NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1961, 7 June 1880, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

The s.s. Wellington arrived from the North at 6 a.m. on Saturday, with the Canterbury portion of the inward San Francisco mail. We take the following from our Home files: — THE NEW PARLIAMENT. The elections being all completed save Orkney and Shetland, it is now possible to measure with some approach to accuracy the exte:-t of the political change which has been worked in the country. As the result of the general election now closing, the House of Commons receives a considerably greater infusion of now members than it did in either of the preceding general elections held since the passing of the Reform Bill of 1867. In 1868 228 new members were returned, and in 1874 212. The number this year is 235, of whom about two-thirds are Liberals and Home Rulers. A greater amount of political activity has also been shown than in either of the preceding years. In 1863 the number of uncontested seats was 211, and in 1874 181 ; this year it has fallen to 76. Proof of this increased political activity is also afforded by a comparison of the total number of votes polled by the opposing parties throughout the United Kingdom this year and in 1874, allowance being made for an increase since 1874 of 11 or 12 per cent in the number of electors on the register. The total number of Conservative votes recorded in 1874 was 1,217,806; in 1880, 1,412,956. The total number of Liberal votes recorded in 1874 was 1,431,805 ;in 1880, 1,877,290. On analysing the gross vote some curious results appear. No less; than thirty-seven Liberal gains were determined by a gross majority of only 1742 votes —an average of 47 each ; and in eight of these cases the scale was turned in favour of the Liberal candidates by ten votes or under. In one constituency, that of South Norfolk, the Liberal candidate owes his seat to one vote alone. Taken altogether, however, the Liberal majorities appear to he of a tolerably substantial character, averaging as they do 630 votes. On the other hand the Conservative gains—not reckoning South Hants, where there was no contest, or Barnstaple, for which there is no complete return—are obtained by no more than a gross majority of 3178 votes —an average of 138—which could be «iped out by the Liberal majority in the borough of Bradford alone. NEW ZEALAND EINANOES. Although it is not always pleasant to be taught lessons of self-reliance, the result is wholesome. And if the change of Ministries and parties in England should spur financial reformers in New Zealand to set to work to bring order out of confusion, the colony would be the gainer. What we hear of New Zealand finances lately is very unfavorable. The deficit for the year must be considerably beyond the estimated deficit, and the receipts from land sales and railways, were placed much higher than it will be found they have realised. It is not surprising, in these circumstances, that anxiety should prevail in some quarters regarding the financial future of New Zealand. There is perfect confidence in the resources of the colony, which are ample to meet all demands ; but the debt is heavy, and a hitch, such as a bad year’s revenue or a large deficiency, might produce ' serious embarrassment. The best friends of New Zealand, then, are those who give her a word of warning in time, that the peril, it possible, may be avoided. The rapidity with which her future has been mortgaged, in order to meet the demands of the present, was sure to cause doubt and anxiety in the long run ; but it is merely a question of time for wise financial administration to put things right, if the task is taken in hand at once. — “ Home News.” THE LOSS OF THE CALYPSO. Statements made by the captain and other officers of the Hawk, to the owners of that vessel (the General Steam Navigation Company) leave no doubt as to the cause of the disaster to the Calypso, which .took place at 3 o’clock on Tuesday morning in the Prince’s Channel, at a point about twelve miles from Margate. The commander of the vessel, Captain Ryan, one of the oldest and most trusted officers in tho“oompany’s;eervice, had at the moment of the collision descended to the cabin, leaving the second mate in actual charge. The chief mate, Mr Bridges, who is also an officer of considerable experience, had turned in. Up to within a few minutes of the collision the captain was himself on the bridge, a look-out man having been duly placed on the forecastle, and another at the wheel. Believing that he had nothing in front of him but the usual lights from the lightships, Captain Ryan descended to take sole necessary refreshment, but shortly after he heard the telegraph-bell ringing in the engine-room, and immediately rushed on deck. Tho second mate had already stopped and caused the engines to be reversed full speed astern, but a collision with a large sailing ship at anchor in front of the steamer had now become inevitable, and the steamer ran amidships into the vessel at anchor, which proved to be the Calypso, of 1014 tons net measurement, having on board a cargo of wool of great value, taken in at Otago, New Zealand. With great presence of mind Captain Ryan at once stopped the engines to prevent the two vessels parting before the crew of the Calypso had found time to save themselves by climbing up tho bows of the Hawk. This, no doubt, prevented much loss of life, for, on disengaging, the Calypso filled and sank with extraordinary rapidity. Mr Stebbing, the second mate, appears to have seen the lights of the Calypso shortly after the captain loft the bridge, and starboarded his helm with a view of passing under her stern ; but the latter vessel had drifted right athwart tho Channel, and to clear her the helm ought to have been ported. It is most unfortunate that the captain was not on tho bridge when the Calypso’s lights were sighted, as the second mate was the officer of the watch, and, according to a clearly-worded rule of the company (rule 31), “ the officer of the watch shall under no circumstances be left unassisted on the bridge when the vessel is under way.”

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION NEAR WOOLWICH. On April 12th a terrible explosion, by which great loss of life was caused, took place at Silvertown, near North Woolwich. A report resembling a loud peal of thunder was heard in the locality, and soon afterwards it was ascertained that one of the largo stills used for the manufacture of creosote for “ pickling ” timber, railway sleepers, &c., at the works of Messrs Burt, Poulton, and Haywood, had exploded. The still contained about 2000 gallons of inflammable fluid, which ignited and quickly set the vast premises on fire. The steam fire-engines from West Ham were quickly on the spot, and others from all parts of the district of the the Metropolitan Eire 'Brigade were summoned, but all their efforts seemed useless. Owing to the nature of the materials the flames were extremely fierce and difficult to cope with, and dense black volumes of smoke obscured the atmosphere. Several building sheds in succession caught fire, and six huge tanks, containing 20,000 gallons of oil, were attacked by the flames and burned out. The premises extend over nearly twenty acres, and at almost every point the fire continued its ravages. There were altogether between 300 and 400 men and

boys employed on the premises, and many unfortunate creatures who had escaped with I their lives from the effects of the explosion , required aid to escape from the flames, some i of them being dreadfully burned in various i parts of the body. JMany of them were taken to the Poplar Hospital. Two or three men are supposed to have been working on the top of the still at the time of the explosion, but whether they were blown into the river, or what became of them, is not known. The force of the explosion was tremendous, and the massive circular top of the still, which weighed nearly three tons, was forced to a great height, resembling a balloon ascending, and fell at a distance of over 140 yards. Some of the bodies recovered were in such a condition as to almost defy identification. In some cases little more than the charred bones remained. There was one instance of a very painful nature. The bodies of a man and a boy were found tightly holding each other. They had evidently made an effort to escape, and had only succeeded in reaching an outhouse. Every atom of clothing was burnt, and their bodies were as black as a negro’s. The greatest confusion prevailed after the explosion, and there were many anxious inquirioa as to missing husbands, sons and brothers. Eleven bodies were soon found, but it is asserted that there are more in the ruins. The following is a statement of the firm in reference to the occurrence :—“ The cause of the accident remains in some obscurity, as the two men who were in charge of the apparatus which exploded are amongst the killed, and no similar accident has ever been known to occur before with the same kind of operation. It is, unfortunately, too true that eleven men have lost their lives, but to this number we trust the fatality will be limited, as, in addition, there is only to report a few cases of contusions or slight burns, only one man having been removed to the hospital, Mr Cochrane, one of the managers of the works, was burned about the head and face, but we believe his injuries are not serious. He made a meritorious attempt to render assistance, and he is doing well. The fire was confined to the portion of those large premises in which it first originated, and the damage to property is comparatively trifling.” An inquest has been opened by the coroner to inquire into the cause of the accident. THE MISSING- TRAINING SHIP. Great anxiety prevails with respect to the safety of her Majesty’s training ship Atalanta, Captain Stirling, which left Portsmouth four months ago on a cruise in the West Indies, and is now considerably overdue. The vessel was last heard of from Bermuda on January 31st. She had several cases of yellow fever on board, and her sailing orders were extended to Apjil 4th. Almost the only ground of hope is that Captain Stirling may have put into some port from which there is no telegraphic communication. The Atalanta was commissioned as a training ship for ordinary seamen in September, 1878, and is classed in the Navy List as fourth-rate. The fact that the Atalanta was the successor to the ill-fated Eurydice as a training ship for ordinary seamen has naturally increased the anxiety which is felt for her safety ; but the two vessels were not, as it is assumed by many that they were, sister-ships. They were, it is true, of very nearly the same size—the Eurydice being of 921 and the Atalanta of 958 tons displacement, and both were employed on the same service; but while the Eurydice, built on a design prepared by Admiral Eliot in 1842, was notoriously a comparatively crank vessel, and was invariably, when she was in commission years ago, beaten in a stiff breeze by other frigates of the same size through comparative inability to carry sail, the Atalanta was, at all events when she was in commission as the Juno, a vessel of great stability. It is true that she then carried twenty-six guns on her main deck and upper decks, and that these were not on board when she was fitted i out a training-ship ; but even without these we have the authority of the Admiralty for stating that she possessed unusual stability. It is therefore difScult to conceive that she . can have been lost in mid-ocean, but, on the , other hand, it is equally difficult to frame any I plausible supposition as to her whereabouts at the present time, if she is still afloat. It is known that after the Atalanta returned last | spring from her first cruise her officers ex- ■ Dressed an opinion that she was over-masted ; hut the Admiralty, after communicating with the officials of the dockyard at Portsmouth, came to the conclusion that it was not necessary to reduce the height of her masts, although we believe some alterations were made in her spars. THE STORM IN AMERICA. A Philadelphia telegram to the "Times” on April 20th says :—A hurricane on Sunday evening destroyed the greater part of Marshfield to the south-west of Missouri The ruins afterwards caught fire. Forty bodies have already been taken from the debris of the town, and others are believed to be still buried. Two hundred persons were wounded. Relief trains, with physicians, nurses and supplies, were to-day sent there from several places. Last night’s telegrams report severe tornadoes on Sunday in Missouri, lowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Kansas, doing vast damage, with general atmospheric commotion throughout the Mississippi Valley. The severest tornado passed 160 miles in a northeast course along the James River Valley, Missouri. The worst damage was done at Marshfield, a town of 1500 people, 217 miles south-west of St. Louis. The tornado appeared to the west of Marshfield, destroying several villages. Fifty persons are reported to have been killed south of Springfield. It reached Marshfield at six in the evening, and demolished the entire town. It then passed to the north-east along the valley, disappearing about 110 miles north-east of Marshfield. When the relief trains from Springfield reached there on Monday scarcely any one was found. Only fourteen houses were standing, and all these were damaged. Trees, 3ft. in diameter, have been twisted off. A large part of the ruins have been burnt. By sunset on Monday seventy-eight bodies had been taken from the ruins and 100 wounded had been attended to. It is expected that many who have been badly hurt will not survive. The work in the ruins progressed during the night. Belief was also sent to the country south of Springfield, which has been entirely devastated in the tornado’s track. The towns of Conway, Northview, Granby, Warrenburg, Gray’s Creek, and Cuba have boon severely damaged. Several railway trains were wrecked on the Western and Missouri Railways, and several lives are reported to have been lost elsewhere. The number of deaths will probably reach 150, when all are reported. A severe storm also raged on the lakes. To-day’s reports from Marshfield say that the dead may number 100, Corpses are still being drawn from the ruins. Eye-witnesses describe the tornado as frightful. It appeared as a black cloud, funnel shaped, and lined with fleecy white, turning like a screw propeller, with great velocity, destroying everything in its path. It was about half-a-mile wide, and moved with a terrific noise, twisting off the large trees and peeling the bark from the small trees, blowing the houses from their foundations, lifting cattle, hogs, horsei, sheep, and poultry into the air, and carrying them long distances. The loss is estimated at 400,000d01. At California, Missouri, the tornado killed ten and wounded thirty. At Champaign, Illinois, the storm partially destroyed the State University buildings. Prom Janesville, Wisconsin, 100,000dol. damage is reported.

ANOTHER DISASTROUS EXPLOSION. An Oakland telegram in the “ Alta California” of April 16th give the particulars of an accident resulting in the total destruction of the works of the Giant Powder Company, and the loss of twenty-five human lives. The accident was occasioned by the explosion of an immense quantity of Giant powder. Soon after the explosion at the works of the same company in this city about four months ago—a casually that entailed an enormous loss of life —the new works at Berkeley were built and put in operation. They were situated on what is known as Seva’s Knoll, a part of a peninsula that extends into the bay for about a quarter of a mile, in as secluded and out-of-the-way spot as could be selected for such employment. The explosion occurred in the packing-house, and the scene can only be described by persons who saw it at a considerable distance. The cause of the explosion will for ever remain a mystery. At the time of the explosion all the men employed by the company were at work, and besides them there were several visitors at the place, who have not since been seen. The number of men working in the packing-house is not known. All that were there were killed instantaneously. Of the house not one particle can be found. The ground is rent and ploughed up for hundreds of yards around. An eye-witness says that just before the accident a boy drove up to the door of the house with a double tnam, of which but a single spoke of one of bhe wheels is left. The magazine was thrown

' flat to the ground, and the glycerine and i cleaning-house completely demolished. Six other small houses on the Point were almost i totally destroyed. The bank behind the packing-house, containing as much as 500 yards of earth, was lifted as one piece and thrown for some distance into the hay. From the number of persons missing, and the small proportion, by weight, of the bodies recovered, it is presumed that the force of the explosion carried most of the fragments of flesh into the bay, from which they would, of course, not be recovered. For two miles in a north-easterly direction along the beach small portions of the buildings, and occasionally pieces of human flesh, were found. A corps of spademen were at work about the location of the packing house, where the explosion occurred, and numerous fragments—sometimes an ear, again a nose or finger, a small piece of a trunk, or a foot—were recovered and thrown into a general receiving box. A number of the sight-seers, led to the place by morbid desire, participated in the ooarch. A number of women sharpened sticks of wood and diligently searched in the ruins for the sickening remains, and whenever a piece of flesh was found by them, they would jab the stick through it and hold it aloft that all might see. Nearly 300 yards from the spot of the explosion was found a mass of horse flesh weighing 150 pounds. Half a mile from the packing house the hand of a Chinaman was found. Half a mile further up the beach was found a coat which had belonged to Joseph Depute. It contained a bank book, showing a deposit of 1000 dole, in the Gold Bank. Depuis started for the works Friday afternoon, to seek employment. Besides his bank book he had nearly 600 dols. in gold in his pocket, and had changed a 20 dol. piece at the Three-mile House shortly before the explosion. He arrived at the works less than ten minutes before the explosion, hardly reaching there in time to meet a terrible death. No portion of his body has been recognised among the recovered fragments. The largest piece of a body recovered was that of a trunk from the head to tho thighs, but mutilated beyond possibility of identification. BRIDGING THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. Count Lesseps has returned from America, and has shown himself in Paris hale, hearty as ever, in spite of his advancing years. He will now devote some months to the promoting of his great scheme of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The hostility of the Government of the United States he has in a measure overcome, but he has now more to fear, according to all accounts, from an opposition scheme propounded by a Captain Eads, of St. Louis, and which, preposterous as it seems, has nevertheless many supporters. Captain Eads proposes to construct a ship railway across the Isthmus—in other words, a lino upon which vessels of any tonnage can be lifted and transported bodily from shore to shore. He has himself no misgivings as to the feasibility of his project, and he asserts as the results of deep calculations that he can move thus all shipping at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, that there will be no greater pressure upon the rails than that of a locomotive on an ordinary line, and that the line throughout will have its highest gradient at one per cent. Moreover, he claims as advantages of his ship railway over the water canal, that it will only cost half the money ; that it can be constructed in a third or a quarter the time ; that the speed in transport will be four or five times as groat; that he can move a larger daily average of ships ; and that, finally, the whole cost of administration, repairs, and so forth, will be less. Strange as this vast idea must seem to most minds, it must be remembered that ■ the transport of vessels by land has already been tried with success, but on a much smaller ' scale. THE MURDER OF C. De YOUNG. j The San Francisco papers contain long accounts of the shooting of one of the , “ Chronicle ” proprietors by the Mayor’s son. , The following is from the “ Alta Califor- , nia ” :—When De Young entered the office he j met Edward Spear and B. B. Bead, and they ; stood together engaged in a jolly conversation, De Young standing sidewise to the Bush street window, his back being turned to the door. Five minutes afterwards young Kallook hurriedly walked into the office by the corner door, which was swung back sufficiently to allow him to enter. Without uttering a word of either threat or alarm, he rapidly drew a black-handled, five-shooter Smith and Wesson revolver, and, aiming ii at De Young, fired. Mr Da Young turned like a flash, saw Kallock preparing to shoot again, and ran to the gate leading behind the counter, to shield himself. William Drsypolcher, assistant subscription clerk and collector, was standing behind the counter ' talking to Charles E. Potter on the opposite side of the counter. The first bullet narrowly missed Potter, and went throunh the glass door leading up stairs to the editorial rooms. As De Young ran to the gate Dreypolcher got behind the subscription desk, Spear and Bead got to the wall out of range of Kallooh, and Potter jumped the counter, . getting behind the safe door. Just as De Young reached the gate, Kallooh fired again, ( the bullet striking the Bush street wall, glancing into the under sill. De Young got behind the counter, Kallooh running quite close to him, and firing another shot, which passed through his beaver hat, very close to his head, and lodging in the casement of a Bush street window. De Young then dropped ( himself to the floor, behind the counter, and partially raised himself and looked up to see Kallooh leaning over the counter, and pointing the pistol at his face, not a foot removed from the muzzle. He attempted to draw his own pistol, but Kallooh had every advantage. It took only an instant—he fired the weapon, the bullet struck De Young on the right side of the upper lip, and by the backward elevation of De Young’s head, consequently upon his looking upward, the bullet passed upward and inward, and lodged in the brain. De Young raised to his feet and staggered behind the cashier's desk, at the same time drawing and raising his pistol. Douglass, advertising solicitor for the “ Chronicle,” and Elias De Young, a halfbrother to the murdered man, were behind the desk during the shooting. When Kalloch saw Da Young’s pistol he had his pistol raised to shoot again, and discharged the weapon, the bullet narrowly missing De Young, and crashing through A large plate-glass pane in the private office of M. H. De Young, thence through a 6in. wall lodging in a staircase to the upper rooms. The whole affair happened so quickly that the other persons in the office scarcely had time to comprehend what was transpiring. As Do Young got behind the cashier’s desk, he rested both arms on it and began to slowly sink to the ground. Potter had watched the shooting from behind the safe-door, and when .De Young began to fall he ran and caught him under the arms, gently laying him on his back. Elias De Young exclaimed :—“ Are you shot, Charley?” But his mouth was full of blood, and he made no answer. The noise of the firing drew a large crowd before Kalloch reached the door. A. Anthony, a shoemaker, caught young Kalloch as he reached the sidewalk, and turned him over to officers Peckenpah and Ward, who arrived almost immediately. Intense excitement. — The excitement in the crowd, which rapidly gained immense numbers, was intense, and they tried to crush into the office. Potter closed the doors, bolting one and holding shut the other, until officers took possession and prevented entrance. Doctors Buckley, Dennis and Worsham were speedily summoned to aid De Young, but he died within ten minutes after receiving the bullet,