ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2314, 4 February 1892, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Auckland, Feb. 1. Arrived, at 3.30 p.m. Monowai, R.M.S., from San Francisco. Passengers for Auckland : Mr and Mrs McPherson, Mr and Mrs Postlethwaite, Messrs D. S. Barclay, Lewis, R. G. Lewis, C. F. Ferding, B. A. Robinson, R. H. Fleming, C. A. Mair, W. C. Peacock, F. Ayers, and thirteen steerage. There are fifteen saloon and thirty-six steerage passengers for Sydney. The Monowai was detained at San Francisco for five days, owing to the delay of the English mails, and, therefore, did not leave until the 12th January. Fine weather was experienced throughout the voyage, except that on two days there were heavy gales from the south-east.

GENERAL SUMMARY. [Dates from Europe to Jan. 10.] Severe snowstorms, accompanied by intensely cold weather, prevailed in many parts of the United Kingdom on January Bth. The snow fall is so heavy that | railway traffic is greatly impeded, and | telegraphic communication is interrupted. Theife is a very bitter feeling in many quarters against granting a six years’ contract for the English Parliamentary printing to a German firm, though the bitterest grumblers hardly express a doubt that the contract, if ratified, wil be carried out. The composer, Alfred Oellier, died in London on December 28, of influenza, from which he had suffered for two weeks. He was unable to finish the orchestration of “ The Mountebanks ” comic opera, the joint work of himself alnd Mr W, S. Gilbert, in time for its production at the date first set. Collier was a great personal favorite in the professional world. He made a great reputation with his opera of “ Dorothy ” in London and Australia, and was very successful as a song writer. Alfred Celliei', whose real name was Kellaher, was dying a long time before ho finished his share of “ The Mountebanks.” The score was still incomplete on December 29. On Monday night Cellier wrote his last note of key music and died. To make merry music in the face of death was the task he had set for himself. Borles, a graduate of Oxford, was arrested in London on December 31 while in the act of bombarding the House of Commons with a revolver. When arrested, he informed the Magistrate that he was taking that way of showing his contempt for members of the House. The opinion is that Borles is mentally unbalanced. The influenza has become an epidemic in the eastern part of the county of Kent. On Dec. 30, in Dover, the authorities

took "vigorous measures to stamp it out, but without avail. The disease being considered contagious, they applied the law which punishes all persoos afflicted with a contagious disease appearing in public. Three victims of the “ grippe,” not knowing of such a law, were therefore fined £5 each in addition to their sufferings. Mr Gladstone reached Ms eighty-second year on December 29. He was at that time at Barritz, a French watering-place on the Bay of Biscay, seeking to recruit

his strength in order to perform the parliamentary duties before him. The municipal authorities of that place waited upon him on the occasion of his birthday and congratulated him on his anni-

versary. Fifteen members of the British Club also called, and presented him with a floral crown. Mr Gladstone was blackballed on December 22 at the English Club in Biarritz. Mr Andrew Fairbairn, President of the Club, who had proposed Mr Gladstone, resigned his presidency in consequence, Mr Joseph Chamberlain assured some labor delegates who waited on him recently of the Government’s willingness to adopt legislation looking to the amelioration of the working classes, particulary agricultural, throughout the country, and , the improvement of their dwellings. The ' Government, he said, would introduce measures to allow laborers to acquire

small holdings, and to assist them in procuring land. The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce decided on December 18 not to take part in the Chicago World’s Fair as a local centre, on the ground that the M’Kinley tariff laws deprived Liverpool of Chicago’s trade, and the American manufacturers would copy English exhibits. The Czar, says'a despatch of Jan. 4, has given offence by declaring publicly that no famine exists, and that there has only been a partial failure of the crops. This expression of opinion is very general in official circles. In several Provinces of the Empire the Zemstovs, or District Assemblies, have decided to issue loans at a low rate of interest. This measure is designed for the relief of the faminpstricken peasants, and to prevent them selling or pawning their tools or farming implements. It is reported by the London Standard’s St- Petersburg correspondent that the Grand Duke Sergius, disguised as a peasant in order to discover the trn** about the allegad difficulty jA purchasing bread, bud k quarrel with a baker, and was thrown into the street by a policeman, who severely hurt him, and was about to arrpst jugi, when lie revealed himself; whereupon three police officers committed suicide. The Chinese Government will not be represented at the World’s Fair in Chicago. The Emperor’s reasons for declining to. spud an exhibit are that the United States has discriminated against the citizens of China, and that the Chinese could not come to the Exposition without being put in a humiliating attitude, needing a special passport to be granted by a special Act of Congress.

James Murphy and his sister Mary were found dead in a house in Newry on Dec. 30. They were misers, and died of starvation. Their bodies lay upon heaps of straw. Money and property were found belonging to the pair to the amount of £40,000. On December 7th the Countess of Clancarty, well known as Belle Bilton, gave birth to twins, both boys. Lord Clancarty’s wife is the daughter of a gunner in the Royal Artillery, and was born in the Woolwich barracks. Tne army nursed herself and her sister till they got into a music hall. Another account says it is believed that the birth of the twins will lead to a complete reunion of the family relations, which were badly strained by the eccentric marriage. The scandal arising from the discovery of adulterated flour at St. Petersburg, says a despatch of December 28, is apt to make trouble for a large number of people. A consignment that comprised 300,000 poods (7,800,000 English pounds) of barley flour was purchased from dealers in Liban, with a view to regulating the prices of wheat in the St. Petersburg market, as well as to afford relief to famine sufferers. Investigation proved that the entire consignment was adulterated with chalk dust and other substances. These adulterations comprised such a large proportion of the consignment that the use of the alleged flour would constitute a very dangerous menace to the health if not to the lives of those who partook of it. Speaking of the gigantic fraud, the Novoe Vremya remarks, “If such frauds can be perpetrated in the capital of the Empire, the appalling account of similar crimes in the famine-stricken provinces cannot be overestimated.”