TELEGRAMS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 177, 18 August 1876, Page 9

TELEGRAMS.

(From our Daily Contemporaries.) Auckland, August 13. The Zealandia has arrived -with the English and American mails. She was lying at Kandavu 78 hours before the City of New York arrived with the New Zealand outward mails. After receiving the Australian mails, the City of New York proceeded on her voyage to San Francisco on the 6th. The steamship Australia with the English mail arrived at Kandavu on 9th. She left again at 3 o'clock for Sydney. She left San Francisco on the 19th July. On the voyage between San Francisco and Hololulu a case of small pox broke out. The patient was an Australian passenger, and he ■was landed with attendant at Honolulu. The Zealandia left Kandavu on the 9th and arrived at one o'clock to-day. The Health Officer detained her two hours conducting an examination, but finding fumigation had been carried out, he allowed the mails and passengers to be landed. The following is a summary of English and Foreign news to July 19th :— Cablegrams relating to the war between the Turkish Government and the insurgent provinces and Servia fill columns of American papers. The 'Daily News' gives a detailed account of the atrocities committed in Bulgaria during the insurrection by the Turkish irregular troops. All moveable property has been plundered, houses and villages burnt, and all men, women, and children indiscriminately slaughtered. It is estimated that the province which heretofore yielded the Government annual revenue of four million dollars will not pay one quarter that sum this year and for years to come. Various estimates place the number of lives sacrificed at from 18,000 to 20,000. A correspondent names 37 villages known to have been destroyed. Among the refugees, the number of whom is very small, there is not a girl over ten years of age. In the village of Sernstitza, in the district of Phillipopolis, 15,000 persons are known to have been killed. This village consisted of 4000 houses, and was prosperous and peaceful. Every house has been burned, and all the inhabitants killed, all except a few women and children who took refuge in Phillipopolis, and somejwomen who were carried off by the troops. These cruelties made a great impression at Constantinople. The English Ambassador interviewed the Government to put an end to them. Bulgaria has issued a declaration'of "independence. Servia has declared war against Turkey, alleging as a reason her determination to secure special administration for Herzegovina and Vesina. Prince Milan has placed himself at, the head of the Servian troops, numbering 110,000. Tho excited state of the population in Constantinople caused great alarm ; and the Russian Ambassador, receiving threatening and insulting letters, sent his wife and family away. Several thousand Montenegrin troops were sent to the assistance of the Herzegovinian insurgents, and the Empress of Russia sent a special hospital train. Russian sympathisers also contributed six months' provisions for the army and people of Montenegro. In a town near Bulgaria, the Turkish pasha seized 500 leading inhabitants, and threatened to execute them, if the district resisted. The Turks hung many professors and teachers in the district, and crucified some priests. The first engagement with the Servians is claimed as a decisive victory for the Sultan's troops. The Sultan subscribed .£20,000 to the people's war fund. Servian forces marched into Bulgaria, and, aided by the rising of the inhabitants, defeated the Turks in one or two engagements ; but the successes were mainly on the Turkish side. 1300 Servians" were| defeated in an engagement at Tuisa. The Servian losses in the first ten engagements Tveie estimated at 5000. The Turks massacred all the Christian inhabitants at Beling. Twelve thousand Egyptian troops have been despatched to Turkey. Great fanaticism and enthusiasm pervade the Turkish troops. One leader in Bulgaria boastfully paraded the decapitated heads of women and children. Letters from Alexiniz state that the Circassians burned 21 Bulgarian villages near Baginglava, murdering men and cutting children to pieces. Official reports state thai during the Servian attack on Nova Varasch the Turks placed Christian women and children in the entrenchments, and many were killed by the Servian fire. The Montenegrins defeated the Turks in several engagements, but the Servians have almost invariably been defeated in every collision, and the forces are reported to be greatly dispirited. The British Foreign Office has received a telegram from the British Ambassador at Constantinople, stating that a Turkish functionary of high position had been sent as Extraordinary Commissioner to suppress excesses in Bulgaria. He is furnished with full powers to inflict summary punishment. The Sultan of Turkey is suffering a great deal of distress, and is believed to be going insane. His abdication is expected. He never recovered the shock of the suicide of Abdul. The great powers maintain neutrality, and the general peace is not likely to be disturbed. Influential representations are being made to the British Cabinet not to enter upon war. European advices from multitudes|of sources represent business and all productive enterprise as being worse than they have been during the present generation, and without visible sign* of change for the better. An earthquake has occurred in Vienna. Eeuts are visible in many houses. The proposed reduction of ten per cent, on the wages of 60,000

Lancashire cotton spinners caused great excitement. A deputation secured a postponement of the reduction. The plague at Bagdad has almost disappeared. The Governor of the Dutch East Indies telegraphs, confirming the report of the loss of the steamer Lieut. General Crosean in the Straits. Two hundred and thirty persons were drowned. There is trouble in Athens, and a state of siege is declared. While H.M. Thunderer was making a trial of the measured mile at Stokes Bay, Portsmouth, her "boiler exploded, killing 25 of the crew. The bodies were shockingly mutilated, the flesh being stript from their limbs by the escaping steam. The forward stoke hole, where the explosion occurred, was divided from the after stoke-hole by watertight bulkheads. The stokers in the latter were protected from the fragments caused by the explosion, but were literally boiled to death by steam. The chief and assistant engineers were killed, and the captain's hand was blown off. A fearful storm and flood ravaged Central lowa on the 4th July. The hamlet of Rockdale, near Dubukne, was entirely swept away by an overflow of Catfish River. Thirty-nine persons were drowned in Maddison and "Warner counties, fifteen persons were killed, and fearful damage was done to live stock and orops. It is considered likely that many of .the bodies were swept into the Missouri river. The railroad was swept away for 9£ miles at Burlington. A tornado was experienced. In one squall twenty-nine buildings were blown down, two persons killed, and six freight cars were blown into the river. The storm was felt severely at Omaha, Nebraska, buildings being blown down, but no loss of Hfe. The Sioux war on the Yellow Stone Rivjr and tributaries has assumed alarming proportions. On the 25th June, Custer, with companies of cavalry, came up with the enemy on the Little Horn, crossed the river with five companies, consisting of 300 men. It is believed he marched into an ambuscade, as the whole body was surrounded and cut in pieces. The Indian chief Sitting Bull, with four thousand warriors, comprise the " enemy. Colonel Neno, who had been despatched by Custer with three companies to cross above the camp, was surrounded, and was for 36 hours in fearful peril, when General Terry came to his rescue. Seventeen commissioned officers were killed with Custer, including one of his brothers. Their success so elated the Indians that they committed fearful depredations and atrocities all round. Reinforcements from all points are anxiously expected. The war is not unlikely to turn out one of extermination. De Crow Stout, one of Ouster's men — the only survivor — escaped in disguise. He says the Souix enveloped the force. Custer killed his horses, using the remains for breastworks, and fought desperately. The Indians charged his position time and again, and losing heavily, one company tried to cut its way to the rear, but were all killed. The bodies lay some rods from Ouster's, all in a knot. Custer was among the last to fall. Custer and his command were all killed within one hour. A Negio riot occurred in Georgia. Several Negroes and whites were killed. The affair is said to have arisen from the fact that the coloured citizens had formed a volunteer military company, and were parading the streets. A section of the Press described the riot as the result of democratic politicals, trying to scare the Negroes from the polls. Small-pox is very prevalent in San Francisco. " The sewers are all flushed, and the streets sprinkled with lime. Fourteen fresh cases have been reported in one day. The outbreak is not confined to any particular locality, but is all over the city. The eastward bound train on the Missouri and Pacific Railway has been stuck up by robbers near St. Louis, and 18,000dol. taken. Don Carlos has arrived in Washington. General Haye's steamer, of St. Clare, 16 passengers aboard, took fire on Lake Superior, and was burned to the water's edge. Only the captain, mate, engineer, and ,wheel man, and one passenger escaping. Twenty-seven lives were lost. The survivors were picked up by a boat. The military situation in Mexico is unchanged. The Government general, with 15,000 troops, is at Assizco, 'and is to march against the insurgents afc Tarlico and San Juan De Lanos. This campaign is expected to finish the revolution. A political revolt at Cuzzo was suppressed after eight hours' street fighting. Thirty were killed and wounded. Small-pox is devastating Santiago, Chili. London, August 13. The first debate in the House of Commons was on the Eastern question. Mr. Bruce moved that the Government, respecting existing treaties, should exercise its influence to secure the welfare and equal treatment of the different religious races in Turkey. Mr. Gladstone defended the English policy in the Crimea, and advocated the anatoinisation of the insurgent provinces. Mr. Disraeli denied that rejection of the Berlin note would bethe cause of war. It was due to the aggression of Servia. The fleet was sent to the Mediterranean for the protection of British interests, not of the Turkish Empire. The civil war between Turkey and her provinces gave no cause for the interference of Government. Great Britain was ready to help to pacify the belligerents. The motion was withdrawn. Lord Granville regretted that the Berlin memoranrluni had been totally rejected without the substitution of a counter project. He described the policy of England towards Turkey as one of benevolence and neutrality. Earl Derby said that the policy of England depended upon the result of probable war, and the concert of other Powers. The health of the new Sultan Murad is worse, and he is pronounced quite imbecile. The Servians are stubbornly disputing the advance of the Turks: