ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1862, 11 February 1880, Page 3

ADDITIONAL MAIL NEWS.

[By Tblegeaph.] AUCKLAND, February 10. The Burmese Government determined to send an Embassy to Europe. The Police fired on a crowd, of Galway peasantry. None were hurt. Two hundred extra policemen have been drafted to the County of Galway. Bight thousand people in Bosnia are reported to be on the verge of starvation. Sir Garnet Wolseley is to retut n to England in January. The country between the Volga and the Don is famine stricken, many persons having perished. Typhus also prevails. The Porte contributes 4,000,000 piastres for relief of the destitute of Constantinople during the winter. The North Staffordshire iron masters refuse all large orders except at the rates current at the time of delivery. The iron trade is in a flourishing condition. Twenty thousand tons of steel rails for America are ordered.

Ex-Marshal Bazaine has been refused permission to return to Franco to settle his family affairs.

Land meetings continue iu Ireland. The Home Rule League thanked America for her prompt aid. In Berlin the shares of the Samoan Company have been subscribed nearly twice over. The cotton spinners of Ashton under-Lyne demand a five per cent, advance of wages. A ten per cent, advance is asked in Bolton and neighbourhood, A fatal railway accident occurred between St. Louis and Kansas city, owing to a steel rail snapping and throwing a sleeping car from the track. The rails got brittle from frost. All the oars were damaged, and two passengers killed and several injured. Ten thousand miners who were on strike in Belgium have resumed work. The opposition to the Austrian occupation is becoming serious in Bosnia and Herzegovina, owing to the tyranny of the Austrian officers.

Correspondence has been discovered proviog an alliance between the German Socialists and Russian Nihilists. The Czar says he has handed over the administration of internal affairs to the Ozarewitch, retaining the control of the foreign policy. At a review of household troops at St. Petersburg, at which the Czarewitch was present, the Czar addressed them, and said he hoped they would serve and obey his son as faithfully as they had himself.

Mr Gladstone has gone to Cologne, in consequence of the serious illness of his sister, who has long resided abroad. Dr. Kenealy is not in the Tiohborne ease, which is fixed for the middle of February. Judas P. Benjamin, Q 0., Confederate Attor-ney-General during the American civil war, is leading counsel for the claimant.

Lord Derby will actively oppose the foreign policy of the Government. The Lord-Lieutenant and Chief Secretary of Ireland went to London in the middle of January to consult the Government as to what measures should be taken to preserve the peace of Ireland. The danger of collision in the South and West was imminent.

The Vatican organ “Aurora,” published in Rome, favors Home Rule in Ireland. The “ Mark Lane Express ” states that the wheat crop of England is the worst of any season for the last ten years. The German tariff has already raised wheat to 32i per cent, higher than when the Bill was passed. Rye is 55, barley 25,| and oats 40 per cent, higher. The Ex-Empress Eugenie embarks in the steamer Germany with a small retinue in March for Cape Town. It is expected she will arrive at the scene of the Prince’s death on June let, the anniversary of that event. The Duchess of Marlborough’s Irish Belief Fund is only distributed amongst those known to have paid rent and who have not participated in the anti-rent agitation.

Russia has undertaken to protect Servia against Austria. Prussia is building two branch railways through Silesia, to give employment to the distressed people. 160,000 need relief. Extensive drainage works and new industries have also been undertaken.

The British Government resolved to grant loans for drainage works for a long term, at low interest, to land owners in the distressed districts of Ireland, Inducements will be offered to Boards of Guardians to undertake sanitary works. If these means are inadequate the Government will ask Parliament to appropriate two millions and a half of the Church Surplus Fund for reproductive works under the administration of the Board of Works, and create baronial sessions to determine the character of such works.

Q-reat excitement was caused by the arrest for high treason of Herr Pretorious, former President of the Transvaal Republic. Russia is putting extreme pressure on Persia to induce the Shah to retire from the English alliance. Severe fighting is reported between the Montenegrins and the Albanian League, which refuses to recognise the settlement of the Berlin Treaty. The Montenegrins were victorious in a pitched battle. On Bth January reinforcements had been received on both sides and the fighting continues. Prince Nicholas protested to the Powers, accusing the Porte of encouraging the Albanians. Ho claims compensation. All the children in the “Shepherd’s Fold,” a New York charitable institution, have been taken in charge by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, because they were being neglected and starved. Diphtheria, or a disease resembling it, is carrying off large numbers both of adults and chfidrenin Colorado territory. Mies Jennie Flood, daughter of the San Francisco Bonanza King, received a New Year’s present from her father, 2,500,000d015. in United States Bonds, the income from which is IOO.OOOdoIs. per annum. 6658 mercantile failures occurred in the United States in 1879.

On the whole Parnell's reception in the States was quite moderate, and the English press compliments the good sense of the Americans in the matter. Earl Duuraven had cabled a five-column article to the New York “Telegram” on what he calls “The Patent Parnell Pill ” to cure hard times. The letter is pithy and logical, handling the agitator and his scheme without mercy. The Lord Mayors of London and Dublin have sent messages to Canada asking for help, as the Irish distress is increasing.

It is reported that Chinamen in Cincinatti are freely embracing Christianity. Professor Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, New York, thinks that Edison’s electric light must eventually take a place with Keeley and his motor, Payne and his electric engine, and Gavey and his magnetic motor, as an impracticable idea. Count Dumesnil, recognised as the highest authority in electric science, writing to the Paris “ Temps,” says the Edison lamp is not new, and warns the public against the pompous announcement from the “ New World.” The Now York “Tribune” confesses that the lamp is by no means perfect yet, and the carbonised paper filament, on which so much reliance is placed, is only in the line of experiment. A female doctor, Mrs Cynthia Hodgson, was sentenced to ton years’ imprisonment in the State Penitentiary of California, for malpractice, Boston lost 2,500,000d015. by the fire on the 20th ult. The scene was Federal street near Franklin.

Lucy W. B. Horton, jilted by the son of Senator Morgan, Alabama, met the young man in Washington on New Year’s Day, and shot him, causing a severe, but not fatal wound.

The Ohio sheriff and one of his posse, while attempting to arrest two men in a house of ill fame, were shot dead.

New York and Boston papers urge the Washington Government to interpose to prevent De Lesseps building the Chagres Canal unless under American control. De Lesseps and his staff of engineers arrived at Panama. The sun’s eclipse on January 11th was scientifically observed by several astronomers who visited California for the purpose. Kearney, the Californian agitator, is lecturing in New York. He thinks the Republic is about to become an empire under General Grant, and that he is the only man able to prevent it. Governor Tildon, of New York, declared publicly that Grant’s instalment in the White House in 1881 “means empire.” Playing with lucifer matches caused the burning of a dwelling-house at San Francisco, and the death of a mother and three children named Haskins.

An experimental tea farm is to be started with Chinese labor, in South Carolina, A review of the business of the country in 1879 shows, as usual, that San Francisco is the only city at which there is a decrease in the volume of business. This appears to be due in a great degree to the decline in the yield of the Nevada mines. She “ Commercial

Bulletin ” (New York) says the agricultural outlook of 1880 is as favorable as could be desired.

The Police have ferreted out a gang of

robbers and murderers near a railway depot in East St. Louis, Missouri. Their plan was to lure travellers by night cars to the platform, kill and rob them, and then bury the body in marshes close by. It is said the disappearance of several prominent men of late is thus accounted for.

An explosion in the converting room of the Celluloid Manufacturing Company, New Jersey, killed two workmen. Frank Leslie, the proprietor of numerous pictorial publications, died in New York on January 10 th.

An outbreak has occurred in Rio Janeiro on account of the levy of taxes. Several lives were lost at Portland, Oregon, by the falling of a building during a storm. Serious casualties are reported from Washington territory and British Columbia. The Princess Louise leaves England for Canada on January 22nd. A freight train of twenty-two cars fell through a burning bridge near Durant station, Texas, and were all burned. The fireman was burned to death. The Canadian Parliament meets on Fob. 12th.

With reference to the Tay bridge disaster, Sir Thomas Burch and other eminent engineers who have examined the scene of the accident, attribute it to one or two of the ends of the carriages of the train being blown off the rails in a storm, and thus thrown against the lattice work of the bridge. It is now believed that the total number of those in the train at the time of the disaster had not exceeded ninety, and that the loss was at first exaggerated. The ship Mallowdale arrived at Cork on December 23rd, and landed ten men, part of the crew of the steamer Borussin, being the only survivors of that vessel’s crew and passengers as far as is yet known. It appears from the statements of one of the survivors that they left Liverpool on November 20th for New Orleans, calling at Corunna and Havannah for cargo and passengers. Of the latter they had on beard from Liverpool seventy-six, with a crew of fifty-four, all told. They reached Corunna on November 23rd, all well. Having shipped some cargo and embarked about eighty Span’sh immigrants, they proceeded for Havannah. On the 30th the wind freshened and increased to a gale. On the following day it suddenly chopped to N.N.W., blowing strong with heavy cross sea, in which the ship labored heavily, and at noon sprang a leak'amidshipa. All efforts at the pumps were fruitless to keep the ship free, and the water filled the engine room and stoke-hole, putting out tne fires. The crew still continued to work at the pumps until December 2nd, when they determined to abandon her. The boats were lowered and provisioned, and part of the crew, with about a dozen of the passengers got into them. Those of the crew who remained by the vessel were the master (Captain Roberts), second mate, three engineers, eleven firemen, three stewards, the carpenter, and two boys. Shortly after leaving the vessel, one of the boats was swamped by a sea and her occupants, five in number, were all drowned. The survivors state that the steamer’s covering board when they put off was not more than two inches over the water. Soon afterwards they saw a rocket fired off from the steamer, and immediately afterwards her masthead lights, which were visible during the evening disappeared, and it is supposed that she must have gone down. The barque Gulda arrived, at Liverpool on Christmas Day with five other passengers, and on January 3rd the Italian barque Giacominioo with six passengers and ten of the crew. Others were still miseiag. The following items are from the London correspondent of the “Auckland Star”: The new year opened with fine keen weather, a revival of trade, and generally improved aspect of affairs commercially, showing a perceptible effect on the emigration movement. Captain Ashby reports that trade is much slacker than it was a few weeks ago, and that vessels on the berths for New Zealand are not filling up with passengers or cargo nearly so fast as their predecessors. Messrs Shaw, Savill and Co.’s ship, City of Quebec, takes about thirty-five substantial farmers, who are going to settle in the North Island, and also has two valuable bulls on board. Nearly all the better class of passengers for New Zealand prefer the steam route via Australia. There were several on board the luckless Somersetshire. The same writer says of those who were asked to give advice relative to floating the five million New Zealand loan :—“ Franklyn said he thought the present juncture was unfavorable for such a purpose, and that it would bo better to wait for a time. At first most of us thought this would be done, but early in December the subscription list was opened, and the financial world was consequently partially taken by surprise, and ‘ knowing ’ speculators prophesied a failure. Happily they were altogether wrong. The loan proved a brilliant success, as may be guessed from the fact that the applications were considerably over eleven millions. Still the Press is anything but congratulatory.” A letter in the “Times” says:—"The creditors of the Glasgow Bank, having paid up in full, there remains a source of relief to those contributors who, with heroic fortitude and magnanimity, have silently surrendered their property, looking forward, in many instances, to a future surrounded with gloom. It is confidently asserted that if the bank’s New Zealand property is unused and judiciously administered, a very large return may accrue to the contributors. It has, therefore, been proposed to organise a limited company to purchase the property from the liquidators, under express condition that a proportion of the profits earned by the company shall be devoted to, and rateably apportioned among all contributors, according to the amounts paid by them.”

The steamer Somersetshire, with between two and three hundred passengers, sailed for Melbourne and Sydney on December 13bh. When off Gravesend she was run into by the steamer Deronda, and had part of a lifeboat smashed, and received other damages. On the following morning she ran into a barge, and next morning grounded off South Head, but was floated off shortly afterwards and proceeded on her voyage. By this time the passengers were naturally somewhat alarmed, but, with the exception of one seaman having been washed overboard, nothing of importance occurred until Thursday night, when the Somersetshire collided for the third time in aa many days with the American schooner Hettie M'Farlane, which ran into her, and made a large hole just above watermark, carrying away her jibboom. The schooner was dismasted, and the Somersetshire stood by her till daylight, when both put into Plymouth. The reason of this extraordinary series of accidents is presumably the dense fog which prevailed when the ship started, but why she started under such circumstances is not explained. On the steamer’s arrival at Plymouth a writ for £4OO damages was served on her at the suit of the owners of the injured vessel. A correspondent of one of the countryjournals says —“ A good deal of interest is being brought to bear on the Colonial Office just now in view of Mr Weld’s retirement from the Governorship of Tasmania. I can confirm this and am also in a position to state that despite the rumours to the contrary no one has yet been appointed. It is, however, believed that Lord Hardwick, Master of Her Majesty’s Buck-hounds, will get it, and on dit, that Sir Andrew Clark, head of the Indian Public Works Office, will be sent to Australia to assist Sir W. Jervois in defences.” THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER. The most awful railway accident which has ever occurred in Scotland took place near Dundee on the night of Monday after Christmas Day, when a portion of the famous Tay bridge, together with a train which happened to be passing over at the time were blown into the water. The circumstances of the catastrophe are most extraordinary. In the evening a terrific tempest arose, and the wind blew up the river with fearful force. So severe was the hurricane, that many found it impossible to walk, and had to crawl along on all fours. AVhen the gale was at its height the passenger train due from Edinburgh at about 7.15 p.m. arrived at the Strathford station on the Fife side of the river, where the Dundee tickets were collected. In the excitement following on the discovery of the catastrophe afterwards, the railway officials stated that there appeared to be over 200 persons in the train, but it now transpires that there were barely 75. At any rate, only 56 tickets were taken. To this number must be added a few season ticketholders and infants in arms. After the train left Strathford station it was seen to speed on its way across the south part of the bridge, the lights on the sides and front of the

ngice and carriages being distinctly visible. The train continued its way onwards entering between the high girders in the of the bridge, and was just about emerging from them when a tearful crash, like thunder, swept up the river. At the moment two intensely brilliant sheets of flame and showers of sparks were seen at the high girders, evidently resulting from the friction of the ponderous mass of iron as it crashed and tumbled into the river from the height of 100 feet. Nothing mere than this is known of the affair. About 7.30 p.m. the Dundee station master began to feel uneasy, and together with another official crawled along the bridge to see if the train was visible. The bright moonlight revealed an immense fissure in the centre of the bridge, and the two men returned and announced the dreadful catastrophe that must have happened. About 11 o’clock the gale abated somewhat. A large steamer proceeded to the scene of the accident. No sign of the illfated train or passengers could be discovered ; indeed, all aboard must have perished instantaneously. One of the men on the deck of the Mars training ship, which was moored not very far from the bridge, says that the gale was the strongest he had experienced for years, and he and others on the vessel were watching the bridge. According to the accounts published in Dundee the reason the gave was that the wind was so high that they thought the bridge would be down. Dwellers on the banks of the river looked to see if the train would venture on the bridge on such a night. At the time it was due the gale was sweeping down the valley of the Tay, and appeared to have reached its height. The sensation produced by this terrible calamity in Scotland was immense. Nothing like it has ever occurred before in the north, and the people were horror struck. The engineer who erected the bridge states that the severest possible tests were applied to it before the structure was handed over to the North British Railway Company. He professes himself unable to account for the accident. Other particulars of the disaster state that the gap in the bridge was about half a mile long. All the rails were recovered. The railway authorities estimate the total number of lives lost at 75. The statement that only 56 passenger tickets were taken up at the last stopping place does not account for the number of young children requiring no tickets, nor for the number of railway employees, or passengers for Broughby Ferry, whose tickets wore not taken up. The opinion of Sir Thomas Bouoh, and other engineers, who have visited the scene of the calamity, is that the disaster occurred in this way : The train, in their view, had entered within the high girders intact about twenty minutes past 7. The gale was then at its height, and the supposition is that the end carriages had been blown, eff the rails. If that had occurred they would have been dragged along the track, and would have torn off the lattice work. Most of those who have witnessed the calamity spoke of having seen showers of sparks, and if the conjecture of the engineers is the true one, that is just what might have been suspected. Had the train kept the rails-, they Buy, no damage would have been done to the bridge, and the catastrophe would have been averted.