MAIL NEWS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1511, 17 October 1883, Page 2

MAIL NEWS.

SHIPPING DISASTERS; i LONDON ' September 21. Tho ■ Bteamer Pulleroa, from Haniburg'to London, collided off Brest with the steamer Rivali on August 26, and sunk her. Fire persona were drowned. The Rivali was bound from Callo to Middlebro. • ' , '

.:',The British.barque M. J. Jones, from Bull River, South Canada, for Plymouth, with' a cargo of phosphate, was. totally wrecked off .Penzance on September 1., ,Two of tho crew were saved and'eleven drowned. The-steamship Ludwig, sixty days out from Antwerp for Montreal, on .September 2,\ is' given up by the owners, ■ Seventy persons were on board, twenty-four being passengers. The steamer George started from anchorage .on ' August 28, to seek the Dutch Polar vessel \Vama, for the discovery of which £2OOO is offered. A Norwegian vessel was sunk ia the English Channel on 13th September by collision, and twelve persons were drowned.. The English barque Britannia was wrecked off the coast, of Novia Scotia ! 'on September 17th. Captain Alfred Gasston arrived at Halifax two days after, and told a fearful tale of suffering. The crew took to a small raft, on which they had hardly got a footing when a heavy saa washed all off but the captain arid eight men. Only four survivorsjwere rescued by a boat from the shore, and fourteen perished, including the wife and, four children of Captain Gasston'.

SEARCH FOR A POLAR EXPEDITION. The U.S, Greely relief ship Zantio arrived; at St. John's, N.F., on September 13. Her tidings were lamentable, No word had been received from Greely or any of his party. Tho steamer Proteus . was crushed by a float of ice at tho entrance. to Smith Sound on July 23. The New York Herald says all discussion of Greely's prospect up to the present moment strengthens the supposition that he left his polar station before the summer closed, perfectly acquainted as he was with all that is known of the ice condition of Smith's Sound. Itis'highly improbable that he would have tarried at his station until the fall, sealed thewater' communication with Littelton Island. The only intelligent course seemingly left him when the first week of August passed without the arrival of the relief ship, was to commence his retreat in boats southwardly, and .push it as rigorously as ,possible, which the Herald thinks ho had done.". Dr Smith Bessels, ofWashington, and Sir George Nares, of tho English Arctic ship Explorer, have both some hopes of Greely. party's safety.

ANOTHER COLLISION IN THE „ ~, CHANNEL. ' eighteen lives Lost. At 3 6'clock on the moning of the 26th August, the French steamer St Germain and the steamer Woodburn, from the East, by way ; of the Suez Canol, came into collision off the Eddystone lighthouse, The Woodburn immediately sank/and eighteen of her crew were drowned. The St. Germain, in a disabled condition, arrived at Plymouth, and landed the passengers saved from the . Woodburn. It was a fine starlight night, and the sea was calm at the time of the collision. The Woodburn was, in tow of tugboat Recovery at the time,, and the St. Germain's helm was ported in order that the steamer might go by the tugboat's stern. The Officers of The French steamer had no idea there wasa ship in lead, but the tugboat captain states that ho had two bright i lights at the tug'smasthead, a clear indication that she had a vessel in tow

BAD WEATHER IN ENGLAND. Fierce storms, with, blinding rain, raged incessantly round the English coast from Friday, August 31, to Tuesday morning, September 2,' Many lives were lost, wrecks-frequent, the destruction to property on land and sea being immense. Crops sustained serious damage; ' and in some. places near the shore farmers had their corn, whether stacked or ; not, carried away over the clifis and out to sea; while in others it was irrotrievably.beaten down and spoilt. Hops lie in thick and tangled masses on the sodden earth, In the south of Ireland the hay and corn crop is totally, destroyed, and distress so great is feared that there may be an immediate renewal of the agitation against payment of rent.