ENGLISH NEWS—PER GARONNE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 94, 26 February 1879, Page 2

ENGLISH NEWS—PER GARONNE.

. (PElt FKESS AGENCY,) December 20, The weather lately has been engrossing attention. For a fortnight previous to Boxing Day, when a sudden thaw took place, and periods of Arctic severity and gloom, fogs of unusual density enveloped our cities and towns in Cimmerian darkness, It interfered with business on canals everywhere. Many of our large rivers, including the Trent and Severn, were frozen over, The traffic of nearly all our railways was interrupted by snowstorms,' particularly in the north of Scotland, where early in tho week 14 trains were blocked up, and having been buried four days in drift higher than engine funnel, The mails from tho north of Aberdeen had to 1)0 conveyed by sea, and funerals were conducted by slodges in London. Our jneafc supplies were at one time threatened. The thaw has been very general, throughout the country. 'Numerous accidents have taken place,' Near Ely about 50 persons were immersed in the river, and six persons were drowned. But the saddest disaster of -the kind happened in a rural district in Franco, where a crowd of 50 children, sliding on a deep pond, were engulplied, ; i|)d 48 perished, The prevailing distress among the working classes has been extended and aggravated by the wintry rigorous frost and snow, which have immensely augmented tho great army of unemployed, Workhouses aro overflowing, and parochial relief has to be supplemented by soup kitchens and other extraordinary means of feeding the destitute. Relief committees a}'e formed in a]l the principal toyffls thrmjghopt the country, A project' lias'bepii set "on foot in Irelaud to present the Dujte of Connaught with a hunting box, fumjshed and ready for occupation, ■ At the final sitting of the Miuers Conference, in 'Manchester, on the 21st, a resolution was passed asking Parliament, in view of the poverty and misery existing anpiigst the working classes on the one hand, and the disastrous consequences to capitalists on the other, to appoint a committee to inquire into the cause of the oontinued depression of trade, with a view to ita remedy, Hopes are entortained that the agricultural labor question in Kent and. Sussex will shortly be overcome by mutual concession.