empire weicomos the appointment, and sees in it a pledge of conciliation and reform, and a more liberal policy towards university students. Exception to this rule is found in two ultra-reactionary newspapers, which have advocated a reduction of tho schools. Tho Czar’s prescript making the appointment is regarded as highly significant, for it recognises the radical defects of tho present system, and calls upon General Yatinovs'ky to assist the Czar in formulating and applying a now and modern policy, one suited to the age as well as to the fundamental conditions of Russia. General Yannovsky is over eighty years old, and has had little experience in educational matters. He has been Alinistcr of War, and an active soldier, but in investigating the students’ disturbances he showed himself humane, progressive, and in sympathy with tho dissatisfied youths. SOLDIERS OF THE KING.

It is said that London has seldom seen a finer spectacle than in the Horse Guards parade on dune 12th, when King Edward presented three thousand medals to soldiers who had been participants in tho South African campaign. The great square was lined with tiie guards drawn from various regiments. In the centre of tho ground was a purple covered dais, surmounted by an Indian tent with silver corner poles. In the space between the dais and St James’ l’ark were drawn up three thousand officers and men of the Guards, Household Cavalry, and City Imperial volunteers, all of whom had served in the campaign. The official buildings fronting the parade were decorated with flags. The Lord-Mayor attended in State, and the members of tiro Special Moorish Embassy, in picturesque costumes, were interested spectators. Promptly at eleven o’clock tho King, Queen, and Princess Victoria, and other members of the ltoyal Family arrived, and took places on the dais. The recipients of the medals, in a long line, marched past the King, received the decorations, saluted, and passed on. Lord Roberts came first, followed by Lord Milner. Tho procession as a whole was most incongruous, including officers in dazzling uniforms, men in frock coats, doctors who had served at the front, and foreign attaches in uniform. There were also groups of time-expired men, policemen, and wounded soldiers limping along in hospital clothes. The ceremony lasted nearly three hours, the Queen standing beside the King throughout.

A DESTROYER. The Naval and Military Record, London, commenting on tho throe weeks’ trial of the Kritisli torpedo boat destroyer Viper, which was conducted under regular service conditions, and during which she developed a speed of thirty and a half knots, and was pronounced capable of doing thirty-one, says that her coal consumption was enormous at top speed, which tiie paper adds militates against tho plan which the Dover-Calais Company is now maturing, to build two turbine channel steamers and to rcduco tho channel trip to thirty-five minutes. Tho Viper’s trial was pronounced to be entirely satisfactory, although she was bandied by an inexperienced crew. She showed remarkably immunity from breaking down, and she was steady in all weather.