NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2545, 22 August 1893, Page 4

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

GENERAL SUMMARY. London, July 21

It is now said that the largest rough diamond ever found in “ Rica” arrived in London on July 7th. It is bluish white, weighs 370 carats, and was found in the dagger Fontein mines. The Koh-i-noor weighs over 102 J carats. A yacht having on board thirty excursionists capsized off Skegness on July Bth. Twenty- seven were drowned. On the night of July 6th Sir Bache Cunard, of Atlantic steamship fame, attended by two keepers, surprised a party of poachers on his grounds at Melville Hall, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, and a desperate fight ensued. Cunard was struck on the head and otherwise injured. One of the keepers was also wounded so badly that his life is despaired of. The poachers escaped. Kenny 8r05.,, of Dumbarton, launched at their yard on July 4th a steel twin screw cargo and passenger steamer of 10,000 tons, built for the American trade to ply between Liverpool and Philadelphia. Mrs Gressiom wife of the President of the Company, christened the steamer Southward. The vessel, it is claimed, is unsinkable. She has a double bottom, and the hull is divided by bulkheads into watertight compartments.

The American champion swimmer, Cusker, defeated easily the ex-champion English swimmer, Finney, at Blackpool, on July 16th, in a match for £2OO a-side. Cusker was afterwards challenged by the English swimmer, Nuttall, to race a mile for £IOOO a-side.

The Marquis of Dufferin, British Ambassador to France, accompanied by his family, arrived in Paris on July 21st. His displeasure at the conduct of the French Press has not yet subsided, but he was ordered back to his post by his Government, and brings carefully formulated instructions in regard to the FrancoSiamese difficulty. He exercised great influence among the official classes- in Paris, which is one of the common complaints of French newspapers against him. There are signs that the attacks will be renewed. La Cocorde of the 21st urges him to cease being the tool of creatures like Blowitz if he wishes to have the respect to which his abilities and position as England’s representative entitle him. The last quaterly trade returns for Sheffield, Birmingham, and other important districts, showed a marked diminution of the trade with the United States. Within one year the Birmingham trade has fallen off 10 per cent,, principally caused by American orders for guns being directed to less expensive factories in Belgium, In general the local authorities admit that the downward course of export trade with America cannot be entirely the result of the McKinley Bill. In several industries comparatively unaffected by the Bill the decrease has been exceptionally large. The silver trouble, and consequent financial depression in the United States, are regarded as the primary causes of the unfavourable change.

The pilgrimage of the youthful Khedive to Stamboul occasions the greatest anxiety to the Biitish Foreign Office. It will cost him at least 50,000 francs in backsheesh; and between the Sultan, who proposes to marry his daughter to Abbas 11., and Ismail Pasha, who is most anxious to take his grandson under his wing, a good many international troubles are likely to be hatched.

AMERICAN SUMMARY,

San Francisco. July 22,

The steam whaler Falcon, with Lieutenant Perry, the Arctic explorer, on board, left New York on July 2. There are seventeen in the crew.

California’s fruit does not appear to please the English palate, and it is not well received in London, according to a report made recently to the Board of Trade, San Francisco. The conclusion arrived at after a brief debate was If they wont buy, you can’t make ’em.” The enquiry into the building of two iron V -Hdges across the Lachino canal at Montreal nV unearthing one of the biggest public scandals eV6f discovered in Canada. The original sura voted for the two bridges was 175,000d01a, but the work has already cost 600,000d01s and is not yet completed. The Christian Endeavour Convention met in Montreal on Jaly 8, Owing to an attack made on the Catholics by a Hindoo delegate, the Canadian-French Catholics, including students and quarrymen, attempted to break up the meeting, and a good deal of rioting occurred, the Catholics marching up to the tent and singing the “ Marseillaise.” Eighteen hundred English volunteers paraded the town with a bugler at their head. They stopped to cheer the English and American flags. A number of Catholic rioters were arrested.

Twenty Finlanders working on the Canadian-Pacific Railway near a small town on Lake Superior, were killed by land slides on July 5. The French warship Macon arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July 16. The French Resident immediately raised the Tri- color over the British Ensign on his flag-staff in honour of the event, but as soon as this came to the notice of the Dominion man-of-war, Admiral Knowleton, K.C.8., promptly rowed ashore and ordered the enthusiastic Canadian to reverse the position of the flags, putting the British Ensign on top. The Newfoundlanders have got into trouble with the French fishermen again. A few months ago the latter imported a larco quantity of lobster packing implements on which they refused to pay duty. The Government seized and sold the articles by auction, The French Admiral demanded a return of the goods, and the English Governor refused. “ jx terrible murder occurred in San FrancijiyO on the night of June 28, in a private room of a saloon, presenting the same revolting features as those perpetrated by Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel, London, the difference being only in character. The victim was a woman, Mrs Kate Griffiths, who resided in Alameda, with her husband and child, a little girl three years old. She met a man named Martin O’Neil 0« board a ferry boat, and accompanied him to ft Halpon. They drank together several times, and then’ ])<> departed, leaving the murdered woman behind him. ’Jhe woman’s husband is a rep mins’ on a San I 1 ran cisco paper, and the ghastly character of the affair D enhanced in that the city editor had detailed him to get particulars without cither of them knowing at the time the subject of the tragedy.