NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1485, 10 January 1882, Page 2

NEWS BY THE SUEZ MAIL.

The following items of news are by the Suez mail, which arrived in Auckland on Sunday ;—; — Applications for fair rents are still coming in in large numbers to the various sub-commissioners who are now sitting, and a change for the better appears to be generally manifesting itself throughout the country. In some districts, it is stated, owing to the operations of the Land Court, the Land League is already beginning to be forgotten. A sub-commission has been opened at Limerick, the list containing 183 cases, all from the immediate district. The only case in which evidence was taken was that of a tenant named Enright, who I held a plot of land, a little over three acres, for which he paid an annual rent of £19 2s 6d, A fair rent was set by witnesses for the tenant at £2 an'*cre, and at £2 10s by the landlord. ' - One of the most daring attempts at assassination ever perpetrated in the County of Westmeath took place near Ballymore on Sunday, November 13. As Major-General Mears, the deputy-lieu-tenant of the county, was returning from Ballymore Church hi a car, in company with another gentleman, he was fired at from behind a ditch by, two men with long rusty guns, but he fortunately escaped uninjured. The general immediately jumped off the car and gave chase to his assailants, in which he was-after-wards joined by the police. A later despatch states' that Major-General Mears had lately issued writs against a number of his tenants for recovery of rent. Last week, while hunting with the Westmeath harriers, he was stopped by several persons from coming on their lands and nad to give up his sport. It appears that the would-be assassins, when pursued by the general after the attempt, must have passed close to the Ballymore police barracks. Major - General Mears, whose residence, Mears Court, is a few miles from the scene of the outrage, served with distinction in the army, and retired some years ago from the command of the 20th Regiment with the rank of majorgeneral. A tale of almost unequalled self-sacri-fice comes home from the Transvaal. Dr. Landon, of the Army Medical Department, was wounded at the Majuba Mountain on the day when Sir George Colley was killed. The bullet struck his spine, and paralysed his lower limbs. Knowing he must die, he called to the orderlies near him and caused himself to be propped up against a boulder. There, in the very presence of death, he with his own hand forced the morphia solution into the wounded arm of Corporal Fanner, and thus, frightfully wounded and suffering most acutely, he died. The story of this gallant devotion is vouched for by the best authority. At a recent meeting of the United States, Cabinet. President Arthur expressed surprise at the delay in the trial in the trial of Guiteau, and urged that proceedings of so much importance should not be hindered by technicalities. Mr MacVeagh, the Attorney-General, was understood to have said that a criminal prosecution was not his business, but rather the affair of the District Attorney. It is rumonred that M. Gambetta will pay a visit to England towards the end of the year to join a shooting party to which he lias been invited by the Prince of Wales. It is most probable that in the event, not indistinctly hinted, of Mr Gladstone's elevation to the Upper House of Parliament, he will take the title of Earl of Liverpool. The cholera has broken out at Mecca with great severity ; the deaths recently amounted to 300 in one day. There is a proposition on foot to bring Cetewayo, the Zulu monarch, to England shortly. In consequence of the immense mimber of applications to the Irish Land Court, now exceeding 16,000, four additional sub-commissions have been apppointed. At a largely-attended meeting of tenant-farmers of Roxburghshire and Berwickshire, held at Kelso a few days ago, resolutions were carried demanding an immediate readjustment of rents and conditions as to tenancy as the only remedy for the present depression. It was further resolved that no remedy was to be found for agricultural depression in any return to protective duties. The Grand Lodge of Scottish Freemasons in Edinburgh have resolved to sent! a letter of condolence and sympathy to the widow of Brother General Garfield. The Grand Master, Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, intimated that lie did not wish again to be elected, and he named as his successor the Earl of MarandKellie, who agreed to accept the office. The prospectus is issued of the British and Now Zealand Mortgage and Agency Company, Limited, which has been formed for acquiring and developing the old-fashioned agency, mortgage, shipping, and mercantile business carried on in Dunedin and Invercargill, New Zealand, under ths firm of Cargills, Gibbs, & Co., and in London of Cargills, Joachim, and Co. The price to be paid for the goodwill is stated to be less than the profits derived during the last three years. The capital is t'60,000, of which the first issue will be £30,000, in shares of £10 each. It is not intended to call up more than £2 per share. The screw steamer Solway, of Glasgow, put into Kingstown Harbour about midnight on November 16th on fire, the foremast, bridge, and fore main deck burned clown, and with six charred corpses lying on the steerage deck. The vessel, which carried a crew of nineteen hands, with fourteen passengers, and had a general cargo, part consisting of oils, whisky, rum, and sugar, was bound for Bristol, and, when off the Skerries, a barrel of naphtha oil burst on the fore main deck. The oil ran along to the steerage, where it came in contact with the fire, and in a moment the vessel was in flames, the most and fore main deck burning fiercely. Six passengers— four soldiers and two men — were immediately enveloped by the flames and burned to death. The rest of the passengers and crew, some of them fearfully burned, fled to the stem of the vessel. In a very stormy sea the crew managed to keep the fire from f reading till assistance arrived from ingstown, when the vessel was got into the harbour, and several of the passengers and crew, who were sadly burned were taken to the hospital. The vessel belongs to Sloane and Co., of Glasgow. The total deaths are reported at thirteen.

It was colericlge who, when asked by a shallow fellow, "Do you really believe that an ass ever spoke to Balaam?" replied, "Yes : I have been spoken to in the same way myself.-" ' "Stole any chickens dis week, Brudder Jones ?" said a searching class leader to a. member of , suspiciously thieving pro- 7 clivities. " No,' sah — tank de lior." " You'ae dun well," said the 'leader and passed on, while ", Brudder Jones " turns to "Brudder' Brown" and whispers, ," Lucky he said, chickens ;s; s if t he'd said, ; duckshe'd a had.me. ; Shuah l"L; v , f{lsf { Is there inuch '.game^ about here?" asked a newly arrived stranger in Austin :6f Pafa-ick O'Rafferty.j.(',"&dade, there <is.| 'There are, plenty \of . curlewai/sind J wHett]ypu ,shoot jwon of "tfiem^tjli,* rest) of fv , ,-them "s^ay^kround^untU^yo^ faye^tiun&^iiOt?»hoof at them, andineyer "fly>rfiwfty raitflt '