SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5738, 20 August 1879, Page 2

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

[(per cm* OP NEW YORK AT AUCKLAND.) (PER PRESS AGENCY.) Loxbon, July 4. The weather in the British Islands and Europe generally has been the most'extraordinarily unseasonable experienced for many years past. The crops everywhere are seriously endangered by the continuous rain. There is no present sign of change, and everything is very backward. The wide-spread distress in the agricultural districts is causing a reduction in the rents of all large estates. Mr. Gladstone, in reply to a letter from the Warwickshire Tenant Farmers’ Association, alluded with favor to a proposal mooted for an inquiry into the existing agricultural depression.

Mr. Bright, replying to a letter of a Scotch tenant farmer on the same, subject, says ; “ The laud question is moving on rapidly—l mean the whole question of primogeniture, entail, and the settlement of the rights of tenants and the interests of the public. Bad harvests are the cause of the present pressure and distress, but beyond this is the question of what influence American crops and importations will have upon England, and indeed upon Europe. If we are to believe what we hear from the States, great changes there are about to take place, which will affect not only our agricultural, but our political condition ard institutions. I can assure you there is a rapidly growing opinion among the leaders of the Liberal party in favor of changes, in which cultivators of the soil have a great interest.” Messrs. Goulstone and East, accompanied by Captain Barry, who have just returned to England after a long residence in Australia and New Zealand, paid a visit recently to Arthur Orton, at the Portsea Island convict prison. Captain Barry states that he was intimately acquainted with Arthur Orton and De Castro, and he recognised the prisoner as Tom De Castro.

The principal event in domestic politics at Home is the introduction by the Lord Chancellor of the Irish University Education Bill. The Bill makes no addition whatever to the existing number of Irish Universities. Trinity College and Dublin Universities will be left as they are, and the Queen’s Colleges will not be touched, but in place of the Queen's University there will be created an institution at which all-comers, irrespective of creed or school or college, can, it duly qualified, obtain a degree. At the present moment, the Queen’s University is only open to members of the Queen’s College, and the effect of the measure will be to give Ireland an institution exactly corresponding with the London University. It null be simply an examination society, and will not, unless some changes are introduced, carry with it any endowments. The want of endowment, however, renders the Bill very unacceptable to the Irish members as a substitute for the O’Connor Don’s Bill, with which object the Government introduced it; nor is it believed that it will pass unless provisions for endowment are made.

Some fresh stringent regulations for the control and conduct for studies in the llussian public schools have been Issued. The eruption of Mount Etna has subsided, but it has been followed by an earthquake, which caused great loss of life aud destruction of property. The tenders for the city of Christchurch (N.Z.) District Drainage Loan of £200,000 were opened on Juno 27, at the Bank of New Zealand. The total amount tendered for was £350,000, at prices ranging from the minimum of £lO3 to £lO7. 101 tenders at and above £lO6 received allotments in full, and those at £lO6 about 6 per cent, of the amount applied for. Tenders for the Lyttelton Harbor Board Lean were opened at the National Bank of New Zealand on July 2, no tenders being received at less than £lO2 for any £IOB debenture. But little interest was taken in the proceedings, and tenders were generally for only small sums, the largest applied for in eny one tender being for £-1000, with an outside tender for £llO. All applications will thus receive in full, and it was announced that further tenders would ha received for the balance of the minimum debentures. One thousand roubles have been stolen from the military chest at Kieff, in Russia. Before the money was extracted there was found a receipt of the revolutionary committee. The creditors of Fleming, Smith, and Co., have been made an offer of composition of 2s. in the &. All documents and assets beyond the amount offered are being transferred to the City of Glasgow Bank, as liquidator. The transport to Siberia of thousands of political prisoners who have accumulated during the winter aud spring has begun now that the Volga is fairly navigable. Kahmir (!) is suffering terribly from famine and cholera.

The King of Burmah has massacred another batch of relations, sons, wives, daughters, and uncles of the Prince Nyoung. The Italian Chamber of Deputies accepted the amendment of the Senate in the Grist Bill, which sanctioned the constitutional principle that the Senate had a right to make material alterations in Bills imposing or modifying taxation.

Signor Dagrelli’s cabinet immediately resigned, and a coalition Ministry was formed. A dissolution seems inevitable.

Efforts are being made at Madras to encourage emigration from that presidency to the Australian colonies.

Cholera continues to ft serious extent in the north-west of India, and casualties among the troops marching down from Afghanistan are very severe.