Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 35, 10 February 1879, Page 2

The New York Times says:— Peru owes about 200,000,000 dols, mostly to the trusting and much abused British bondholder. It is in default about 6.000,000 dola for interest, and it is said to be the opinion of the best informed business men at Lima and Callao that do provision will over be made for the payment of that or any other dues upon the foreign debt. To be sure, the obligation was originally eecured by a mortgage upon the guano deposits and nitrate beds, which are a Government monopoly, and on sundry railroads that belong to the State and pay no dividends. Notwithstanding the pledge to its creditors, the Government has been letting out profitable contracts for guano to certain parties, and spending the proceeds for other purposes than meeting its interest accounts. The railroads which were to be built with borrowed capital were to develop the country and give a tremendous stimulus to industry and commerce, thus making it easy for Peru to pay her debts, either from the direct proceeds of her railway traffic or from taxation on her prosperous people. The railroads have been built, at least in part. At all events the money has been spent on engineering of the most gigantic kind. But the country thus far fails to develop according to expectations. That daring outlaw from California, Henry Meiggs, pocketed a large share of the proceeds of the loans of 1870 and 1872, and ran fragments of railroads over and through and under the Andes; but somehow railroads alone do not cultivate cotton or sugar cane, work mines or set manufactories going; neither do they gather products that are not produced, or create commerce where it is not. Peru has all the conditions for exceptional prosperity, and yet Peru is bankrupt. Instead of using its resources wisely, it began borrowing money on them, discounting the future, and developing the country by the bank-action process by building railroads on Government account.

The Melbourne Telegraph says :— Detective Duncan, one of the custodians of Martin Wiberg, who so very cleverly esc&ped from his gaolers on the 20th December last, at the Tarwin River, returned to town last night without his prisoner. Wiberg, it will be remembered, on the absurd pretext of showing Inspector Detective Secretan the spot in the Tarwin River in which he had buried the treasure stolen from the steamship Avoca, near his selection in Gippsland, dealt one of his custodians a blow in a most cowardly manner below the belt and made tracks Mrs Wiberg is stated to have declared her belief that the detectives have made away with her husband for the sake of the spoil; but, on the other hand, the officers engaged in the case are of opinion that Wiberg has perished in the bush through want of food and water.

The Gtago Daily Time* remarks :— The gross income now derived from the working of all the New Zealand lines is nearly £60,000 monthly, and before long will be a million annually. The economical management of such a business as this is a task that may well absorb much thought and attention on the part of the Government, who are ultimately responsible for the results.

The young Duke of Norfolk will scon be of age, when he will enjoy an income of £400,000 from his Sheffield estates. Peaches have been sold in the Western States of America for two pence halfpenny a | bushel, and grapes for three farthings a j pound. i A correspondent writes to the Sydney ' Evening News: — " I see that you have noticed a report that a white woman has again been seen among the blacks near King's Plains, in Queensland, and, as the facts are rather startling, J may as weH recount them. It appears that two 1 risen, named John Doyle and Frank Grauger, tfere out towards the coast ranges, south of tft*s, near Mount Peter Botte, and came upon A tot of blacks. One woman especially took their" attention, and Doyle, after a chase, succeeded in daicn?ug her. He states ditinctly she 1 is either a wWite woman, or, possibly, halfcaste, but he inclines ta the belief that she is a white, her skin being darkened and reddened by exposure. She coaJd not speak English, but yabbered like a gin, and made every effort to get away. She is aped, probably forty, and quite grey. Whilst examining her he found that the blacks had get his mate bailed up in the scrub, and had to go to his relief, thus letting her escape, and all efforts to find her again were fruitless. Doyle bears the character of being a remarkably quiet man, not given to 'blowing,' and has said very little about it; in fact, my informant had great difficult iv getting him to 3peak about it, as he feels that such tales are looked upon as inventions. Doyle is certain iv his own mind this is a European who has been years among the blacks, aud says he will stake hi 3 existence she is not an aboriginal. The following remarkable letter (says the San Francisco New letter) was addressed by the Ameer of Afghanistan to the acting Viceroy of India on the death of Lord Mayo, in 1872 :— " After expressions of sorrow and affliction, be it known to your friendly heart that I have just been shocked to hear the terrible and mournful tidings of the death of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. By this terrible and unforeseen stroke my heart has been overwhelmed with grief and anguish, for it can scarce occur again, in days so oat of joint as these, that the world will see another so universally beloved and esteemed for his many high and excellent qualities as him who is now in the spirit-land. All great aud wise men have ever regarded this transitory world as a resting place for a single night, or as an overflowing and changing stream, and have never ceased to remind their fellows that they must pass beyond it and leave all behind them. It is, therefore, incumbent on men not to fix their affections on perishable things during the course of their short lives, which are, as it were, a loan to them from above. Nought remains to the friends and survivors of him who is gone from among us but patience and resignation. The unvarying friendship and kindness displayed towards me by him who is now no more, had induced me to determine, if the affairs at Afghanistan at the time permitted the step, to accompany His Excellency on his return to England, so that I might obtain the gratification of a personal interview with Her Majesty the Queen, and derive pleasure from travelling in the countries of Europe. Before the eternally predestined decrees, however, men must bow in silence. A crooked and perverse fate always interferes to prevent the successful attainment by any human being of his most cherished desires. What more can be said or written to expres9 my grief and sorrow ? It is my earnest wish that your Excellency, wherever you may be, will in future communicate to me accounts of your health, and inform me of your name and titles, that I may be enabled to address my letters correctly." A late copy of the Melbourne Argus gives the following details of Jock M'Laren's Australian experience, which will be new to most of our readers:— "As M'Laren is rendering himself conspicuous at present as the champion of the unemployed, it may not be uninteresting for them to know something of his late career. In Dunedm he was known as an agitator. From there he went to Sydney, where the agitation of the seamen's strike opened a field for his talents. He chose the company's side, and was employed in engaging men for their service He managed, according to his own statement to engage some 150, but the matter was becoming serious. The workmen mobbed him and flung him over the quay. For safety the company sent him to Melbourne by the Ly-ee-moon, and the captain had instructions to land him in the launch, if the Melbourne sympathisers with the seamen made any hostile demonstrations against him on landing, as it had been feared the Sydney seamen would telegraph to Melbourne that he was on board. On arrival here the company's agent supplied him with money to go up the country. He did go, and shortly returned to Melbourne penniless and in rags. On the following Sunday he attended at Queen's Wharf and delivered a rambling tirade, which he called a lecture, against our criminal laws, which he denounced as emanating from the devil, who sat perched on the pinnacle of our whole system of jurisprudence. Seeing his forlorn condition, a collection of some 30s. was made on his his behalf. This happened at the very spot where a generous collection in behalf of the Sydney seamen had been made on the previous Sunday. If the meeting had known how he had worked against the seamen's interest in Sydney he would have not received much sympathy. It is scarcely necesary to say any more about the agitation from such a quarter on behalf of the unemployed."