HOME NEWS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 8918, 15 June 1897, Page 1

HOME NEWS.

THE ADVANCE ON DONQOLA. On Monday Raute- pab ishcd a statement, evidently inspired, that an advance is to be made on D >ngol% to Abo H*med as soon as the rise of the Nile mikes it possible fur the steamers oow on th« Merawi reach to pass ay the fourth oataraot. Thia, however, will not take pl^ce till Jaly. When the movement begins the time occupied wIM not be long, as ihe distance «long the river is only 100 miles. It fs not thought probable that any formidable resistance will be ottered hy the Mahdiat garrison at Aba Humed. The advantages of occupying Abo Hamed are obvious. It is not really an advance into the heart of the hostile Soadan, for i Abu Hamed ia north of Merawi. Yet when it has been occupied, and the rail* way, as Is intended, has been extended from Wady Haifa, it will be possible to organise a flntil a which will be able to adv»noa on short notict on Berber or Khartoum. From a little »bore Aba flamed 1b practically open water to Khartoum. The work of railway oonstraotloo la nothing very tremendoui. The distance is about 200 miles, and of these 30 are already completed. Tot adrnuce ia not a new attack on tho Khalifa, bat merely tbe establishment of an outpoat from which the real advance c*n be made with comparative ease.

A GREAT SCAXJDAL EXPLODED. A scandal which itu rest a many conn* tries was reye»'ed in P*iis on Tuesday! A man mined Le ■> Taxil, by birth a Marseillaise, has for a long time past been puff ng a woman named L>i»na V<*ughao, ■vho h < declared was the secret, head of the Freemasons, who w--e alleged, la America x< lenst, to be devoted to the worbh'p of Satan Sic herself, ander the aaapice? of Gneral Pyk^, an old and respected Arne icati Mason, wai ratnied <o Asmnnwas, a devil of high rank. This rabbi* h found believera among some c'pric^l aud ignoraok Catholics, Leo Taxil «r»s received io audience by the Pup-, and be greatest interest: was manifest d in Diioa Vaoghan, who was npreseited as alncerply repentant and a convert to Catholicism, and to whom Cardinal Purocchio, a candidate for the Papacy, acraally wrote a letter of sympathy. Taxil h«s now mad* a pnlio speech in Parh in which in the presence of maoy priests he confessed that the whole story was a glgaotio hoax gob up by Mm oat of sheer lore of mystlfioation, DUna Vaughan being a typewriter of hia acquaintance and who knew nothing of General Pike or Aamodeus either. The aodienoe were very much inclined to lynch M. Taxil, who had to be protected by the police, and whose motive for bis discreditable imposture they evidently doubted. He was probably seeking oash. Hit stories had a ready sale ; and there art men in Paris who wonld do anything to discredit the Catholic Churcb, which, no doubt, is inclined by tradition to be ra her credalnus abou> Freemmonry.