MAIL NEWS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8316, 18 October 1895, Page 4

MAIL NEWS.

MR a. A. BALA.

The New York Sun of September 14, bai a London special to the effect tbat general sympathy ia felt for George Augustas Sala, who has beeo lying at Brighton for months -grievously sick, tfnd now became a bankrupt. a couple of years ago Mr Sala, to all appearances, was happy and prosperous, wiob a youog and devoted wife, plenty of work, and an undiminiehad capacity to do it. To-day, he is a mental' and pbys oal wreck. Id is understood that his financial troubles are doe to unfortunate investment, and not to wild speculation, as has bsen unchar.tably suggested, and mainly to the failure of the weekly newspaper in which most of the savings of hia lifetime were swallowed up. Mr Sala maie the mistake of supposing that the tnigic of his name almost alone would be sufficient to make the paper h success, and he was unable to realise tbat his aty!e and methods had become old-fashion d. He clung desp°ra ely to the paper, lacked the courage to stop, and finally became a ruined man. Few, excepb his friends, koew how badly fortune was using h m until about a month ago, when the sale of his library took place, and then no room was left for doubt. Mr Sa a's books were part of himself, and only the direst straits could have induced him to part with them. A good many people wondered why Sir Edward Liweon, the millionaire proprietor of the Lmdon Daily Telegraph and Mr Sala's friend and Ufa-long employer, did not save the veteran writer's cherished possessions from being scattered to the f ur corners of the world ; but, doubtles, a sufficient reason is that) he would not aßk for it. Meanwhile ib is pleasant to note that the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph h^ s placed Mr Sala on a pension of LlOOO a year.

THE FINANCIAL CBAZE IN EHGLAND. A cable to the New York Sun from London, September 7tb, saya : Tbe financial madness which be;an to spread among the English public laat spring reached what) is probably it* culminating st^ge I his week. Never during the present generation, baa there been such an amazing display of insane folly and recklessness in speculation as there is now being witnessed. The South Africa and West Australian mining craze has grown until hundreds of millions of pounds have been poured intojall manner of enterprises by tbe general public. Most of the schemes a-e advanced by Barney Burn*to, whose fame is now wide-world. He has been so successful that his name is sufficient to draw millions from the pocket! of the gain-thiratiDg pubic without other guarantee. Tbe sum wbch this man ba3 been abte to draw into the treasuries of his enterprises in the form of popular subscriptions has now amounted to to the amazing total of L30,000,0Q0. Hiß last coup is the most astonishing, possibly in financial history. He put on the market last Monday (September 2) the stook of the Burnato Banking, Mining and Estate Corporation, Limited. No prospectuses were issued, nor any statement of constitution, objects, or management of the scheme. One or two preliminary deals were made with •yndieates, whose members cleared more than L 2.000 000 in a single day by unloading on tbe pub ic. Demands for shares of this bank, when offered for sale on the Sbook exchange on Monday, seemed limitless. One pound ■bares sold in immense quantises before business closed at L 4 and over. This is equivalent to the capitalisation of more than L1t5,000,000, of an undefined financial proposition, which has hardly begun business. Men of finance, who are not infected by this strange madness, are wondering how soon tbe crash will com p. Kaffir specu'ation has been greatly stimulated by French and German support, and it has been well known daring the paßt few days that strong i efforts are being made to prolong ie by carrying tbe infection to American porti Everybody, whose opinion ia worth anything, believes that tbe whole mining market is fearfully top-heavy. Those who are induced to invest &t the present inflated prices will hardly deserve much sympathy if they come to grief.

OSCAR WILDE'S FUTURE. Friends of Osc*r Wilde who have viaited him in bia London prison say that he continues to enjoy good heal h add is making the best of the situation, albbongh be frequently expresses the wißh to die. Those who are interested in bhe future ofc the disgraced man have been discussing (according to a despatch of August 24) what Wide will do when he leaves prison. Although nothing definite appears to be decided, it is generally believed (hat he will be smuggled out of the country, and enabled to begin life anew, under another name, depending upon his pen for a living.

PROGRESS OF THE HAWAIIAN CABLE SCHEME. Colonel S. R. Spalding, who lately received from the Hawaiian Goreminent s franchise for a cable line between the Islands and California, arrived at) Washington, D.0., on September 12, from San Francisco. He left for Europe on Saturday, 14th, where he will join his family in Switzerland. Spaldiug bai been promised private subscriptions to stock the company amounting to L 1,000,000,, 000,000, and hopes the United States Government will grant a yearly subsidy, which, in connection with thab granted by Hawaii, will enable sufficient) money to be raised to carry out the project). As soon as the Con gress assembles a charter will be asked for by a company of American capitalists, to whom Spaldiog will assign his concession from Hawaii, an 4 the probabilities are the line will be commenced at once. S. Spalding laid his Pacific cable project before the trustees of the San Francisco Chntnbor of Commerce, on August 23, and received pledges of , sympathy for bis project, and sub* >

sbaotial aid when the time came to (five it. Colonel Spalding is a Hawaiian sugar-planter, bub an American citizen and a voter in San Francisco. He first went to the Sandwich Islands in 1867, as » confidential agent) of the United States Government. He beoame American Consul at Honolulu, and for a time was in charge of the American Legation, as Charge D'Affairea. Then he engaged in sugar-planting. His relations with California and Honolulu have been constant, and he has crossed that porbion of the Pacific Ocean beneath which be hopes to lay a cable uo less th*n 75 times. A London despatch of September IBbh says : The news that an American sugar-plantar has obtained an exclusive right to land a sub-marine cable in Hawaii is the occasion of much disou sion here among the advocates of a Britith cable to the Islands.

A STRANGE STORY. A remarkab'e story comes from Athens, on Augusb 27, thab William i Hague Wood, once a Methodist Uy preacher, recently turned infidel. He attended a revival meeting several nights duriog the week at High S bonds, near Athens, and ran an opposition meeting outside the church, declaring that tbe preachers were talking nonsense, that they were frauds and deceiving the people. On Sund«y his tongue was paralysed while he whs making a speech ridiculing the church. This frightened his bearers. On the 27th, Wood attended tbe revival meeting, and handeJ up the following note to the preacher in charge : '' £ no« believe there is a hell, and that I am doomed to it. Pray for me." The sensation in the coagregation was such thab, in less bhan 6ve minutes, the altar would not accommodate half the mourners.

A TREMENDOUS EARTHQUAKE. A despatch from Pequigalpa, Hon* darus, oo September 12, mentions tbab a courier arrived there the day before, and announced the most terrible earthquake ever known in tbab section. The loss of life and property is tremendous. Three hundred paople are said to have perished. The shocks commenced on Sunday, September Bth, and lasted all day and night at in erva's. During Monday night, sheets of flames appeared at differenb points bo the north-wesb. rising to immense heights. Many fleeing people were killed by rocks which fell in a perfecb shower like a baileborm. Streams of molten lava set fire to a number of houses on the mountain side. Cattle w* re engulfed in bhe lava, which flowed in immense streams. Help for the victims is being a9ked for from bhe capital.

RAVAGFS OF CHOLERA. The cholera is increasing ia Peking, according to despatches received SepbPinber 3rd, and deaths exceed 150 daily. The total number of cholera cases reported throughout Japan, on August 29, was 771, and the deabhs 429. The aggregate number of ca3es from the outbreak of the disease is 25,000, of which 1230 occurred in transports, and the deaths 16,278. There were 18 new case* in T^kio in the 14 hours ending at noon, Augusb 21, of which t«o died. A telegram from Mr C hind as, Japanese Consul at Shanghai, reports 263 deaths among Chinese, and seven among foreigners in tbe British and American conces* aions between the lsb and 13bh of August. Another c*se had occurred on the Italian cruiser Rubria, bringing up the total number of cases on thab vessel to eight. In the province of Volkynia, from August 18 to August 24 inclusive, 5849 cases of cholera were reported, and 2134 deaths resulted from the disease. In the province of Fodoiia, from the 21st to the 31at of August, 101 cases and 45 deaths were reported. The cholera is spreading in Tangier. There were 18 deaths on September IS. Tbe disease is also working southward into Africa. Cases were reported from Tetuan on the evening of the 18th September.

It is sad to see family relica sold at auction, bat the most painful thing under the hammer is generally your thumb nail. The men of science say that the way for a man to secure sleep is to think of nothing. Bat they are wrong. The way to secure sleep is to think it) is time to get up, A leading jeweller in the West End of London asserts that) earings are slowly bub surely coming inbo vogue once more, and that the revival prognosticates a change in the syle of head-dress and in the arrangement of the hair.