LATEST CABLE NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 88, 16 February 1881, Page 2

LATEST CABLE NEWS.

* [Reuter's Special to Star.] London, February 14. The House of Commons has decided in committee that the Irish Coercion Bill shall be retrospective in its operation, and shall give the Viceroy of Ireland power to make arrests for offences prior to October 1, 1880. Parnell has been absent from the House of Commons for a week, and is believed to be visiting Paris. The Ladies' League in Ireland is daily increasing the agitation in regard to the land question. Two regiments of cavalry and 1000 infantry have been ordered to proceed to Natal to farther reinforce Sir George Colley in the Transvaal. A meeting took place in Hyde Park to-day in opposition to the measures proposed by the Government for the settlement of the agitation in Ireland. Several violent speeches were made, and copies of the Irish Coercion Bill were burned on the platform. It is announced that instructions have been sent by the Government to Sir Geo. Colley that he should ask President Brand, of the Orange Free State, to inform the Boers that, if they suspended hostilities, England would be prepared to arrange a permanent and amicable settlement of affairs in the Transvaal. . Capetown, F -binary 14. Intelligence has been received that the Basutos have suffered defeat, with heavy loss, at the hands of the Cape forces, on the sth February. Telegrams to hand from Natal report that the force under Sir G. Colley is now completely isolated between Newcastle and Ingongo, and no communication with it is possible. Negotiations for the cessation of hostilities between the Cape forces and the Basutos have recently been proceeding throughout Basutoland and Transkei.