AUSTRALIAN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3509, 13 May 1890, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN.

(PER UNITED MESS ASSOCIATION.) . , Sydney, May 11. H.M.S. Opal has saiod for England. Nearly £13,500 of pro-Yictorian gold has been received at tlie mint, the net loss on the . transition being £269. The averago loss in the weight ot the sovereigns wns 2*45 grainß, V'mw.half sovereigns 2*35 grains a-piece. . May 12... New South Wales lias agreed to send a representative to tho conference in Adelaide to discuss tbo postal reductions. Melbourne, May 12, Sir Charles and Lady Halle have arrived at Albany. The Horrors of Dahomey. The excessive and almost unparaloiled bwbarities daily practised in tlie kingtjjjfof Dahomey are now engaging the serious attention of tbo European Powers and different associations for the suppression'of slavery, in view of bringing to an end a state of things ■which is a standing outrage to humanily and civilization, Dahomey, us wo all know, is situated on tho north west coast of Africa, not far from the month of the Niger, It has this distinctive ■ character, that it may be considered as inhabite'cHfaniu'my rather than bo ft.fjtioii. The source of ils revenue is ne'iflier agriculture r.or any kind of in dustry, but proceeds absolutely h'ora * traffic in slaves.ln thecenti eof thistei" ritorystandßtttown,AbomayiWherctbo King, surrounded by bisarmy, resides, and tyrannises over 100",000 slaves Abomey is eight miles in circumference, and ij encircled by a ditch five feet deep, from which spring as in ono continuous liuetho thick row of

thorny acacias, which are its ouly fortification. It is entered by six gates, profusely studded with human skulls, blackened by the heat of the Bun, There is no stream within the city, water being obtained from ponds somo distance off, but the ordinary beverage of tho inhabitants is rum; and Jn the barbaric orgies in which tbeyindulge, the blood of their victim is mixed with it. Their leader is simply a cruel hunter of men. At stated periods ho sallies forth at the head of his army, which knows not whero it is being led. Ho alone is aware of its destination; he ST decided as to which tribe ne shall bo massacred or mado captive and brought into bondage. Silently, at break of day, tbeso demons pounce down on some inoffensive, slumbering negroes, and slaughter them in hundreds as they rush, terror-stricken, out of their huts. Old people are invariably killed, infants are trampled to death, and young men and women are made prisoners, and brutally yoked together in chains, being doomod tc a life of slavery, or to become the victims of human sacrifice in a manner too terrible to relate. Such are the principal' characteristic pursuits of this ferocious leader and bis bloodthirsty savages. Having completed their devastation and plunder, not forgetting to set fire to tlie ill-fated villages through which they pass, this invading horde, headed by their contingent of amazons, flushed with the ineffects of carnago in which they have taken a leading n»t—retraces its steps toward AboMf, dragging in its train an entire tribe of helpless and unsophisticated African negroes, for the purpose of supplying the slave trade. It will easily be understood how terrible must bo the apprehensions of noigbbouring peaceful tribes in view of this constantly recurring danger'to which they may be subject at any moment, entailing, as it' does, unlimited massacre, lasting sometimes over a period of tbreo months, The inhabitants sacrifice to Superstition and fear; and they offer up in conciliation to imaginary enemies the phys'eal sufferings of their viotims, Surrounding these shrines and suspended in mid air, are hundreds of corpses, which would infallibly engender an epidemic were it not for the voracity of tho various birds of prey which feed on them and soon pick the bones quito clean. They are the sanitary iuspectors of Dahomey, and never has hygienic service been efficiently performed

fclioverrimeni Life Insurance * . Department. Wellington, Tuesday, The following promotions have taken place in the Government Lffe Insurance Department Morris Fox, Assistant Actuary, becomes Actuary.;' Hudson, Chief Clerk, bocomos Secretary; Todd, Assistant Accountant, becomes Accouutant. Irvine ittiins bis present position of Superintendent ol Agencies and Inspector of Branches. MISCELLANEOUS. Be who puts a bad construction upon a good act, reveals.his own wickedness of heart. If a man has nothing to say, bo is sure to talio much time and use many words in saying jt. Mr Gladstone's hats are now fully a size larger than too lie could wear twenty years ago, LLAnd in the financial section of Aoadway, New York, recently sold Iff the rato of £1,400,000 per acre. Five hundred and fifty-seven persons were killed on Illinois railroads during 1889, and 1700 wounded, A woman does'nt mean half the wicked things slio says; a man flo.es' not say half the wicked things be 1 means. • •"