LATE CABLE NEWS.

Kumara Times, Issue 1329, 4 January 1881, Page 2

LATE CABLE NEWS.

[Per s.s. Wakatipu, at Wellington.] London, December 20. Affairs in South Africa, which have been causing much uneasiness, have been further complicated by the action of the Boers, who assembled 5000 strong, and marched into Heildburg, a town in the Province of Swellenbourg, and have now established a Republic without having resorted to violence. Communication via Pretoria Pass, the principal route between Basutoland and the Cape provinces, has been stopped, and it is feared that the pass has fallen into the hands of the Basutos. December 21. The Orangemen of Londonderry assembled at Coleraino and burned an effigy of Messrs Parnell and Biggar, the Land-league leaders. The second battalion of the Grenadier Guards, so rarely sent out of England, has been ordered to proceed to Ireland in consequence of the disturbed state of affairs in Ireland. The Empress of Austria, who had arranged to go to Ireland again this winter for the hunting season, has abandoned her intention. New York, December 21. The greatest exeitement prevails in commercial circles in Chicago with regard to the finaucial position of numbers of the houses engaged in the grain traffic. A large amount of purely speculative business in grain has been done during the past few months, and a number of merchants now declare themselves unable to meet their engagements. A panic has consequently taken place in the grain exchange, and further failures a.-e feared, as the price of wheat is falling. .