THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7443, 14 August 1895, Page 3

THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

The rive hundred black or brown or mud-colored warriors who invaded Zanzibar must have been a plucky lot. It is no light matter to make an attack from the sea under any circumstances, but when the invasion is carried out by means of canoe 3, or other very small vessels, and the island invaded is in possession of a strong and well-armed garrison representing such a Power as England, the affair involves more than ordinary bravery. And the invaders must hare stayed long enough to fight well, for although they were, as the cable puts it, "chased off," they left fifty killed and wounded behind them. What the donkeys could have had as motive is hard to say. The chances ure that it will be found to have been religious fanaticism, and that the invading natives wero Mahommedans, who as a rule fight splendidly.

It should be stated that in the absence of detailed news, erroneous ideas as to the invasion may be held. The cable message speaks of" Zanzibar" being invaded. That may either mean the island called by that name, or it may mean the territory of Zanzibar, which includes that island, the islands of Pemba and Monfia, and some small ports on the mainland between the rivers Umba and Juba, in East Africa. It is therefore quite possible that in speaking of an invasion of Zanzibar no reference to operations by sea is necessarily involved. On the other hand, it ia not easy to suppose that if the mainland had been meant the message would not have contained some reference to the fact. The island of Zanzibar and that of Pemba aro the two most important portions of the territory. Zanzibar has an area of 625 square miles, and a population of 150,000, while Pemba has an area of 360 squaro miles, and a population of 50,000. The capital of the island of Zanzibar is a town of the same name, possessing 80,000 inhabitants.

Zanzibar a3 now defined was finally made a British Protectorate in 1890, by agreement between England and Germany. In October of the following year a Government was formed, General Mathews being appointed President. In 1892 the Sultan delegated to the British Agent and Consul-General the right to try all cases in which a British subject is plaintiff or accuser, and the British Court has also jurisdiction over all slaves freed by the British Agency. Civil cases are heard in the Consular Court, but there is the right of appeal to the High Court of Bombay. The religion of the whole of Zanzibar is Mahommedan, but of course all sects are tolerated, as is the case wherever the flag of Great Britain floats in the breeae. There nre many mission stations—Anglican, Eoman, Wesleyan, Congregationalist, &c. There is a French hospital in the town of Zanzibar, the nurses being French Sisters-of-Mercy, and a wealthy Hindoo, Sir Thoria Topan, has founded and completed a hospital for Indians.

The news with regard to the etearaer Port Chalmers, coming so soon after the wreck of the Catterthun, seems to point tho too obvious moral that there is much careless navigation. What we may say on tho question of the Catterthun, at this distance from the scene of the enquiry now taking place, cannot prejudicially affect the investigation, so that there is no reason again»t plain speaking. That the vessel was loet by reckless navigation would possibly be too hard a saying, but it i» already evident from the settlement of Langfear, who was in command at the time the Catterthun struck, that the couree taken by the chip was " cut too fine," as the common expression goes, and disaster resulted. As with the Wairarapa so with the Catterthun, the protecting light that would hare saved them was not seen, and instead of this causing any apprehension the vessel was sent bowling along near the coast with as much confidence as though twenty milee from land.

As to the Port Chalmers, why in the name of common sense should she be sent stem on into an iceberg ? Was there no look-out ? It must be borne in mind that it was not a small ice floe the steamer dashed into, but what is described as "an immense berg." Then it ought to have been seen. Iceberg 3 are asserted to be visible a good distance away on a dark night, for there appears to be some peculiar power lodged in them of emitting a faint light. But apart from that, the near neighbourhood of an iceberg can be felt, so that if the collision took place on a dark night, and the usuallyheld opinion about the visibility of bergs at night be but a superstition, a good look-out should have suspected danger a mile or two before the smash came, from the intense degreo of cold always expenencad in the vicinity of icebergs. But the Elbe disaster, and many other accidents at sea, prove only too conclusively that bad look-outs on the high seas are not uncommon.

The reference to the Butler conspiracy opens up a dreadful vista of iniquity, and that is so whether the crime of which Butler is now suspected should turn out to have been committed or not. Butler, with two other scoundrels, one a man and the other a woman, are now undergoing penal servitude for having conspired to falsely swear that Butler's wife had committed adultery, by which false evidence Butler obtained a divorce from his wife. The two male wretches were each sentenced to seven years' penal servitude, and the female to four year 3, while a solicitor named Rofe, who acted as counsel for Butlsr in the divorce action, has sinco been arrested on a charge of being privy to the conspiracy. Now that Butler is in gaol public attention ha 3 been drawn to the fact that in 1891 his employer, a chemist, died mysteriously, and a post mortem examination was only avoided by Butler representing that the dead man's widow would be put to mental anguish thereby. It is now considered the right thing to exhume the body of the dead man, with a view to discover if death was duo to poison. If that should turn out to bo the case, Butler will no doubt bo charged with murder.

Cub Ferdinand Las returned to Bulgaria, and the man who was arrested as one of the assaseins of Stambuloff has been discharged. It wa3 stated at the time of the arrest that Stambuloffi recognised him as one of his assailants. In any case, his discharge and the return of the "royal" biped suspected of being implicated in tho plot to assassinate Stainbuioff seem to have a bearing one upon the other. The murdered man was in many respects not worthy of much sympathy, for as a counterfoil to his acknowledged sagacity as a statesman ho was cruel and tyrannical to a marked degree, but for all that tho manner of his taking off was cowardly, and the attitude- of tho creature who was luxuriating at Carlsbad when the murder took place—establishing an alibi, as some think—has been most contemptible all through. Apparently there tiro only two alternatives before Bulgaria, revolution or a .Russian. Protectorate.