ARRIVAL OF THE S.S. ZEALAND!A WITH THE EUROPEAN & AMERICAN MAILS VIA SAN FRANCISCO.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5203, 21 September 1885, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF THE S.S. ZEALAND!A WITH THE EUROPEAN & AMERICAN MAILS VIA SAN FRANCISCO.

[Pee Pbess Association.)

Auckland, Yesterday. The 11.M. s.s. Zealandia arrived trom San Francisco at noon to-day, with the English and American mails. She left San Francisco on 28th August. The voyage was delayed by inferior coal. Passengers for Auckland : —Saloon : Revs. A. Kirkham and D. Neil ; Mr and Mrs Osborne and two children, Mrs Eittle and child, Mr and Mrs Thompson, Mr and Mrs Durant and infant, Messrs Roberts, Hamer Coleman, Williams, Frier, Gar* land, Fitzgerald, Samuels, Rare, Bligh, Roe, and Zieller.

GENERAL SUMMARY.

London, August 28. Mr Pearce, of John Elder and Co., was assaulted with a stout stick by a man named Francif, an Inspector of Customs, on August 13tb. The assailant was accompanied by bis wife. He alleged that Pearce had seduced his daughter. A reporter of the Pall Mall Gazette waited upon Pearce, who said the charge was absolutely false, and that it was a case of blackmail of a peculiarly bad kind. ' An Atlantic despatch says that Francis has commenced criminal proceedings for libel against Pearce in consequence of this statement. Another despatch, dated London, August 11, says that the solicitor for Pearce publishes a letter in which he says that he has been instructed by his client to refrain from prosecuting the father of Miss Francis on a charge of common assault and battery for the caning he inflicted on Pearce, because of the trivial penalty which would attend conviction, but to prosecute him on the far grater charge. The solicitor asks the public to suspend judgment on the whole case until its merits can be developed by the Courts. The Czar of Kussia, and the Czarina) accompanied by the Imperial entourage, arrived at Kremsier on the morning of August 25th. The party avoided the town, and were driven through the vast pust surrounding Schloss. The Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria and his son Joseph met the Imperial parly at the railway station. There was a magnificent reception in the evening, but Germany sent no delegate. The object of the interview, it is generally conceded, is to enable Russia to secure perfect freedom of action in Central Asia. Lines will be drawn and agreed to as to how far Austria is to advance southward in Europe, while Kussia is engaged in her difficulty with England. At the meeting the Hapsburghs wore the Russian uniform and the Romanoffs the Austrian; The monarchs embraced with apparent affection, and rode to Schloss in the same carriage. The Emperors and Empresses indulged in much embsacing and kissing. The Czar knelt and kissed the hand of the Austrian Empress. There was a royal hunt on the 26th, which ended at midday. A banquet was held in the evening, at which there were sixty-one guests pre sent. This was followed by a reception, at which the Imperial parties bade each other a cordial farewell. Francis Joseph saw the Russians off at the railway station, and'then started for Pilsen, to be present at the army maueuuvres. An eye witness said the Czar was uneasy during the whole time of his visit, and manysecret precautions were taken "for his safety. He was pale and careworn, and an enormous trained mastiff was his bodyguard, and watched beside his couch | every night; The report that Olivier Pain was cxcI cuted by order of the British military authorities in the Soudan has led to some trouble io Paris. The Anarchists made | threats against the British Embassy, and on the 18th the building was surrounded by a courdon of polipe for their protec« tion, and the doors kept closed all day. Rochefort's L'lntransigeant isj;he cause of tbo ttonble in Paris. . The paper continues fco demand vengeance on Eng- . land, for tho alleged murder of Pain, and -tbo friends of that adventurer are advised to publicly iusultLord Lyons, British Ambassador. So far as the British Government is concerned, Rochefort's desire ia to" get ap a serious agitation will not be gratified as the affiir is at an end, for Lord Salisbury, acting on the advice pf Lord Lyons, has finally decided not to ask $$.'. J)e Freycinefc to prosecute the agitators. Rochefort, however, ti'aa alsp villified Major Kitchener in this connection, and a personal row may be the result, as the Mejor's friends think he will cowhide the.editorof LTntransigeant in the streets of Paris. Letters from Tonquin dated August 11, say that the treaty of Tientsin \a a^dead letter as far as the evacuation of the country by the Chinese is concerned. The troops have refused to return to China, or to disarm, and are forming a strong army of irregulars to attack the French. Pbynoc, chief of the Black Flags, has offered his services to the tfremjh to suppress the piracy and anarchy in northern Tongufn, oa eondUfon that he be appointed governor of that district. Hisbifer was declined by Genl. jDeLisle, the prenirti commands?. " A rich maiden lady named Mentray recently disappeared how her residence in Paris, and a female servant named Mer-cier gave out tM her mjgtreis had

entered a convent, leaving the manage' ment of her property in her hands. Mereier sent for her own relations to occupy the house, butthe police becoming suspicious invaded the place on the 20ih, and discovered (lie body of the lady buried, in quicklime in; a- garden. The servant and her relatives were all arrested. f ■".'■' The French Government is alarmed at the great number of (jermon spies discovered in various.,parts of,-, France, and it has been decided to order the expulsion of ail Germans who cannot give good reason for being in the country. -'Details have been received of great destruction caused in Canton, (China) and its vicinity by recent great rainstorms there. • The flood lias been the most serious which has visited Canton for thirty years. More than 10,000 persons lost their lives, and a far greater number are left in a starving condition. Eutire villages have been destroyed, and the rice and silk crops in that vicinity are almost ruined, and the price has been raised 18 per cent in consequence of the loss of the ' crop. Bain fell in the later part of June filling and overflowing many of the rivers, and the streets of Canton were flooded for over a week at Sedni, where the water broke through the city wall, and it is reported that several thousand peeple were drowned in that place. The embank* ments of the river were broken in numerous places, and! the water swept across the surrounding,. v"country, carrying everything before it. A foreigner, who was an eye-witness of the scenes of devastation, reports that one night the boat. he occupied was anchored near a bamboo grove, and by morning the water had risen to the tops of the bamboos. At other points, it rose as high as forty feet during the night time. The inhabitants fled from the villages, and camped on the hill-sides. In some places the parents tied their children on high branches of trees, while they instituted measures for general safety, but

the trees were washed up by the roots, and the heartrending cries of the children were silenced by the surging water. The body of a bride dressed in her bridal robes was found floating in the river at Canton. A Jarg* tub was also, seen ; it was picked up, and found to contain the bodies of a boy and girl, and with them was found a paper stating their names and the day and hour of their birth. Their parents had instituted this means to save the lives of their offspring. The suffering which thousands are enduring is heart-rending; parents replying, with tears in their eyes, to their children's request for food, " that they had none." The Standard s Berlin correspondent says that an eminent Turkish diplomatist declares that the Sultan and Grand Vizier are opposed to an Anglo-Turkish alliance against Russia. John Buskin is slowly dying from cerebral disease, accompanied by insomnia. Lord Vane Tempest died in London on August 14. He served with distinction in the Union army.during the Confederate rebellion. On the Evening of August 26th an infuriated mob invaded a hall in the East End of London* where several Mormon missionaries have been preaching for some time, and made a complete wreck. The elders fled for their lives. Several were captured, and after having been terribly maltreated, they were left on the pave rnent for dead. The cause of the attack was the stories set afloat that these missionaries had been systematically kid' napping young women, and shipping them to Utah to be " sealed" to rich Mormons. All sorts of tales had been told about the indignities inflicted upon girls thus en' trapped. .. Mrs PattisonV widow of the Rev. Mark Pattisori, Jiancee of Sir Charles Dilke, now in India, sent him a second telegram on August 14th, declaring that she would return to England instantly and stand by his side/during-his trial, as a proof that she disbelieves the scandalous crime'with which he is charged; Sir Charles replied advising the lady to stay where she was. Queen Victoria, and the Court left for Balmoral on August 24th. The Highland clans gave a grand reception to Princess Beatrice, and Prince Henry of Battenberg." 'yy.' ".-■,,. ■:■■ -. . .■ >

A hostile crowd assembled at the Hall depot on the 25th to meet General Booth* of the Salvation Army. He was booted, and several attempts were made to reach his carriage. The police had great diffi« culty in preventing the mob from injuring htm, and he was struck several times with missiles. The reason for the attack was the belief that he had abducted a girl named Armstrong to make false evidence from the act. Several thousand unemployed working men assembled at Hackney on the 27th, and adopted: a resolution demanding that Government assist them to emigrate. A .British man of war left Aden on the 23rd August to occupy A mbo, situated on Tagooralo Bay, East Africa. The object is to anticipate the occupation of the place by France. Farquharson, the defaulting mauager of. the funster B,ank, has been traced to Spain by letters written to friends in Dublin. Harry Jackson, actor, died at London on August 13. Deceased was well known in Australia, which place he left twenty years ago for San Francisco with Annie Lockbart.