BISHOP BUGNION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 4920, 24 November 1876, Page 3

BISHOP BUGNION.

(South Australian Register, Oet, II.) Among the passengers by the mail steamer is Bishop Bugnion, who states that he has returned to the Colony at the request of the Government, in order that some fresh arrangement may be entered into with respeot to the bishop’s proposed scheme for the colonisation of the Northern Territory. Although expressing himself disappointed at the non-ratifloa-tion of his first agreement, be is still tanguine of the success of his scheme if the present Government will take the matter up. After leaving Sydney, the Bishop informs us that he proceeded to San Francisco, en route for London. On bis way through America he visited the Mennonite and other Hussion colonies in Kansas, Nebraska, and Omaha, The Bishop reports that tne Russian colonists are very dissatisfied with the treatment they have received at the hands of the Government of the United States. This bos made them desirous of leaving their present quarters, and Bishop Bugnion believes they would be willing to migrate to the Northern Territory. In fact, when the matter was put before then by the bishop, the colonists appeared delighted with the prospect ho opened out to them. But of course nothing could be done until the ratification of (he agreement by the Parliament here. Bishop Bugnion has, however, appoiuted an agent in California, through whom all the necessary arrangements may be made. On reaching England, the bishop, finding from the Agent-General ttiat no news had been received from Adelaide, proceeded to Switzerland and Italy. In Geneva he published a pamphlet containing an account of his journey to Australia, and the mission on which he was engaged. This excited muoh attention in Switzerland and Italy, and the bishop received numerous applications from persons engaged in winegrowing and silk-cultivation desirous of emigrating to the Colony. Pending farther arrangements, be appointed agents in Geneva and Trieste, in order that if on his return here the matter could be arranged, there might be no necessity for him to visit Europe again. From Italy he proceeded to the Sclav provinces and the south of Bussia, to visit the people with whom he is more particularly connected. He found them all much excited by his proposed emigration scheme, and eager to be gone before the three years of grace granted by the Russian Government expired. This period, as our readers already know, is now, unfortunately, at an end. The difficulties of an extensive emigration from Russia would therefore, the bishop fears, be very muoh increased. On receiving the news of the non-ratification of the agreement by the Parliament, the bishop feared to damp the spirits of the intending Russian and Sclav emigrants by imparting the intelligence to them. The almost simultaneous outbreak of the Servian war, however, afforded him a way out of the difficulty, as it necessarily rendered egress from the Danubian ports by no means easy. Fending, therefore, the result of his return visit to Australia, the bishop directed his agents ia Bussia and the Daijubian provinces to inform the people that nothing further could be done in the matter until after the cessation of Hostilities in the provinces. The bishop is thoroughly confident in the success of his scheme if the sanction of the Government of the colony can be obtained.