CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 19 March 1891, Page 2

CONDENSED CABLEGRAMS.

London. The reduction in cable rates to the colonies will come into operation on Ist April. On the 12th the bank at Monte Carlo lost a miljion francs. A group of Englishmen playing at one table won 700,000 francs, and the bank was broken three times in succession. Owing to the severity of the weather all work in the mines in Rhondda Valley, Wales, has been stopped, throwing 25,000 people out of employment. Eailway communication between London and Exeter, which was interrupted owing to the line being blocked by snowdrifts, has been restored. The Southern countries have suffered the most from the effects of the snow storms, and the counties of Devon and Cornwall have been completely isolated for several days. The snowfall is the heaviest known for fifty years. Railway and telegraph communication is interrupted in ail directions, and work on many of the lines has been suspended altogether. Trains which left railway stations on Monday night, and which encountered the full force of the storm are still buried in the snowdrifts. The passengers were rescued from the carriages and taken to the adjacent villages, where they are being provided with food and shelter until they are able to resume their journeys. Six trains are buried between Exeter and Plymouth. Near Dartmoor, in Devonshire a train was embedded in a snow drift for two days. During that time the passengers were without food, and the work of rescuing them could only be carried on with great difficulty. When reached they were in a pitiable condition. The weather off the coast is very heavy, and numerous shipping casualties are reported. The pipes which supply Plymouth with water became choked with snow which froze hard, and 500 soldiers and navvies are now engaged in clearing them. One hundred and sixty navvies are clearing snow from the Railway Stations at Plymouth. The British Government has guaranteed a railway loan of £2,000, 000 for carrying on certain railway works in Newfoundland. Mr W. O'Brien, M.P., has been declared bankrupt on tke petition of the Marquis of Salisbury. New Zealand long berried wheat, 41s 9d, firm. For New Zealand wheat on passage sellers are asking 89s Bd, but buyers refuse to give more than 38s 9d. Mutton is unchanged. Beef — Forequarters, 3|d ; hind-quarters, 4fd. Hemp — Wellington fair quality, £23 10s. The strike of dockers, stevedores, coal-heavers, &c, at Plymouth has collapsed, owing to the revolt of some of the officers of the Unions against Wilson, Secretary of. the Seamen's Union. A number of men who were coerced into joining the Unions have withdrawn, and entered into the ranks of free labourers. Arbitration re New Foundland affairs is to be confined to the dispute over the lobster fishery rights The express which left Paddington Station on Monday did not arrive at Plymouth till Friday night. Five thousand sheep have been frozen to death on the hills in Wales. The United States man-of-war Fivlmawfta wrecked oa the Hamp-

shire coast during the recent storm.