GENERAL NEWS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 160, 31 October 1896, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

EUROPEAN AND FOREIGN. London, Oct. 30. The Hon. W. P. Reeves states that despite the energy of individual firms, there is ample room for improving the New Zealand produce trade, especially in sea and land transport, storage, handling, and distributing and pushing business in the provinces. He says New Zealand meat is often carried along with that from River Plate, the former suffering thereby. Such practices form a greater obstacle to the success of the trade than prejudice. Mr Reeves considers an advisory committee in London would do a considerable amount of good. St Petersburg, Oct. 30. The Czar has started on his way home. The currency .reform proposed by M. de Wite, Minister of Finance, has been postponed at the wish of the Czar. Paris, Oct. 30. Castel, a lias Aubert, has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for the murder of Delahaeff, a stamp collector, whose body was found in a travelling trunk at Colvelle railway station. Castel's wife was sentenced to three years' imprisonment as accessory. CAPETOWN, Oct 30. The Ndcma and Banks, two more important Matabele tribes, have yielded up arms. Calcutta, Oct. 30. A Sepoy ran amuck in Fort San deman and killed Lieutenants Yeates and Downes and two privates, and wounded a third officer. Madrid, October 29. A conspiracy against the Spanish authorities has been discovered in the Sulu Islands, and reinforcements have been sent from Manilla, in the Phillippines. Bucharest, Oct. 30. The King of Roumania has laid the foundation stone of the new harbor works at Constanzo, on the Black Sea. The harbor is to be completed in six years, and it is hoped it will be the means of diverting Indian and Australian trade, as the seaport is to be put in communication with Ostend via Vienna and Bucharest by special express trains, to compete with the Orient express.