AMERICAN NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 173, 23 July 1889, Page 5

AMERICAN NEWS.

*'•-,-.•••--. .-■'.'. San Franscisco, June 29. The Navy Department has directed thafc on and after July 4th, 1889, tho national flag on all Government) vessels of the United States shall bear 42 stars la honour of the proposed, new States. -The War Deportment, on the contrary, will not alter the army colours till the formal admission of the four States.

A dispatch from Quebec, Juno 27th,. mentioned thafc tho steamer Victoria was ashore at Isle Verte, and the vessel would be a total loss. The wreckage is thus accounted for.'

A London dispatch of June 17 says Stanley's agent was in thafc city arranging for a lecture tour for him in October next. His return to London before autumn is regarded as a certainty.

Four cases of leprosy have been discovered, at Cape Breton, N.S. There are already nineteen cases in the Lazaretto ac Tracadie, Lower Canada.

A tremendous hurricane devastated the couutty surrounding Queebec in fche lower counties on June 4th. Irreparable damage has been done to stock ; houses were unroofed, and two or three people killed.

The wife of ex-President Hayes was smitten with an apoplecticsfcroke June2lsb, and died on the 28th. Dr. McDow, in gaol afc Charleston, awaiting trial .for killing Captain Dawson, an Englishman, editor of the "News ana " Courier," was elected surgeon of an influential Charleston military company on Juue 21. Regarded as significant ot the drift of public opinion in the case. William J. Hilton, a wealthy merchant ot Franklin, Ky., and who wasi thought ,tc .be dangerously ill, deliberately burned §30,000 in greenbacks and Government bonds on June 21st, tcuprevenfc his wife, wifch whom he had a disagreement, and his son, who is a profligate, from inheriting. An attempt was made to find the merchant insane, bub the jury declared him of sound mind.

In the Harvard-Columbia College freshmen boab race, June 27th, whent, be Columbia crew stopped rowing, six of the crew fell in a dead fainfc from exhaustion.

A case of yellow fever appeared in Brooklyn, New York, on June 19th, much to the consternation of the community.

General William H. Dimond, of the firm of Williams, Dimond and Co., San Francisco, has been appointed superintendent of the U.S. branch mint in thafc city. Dimond is a native of Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, born of white missionary parents.

John K. Moore, attorney for David D. Hancton, of Middletown, New York, has begun a suit in equity againsb the city and

county of San Francisco and a number of other defendants, claiming a large portion of the sifce on which the city is built under a grant from Maunel Micheltorina, a former Governor in California, fco one Fernando Marchina. The complaint states thafc the monthly rental from this property is $5,000,000, and the usual recovery is prayed. The suit is considered a huge black-mailing scheme. Simon Cameron, a leading Republican statesman, United States Senator, Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln, and subsequently Minister to Russia, died ab his residence, near Harrisburg, Va., Juno 26th. He was born in the samo State in 1799.

Statistics of the Treasury Department show that during May the export trade of the United States amounted to §52,169,197, and imports to §68,724,994 ; exports of gold, §13,484,783, and imports, §753,894; exports of silver, §4,449,776 ; and imports, §1,936,729. The immigration during tha month was 74,248 persons, being a decrease of over 24,000 for the same month in 188 S. English capitalists are investing heavily in American industries. A report made on Juue 24 shows they havo put §200,000,000 in fchem within a year, and if they continue will soon gain complete control in many directions. §10,000,000 had been offered for the Waldi Factory, Elgin, Illinois. Mrs Sarah Jane Whibeling was hanged on June 25fch, in Moyamensing Gaol, Philadelphia, for poisoning her husband and two children to get the insurance on their lives, amounting in all to §400. She was quita afc ease, and said she did nofc " mind hanging more than sitting down to breakfast." By an accidental explosion in Hyer Brothers' fireworks establishment, corner of Hawley and Summer streets, Boston, June 21st, five persons were killed and. several others badly wounded.

The four-mile sfciaight-away boat-race between the 8-oared crews of Yale College and fcho University of Pennsylvania, was rowed on the Thames Paver, New London, Conn., June 21st. Yale won in 23min. 50sec. '" Greafc damago was caused hy the bursting of a dam on the eve of June 17th in Kansas. Uniontown and Belletown were flooded, and several lives losfc. John Gilbert, ono of the oldest; and bestknown comedians on the American stage, ! died in Boston on June 17fch. He was born in that cifcy in fcho year 1810.

Madison Square Garden, New York, has been engaged for the International Maritime -Exposition to open September 21sfc and close on October 2Gfch. The object) is to promote the ocean-carrying trade of fche United States.