THE ARREST OF ROCHEFORT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 30, 19 August 1871, Page 16

THE ARREST OF ROCHEFORT.

The "Times" correspondent says : Never have I witnessed a scene of greater excitement than th» entry of Rochefort into Versailles as a prisoner to day. He was brought in by the St. Germain Road and was seated in a family omnibus drawn by two horses. First came a squadron of of gendarmes, then the omnibus surrounded by Chasseurs d'Afrique, and lastly a squadron of the same corps. In the vehicle with Bochefort were his secretary, Mouriot, and four police agents dressed in plain clothes. Outside the omnibus were an officer of the gendarmerie in uniform, and two or three sergents de-ville not in uniform. Eochefort's moustache had disappeared. He had himself shaved closely before setting out from Paris in order to disguise himself, but there was no mistaking him. It was half-past one when the cortege, arriving at the end of the Boulevard du Roi, entered the Rue des Reservoirs. Everyone ran into the street, and shouts of execration were raised on all sides. It was no mere demonstration of a mob. One man ventured to cry " Vive Rocliefortr He was kicked by several persons who happened to be near him, and was saved from further violence only by arrest at the hands of the sergents deville. Along the Rue des Resvoirs, the Rue de la Pompe, the Place, Hoche, the Rue de Hoche, and the Avenue St. Cloud, Rochefort was greeted with incessant shouts of A has V assasin; a pied la le brigand; a mort." The people wanted to have him out of the omnibus and it was with difficulty the cavalry prevented them from dragging him out and inflicting summary execution. The cavalcade was obliged to go at a slow pace, but finally he was lodged in gaol. I believe that but for the precautions taken by the Government he would have been killed before he had «bt near it. The demand toTiave an example made of him, and the dissatisfaction at seeing him brought to prison in a carriage, were loud and general.

The Kaipaba Railway.—At a meeting of the Auckland Provincial Executive, held last Tuesday, Mr Edgar's tender for the construction of the Kaipara railway was accepted, sub v ject to preliminary arrangements. Mr Edgar's was ; the lowest tender, the amount being £42,620 from Lamb's point; and £42.324 from Harkin's point. From the former point all the tenders were higher than from Harkin's point, thus endorsing the opinion given, by Mi? C. O'Neill when referred to oh the subject.