THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5579, 14 February 1879, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

The Australia has arrived. There are teu passengers for New Zealand. Saloon—Hon. Alox. Stuart and Miss Stuart, Henry Scotland, J. Loo Smith, Mrs. Samuel Clayton ; seven in the steerage. The Australia leaves for Sydney at 7 o’ clock this evening. The budget of mail news received by the Australia is of a depressing character. Dullness in business, commercial catastrophes, and trade strikes, constitute, the universal talc. Some trade unions are doing their utmost to promote emigration of skilled artisans in London. In keeping with the sad commercial outlook, Christmas Day in London proved extremely dull. The weather was unfavorable. The snow fell in the afternoon, and at night it rained heavily. The strike of the miners in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire will not be nearly as largo as was anticipated j not more than 600 operatives will go out. A strike has begun in the wire trade at Warrington, which may assume serious proportion?. The masters contend for a reduction in wages, or the work must close, as German wire can be obtained cheaper than LugJish can be manufactured. The men say the reduction is excessive.

There is a strike of the colliers on account of the advanced price in coals. iStocks are low, and a compromise is expected. The coal miners are not in favor of submitting to the proposal of arbitration. They consider their case does not admit of argument. The miners at the Bock colliers have struck against a 10 per cent, reduction in wages. The foundry men, shipbuilders, and housebuilders at Bangor and vicinity have struck. Six hundred weavers at Carlisle have struck. The strike will affect other departments at the mills. The strike commenced in tho wire trade at Washington ; fifteen hundred men idle in consequence. Notices were posted on Saturday by the Iron trade employers association in iron ship building yards and founderies in Liverpool and district around of a , reduction in wages of 7-A per cent, after 31st of January. It is thought that the men will strike.

Six engineering firms at Huddersfield looked out their workmen for refusing to consent to an extension of hours. An arbitration of the differences between employers and employees in the Cleveland and North England iron trade resulted in a decision that the men must accept 5 per cent, reduction of wages. The cotton mills at Nelson, near Burley, give notice of a reduction. Some mills there have stopped altogether; also at Padeham and Whitefiold.

The. colliers in the Barnsley district are taking their tools away from the mines, having determined to reject the arbitration scheme. A family of four persons at Darington, England, in distressed circumstances, recently put an end to their troubles by stopping up the chimney and lighting a coke fire in the room. A despatch from Phillopopolis states that a railway train fell into the river Airda, and that a llussian general, several other officers and 200 men were drowned. The accident was caused by the breaking down of the bridge. A despatch from Borne states that negotiations were carried on between Cardinal Nino, Papal Secretary of State, and Bismarck direct without the intervention of the Nuncio at Munich. Bismarck’s professions are friendly, but an impression prevails that little more will be obtained from him unless the Socialist Bill proves insufficient. A Council of the Irish Home Rule League has called a general meeting for the 4th February, to consider a resolution on the policy of the Irish Parliamentary party, and for their reorganisation. The British Government is encouraging emigration to the colonies as a means of tiding over the present labor difficulties. The marriage of the Duke of Connaught takes place at Windsor Castle on the 13th of March, It was postponed for a month on account of the death of Princess Alice. The Zulu king expressed his willingness to surrender some of the persons demanded by the British ultimatum, and pay a fine. He would also consider other demands if time were allowed. Sir Bartlo Frere replied that the word of the English Government cannot bo altered.

An Encyclical letter of the Pope appeals to Governments to grant rest to the Church, and a degree of liberty which will enable her to efficaciously employ her influence in favor of society. Inter Alia says the Encyclical is the commencement of a crusado against modern institutions.

Mdme. Patti suffered from rheumatic pains when she left Berlin for Hamburg. These increased to such an extent as to make it impossible for her to appear in the latter place on the day announced. The Bey of Tunis has sent a plenipotentiary to Paris to arrange a difference with Prance. The Duke of Edinburgh will shortly be appainted Admiral of the Canada station. With one exception, all the Cardinals consulted by the Pope upon the subject favored the Catholics participating in elections. The plague has caused a general panic in Astracan and Sarator, A correspondent of the Globe writes -.—-The plague commenced in a village in the district of Enotaivsk, the disease was mistaken for typhus. When the weather became warmer the people died like flies. The dead lay unburied in the streets. On January 10th the plague had reached Earatofiu. At Naratzin 173 deaths occurred. The mortality is estimated at ten per cent, of the population. The plague at Astracan is assuming serious proportions. There were four hundred deaths from the disease up to January 4. Aytncc Russe says the proposal to extend the functions of the commission for the re-organi-sation ef Eastern Eoumelia received the assent of all the Powers, but such prolongation does not constitute a violation of the Treaty of Berlin.

The Russian administration of the government of Eastern Eoumelia was also thus prolonged until the labors of the reorganisation commission are concluded.

The Kharkoff veterinary school was broken up and ICieff University has been closed in consequence of the riotous demonstrations of the students.

Despatches from Scotland report great snow storms and severe gales. Telegrams from Crookhaven, Ireland, say that a fearful storm prevailed there, increasing to a hurricane.

. A cablegram reports the total loss of the barque Gunhilda, from Glasgow, with all hands, on the Bordeaux bar. The gale on the coasts of Galicia and Portugal caused great destruction among the small craft. Seventy fishermen and others are reported drowned. The steamer Bulgarian, from Boston, went ashore on the coast of Wales, and became a total wreck. Three were drowned.

The Spanish steamer Yrurao from Baltimore via Liverpool, arrived in a damaged condition, and reports a collision with the British sailing vessel Lancashire Lass, which sank with all on board. The steamer’s bows are broken.

A British workman writes from Manchester, England, to the New York Evenin'/ Post : “ There is scarcely a single trade that is not very much affected during the present depression. Some hundreds of boilermakers ceased work last week because employers can only afford to go on by reducing their wages 4s. per week. Our great Eree-Trade Hall was filled on Sunday last with some thousands of railway employees protesting against a reduction of 2s. per week. The cotton mills at Oldham and in that district are idle because cotton masters are so overstocked as to offer the mill-hands work only on condition of so dreadful a decrease of wages that the said hands prefer to work none and wholly starve rather than work hard for a semistarvation wage. Meanwhile, most dreadful scenes are witnessed in our immediate neighborhood. Newspapers teemed with instances of intense hunger and destitution. An only instance, which will give a sample of the rest, is that a butcher missed a large bunch of “ lights,” which he had seen hanging outside his window a moment before, and on going to the door he observed a scarecrow of a fellow making off with it. Ho quickly followed him, and unobserving, picked up a policeman as he went along. They went into a man’s house only to find him and his wife and children tearing the lights asunder and ravenously devouring the raw material just stolen. To the credit of common humanity instead of giving the man into custody the butcher gave him a couple of shillings, and the policeman was only too glad to wink at the miscarriage of justice.

A girl named Annie Lydia Laughton, aged_ six years, was strangled by her mother Maria Laughton, of Woolwich. The parents had seen better days, and the wife was especially depressed at their reduced state. On Sunday she was in very low-spirits, and cried a good deal. Yesterday morning, at half-past 5 o’clock, the husband who is employed at Silvertown, Indiarubber Works, North Woolwich, left homo on duty. Almost directly afterwards the

wife left her bed with the determination to destroy the lives of both her children, who were sleeping in different beds in the same bedroom. She stated an impulse prompted her to seize the little girl by the throat and strangle her. She did so, and as the child awoke she thrust a stocking partly down her throat to stifle her cries. While tnus engaged the boy awoke. This probably saved hi?Hfe, for the mother merely told him to be quiet, as she was going out to see a neighbor, and dressing herself left the room, locking tho door after her. She went direct to the police station, and said she had killed her child that it might go to heaven. The London Dispatch of January 3 says : “ Lord Derby, in speaking at Liverpool last evenin'' took a very despondent view of trade in England, and advised increased emigration to America and Australia. The speech has tended to still further depress the state of public feeling. His Lordship took an exhaustive review of the condition of England’s trade, and of obstacles whiob stood in the way of its revival. He showed how the increased ability of other nations to manufacture for themselves was constantly diminishing the market for English goods, and how difficult it 'would be for England to keep on paying large sums of money in return for articles of food, which she was compelled to purchase from America and other countries. The only remedy his Lordship said which suggested itself to his mind, after long and anxious reflection, was wholesale emigration to America and Australia, and he urged this with great earnestness. The charity of different localities effected is entirely inadequate to the additional demand made upon it. From Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, each of which places is tho centre of tho direst suffering, comes news that the wealthier inhabitants are doing all that is wanted.

Her Majesty has addressed to her subjects a pathetic letter. The Queen begins with expressing her heartfelt thanks for the universal and most touching sympathy shown to her by all classes of her loyal subjects on the recent occasion when it pleased God to call away from this world her dearly beloved daughter, the Princess Alice.” The letter concluded with tho remark that “ such an exhibition of true and tender feeling is the more to be valued at tho moment of great distress in the country.” General Ponsonby, the Queen’s secretary, has addressed another letter to Cornish clergymen, expressing her Majesty’s regret that she cannot alleviate the distress exTsting in the western country, since she would be bound to do the same in every part of the land.

The Prince of Wales has sent £SO to Sheffield. Miss Florence Nightingale has sent £25, accompanied by a characteristic and charming letter, and Mr. Cross, Home Secretary, gives us to understand that he is watching tho progress of the distress, to see how the system of poor law relief works, and whether additional help from Government is wanted. _ The Russian Press has adopted a counciliatory tone towards Britain.

It is apprehended that the Nihilist conspiracies are exciting the Russian police to great activity.

The'modified letter from Bismarck, published in the Germany newspapers, in which ho recommends provision tariff, with a view of obtaining increased revenue from foreign imports. The Black Prince, ironclad, recently under the command of the Duke of Edinburgh, has been paid off. A rule nisi against the publisher of a newspaper called Man of the World has been granted by the Court of Queen’s Bench for an alleged libel upon Lord Ronald Leveson Gower, Duke of Sutherland.

General Roberts telegraphs that he reached Kaibu, the depot. Governor Khasi came there, and will transfer to the British commander the forts and revenues of the Khast and Khuru districts. The people of Khast at first were unfriendly. A band of Mashu Watzures recently made an excursion into British territory and plundered the inhabitants, and burned a bank, and retreated to the hills, pursued by cavalry, and part of the band were out off.

The Russian general Easgonoff accompanied Shere Ali in his flight for the Russian frontier, A Lahore correspondent telegraphs that General Street’s occupation of Caudabar -will mark the conclusion of a definite period of the war, and all will have been done that the Quittah column can possibly do before winter. Major O’Bagnani has received friendly letters from most of the Cabul and Gulzar chiefs. The health of the troops is good. They are settling down comfortably in different camps, Pittson, January 9. Just after the miners had descended into the Pensylvania Goal Company’s shaft a terrible gas explosion occurred near the carriage-way, and killed several men. There has been a terrible explosion at the Grant powder mills, .San Francisco. The shock was so severe that it was thought an earthquake had occurred. The explosion occurred in the packing house. 500,0001b5. of blasting powder were in a storeroom about 250 ft. from the packing house in a westerly direction; separated from it again by sandhills was a brick storeroom, in which was kept the Grant powder put in cartridges, packed in boxes ready for market; this building also contains 500,0001b5. of powder. The magazine was staved in and the roof lifted off, windows and doors shattered and blown in. Men at work were blown to pieces ; all that could be found _of them was collected and carefully! placed in a box and turned over to the coroner. Superintendent Roller says the only theory he can form with regard to the explosion is that some powder was frozen, and that while the men were handling it the explosion occurred. Pout Robinson, January 10.

The hostile Cheynnes imprisoned here since last October were informed by the commanding officer a few days ago that they were to be taken back to the agency in the Indian territory. Last night while nearly every one was in bed except the guard the savages jumped through the windows. The prisoners made for the prairie, firing on the guard from revolvers concealed since their capture, and dangerously wounding four of the guards. The main guard rushed out of the guardhouse on hearing shots, and on ascertaining the cause, and seeing the fleeing hostiles running for the bluffs, immediately followed, and opening fire shot and killed over forty savages. Over one hundred and sixty cavalry, mounted and dismounted, are still in pursuit of the fugitives. The sharp_ bang of the carbine can be heard from the hills three miles distant, where the savages sought shelter.

GENERAL SUMMARY. London, January 20.

Distress exists to a fearful extent in the manufacturing and agricultural districts of England. Five hundred agricultural emigrants have left in a body for New A .’.lam-. The Cornish Bank, Truro, has failed, after an existence of 110 years. The deposits amounted to £5,000,000. There is great financial trouble in West Cornwall in consequence of the failure. The bank belonged to Tweedie, Williams and Co. Sir William Hayter has been found drowned in a lake on his estate. The Town Council of Cork has absolutely refused to give General Grant a reception, and has charged him with anti-Catholic sentiments. Belfast and other northern cities made more elaborate manifestations in his honor in consequence. , European capitalists refuse to advance Russia the loan asked for, unless her armies in Turkey be withdrawn, and no fresh wars in Asia undertaken. The articles of the definite treaty of peace have been agreed to, and accepted by Russia. The latter reduces the indemnity claim by one hundred million roubles. The great Council at Geneva, Switzerland, has accepted the principle of separation of Church and State. . ... Princess Mary Liehtenstem, formerly Miss Fox the adopted daughter of Lord Holland, and authoress of several works, died recently in Syria. , . An attempt has been made by an insane man on the life of the Emperor of Austria. A hotel-keeper at Copenhagen has been arrested for threatening the life of the Danish IV q‘he Date 0 f Cumberland left Copenhagen because Prussia expressed displeasure at his residence there. . „ . . A sensational rumor says that Prussia is negotiating for the renunciation by the Duke of ° his right to Hanover in return for the cession of Northern Schleswig. _ Th© revenue of Great Britain snows an increase of £1,803,485 for 1878 over the preceding year. . There is a general organisation of all the trades in England for the purpose of resisting an extension of the hours of labor. England and Scotland have suffered from heavy* floods. The country around Darlington and Wrexham was submerged for many nuksThe ice floated down the Thames, and the Thames steamboat traffic between Chelsea and Woolwich was suspended. Many river barges were frozen up.

The rumor is revived that the Duke of Connaught is to he “Viceroy of Ireland. The Duke of Edinburgh will shortly be appointed Admiral of the North American Station. H.R.H. will repair to Halifax, U.S., with the Duchess in the early part of the summer.

Lord Beaconsiield has fully recovered his health.

The Marquis of Tweeddale is dead. Tho City of Glasgow Bank liquidators realised but £300,000 as a first instalment of the call upon the shareholders, instead of the £2,000,000 nominally due. Dean Stanley was so much pleased with his visit to America that he announces his intention to return on an early date. Sir James Eitzjames Stephen has been appointed Judge of tho High Court of Justiciary, in tho place of Sir Anthony Cleasley, resigned. Mr. Ward, R.A., a London artist of high reputation, has committed suicide. The library of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, containing 80,000 volumes, including a Shakspearean collection of 8000 volumes, has become a total loss by fire. A fearful explosion occurred at the Dinas Colliery, Rhondda Valley, near Pnnt-y-pridd, Wales, on the 13th December. A building fell, closing the entrance of the shaft, shutting out ventilation, and sixty miners in the pit perished. Creighton Brothers, Newcastle-on-Tyne, merchants ; Mackay and Kirkwood, printers, Glasgow; and McOomas and Co., merchants, London, have failed, the latter for £BO,OOO. Booker and Co., Glamorganshire, ironmongers, have also failed, owing to the suspension of the Bristol and West of England Bank. The liabilities are set down at £600,000. On the 17th a run on tho London and County Bank, Lombard-street, began, from the fact of an idle crowd assembling in front of the building to listen to a cabman’s dispute. This gave rise to the report that the bank was in danger. The British brig Eunice has been abandoned at sea, and the steamship Oberon has been totally lost at White Bay, near Queenstown, Ireland.

Every member of the North Wales Miners’ Union who desires to emigrate to America is promised £7, and those who go to Australia receive £l4. The North Wales Slate Quarrymen’s Union offer the same terms, and it is believed that many will accept them, as most of the smaller quarries remain closed. The popular vote throughout Switzerland has resulted in a large majority in favor of a subvention to the St. Gothard and other Alpine railways. The London Standard's correspondence from Rome says that the Jesuits have sent the Pope a kind of ultimatum pointing out the evils resulting from their exclusion from the government of the church. The Pope continues firm, and many of his friends fear the consequences. An unfounded report that the Pope had been poisoned, which originated in Paris, awaked painful apprehension. The constructions of barracks for 150,000 men, on the Canstantinoplo line of defence, has been ordered.

A despatch from Vienna to London hints that the delay in the signature of the RussianTurkish Convention is duo to the revival of Russian influence at Constantinople, and intrigues to prolong the occupation. Two thousand two hundred and forty-five French Communists have been pardoned, and the President intends to pardon all but the ringleaders, about 400 in number. Bismarck has introduced a Bill into the German Reichstag to punish members for words spoken in debate, by handing them oyer to the Courts of Law ; also, a Bill for opening all letters on the frontier. Both these measures are said to be directed by the Emperor himself.

Adelina Patti, the prima donna, has broken her knee-cap at Berlin, and amputation is said to be necessary. The German Press is satisfied with the result of the elections.

Prussia insists that the Duke of Cumberland must relinquish his hereditary claim to the Dutchy of Brunswick before his sequestrated property will be surrendered. Germany will coerce Samoa to 'mply with its demands, and the gunboat Niu.l.. i * has been sent to the islands.

Manoasi, who attempted the assassination of the King of Spain, has been garrotted. _ The marriage of the Spanish King with the Belgian Princess is suggested. Pope Leo wishes to convene an (Ecumenical Council.

A Catholic hierarchy has been organised for Bosnia and Herzegovina. A grand national exhibition is proposed to be held in Moscow in 1880.

A collision on the Warsaw railway killed 20 persons and wounded many more. The British ship Lancashire Witch was sunk at sea with all on board, through a collision with the Spanish steamer Trurac. The Bat Cottinburger Commercial Company of Stockholm has suspended payment. Weston, the pedestrian, has started on a walk on the highways of 2000 miles in 1000 hours, and will deliver fifty lectures. Germany had joined her sanitary forces with those of Austria in attempting to stem the course of the Astrachan plague westward. Bismarck has written a letter appealing to the agricultural community of Germany to afford him a united and vigorous support in the work of fiscal reform. He refers to the new duties to be levied upon imported cattle, and expresses an opinion that such taxation has become an avoidable necessity.

The residence of the Egytian Khedive has been destroyed by fire. The King of Holland has married Princess Emma of Wellbeck, Piedmont. Prince Henry, brother to the King, died on the 13th. Major St. John was fired upon in the streets of Candahar by a frantic native mob, but was not wounded. The man who fired the shot was arrested. A lieutenant of the Royal Artillery was severely wounded, and two soldiers were slightly stabbed. AMERICAN SUMMARY. San Ebancisco, January 21, The Australia was detained 36 hours, owing to the non-arrivol of tha E n gl* s k mails. A tremendoiis conflagration occurred in New York, in Broadway and other strets. The loss is 5,000,000 dollars. A deputation of Mormau wives appeared before Congress, speaking against the Supreme Court decision declaring polygamous marriages in Utah illegal. Brigham Young’s daughter was one of the speakers. The State of Louisiana is a defaulter in the January interest on her bonds. California is suffering from want of rain.

Archbishop Pauli, of Cincinnati, the leading Roman Catholic Bishop in America, has been declared bankrupt. He has resigned his bishopric. Scarlet fever has been declared an epidemic in New York.

The Russian Mennonites are expected to arrive in New York next month by thousands, fleeing to escape the military service. A European steamer foundered recently in New York harbor.

Mr. Vanderbilt intends starting a line with eight steamers between New York and Europe. Sitting Bull and 25,000 Indians have come into the United States from Canada.

The Congressional Committee have made a strong report against further Chinese immigration to the United States. An engineer residing in Cincinnati has taken a contract to build a railroad from Jerusalem to J affa, in Palestine.

Mr, Spurgeon, the celebrated London preacher, is engaged with a controversy with Neal Dow, the American temperance lecturer, because the latter charged him with excessive fondness for beer and spirits. The resumption of specie payments has lessened Grant’s chances for re-nomination for the Presidency. The Nexo Yorh Times intimates that the Bonanza firm of Elood and O’Brien, San Erancisco, hold the title deeds of the Central Pacific Railway and branches as security for borrowed money.

Thirty Cheyenne Indians were recently slaughtered by United States soldiers at Camrobinson, Nebraska. The Indians had become mutinous.

Harvard University challenged Oxford to a rowing match, but the latter declined. The United States Supreme Court has fixed the penalty for polygamous marriages at 500 dollars fine and five years’ imprisonment. Mrs. Anderson, an Englishwoman, walked 2700 quarter miles in as many quarter hours. The feat was accomplished at Brooklyn. The Brazilian Government proposes the extinction of all religious monastic orders, and the application of the property to the reduction of the public debt. Another ship leaves New York during the present month with American exhibits for the International Exposition to beheld in Sydney. The Eastern manufacturers are taking advantage to a considerable extent of this opportunity for introducing their productions to a new market.

A strong company for the introduction of Gary’s magnetic electric machine, for general-

ing electricity for the electric light, telegraphing without the use of a battery, and other purposes, has been formed. A great powder mill near San Francisco was blown up, and the shock was felt 60 miles off. Three employees were blown to shreds. The loss is 50,000d015.