ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1885, 30 April 1889, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Auckland, April 28,

Arrived, 4 a.m., Zealandia, from San Francisco and Honnlnlu, with the English mails to March 28rd and the American mails to April 7th.

GENERAL SUMMARY,

The Baltic limber yard, near Buckingham Palace, was burned down on March 28tb. The loss is £60,000. An express train from Southport to London on March 30ch, loaded with persons on the way to witness the OxfordCambridge boat race, was derailed at Peniston and wrecked. One person was killed, and four were seriously injured.

There was a heated debate in the House of Commons on March 22nd on a motion to reduce Mr Balfour’s salary by £SOO. It was lost by 127 votes. Mr Morley produced g mass of details to prove that the Government assisted the Times case through Houston and Pigott. Mr Balfour said it was an unfounded libel, and asked how the witnesses had been intimidated. Re was called to order by the chair. The intention of giving n liberal banquet to Mr Parnell, with Mr Gladstone in the chair, wan abandoned, owing to the inability to obtain a building in London spacious enough to hold the expected assemblage. The great Eiffel tower was opened In Paris on March 30th, and on the occasion Mr Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, had a narrow escape from deatb. He was inspecting the tower in company with M. Olomenceau wben a sudden storm of wind and hail came up. Mr Stead was only thirty yards from the top of the tower wben he fell over some loose planks and lurched forward, narrowly escaping a fall of 800 feet to the ground by clinging desperately to some projecting ironwork till M. Olemoncaau and soma workmen come to his assistance.

England demanded of Morocco £50,000 indemnity for the massacre and pillage of the McKenzie factory. in a speech at Paris on March 25th General Boulanger utterly repudiated the idea of dictatorship. He had no idea to pose as a monarch. In an mtervie w with the Due dJfAumale on the same day he said he did not aspire to the Crown of France, but intended to live as an honorable citizen. He freely confessed that at the same time he thought a monarchy was the best for France.

In his opening address for the defence, before the Parnell Commission, Sir Ohas. Russell said the Court was asked by the Attorney - General to indict a whole nation, but the act was not feasible. He also asserted that thoughtful minds were convinced that the time had come to try the experiment of Home Rule in Ireland. He contended that the objects of the Irish National League were justifiable. The issue before the Commission depended upon the proof that Mr Parnell and his colleagues under the cloak of the land land movement had planned murders and-,outrages. If no such evidence was produced the Commission must declare the accused to be men earnestly endeavoring to lift an intolerable burden from the shoulders of their countrymen. Sir Charles explained the constitution and objects of the League formed by Mr Davitt, of which Mr Parnell was the President, He said that prominent members of the League were in favor e£ boycotting, which up to a certain point they considered justifiable. He held that Mr Parnell was not liable, criminally or otherwise, unless he was a party to murder and outrage as part of the agreed objects of the League. Mr Parnell and his followers had been vilified and misrepresented, just as Bright and Cobden were in the early days of the Reform movement.

Twonty thousand persons paraded in procession on St. Patrick’s Day in New York. The privilege of flying the Irish flag over the Municipal Hall, denied last year by Mayor Hewett, was conceded on this occasion, and the green harp banner floated from the tall staff. A Washington correspondent vouches for the absolute accuracy of the following The German Minister received, on April 2nd, a telegram in cypher from Prince Bismarck, instructing him to cable, at the earliest moment, names of the vessels ordered by the Secretary of ihe Navy to proceed to Samoa to tako the place of those wrecked. Also the oumbei of men and officers carried by each ship ; its tonnage and horse power j number, size, and kind of guns; whether these vessels are equipped with torpedoes, and whether the sending of these reinforce-

ments to Simon will weaken the American Navy iu any other part of the wmld to any considerable extent. Tuo Minister was also instructed to find out and report (o the German Foreign Office without loss of time tho condition of the new vessels in progress of construction. A S'U Jago coirespondent of the Valparaiso Mercurio writes under date February 20th—“ In leas liun a week the bodies of seven murdered people have bean found in different.streets of this city. Of this number five at least bear marks proving murder.” The Paris Figaro says the marriage of Prince Alexander of Battenburg to Mdle. Loisioger was a fraudulent proceeding, and that the Prince was aware of its illegality but deliberately connived at it. Lord Beaumont has applied to the House of Lords, of which he is a member, to have his marriage with Violet, the daughter of Madame Elise, formerly milliner to the Queen, annulled. Miss Helen Bullerick, au American girl living in Berlin, drowned herself iu the river Spree recently on account wf a disappointment in love. She had received letters from New Hampshire that her sweetheart had married another girl. The number of deaths from famine at Shantung up to March 22od.was appalling. Many had committed suicide through despondency, as the harvest could not yet be gathered in for three months. The Pope’s income for 1888 amounted to £504,000, of which £373,100 came from Peter’s pence, and £133,000 from interest on money invested out of Italy. The outlay of the Vatican amounted oily to £340,000. This is a highly satisfactory balance-sheet, but it does not take into account £480,000 which His Holiness received in money presents during the Jubilee.

The Rev. Chns.' Sumner Hurd, of tbe Parmeoter Unitarian Chape 1 , Boston, Mass., committed suicide m a Loudon hotel on April 4th. Be had been employed by the Northern Pacific A.A. to write a book descriptive of the Washington. Tenitory, and bud visited London to obtain some needed data on business for the work. The jury returned a verdict of insaniiy. AH the business portion of the city of Savanna, Gsorgia, was destroyed by fire on April 6th. A natural gas well of terrific volume ;>nd pressure was struck near Palestine, Ohio, on April 4th, at a depth of 700 ft. The drilling tools were blown high into the air, several buildings were destroyed, and four raeu were fatally injured. The flame of tbe burning gas was over 50ft high.

Asa W. Kellogg, a prominent railroad man, committed suicide in the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, on March 31st. leaving the following curious note:—“l have fought the battle and lost. Bury me, and say as little about me as possible. A fool is batter soon forgotten.” At a colored Methodist Conference at Paris (Ky.) the first day’s session was marked by a murder, on account of a Ntgro named Page occupying a pew rented by another named Kellis. The latter ordered Page out, and he not being m a hurry to go, was seized by the pew lessee and thrown out. Then Page drew « revolver and shot Kellis, narrowly missing the Bishop at tbe same time, A Dakota hunter, whose brother bad been mordered by Indians, killed eleven of the same party who attacked him in his cabin on March 30tb, rescued his brother's body, and took it to the white settlement for burial.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, the authoress of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” has lost her mind and become an imbecile.

Nine electric light companies ore about to consolidate, for the reason that no money is being made by anyone standing apart, as they do at present. The amount involved is 200,000,000d015. Considerable disappointment prevails among Republican Negroes in the Southern States in regard to the appointment of offices by President Harrises. They wont federal position, and the appointing power is fighting shy of them. The Republican party dislikes the Negro as much as the Democrats do.

In a heavy gale that prevailed on the Southern Atlantic coast of the United States on March 24th, the warship Conserva, fitted out in New York for Hayti, and the British steamer Yeomandell, bound from New Orleans to Rouen, were both lost.

The Freeman’s Journal says Egan’s appointment as American Minister to Chili will delight Irishmen, and comments on the policy towards Ireland pursued by England, where Egan is a hunted outlaw. A remarkable literary find was made in the city of Mexico on March 21st by a Californian tourist named Sutro. It is the first folio of Shakespeare’s plays, dated 1623, and was found at a bookseller’s and was bought for a few dollars. Copies such as this are said to command 6000dols in London.

CANADA.

At an entertainment in Kingston, Ontario, or March 18th, a young lady stood on the United States national flag spread on the stage, and the chairman said the action showed the relation of the countries. Some Americans present took the matter up, and paper bullets are flying freely. The Jesuit question is creating a sensation in Canada.

Fears are expressed by leading Canadians that a filibustering expedition from the United States may seize the undeveloped territory in the Great Mackenzie River region, and on March 23rd Mr Giard in the Canadian Parliament called the attention of the Government to the defenceless condition of that vast and enormously valuable region. Ho said that fifty armed and resolute men, with supplies and ammunition, would be sufficient to hold the country against any force that could be sent against them under the existing conditions, owing to the difficulty of moving troops and provisions into that region. The Government promised to give the matter immediate attention.

ADDITIONAL NEWS,

Auci/AND, April 29, A Blue Book was issued by the British Government on March 20, containing official correspondence on Samoan affairs. In a communication to the British Minister, writing soon after Bismarck’s speech on the East African Bill in the Reichstag, Lord Salisbury takes exception to the Chancellor’s statement that England and Germany are acting unitedly regarding Samoa. The tenor of the

despatch indicates that Lord Salisbury seldom acted in regard to the Samoan business without first obtaining the American view of the'question which arose, and giving it due weight. His attitude has been strictly impartial. The election which took place on last April 3rd shows the success of the women suffragists. In Wbinchita, the mayor, a liquor dealer, was elected by the women’s vote, 500 of whom casts their ballots. At Roseville the women elected their ticket. Pour thousand women voted at Leavenworth, Kansas, where Susan B. Anthony made a strong fight for her brother as mayor, but failed, Oskaloosa elected women officers by a sweeping majority. Cottonwood Palis elected Mrs Minnie Morgan as mayor, with a full council of women.

There is no longer any danger of rioting or insurrection on the Isthmus. March 15 was the day set apart for the discontinuance of the work, bat there was absolutely no excitement. The English Consul had shipped about 2000 destitute Jamaicans to their homes from the colony, all of whom left quietly. In the Cortes, at Madrid, on March 20th, M. Moret, Minister of the Interior, said in reply to a question that Government had no knowledge of a scheme to sell Cuba to the United States. There was not enough money in the world to buy the smallest portion of Spanish territory, and if necessary the Spaniards knew how to defend their country’s soil. The final experiments as to the best means of the execution of criminals byelectricity were made by the New York authorities on March 13th. Several dogs were subjected to an alternating current at 500 to 700 volts for 10 seconds. Pour calves and a horse were also killed. In every case death was instantaneous »nd without a struggle. The population of Canada, exclusive of Montreal, decreased 239,340 in five years. The decrease is caused by Prench Canadians leaving for the United States. It has been decided to make the Emperor William’s coming visit to England the occasion of a grand display, similar to that which accompanied the reception of Queen Victoria in Berlin.