ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2434, 6 December 1892, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

HARD TIMES.

Auckland, Dec. 4. Arrived, at 4.40 p.m., Mariposa from San Francisco, Samoa, and Honolulu. She left San Francisco on November 13th at 2.10 p.m., and occupied 19 days 22 £ hours on the voyage. Passengers for Auckland—Mrs C. F. Webb, Mrs E. Woodhouse and child, Dr and Mrs G. E. H. Frison, Dr J. C. Harrison, Sir Robert and Lady Stout, Mr F. C. Stanert, Mr and Mrs W. H. Lever and child, Miss Green, Mrs Langshare, Mr Potts, Mrs J. E. Harrison, Messrs G. Dunnetc, J. P. Campbell, W. J. Napier, and fifteen steerage. There are twenty-six cabin and twenty-eight steerage passengers in transit for Sydney.

GENERAL SUMMARY. (Dates from Europe up to November 12th.) Rumours were current in London on the 15th, that Lord Rosebery, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Princess Victoria, the eldest unmarried daughter of the Prince of Wales, are betrothed ; and that Viscount Sudley, eldest son and heir of the Earl of Arran, will marry the widow of Robert Sherman, of New York. The Earl is opposed to the match. The Viscount is 24 years of age and the prospective bride has a daughter nearly as old as that. The Arran family is not wealthy, and the widow Sherman is immensely rich. Prince George, thejHeir-Apparent, will marry Princess Mary during May, 1893, probably at Westminster, and the occasaion will be made a grand national fete. In his letter to Lord Mayor Stuart Knill, declining to attend the Guildhall banquet, Mr Gladstone said that he declined attendance at all public dinners at the advice of his physicians; at the same time he complimented the Lord Mayor on the manner in which he had sustained the principle of religious freedom. The refusal of the leading British Ministers, to attend this banquet is interpreted to mean an indication of an attack on the corporation of the City of London, which, it is believed, will be supersed in its administration of its functions by the London County Council. Lord Mayor Sfuai't Kp.il]. will be made a baronet and the two, sh\erifii? . will be knighted. The Duke of Portland, in a letttjr to his tenants announcing his intention to sell his land, does not hestitato to say that the depression in the agricultural industry is due to tho free importation of produce. Constable Pilkington in tho constabulary barracks at Be]lnidrina, Oquuty Kildorpj was sensed with a sadden fit of insanity on November Ist and ran-a-muck. He entered the bedroom whore Serjeant Logan and his wife were sleeping avid murdorod both of them. Ha than went to a room wlipre Logan's children were sleeping and left them for dead. Two were found dead with their heads crushed in, and three were fatally wounded. Pilkington then tried to burn the hayracks, but tl|o alarm spread and he committed suicide. Hp wa,s suffering irom homicidal mania.

The managers of an electric apparatus recently made an at Earls--court, London, succeeded in throwing a distinct form of gigantic letters on the clouds as well as making the featurs. of Mr Gladstone appear in ghostly outline in the heavens.

It is expected that by the advice of Archbishop Croke, tho Irish fund VfiU shortly betaken from tho the Paris banks and confided to three honest men not connected with either side of the Irish controversy, until an agreement as to its. disposal is concluded. This fund mostly contributed by Irishmen, in Australia and the United States iu 1885 for the e>;penseb of the Irish members of Parliament who were fighting for Home Rule.

THE SALVATION ARMY

A committee, headed by the Earl of Onslow, to investigate the receipts} ftu.q expenditure of the Arjhy, had its first sitting in Xiondon on October 2(», * General Booth, head of tho Army, has appealed for £(50,000 to enable to continue, liia " Darkest England " scheme.

Ho insists that unless this sum is received before Christmas he will be placed in a position of great difficulty, and the further developement of his scheme rendered impossible. He asks all newspapers to publish leaders appealing to the public for money, as ho says it will be almost impossible for the committee to issue a report tor some time. It is practically certain that money will be held back pending the report. It appears from the appeal that General Booth desires to escape from the necesity of abandoning his "Darkest Englan" scheme.

A correspondent to San Francisco telegraphs from London, October 26th, that a great hunger will soon invade Britain, aud that signs of its coming are everywhere. Thousands of skilled workmen are idle, and the working forces are being cut down gradually. The docks are half deserted. "I took a cab," he says, "the other day from Holborn to Bayswater. My luggage was on top, and two men followed the vehicle on foot almost the whole distance of three miles in the hope of earning a few pence by handling the luggage. They ran at a brisk rate alongside, and reached the destination so exhausted that they were unable to carry the trunk into the house. Their weakness was so extreme, and the pallor on their faces so unnatural after the exercise, that they were questioned. It was found that both had families, and neither had tasted food that day. The army of unemployed is so large that no cab having luggage drives through the streets of London without being followed by some poor fellow seeking a few coins for food and drink. The coroners investigated a case of actual death by starvation last month. The distress is sure to be acute and widespread, and there will be many pitiful tales to make Christmas more full of sadness than gladness."

THE THIRSK RAILWAY ACCIDENT, A terrible railway wreck happened on the morning of November 2nd, near the town of Thirsk in Yorkshire. The east coast express from Edinburgh to London ran into a freight train at Manor House station. The track at this point runs along an embankment. The engine of the express train on striking the freight train reared up, toppled over, and fell into a field at the side of the track, followed by all the passenger coaches. The passengers were in many instances pinned under the debris, and several were burned to death before help could reach thein. It is certain that thirteen persons were killed. Among the dead is Captain Duncan McLeod, of the 42nd Highlanders, who was on his way to Australia. The fire burned fiercely until noon, the flames then having devpured the entire wreckage. The occupants of one carriage suffered horrible agonies of mind, as they were solidly imprisoned and watched the flames approach them. They were rescued just in the nick of time. The accident was one of the worst in the history of the English railways, being apparently due entirely to bad management. The watchman, who was found asleep in his box after the collision, wept bitterly as he related his story. He admitted his responsibility in failing to display the proper signals, but said that it was impossible for him to keep awake as he had been nursing his sick child by day and working at night for some time back. On Tuesday, November Ist, he asked the local agent for two days' leave of absence, but was refused, though he protested his inability to perform his duties. The help from Thirsk and York was very tardy in arriving, though word of the disaster had been at once conveyed to both places. A passanger named McKenzie went raving crazy while witnessing the slowly roasting of his wife to death. The disaster is likely to result in a boom for the American style of coaches, and especially the sleepers. The ordinary carriages, some ahead of the Pullman sleepers and some behind it, were all smashed to pieces, the Pullman, though wrecked and hoisted, resisted the shock in a manner marvellous to English eyea. LE CARON'S BOOK. The reminisences of Dr Le Caroii, otherwise Thos Philip Beech, a apy for the British Government, and who gaked such unenviable notoriety in 1889 by his disclosures on behalf of The Times before the Parnell Commission, were made public on October 18th. He calls himself a fatalist, and says, " I never sought Fenianism; Fenianism rather came to me." He declared that when he and General O'Neill were received at the White House in Washington by President Johnson, that magnate told them he sympathised with Fenians, and was willing to do all in, his power to assist the Fenian movement against Canada. The Irish part of the memoirs was all revealed before the Parnell Commission. Le Caron says the Clan-Na-Gael's wild plans included a treaty with Russia, the manufacture of a submarine torpedo boat to inflict terrible damage to the British navy, plqtg ffi assassinate the Queon, kidnap tjie Prince of and rescue Michael Davitt from prison. Le Caron gives tho toxi of a secret circular prepared for the dynamite campaign in the event of Mr Gladstone's Home Rule being inadequate. Le Caron further days that Dr who controlled tho dynamite afterwards got into Parliament, and he heard had been introduced to Mr Gladstone. One, devised was to blow up by throwing bomb,s {he |abio in front of the Speakqr, Another project was to B'ioal the Stone of Scone, which serves as the seat of the coronation chair in Wesit* minster Abbey, on which the Irish Kings are believed to have bpciii crewned for centuries on th§ Hills of Tarn,.