TELEGRAMS

Temuka Leader, Issue 2137, 13 December 1890, Page 1

TELEGRAMS

ENGLISH AND FOREIGN. London, Deo. 9. The Very Rev. Richard Cburcb, Dean of St Paul’s, aged 75, fa dead. Dec, 10. A notice appears, in;:tba Gazette intimating that a 2pl ocean postage rate to tbe Australasian colonies, New Guinea, and Fiji, will come into force at the beginning of Jannary, A large meeting at the Mansion House attended by representatives of all classes, protested against the cruel treatment to which Jews are subjected in Russia, Cardinal Manning, in an eloquent address, urged that a petition should be sent to the Czar to relieve the Jews in Russia from the oppression they now suffer under. Severe fighting has taken place at Ponape, in the Caroline Islands, between Spanish troops and natives. 26 ot tbe former were killed and 61 wounded, Affairs are now quiet, St. Petersburg, Dec. 9. A large number ot Nihilists are now on trial, and are being, sentenced in batches. Washington, Dec, 10. Heayy failures continue to be recorded in the United States, though the situation is-now improving, owing to an influx of gold.

AUSTRALIAN CABLE. Melbourne, Dec. IA. Mr Shields, Minister of Railways, in his annual statement of tbe railway estimates, says the department failed to meet tbe reasonable requirements ot the colony last year and closed with a deficit of £221,000. There was no reasonable hops that tbs deficit would be less than £300,000 this year. The strike bad made a difference of £70,000. The country requires a more economical system, framed on the American model. The Government have decided to reappoint Mr SpeightjChief Commissioner of Railways, for a further term of seven years, at £BOOO per annum. Johnston and bis wife are still alive. The two eldest children show signs of a straggle before strangulation. They were apparently killed before tbe household retired to rest. The wife’s arms were torn and lacerated, indicating that her husband bad first attempted to strangle her. It is now stated that Johnston bad been in financial difficulties for some time.

Tbs Indian hawker has been committed for trial for the Healesville murder. Stdnev, Dec. 11.

Arrived-—Monawai, from Wellington, A quantity of wreckage has been discovered in the Gilbert group (a clump of islands lying under the equator) which apparently belong to a wooden vessel of six or seven hundred tons. A number of kauri planks were washed ashore. Chinese news by British India steamer at Thursday Island states that while a squadron of twelve Chinese warships were anchored off Chusan, one of a group of islands near the naouihof the Kong-tse-Kiang last month,a gale arose. Two of the ships put to sea and foundered. Seven hundred officers and men were drowned. During tbe same gale a whole fleet of fishing vessels were lost near Swatow, a seaport on the south-east coast of China, in the province of Quantnng. It is eslimaled that in this last disaster from 3000 to 5000 persons perished, Brisbane, Dec. 11.

. The Government meteorologist forecasts heavy weather south from Sydney, with southerly winds and rough sea crossing to New Zealand.