CLIPPINGS FROM OUR MAIL FILES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1749, 20 September 1883, Page 3

CLIPPINGS FROM OUR MAIL FILES.

The Pope ia drawing up an Encyclical letter against divorce. Advices from Roitoflf on the Don state that aevetal cases of cholera are reported in that locality.' A fatal 'boating accident occured near Dun|farvan yesterday. Miss Ringwood, daughter 'of' the Rev, Dr Ringwood, Royal School, Duugarvan, being drowned in Desert great Like, near Cookstown. Mrs M/issard and three other friends of Miss Ringwood w»nt on the lake for a row, when the boat was by some means overturned. All weie rescued except Miss Ringwood, who was about 21 yeais of age. Miss Constance Baker, daughter of Sir Samuel Baker, the great African tiavellur, died somewhat suddenly last evening at the residence of her father, Sandford Orleigh, Newton Abbot. The deceased lady was on a visit to her farther w hen she was seized with a sudden illness, resulting in the rupture of a blood vessel and terminating fatally. Mr Gladstone if said to have recently declared, in conversation with a Methodist clergyman, that the large number of ministers and others wearing the blue ribbon was an exceedingly gratifying circumstances, speaking well for the f u bare. It has been decided to institute a medal for long service and good conduct in the Metropolitan Eire Brigade. Switzerland has just concluded a ticaty with the United States, to be in force for thirty yeara, binding both Republics to submit any differences arising between them to arbitration. Honduras and Colombia have also given their adhesion to the principle. Iv a letter acknowledging receipt ot the annual report of the Co-operative Wholesale Society the Prince of Wales expressed the greatest interest in the details of the work, and his gratification at finding so large a body of men united in carrying out a scheme admirably adapted to laise the standard of their Knowledge and intelligence, and to increase their welfare and happiness. The Earthquake at Ischia. — The town of Casamiccioh, on this island, was almost destioyed by an earthquake or recession of the land on the night of July 28th, and it is esti muted five thousand people perished. The shocks began at half-past nine o'clock ; at that hour the majority of thc-people of the uppei classes were at the theatre, and the scene there, as desci ibed by an eye w itness, was one of horror. The curtain had just risen, when a tremendous shock was felt, followed by a fearful row. and the ground rocked like a ship in a storm. A gieat cry of terror arose fiom the audience, who where thrown in a heap, and a gieat number were buried beneath the timbers of the building which fell on them. Those who could escaped fiomthe theatie, some clambering into trees for safety, but the larger number fleeing' to the sea shore, where i^uni fires were kindled. Meantime, apry building in the town had collapsed. ' The Hotel Piccola Sentinel ta sank into the earth, and was buried with many of its inmates. Many Romans having villas at Uodna aie know n to have been lo^t. The corpses were plainly discernible through the uiius, but could not be extiieated : in nearly every case they weie hniiibly mangled. The Minister of Public Woiks arrived at Casamicciola on July the 2!) th, to anange measuies of relief. Hundreds of victims were buiied in the usual way, and immedi itely on their being recovered, in order to prevent miasma, but us it was inippo'-sible to recover and bin y all the bodies, it was ordeied, considering the hoinblc exhalations fiom the decomposing 1 cumins, thot the iineovcied coipses be left where they lay, and fifteen bundled ton? of chloiidc of lime wtuv poured over the ruins, thus con\ citing the Casamicciola, into a vast eemeteiy The neighbouiing towns of Failo and Locco were also greatly damaged, and the Jobs of lite reached 20OJ, di\ ided between Kjth places The centie of the aica of the shock was the s.ime as that of two year ago, but the radius wa° w idei. It was felt at sea, and, according to some accounts, even at Naples, the hospital* in which city wcic ciowdcd with the wounded and djing, bi ought theie by steamcis fiom the island. The calamity infinitely exceeded the Ohiodcarthqu ike in ISSI. Among the missing arc an English gentleman named iSommoLs, \v ho resided at the Hotel Maii/ri, and also many English and Amciican visitois — Ischia bi ing a great resort for travelleis in puisr.it of health or plcasnie. Miss Van Akn, daughter of a leading citizen of San Francisco, is lcpoitcd dead fiom broken limbs. Ot a Swiss family named Pascal, numbering eight, only one daughter survived, and many English and Americans arrived on the 31st, in seirch of friends and relatives. On the night of the disaster the scene was weiredly horrible, when hundieds of half-naked men and women, wild with teiror and grief ran to and fro among the ruins with torches, seal clung for missing friends. For days the '•tench of decaying flush, notwithstanding the deodons ing material used, was almost unbearable Additional shocks attended with damage occured on August 4th. King Humbert, visited the hospitals on the 3rd, and condoled with the sufferers, and also i craned to the scene of the earthquake, whuie he distributed money and piovisions to those m need, [fschia is about eight miles S.W. of Cape Miscro, oIF the coast of Terra di Lavoro. The populati )n was about 24,000.] Loud Duffkiux ox Ecyit. —The annual banquet of the Worshipful Cum of Groceis was held on Wednesday, Jul> 18th (lioceis' hall, Princes-stioet, Loudon, Mr Ci. T. Miller, master, in the chair. The Earl of Dufi'erin, inacknowledg ing the toast to her Majesty's, repie&enta tives abroad, lefeired to our lecent campaign in Egypt, and said :— The only justification for war is that the peace which it is undertaken to ensure should be piohfic in benefits infinitely exceeding the risks and sacrifices it causes and the amount of human misery it never fails to entail. That the Egyptian campaign will triumphantly stand this test I unhesitatingly assert. The Btrugglewas short and decisive, but it opened up to Egypt such prospects of peace and the dawn of such a day as was never dreamed of by themselves or their predecessors for centuries. For thousands of years the Egyptian people have been the victims ot tyranny and malversation. Corruption aud oppression in every form were so ingrained in the administration of the country as to have become, in the eyes of the unhappy peasantry, incorporattyjta^th the order ot nature. Law and jusj^PlfcivG never existed in Egypt. The coadibiiption and the most capricious system of taxation that has been known to mankind ground the Fellah to the dust. But eie the smoke of battle had cleared off the field of Tel-el Kebir a new Egypt had come into existence — an Egypt soon, I trust, to be the home of equal laws, righteous legislation, domestic freedom, and constitutional government—above all, an Egypt which is destined' to prove to the world that all that is best, most wholesome, and most useful to mankind in the wisdom of the West can be associated and combined, harmonised and amalgamated, with Eastern habits of thought aud feeling, and with the precepts and customs of an Oriental religion (loud cheeis). If the East is ever to be resuscitated, it is in Egypt that the vital spark is most likely to spring into flame. Months and yrars may elapse before satisfactory results occur, and unchallenged accomplishments can ripen into full ana perfect consummation ; but believe me, utider the auspices of able men, the good work is fairly in progress, and can never again be checked or interrupted (cheers). I nave no hesitation in.pa^ing that ere a year is passed England' will have the satisfaction of knowingJ;hatJt has, been acknowledged on every hand that she l^as been the happy instrument , of • increasing a hundreafold-the, prosperity and the hanpipeas pf an ajawjat^ innocent, iudu,atrtouB

and 6ober population, the good government and tranquillity of whose country are absolutely necessary to the commercial interests of Great Critan and the people of Kui ope (renewed cheers). Prisidknt Arthur.— The newspapers are much disgruntled because President Arthur declines to convert his holiday tiip to the Yellowstone Park into a bore and a nuisance, by allowing himself to be interviewed and stared at by the yokels of every little hamlet along the route. A nice time his Excellency would have of it if he accepted all the hornyhanded homage tendered by his fellowsovereigns of the Far West ! His hands would be pulp and hi-- shoulder- joints dislocated before he had half-reached the end of his journey, and m hen he couldn t ■■hake any longei they would proceed to talk him to death. That isn't the sort of holiday the average man hankers after, and there is still some reason to believe that Arthur is only mortal, in spite of the adulation which is being heaped upon him — adulation which in this country is " respect for the head of tie nation," but which in Em ope would be " seivile flunkey ism." — S. F. News Letter.