New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4420, 20 May 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1875.

The loss of the March mail from New Zealand, which went down with the s.s. Schiller, one of the German Transatlantic Steam Navigation Company’s boats, at the Scilly Islands, near the entrance to the Channel, on Friday, May the 7th, would have boena very serious calamity indeed, even had it been unattended with sacrifice of life. But unhappily the ship was crowded with passengers, chiefly Germans, returning from the United States to Fatherland, and 311 are reported to have perished. The details of this calamity are exceedingly meagre; Mr. Yogbl telegraphed as under : “ London, May 10.

“ On Friday the steamer Schiller, with “ the New Zealand mails, was lost near “ the Scilly Islands. 200 mail bags and “ 311 lives were lost.”

The Press Agency telegrams inform us that “ no Australian passengers are known “to have been on board.” This is very likely, for although it is the practice to put the homeward Australian mails on board one of the slow-sailing transatlantic boats, passengers for England seldom travel by them. They usually put into Plymouth, land their mails, and proceed on their voyage to a continental port. A great deal of uneasiness no doubt is felt in Wellington, on account of this catastrophe, because several old. settlers sailed from New Zealand by the March San Francisco mail. For several of these no apprehension need be felt. Mr, and Mrs. Fox, we know, intended to travel for some time through the United States before embarking »for Europe, as did also Colonel Moule and Mrs. Moule, and Messrs. , Baker and Ollivier. Among those who left Wellington at the same time were Captain and Mrs. Sharpe, but they are hardly likely to have taken passage in a German steamer. Among the passengers from the South was the Hon. Robt. Campbell, who went home on urgent private business ; but there is no reason to suppose that he travelled by this vessel. In all probability, none of the New Zealand passengers were on board the Schiller. The loss of the mail is, however, a most serious calamity. The vessel struck in a fog. Public anxiety will not bo allayed until details of the shipwreck are to hand.