ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANSCISCO MAIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1897, 28 May 1889, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANSCISCO MAIL.

(Per R.M.S. Alameda at Auckland). Auckland, May 26. The R.M.S. Alameda arrived at 7 a.m. from San Francisco with English and American mails. The vessel brings dates as follows:—London, April 19th, San Francisco, May sth : GENERAL SUMMARY. (Dates from London to May 4th). General Boulanger is said to be almost unnoticed in LondoD, where he expected to become the lion of the season. Mr Joseph Chamberlain is resigning his membership of the Liberal Society. He I said he was no longer in harmony with its principles. The Empress Elizabeth of Austria i 3 now at: Wiesbergen, ia subject to the same mental tsaulady that afflicted her cousin, King Louis of Bavaria, When the j Empress heard of the death of Prince I Rudolph shfl imagined that she was her son's murderer. At giesent the acute stage of disease has passed, leaviag a notable softening of the brain. It was telegraphed on April 23rd that the Emperor had paid the late Crown Prince's debts, which amounted to 2,500,000 dollars. A wealthy Scotchman residing in HongKong has offered to subscribe £IO,OCO to a fund to indemnify the London Times in its present trouble. IRISH. Professor Harrison, an Englishman, was committed to Londonderry gaol and tried on Tuesday, April 23rd, on a charge of assisting besieged tenants at Gweedore. While being conveyed to gaol he was heartily cheered by the populace. The sergeant who was in charge of the police ordered hia men to bent tho devil out of them, and Fathers Gilder, Boyle, Conybeare, O'Brien, and O'Shea, as well as a reporter of tha London Daily .News, were rotighlj handled. Women were trampled upon by the crowd, aud in some instances clubbed by the police. The Unionist Conference at Birmingham on April 24th, adopted resolutions affirmih.it, tho ioud question is at the root of Irish discontent, and urged Government to introduce a measure to enable tho ■. tencnte to become owners of the land.

In hi.' sueydi at Bristol on April 13th, Lord S«linbu<y made a bitter ottnek upon Homo Rn'e. He ridioulad the agitation, and o .id tha-': Goai=.vall had as much right to Home liula as irehmd. The nationality arguments, he said, were claptrap, which woiil I Hacrifb» the best interests of indunirr and commoica to mere cmpiy sentiment. On May 2nd the Tipperary Court affirmed the sentauce of Messrs O'Connor, Condon, and Mnnnicg, all members of Parliament, for offences under the Grimes Act. Thoy were conveyed io Clonmel gaol the Fame afternoon. A crowd met the prisoners at the station and cheered. Tha prisoners refused to enter the prison van, and a desperate (struggle ensued between the guards and the prisoners, in which the people took par'. The police, finally, to avoid bloodshed, allowed them to walk to gaol, with the exceptioa of Maiming, whose foot was severely wounded, and he went in a carriage. , AMERICAN. San Fkancisco, May 5. One of the moat extraordinary sights ever seon in a frontier country was presented in Iho heart of the Indian territory for a week ©r more before April 23, on which day a large area of land, known ns Okalhoma, formerly held as a military reservation, but latoly turned over (o the Interior Department waa proclaimed by the President to be opan to settlement by American citizens. Thousands upon thousands of intending settlers had gathered wailiog for the signal to advance, and were only held back from anticipating the date fixed by the President by the presence of a large body of troopp. When the order to advance was given, this army of home seekers flowed over the promised land like a rush of water when the floodgates are opened. There were soma fights and loss of life as a consequence among the selectors, but all things considerod the settlement under the circumstances was effected without much trouble. An organisation called the Spanish American Commercial Union, te develop trade with South America, has been formed in New York. Mexico, South and Central America, the West Indies and the Pbilipino Islands are embraced in its range. Many prominent New Yorkers are interested. A cyclone struck the township of Warsaw on May 2nd, and destroyed many buildings. A seminary was split in two and wrecked, and the Presbyterian Church totally demolished. The Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution of Massachussets was defeated on April 2 by a majority of over 44,000 votes. The liquor men are equally astonished with the total abstinence adyocatt?s at the result. The Watson gold med&l and lOOdol in gold, founded by the late Dr James C. Watson, of Washington, D. 0., to be given to the citizen of any country who has made ilia most important discovery in astronomy during th» year, was on April 18, awarded to Dr Edward Schonfield, of the University of Bonn, Germany. On April 18, James Mundy, a workman employed in rebuildiag the Niagara Suspension Bridge, fell a distance of 200 ft into the rivur. The body was seen Io enter the whirlpool, but rescue was impossible. | A United States revenue cutter was sent on April 20 to one of the Aleutian Islands, off the Alaskan coast, to overhaul a m?» named M'Pherson, a former San Franciscan, who had taken possession under a ant of forged papers, declared himself king, hoisted a flag, and hanged i three natives for questioning bis authority. He will ba brought to San Francisco and tried for murder.

.Reports state that the scenes at the New York celebration of the Washington centenary were terrible beyond description. There came near being a panic at the parade, on account of the aides of the Marshall being unueed to horseback. The animals became unmanageable, and their riders could not obey orders. At the grand ball, waiters, policemen and messenger boys drank most of the champagne in the corridors; free fights wei'e indulged in, and drunken waiters invaded the ballroom, flourishing ftezing bottles of wine. None of the distinguished guesta were cared for in the least. The guests fought wildly to get out of the building,but evea this privilege was denied them. * Women were insulted, plants stolen, and wine passed out by waiters and soldiers. The arrangements were altogether inadequute, and a reckless disregard of all the decencies of life prevailed. The ball cost 80,000 dollars. The St. Louis limited express on the Grand Trunk Esilway, jumped from the truck n few miles from Hamilton, Ontario, on April 29, nad weot over an embankment. The traiu was going at the rate of nearly a mile a minute. Eight coaches wore wrecked and twenty persona killed. The baggage car telescoped the smoker, and then both caught fire. Then* were 115 passengers on board, and ten train hands. Thirty of the passengers were in the smoker, from which fifteen charred bodies wexo taken. ThirteeD ■passengers escaped, and two, in attempting to do so, were killed instantly. Those who were free tried'to save the passsngers imprisoned in the blazing smoker, but without success. The wrecking of the water-tank cut off the supply of water, and «li that c«mld bo obtained was dashed on the flames by means of backets. The ngonising but unavailing appeals for help from the imprisoned passengers, who were roasting to death, were heartrending. Many of the bodies were so badly charred that they broke to pieces in the handling. None of the train men were seriously injured.