THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 226, 8 January 1876, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

ARRIVAL OF THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO AT AUCKLAND. Auckland, Saturday. The City of San Francisco has arrived. She left on December 10. She has forty-three cabin and twenty-three steerage passengers. The mails were sent on per the Mikado, which left the day before. She sighted the Mikado at six o’clock yesterday morning astern. She will therefore arrive in the morning. The whole time occupied from San Francisco was twenty-one days ten hours’ running time, or twenty days twenty-one hours altogether, being the fastest time on record. Sir George Bowen is a passenger for Melbourne. Passengers for Auckland —Mr. Gn bam, Hon. Grace, wife, and daughter, Turner, Bramwell, Watson, Hartley. Wellington—Mrs. Luc> Stuart and daughter, Mr. Lester and wife. Lyttelton—Anderson (2), Miss Anderson, Boog. Port Chalmers— Rev. Stobo and wife. Mikado’s passengers were : —Captain Fielder and wife, Robert Shakespears, Mrs. Harrison and five children ; seventeen steerage. ENGLISH AND FOREIGN SUMMARY. By an explosion in a coalmine at Ashley, near Leeds, six lives were lost. A Car list court-martial has sentenced General Dorregary to four years’ imprisonment. In the French Assembly, the ballotting for seventy-five life members, gave the Left large majority over the Right. Spain is sending further reinforcements to Cuba. It does not anticipate an American intervention, and thinks Europe would not permit it. A terrible colliery explosion has taken place at Swathe Colliery, England. The latest accounts indicate the total number of lives lost as 140. The explosion was caused by careless blasting operations. Another disaster of a similar character is reported in a coal mine near Pentirch, in South Wales. Twelve persons were killed and ten injured. Another steamer wreck, with fearful loss of life, has occurred. The Deutchsland, from Bremen, struck near Harwich, England, during a fog, and became a total wreck. The captain reports:—“We left Bremen Haven on Saturday morning ; encountered a heavy north-east snow storm, with weather so thick that he found it necessary to throw the lead constantly, and to slacken the speed of the vessel. At half-past 5 a.m. the vessel struck, and shortly after all hands commenced pumping. Several vessels passed quite close, but paid no attention to signals of distress. I ordered the lifeboats to be got in readiness, and soon had them swung out, but did not deem it safe to lower them in such a heavy sea. One boat was lowered against my positive orders, and she was almost immediately capsized and six persons in her drowned. A tremendous sea swept the decks every few minutes and washed overboard many of the passengers, who had all probably been provided with life preservers. After this I ordered the passengers to take to the rigging, and some sought safety in the wheel-house, from which position they were rescued by a tug-boat. There were about ten in all.” The latest estimate makes the total number of lives lost on the steamer Deutchsland at seventy-eight ; it is now ascertained that the crew numbered ninety-nine, of whom fourteen were drowned. The captain admits that he was an hour and a quarter out of his reckoning. At the inquest, at Harwich, Captain Bruckstein testified that he signalled passing vessels, but none answered. Jurymen and others admitted that his signals of distress were seen at Harwich. One of the jurymen states that the seamen did not feel bound to risk their lives and go to the rescue, having no lifeboat. The Times this morning says the fact of so plain a case is a disgrace on the English name. The Deutchsland has broken in half.

William Spatten and Co., linen manufacturers and bleachers, of Belfast, have failed with liabilities of a million and a half.

A dispatch from St. Petersburgh says the rumors that Khokand was surrounded, and that the majority of the smaller Russian garrisons had been massacred are false. There has been no further rising in the city of Khokand.

A telegram from Alexandra says Egypt does not wish to annex Abyssinia. She merely wants security against violation of her frontier.

The vessels ordered from the East Indies to the Mediterranean compose a detached squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Lambert, which according to previous arrangements was to have remained in East Indian waters till March. The combined crews number over 3000. On the receipt of the new order the squadron will sail for the Red Sea, and proceed through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean. This will be the first time that a whole squadron belonging to a foreign power has passed at once through the canal. A special telegram from Berlin says the Prussian Government has formally summoned the Archbishop of Cologne to resign. This is preliminary to legal proceedings to depose him. A Berlin special says Count Von Amim has refused to obey the summons to attend his trial for treason on the plea of illhealth.

The Prussian Cross Gazette reports that Turkey has given her assent to the Austrian Count Andrassy’s scheme of reform. It is very cold in the South of Spain. Some soldiers have been frozen to death. It was reported that General Tristany had reentered Catalonia, and issued a proclamation, but this is denied to-day. The Carlist General Tristany, it was reported, had re-entered Catalonia, and issued a proclamation urging the people to rise. Placards censuring the arrangements made *>y the Chinese Government with Wade, the

British Ambassador, were posted in Peking, but were immediately removed by the authorities. The native officials are uneasy in regard to recent negotiations. Information implicating the authorities in the murder of Margary has been received.

The MacMahon Ministry expect to obtain a large legislative majority at the general election for members of the Assembly. The Duke Decasses, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, states that the reason why the Government refused to purchase the Suez Canal shares when the property was tendered for sale to the Ministry was, that MacMahon’s Cabinet feared was with (?) In Germany the Federal Provincial Council has passed a resolution adding 100,000 marks to the sum already collected to facilitate and promote the display of Germany’s products at the Philadelphia Exhibition. Egyptian troops have occupied the districts of Juba and Kestay, disarmed the Zanzibar forces there, and hoisted the Turkish flag. Asiatic cholera is violent in Madras. Committees of the Right and Left Centres of the French Parliament have agreed to report that a dissolution take place in December, and the elections for senators be held on January the 23rd, and the meeting of both chambers on the 26 th March. The Eastern complication and the July report of the Foreign Loan Commission have caused a steady depression in foreign loans.

The action of the Prussian Government regarding the ratification of the contract for sale of guano hypothecated for payment of the interest of Peruvian fines, has caused a panic. A dispatch from China, dated November 1, states that Foochoo officials say they have at length captured the murderers of Mr. Blacklock, the Custom-house officer, at Rangoon. A correspondent says the news of the reported settlement of the Chinese difficulty, and the projected opening of the trade route between Burmah and Yunnan, was received here incredulously. It is stated that Max Muller, Professor of Comparative Philology at All Soul’s College, has offered his resignation, and will leave England in 1876. On the 25th of October, Chief Justice Smalle, at Hong Kong, passed sentences on the prisoners “ guilty of murder and piracy.” The accused had boarded a junk and forced the passengers and crew (in all twenty) below the hatches, fastened them down, and then scuttled the ship. Three were sentenced to death ; two to ten years ; and one (a woman) to five years’ imprisonment. A report that a boat’s crew of H.M.S. Sylvia had been chased by the Coreans is confirmed.

Pekin is rapidly improving. Buildings are better constructed and roads are kept in order. A jury has been struck in the suit against Tweed to recover six million dollars on behalf of the city of New York. Meanwhile Tweed has disappeared, and detectives are searching for him in Canada. It is reported that he went with his accomplices to South America. The survey made of the route of the Nicaragua Canal, to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, is highly spoken of.

There are further indictments of Mormons at Salt Lake for bigamy. A telegram from Oka, an Indian village on the Ottawa River, says the Protestant Indian church was completely wrecked by a crowd of French Catholics.

The first raid on the opium dens by the police of San Francisco was made on the 6th December. Four captures were made. The raids are to be continued till the dens are suppressed. At Toledo, a mail agent named Robinson, after being missing five days, was found terribly mutilated in the river. There is no clue to the perpetrators of the tragedy. It is stated that the Apache Indians in Eastern New Mexico, numbering several thousands, are about entering on the war path. About 4500 of them have been handed over to the United States troops, who have removed them to Fort Stanton.

Kerr was elected Speaker on the sixth ballot by the Democratic caucus at Washington. The Erie Railroad Company are about to sue James Henry and the London Banking Association, for claims held by the company against them exceeding two million dollars. Judge Donohue to-day granted leave to Mr. Jewett, receiver, to send funds to England to institute the suit.

Charles O’Conor, the noted billiard expert, died suddenly in New York. American papers still harp on the Beecher scandal. At a Plymouth prayer meeting Beecher declared that the policy of silence was at end.

COMMERCIAL. New York, December 9. Hides, 20cents. to 20Jcents; sperm oil, Idol. 55cents. to Idol. 90cents. ; whale oil, 65cents. to 70cents. ; wool, spring, fine, 25 cents, to 26 cents.; pulled, 35cents. to 42cents. ; Liverpool wheat quotation, December 9—£lo 10s. to £ll Is.; Club, £ll 2s. to £ll 7s. per cental. San Francisco, December 10. The Mikado took 65 flasks of quicksilver, quoted at 90cents.; salmon, Idol. 30cents, per doz; hops, 208 bales, per Mikado, quoted at 121 to 144 cents per lb.; flour, sdol. 50cents to 6d015.; barrel wheat, Idol. 971 cents to 2d015.; barley (Mikado took 8750 centals), feed, Idol. 20 cents to Idol. 25cents—brewing, Idol. 30cents to Idol. 40cents ; oats, Idol. scents., per cental.