NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4805, 3 June 1884, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

A story was current when the mail left San Francisco that J. Gould, the millionaire, was financially crippled. Thousands of Chinamen are out of work in British Columbia, and are committing depredations on life and property. A terrible fire occurred at Panama, which burnt two blocks of. stores and the market house. Loss, $500,000. A mob armed with revolvers commenced plundering, and the owners of buildings fired on them, killing several.

•Amusing stories begin to be, told of the horror with which the Puritanical delegates of the Transvaal witnessed some of the social customs of France. The Boer ladies appeared at every entertainment with dresses closed up to the neck, and when the men were introduced to the fashionable and neariy nude beauties of Paris, they sleadily, when addressing them, looked over their heads. When they were at the opera they turned away (heir eyes when the ballet came on. The Parisian dames, meantime, having exhausted the aviary, have now gone to the market; garden for adornment. The latest novelty is a'hat trimmed with artichokes. "While the Newspapers are filled with accounts of all the grand doings over the marriage at Darmstadt, the "Memoirs,of the Princess Alice" throw a painful light on the small miseries A the great. When .first she was married her dining-room was so small and stuffy that she could not invite anybody to dinner, and when she had her first child the Queen had to send the baby linen and pay for the doctor. She could not visit her mother nor keep a governess, and when ttie Emperor of I Eussia paid her the compliment of a visit i she was almost besido hfrself at the expense of entertaining him. Tho Queen had at last to come to her rescue by spending £20,000 on a new palace, and as the English nation all the time was giving her £6000 a year, besides a dowry of £30,000, the German Prince cannot hare contributed much to the domestic expenses. • 'l London, May 21. The SJaendy HassacreThe " Figaro's " correspondent at Cairo sends the following details of the recenfc Shendy massacre :—Three hundred Egyptian troops and 600 non combatants, preferring to make the hazardous attempt to march to Berber to starving at Shendy, set out from the latter place on the 15th inst. A part of ths|nuniber went slowly by a steamer down the river, while others marched along the river bank. When two hours' march from Shendy they were attacked by Arabs, and, after a short fight, all the troops excepting a few were massacred. The Arabs afterwards captured Shendy. The Egyptian troops there had discarded their arms and uni-> forms in hopes of being spared. Few, however, escaped the general massaero. Two thousand men and 500 women and children were slaughtered. Many of them were refugees from Khartoum.

During a heavy thunderstorm on the afternoon of May sth, a ball of fire fellin a street in the southern part of London* terrifying residents who witnessed it.

On April 16th. a gang of roughs, led by William Strong, took possession of the town of Jackson, America, for ihe avowed purpose of hanging seventy^Sve of the; best citizens, in retaliation for the- execution by law of two of Strong's gang. He refused to allow the judge to hold court.. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Ws introduced the budget. The revenue for 1883 amounted to £86,090,000. The beer duty, alone, exceeded the'estimate by £200,000, while the spirit duty fell, off. The iDcotne tax produced £453,000 beyond the estimate. The national debt up to the present time had been reduced by £72,680,000. It is now lower than since 1811, while the interest is lower.than since 1805. The national debt was reduced during 1883 by £8,500.000. MrChilders said it,was difficnlt tofbffecasb, the revenue for 1884. Trad© and agri* culture were unsatisfactory, but "theworking classes were comfortably off, and pauperism was declining. The revenue was estimated at £85,550,000, against £71,866,000 last year. la connection with the post office estimates, he was sorry to . say that after eight months* experience, the parcels post had pro* duced only £155,000 against aa eatiibateof £340,000. It was, therefore, proposed to defer the system of sixpenn-jr telegrams until August, 1885, owinjj to the smallness of the surplus, £263,000. , Mr Childers only proposed; to reduce the tax on carriages, which, "would absorb, £20,000. The remaining, £243,000 was not too, much to keep on hand. It is proposed to coin new half-sovereigns^ containing ten per cent, less gold, thias effect* ing a net profit of £l,33O,O0O» which sum put out at interest, will suffice to maintain gold coinage in the future in a satisfactory condition. It is also proposed to conuwQ; 3 per cent, consols into 2f per cents..