THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4331, 5 February 1875, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

The s.B. Ladybird, from Onehunga, arrived in port at an early hour on Wednesday with the English mail of the 15th December, and San Francisco newspapers of the 6th of January. From the journals to hand we make the following extracts : The thirtieth anniversary of the birth of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was celebrated at Windsor with the usual honors. In the morning the hells. of St. George’s Chapel and the Parish Church rang merry peals, and royal salutes were fired from the Long Walk and from the Belvedere and the Royal Adelaide frigate at Virginia Water. His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught had accepted an invitation to dine with the Mayor of Norwich (Mr. C.K. Harvey) on Nov. 21. His Royal Highness was on the previous Monday thrown from his horse at Norwich. One of his feet was injured so much that he was unable to take part; in a football match. The injuries,; however, are not regarded as serious. k . : J"•"

In the Supreme Court at Dublin, 1 the Lord Chief Justice fixed Monday, 14th December, for the trial of the action in which William Lawder, Deputy-Lieutenant of Leitrim, sues Petronella Halborg for £IO,OOO damages for breach of promise. Since the .writ was issued defendant has married Mr. "VVhite, a gentleman of property in Leitrim, and is now resident at Florence. Application for postponement on the ground that the lady is enceinte was refused.

Mr. Henry Oawahay, the head of large coal and iron firms in tfie Forest of Dean, has published a letter denying that the present condition of the markets warrants the further reduction the masters are '' now seeking to impose. He declares his intention-to, make no decrease in the wage rate.- The communication has caused great excitement in South Wales and Monmouthshire, where the coal-owners have just given notice of a drop. Mr. M neas Mackay, advocate, has been elected successor of the late Mr.' Cosmo Inncs in the Chair of History in the University of Edinburgh. , . : A Madras telegram, dated November 30, reports that an iron vessel of about 1700 tons, supposed to be the County of Perth, of Glasgow, has been picked up abandoned, and taken into Pondicherry by the steamship Assyria. ' " ‘ 1 “James Francis de Barr,” said to bo an Italian professor of languages, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at the Manchester Police Court, for a series of thefts from tradesmen in Manchester. The prisoner’s career, as sketched by his advocate, has been a remarkable one. He fought against tho Austrians in 1848-9, with Garibaldi and other leaders; in 1851 he was with tho French in Algiers ; the Russian war saw him in the Turkish service at Kars; in 1861 ho joined the Confederate forces in New Orleans; at the close of tho civil war this irrepressible fighter carried his sword to the republic of Paraguay ; and from the service of Lopez to that of Oespodea, in Cuba, was a short step. He contrived to get captured in the Virginius, but was spared the fate of the greater part of that vessel’s crew., Then came a visit to New York, the return to Italy, and finally Bello Vuo Prison. At tho Manchester Assizes, before Mr. Justice Mellor and a special jury, tho case of Allott v. Smith camo on for hearing. The plaintiff was tho Rev. J. Allott, Vicar of Rishton, near Blackburn, and tho defendant was Mrs. Ellen Smith, one of his parishioners, and tho action was brought to recover damages for slander. It was alleged on the part of the plaintiff that the defendant had circulated a statement to the effect that he had committed adultery with the wife of one of his school teachers. Tho plaintiff was called, and also tho lady with whom it was said ho had committed adultery, and they" denied tho truth of tho accusation, Tho defendant was afterwards called, and she stoutly adhered to the assertion which she had made,

and the jury, after being locked up for a con siderable time, failed to agree as to a verdict, and were discharged. Mr. Disraeli continues to improve in health. The Central News correspondent at Bournemouth says that rooms have been engaged at the Bath Hotel in that town for Mr. Disraeli, and that the right hon. gentleman is expected there as soon as he is sufficiently recovered from his present indisposition. A great bicycle race of fifty miles for £SO and the championship took place on Monday at Wolverhampton between Keen and Stanton. Keen won, doing the distance in three hours, nine minutes, and nineteen seconds the shortest time on record. Stanton sustained a bad fall in the thirty-first round, and was obliged to give in. Lord Henry Lennox, speaking in London lately, said it was nearly time that in the estimates of the country provision should be made to meet the people’s requirements for increased art-training. The Earl of Carnarvon has corrected an erroneous statement respecting the toleration of domestic slavery on the West Coast of Africa. His lordship says:—“ The kings and chiefs, after asking and receiving explanations, were fully satisfied with the announcement that any slave who niay not wish to continue to live with his master, shall not hereafter be compelled to return to him by any court, English or native. It is, therefore, unnecessary that cruelty or any other cause should be established; and entertains no doubt that, under this declaration, slaves will be entirely free to stay with or leave their masters, and that any attempt to interfere with this freedom will be effectively punished.” The New York papers publish intelligence from Cuba, announcing that a Spanish gunboat has seized a British schooner suspected of conveying war materials to the Insurgents, while two and a-half miles from the Cuban Coast. In the Divorce Court Sir James Hannan gave his decision in the case of Latouche v. Latouche, which was a wife’s petition for a divorce bn the ground of the infidelity and cruelty of her husband, Captain Latouche. His Lordship now stated that he had looked over his notes, and felt that he could make a decree. There would therefore be a decree nisi for a dissolution of the marriage, with costs against the respondent. A letter from Lieutenant Cameron states that he has been over the later tracks of Dr. Livingstone, and from native reports identifies the Lualaba with the Congo. He hopes to follow it down to the west coast of Loanda.

A meeting was held at Willis’ Rooms to promote the extension of the University of Edinburgh, the Duke of Edinburgh in the chair. Lord Derby moved one of the resolutions. £IOO,OOO is needed for the purpose, £70,000 of which has already been subscribed. An engine exploded at tho Leeds Railway Station. Part of the boiler was hurled 200 yards, causing great damage to telegraph wires and other property. No person was seriously hurt. The first volume of the “Life of the Prince Consort,” by Mr. Theodore Martin, has appeared. William H. Darne, a Mormon bishop, was arrested on November 19th at Parowan, in Iron county, Utah, by a deputy-marshal, on an indictment for murder. . He Is charged with complicity in what is known as the Mountain Meadow massacre, some years ago.

The Cape mail steamer Roman has arrived at Plymouth. “Tie Transvaal goldfields are creating an extraordinary sensation in the colony, and quantities of gold sent down to Cape Town have caused a great rush up country of experienced and amateur diggers.

SINGULAR RAILWAY ACCIDENT. On Saturday night, December 5, a shocking accident occurred on the Lesmahagow branch of the Caledonian Railway near Larkhall, whereby John Kellochan, miner, Stonehouse, was killed, and another miner named George Gordon, residing at Howlethole, Dalserf, was seriously injured. .It is supposed that the two men had been drinking together, and had about six o’clock wandered unobserved on to the line at Comsillooh Colliery siding, about one hundred yards from Ayr-road Station, when they fell asleep. The passenger train from Stonehouse, it appears, has to shunt at this siding till the Lesmahagow train comes forward. While this was being done a cry of distress was raised, and on the train being stopped it was found that Kelloohan and Gordon had been run over. From the position in which they were discovered, it is surmised that Kellochan must have lain forward, face downwards, across the rails, his head being cut in two as if the wheels of the carriage had passed over it. When taken up he was, of course, quite dead. Gordon’s body was free from the rails, but his arms being extended one was very badly injured, and the hand of the other was so fearfully mutilated that the work of amputation had to be subsequently performed by Drs. Mackenzie, Stewart, and Rae. Gordon was also severely cut and bruised about the head and face. Kellochan, who was fifty years of age, has left a widow and large family. CLERICAL SCANDAL AT WHITEHAVEN. A long correspondence between the Bishop of Carlisle and the Rev. R. G, Collingwood, vicar of Irton and Drigg, near Whitehaven, has just been published. , Mr. Collingwood passed an examination in bankruptcy at Whitehaven, on September 23 last, when some extraordinary disclosures were made, the rev. gentleman admitting debts due to , sixty-four creditors, to the amount of £24,000, his income being about £2OOO per annum at the time. The bankruptcy was forced on by one of the principal creditors, the Bank of Whitehaven, to whom Mr. Collingwood owed over £SOOO. The result of the proceedings was that the rev. gentleman made a composition with his creditors of ss. in the £l. The Bishop, in a lengthy letter, says that “an awful scandal has been created,” and calls upon Mr. Collingwood to “make reparation to the Church, which has undoubtedly suffered from your unwise and careless conduct,” by resigning his living. Mr. Collingwood replies in a letter of equal length, setting forth, in effect, that he has “great expectations,” hints that he may be able to pay all his creditors in full at a future date, blames the unnecessarily precipitate proceedings of the Whitehaven Bank as the cause of all his monetary difficulties, and concludes by flatly refusing to resign his cure, on tho ground that such a step is. not desired cither by his parishioners or himaolf. Tho Bishop, in a second letter, says his sole purpose was to let the diocese know what steps ho had taken in the matter of the bankruptcy, which, his Lordship said, “has been a terrible scandal,” and most injurious to the influence of the Church “of which both you and I aro ministers.” Mr. Collingwood is a magistrate of tho county.

TUB AIICTIO EXPEDITION. No official intimation has been received on the subject, but it is believed that the command of the new Arctic expedition will be given to Captain Michael Culmo Seymour, who will have for chief assistant and colleague Commander A. H. Markham, the latter an experienced navigator of the Polar Seas. MISB FAITHFUL ON NEW ZEALAND. Miss Emily Faithful declares the paradise of unmarried women to bo New Zealand. In a lecture delivered at the Quebec Institute on Tuesday she stated that housemaids and cooks can in that colony get from £3O to £SO a-year of wages ; while needlewomen, who in England toil hard through long hours for Is. Cd., may with great ease earn 3s. Od. Well-brought-up girls of the middle class would find in Now Zealand a field of pleasant and independent industry which no other country at present offered to them. SOUTH AMERICA. The Government Gazette of January 21 contains a record of the lands belonging to the Crown sold during the month of December, The cash sales represented 2219 acres, and produced £2107 10s. 6d. The land sold on credit consisted of 10,927 acres, the sum of £7591 17s. being paid as interest deposits in respect of £76,912 Is. 6d. the amount of the purchase money.. Appended are particulars of the land sold under the credit system:—Newly opened country lands, 37,801 acres, £72,585 6s. fid. purchase money; old agricultural areas, 292 acres, £292 purchase money; lands previously held under agreements and forfeited,

2603 acres, £2863 15s. purchase money; and land passed the hammer, 171 acres, £l7l purchase money. ,The quantity of land taken up during December largely exceeded that selected in November, the reason being that farmers are already beginning to prepare for next season.

Dean Russell has been admitted to the privilege of honorary membership in the Order of Foresters.

At the annual meeting of the Ancient Order of Oddfellows, laws were passed assimilating the society to the Grand United Order of Victoria and New South Wales. Messrs. Bilk, Schraeder, and Osborne were elected district officers.

A satisfactory trial trip has been made with the new coasting steamer Euro. Judge Waring left in the Gothenburg on Saturday, for Port Darwin, to open the Circuit Court.