SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1010, 10 December 1881, Page 2

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

The Great Storm in England. By the arrival of the R.M.S. Australia we have London news, via Suez, to the 21st October, from which we take the following extracts: —

Most painful accounts have been received of the terrible loss of life occasioned by Friday’s gale. England, Ireland, and Scotland alike suffered, though it was round the coast that death was busiest. From Berwick we learn that a fleet of fifty fishing but was out at sea, and so suddenly did the gale arise that nearly the whole were lost. About two hundred men are missing in this district alone, and there is too much reason to fear that the great majority will never more be seen by their sorrowing relatives. From almost every quarter of the United Kingdom comes some tale of disaster. People have been struck down in the street by falling chimneypots and other missiles flying from roofs ; trees uprooted in unprecedented numbers have crushed, out many lives ; others have fallen victims while at work or even in bed. At Wisbech a man’s hat was blown off, and in seeking to recover it he fell into the river and was drowned. Many remarkable casualties have been reported from various parts, and owing to the interruption of telegraphic communication, we fear that the list of sufferers is not yet fully known. Of the destruction of property it is impossible to form the least estimate, so widespread were the ravages of the wind.

Miss Theresa Longworth, knowm as one of the parties in the celebrated Yelverton matrimonial cause, tried in Scotland and Ireland some years ago, has died in Natal.

At a meeting of the Council of the Royal Colonial Institute, held on the 13th October, the following gentlemen, amongst others, were elected fellows: —Hon. Captain T. Fraser, M.L.C., New Zealand; Mr D. 11. Macarthur, New Zealand ; Mr F. D. Rich, New Zealand; Mr A. E. G. Rhodes, New Zealand. The people of Natal are very indignant at the appointment of Mr Sendall, Assistant-Secretary to the Local Government Board, as Governor of the Colony in succession to Sir Evelyn Wood. They object to an untried official being sent out at the present time, and have offered to increase the salary to £2,500 per annum, on condition that an efficient and more distinguished Governor be appointed. Hopes are entertained that the general rising of the Transvaal natives will be averted. Many Kaffir tribes which showed a disposition to attack the Boors are now becoming quiet. Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, has been betrothed to Princess Helen, fourth daughter of Prince Waldeck Angerment. The Princess is 21 years of age,

A great sensation was caused today, during the sitting of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, by a person in the gallery throwing a loaded revolver upon the floor of the Chamber. A Sicilian has been arrested as the perpetrator of the outrage. Scott, the London litterateur, has obtained £1,500 damages in a libel action which has arisen out of the 'will of Miss Adelaide Neilson, the celebrated actress, who died suddenly in Paris in August, 1880, made in favour of Rear Admiral Glynn.

The General-Commander of the Chilian forces, Peru,has arrestedGorgi Calderon, Constitutional President of the Republic, and Galvez, Minister of Foreign Affairs, as a protest against Mr Blaine’s recent announcement that the U.S. Government prohibited Chili from taking advantage of the defenceless position of Peru to absorb that country. It is stated that the French intend to exercise a protectorate over the Austral Islands, a dispersed group south of the Society Islands, and over Cook’s Islands in the South Pacific.

At a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institution held to-day tho Duke of Manchester, who as Chairman of the Council presided, remarked that his observations, during his recent extended tour through Australia, had caused him to doubt whether the export of wheat from the colonies would be a success for some years to come. He also questioned whether the policy of free selection, however well meant, could be considered a success when judged by existing results. It was certainly injurious to the squatters. Atrocious outrages continue to be frequently perpetrated in the disaffected districts of Ireland, and a painful feeling of alarm prevails amongst the law-abiding portion of the inhabitants. Meetings in the Liberal interest, w'hich were to have been held at Newcastle and Marylebone, London, have had to be abandoned in consequence of the violence of Irish residents, who refused to allow them to take place. A Nihilist plot to destroy the Emperor’s Palace at Gatschina has been discovered. The plan proposed was to load a balloon with dynamite, and cause it to descend on the palace. Several arrests have been made.

Hanlan and Boyd have arranged a sculling match on the Thames, to take place in April next. Mr Bell, President of the Legislative Council of Queensland has been created a Knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Russia demands the territory of Armenia the right to collect Armenian taxes in lieu of indemnity. It is pro

bable that if Turkey agrees to those conditions,- the remainder of the Empire will be guaranteed. Cholera at Mecca is abating. The Times, commenting on a letter which it recently published apropos of the reported annexation of Rarotonga by France, maintains that the treaty between that country and Great Britain interdicts the former Power from acquiring such possessions. The Times further condemns annexation by European powers in the Pacific. Irish juries persistently refusing to convict in well-established cases of outrage, the British Government, it is expected, will shortly suspend the operation of the jury law in Ireland. Mr Bourke, representative of the British and Dutch holders of Turkish bonds at Constantinople, has applied to the British Government to help him in arriving at a satisfactory settlement with the Porte by throwing the weight of their influence against the Russian proposals which threaten to render settlement beneficial to bond-holders impossible.

Bank of New Zealand Cases in London.

During the past few days the Bank of New Zealand has appeared in the police courts on tw r o distinct occasions to prosecute clerks for embezzlement and similar offences. In the one case, the head bill clerk, who had been in the service of the bank for six or seven years, was charged with appropriating to his own use the proceeds of a bill for £250, which had been received from one of the bank’s constituents in Auckland. The bill was duly presented to the drawers, Messrs. Arnold, Floyd, and Co., of Old Bond-street, accepted by them, and paid in due course to the prisoner. He, however, neglected to account for the money he received, and for this omission he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour. The second case—which, by the way, is still sub judice — was, from the point of view of the bank, less serious, inasmuch as the parties primarily defrauded were the Commissioners of the Inland Revenue. The alleged offender in this case was the acceptance clerk, whose duty it was to get the colonial bills accepted by the firm on whom they w’ere drawn. For this purpose he had to affix to them the proper bill stamps, which in some instances were of a comparatively large amount. The charge against the prisoner was that, having drawn from the accountant the monies necessary to purchase these stamps, he would put on to the bills stamps which had been used before, and, by ingeniously overlapping them, conceal the obliterating mark which every stamp bears when it has been once used. The prisoner, though still under remand, has virtually confessed his guilt, saying that he considered the question simply one between himself and his conscience, and that he had determined to send the amount of his defalcations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer as “ conscience money.” Offences against banks are almost of daily occurrence. But the colonial ones seem in the past to have been unusually lucky in the honesty of those they have been perforce bound to trust. Let us hope the cases of John Scott and George Mackay, as the prisoners w'ere respectively called, are not going to inaugurate anew and less fortunate era.