SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7593, 24 March 1886, Page 6

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

From onr files of London papere to February S weextraot the following items of news :—

GREAT FIRE IN MANCHESTER. A fire broke out about ten o'clock on the ni e ht of the 2nd February in a six-storied warehouse in Portland-street, Manchester, the heart of the mercantile portion of the city. The warehouse was occupied by Mr. Jamet Hamilton and Co., general merchants. The fire spread with great rapidity to premises in the same Mock, whioh is about 40 yards square, occupied by Messrs. John Faton, Son, and Co., npinners; Alex, and Hugh Paton, commission agents, and other firms. Thence the flumes spread to the Urge warehouse fronting on to Portland' ■treet, whioh is occupied by Messrs. George Peak and Co., Manchester merchants. In less than half an hour the block was a mass of flame, and despite the efforts of the whole available strength of the Fire Brigade, with three Bteam-eogines, the fire practioally burned out the building to the walls. A whioh occupied a corner in the ■ear, was also burned out, The damage will probably exoeed £100,000. FOUNDERING OF A BRITISH SHIP. The steamship German landed at Plymouth •n the 3rd February Captain Versey and nine of the survivors of the British ship Hudson, of Glasgow, whioh capsized 120 miles south of Blettingbmrgs Bay during a terrific gale. The vessel was bound from Java to Falmonth with sugar, and when between Mosael Bay and Algoa Bay she experienced the full force of a very heavy •torm from the south-eaiit. The Hudson was under canvas at the time, and a sudden ■quail drove her on her beam ends. The oargo shifted, and the ma its were out away with a view to righting, but she was next etrtick by a tremendous si>a and hurled right over, sinking immediately. A boat had been previously provisioned, and six of the men had got into it. They managed to get clear, and picked up the captain, a native of Torquay, and two of the crew, but the remainder, fifteen in number, were, as previously reported in brief, drowned The survivors pulled abo at for eixty hours, and were then picked ap. STRANGE OCCURRENCE AT SEA. A ■mall smack, named the Columbine, which trades betweenLerwick and Sumbnrgh, in the Shetlands. started from Grutness harbour on the 26th January for Lerwick. The wind was blowing from the south-east, and a heavy sea was running. When about ionr miles on bis course, the skipper of the amaak, James Jamieaon, was knocked overboard. The other two men forming the crew hove the vessel to and put off in a boat to attempt to save their companion, leaving no one on board bat a woman passenger. The attempt to save the capiain was fruitless, and the two men, to their consternation, found that the vessel had. got under weigh again and wai standing off to sea. They pulled after the boat us hard as they could; but the sea was heavy, and the smask rapidly increased her distance from them. At last they gave up the attempt as hopeless, ami turned for the shore, which they reached with difficulty. On their story being made known an attempt was made to launch a large boat at Sandlodge to proceed in search of the smack ; but thie was found impossible owing to the heavy sea* breaking on the coast. Telegrams were then despatched for the assistance of the only steamer that happened to be at the island at the time, the Gipsy, of Aberdeen, which was lyinj;; at Midyell, and that vessel left to prosecuto the search. The passenger on board was an elderly we man named Moceat, who wan suffering from illness and was going to Lerwick for medical i.dvice. There were enough pro visions on board to last a week. Up to the Ist February the search had proved unsuccessful, and the most experienood men had given mp all hope of the recovery of the craft. FALL OF BOUSES AT HOLLOWAY— FIVE PERSONS KILLED. A lamentable accident cenrred shortly before three o'olock on tbe 2nd February in the Holloway Road, near the Great Northern Railway Bridge, The isolated front wall of four old hounesi which had been used for the past three months or more as a hoarding for advertising posters, suddenly tuocsimbed to a gust of wind, fell across the pavement, and killed five persons who were passing at the time. The wiill, about 80 feet in length, was part of a block of about fifteen old and dilapidated tenements. About n year acda-balf agoarowof houses was pulled down and new shops built. The whole of the remaining block of old houses was (iiivested of roofs and floors, and demolished in all but the front wall of nine-inch brickwork and small portions of the party-walls, about 10 leet in length and about 4 feet high above the ground. All this demolition would appear to have been effected months ago. Between the new shop* and the end of the wall which has fallen was a pasisge about three feet wide, so at this end the Mien wall had scarcely any support. The police were scon on the spot. and a search of the ruins was instituted. Five dead bodies were recovered—those, namely, of two boys and three women. The two boys killed were Albert Staonard, 87, George's Road, and James Webster, 53 Hornsey Road. One woman has not yet been identified. The other two were Mrs. Taylor, 21, Eden Groye, and Francesco Forto, an Italian birdseller.

AN APPALLING SERIES OF CRIMES. An extraordinary and appalling series of orixneo wm committed at Lyons on February 2. The outrages began with the shooting, at the door of her house, of a young dressmaker, Mdlle. Malziao, by a man named Tony Goignais, whose dishonourable importunities she had indignantly repulsed. On hearing the report of the revolver, two firemen ran up and tried to seize the murderer, fie immediately fired cipon them twice. One fell to the ground with a ballet in the thigh, and the other received the ballet in hie breast. The murderer then took to his heels, pursued by a crowd, crying, " A Vaamssin /" A man named iasquinot ran forward from the roadside to itop him, but was immediately disabled with * ballet in the leg. Two soldiers of the ine then did their best to catch him, but vere likewise shot in the leg and side. By hia time, all the barrels were disoharged, oat the murderer continued his flight. On reaching a hoase in the Rne de Chartrea he rushed in, funtening the door behind him, and soon appeared at the upper windows, with hie re-lo,a,ded weapon. He then fired into the crowd, aiod the bullet, just grazing the cheek of a child, flattened itself against the pavement By this time an entrance from the back of the house had been obtained by several men, who, after escaping two or three more bullets, succeeded in disarming the savage, and he was soon in the hands of the police. Mdlle, Malziac and the two firemen are so dangerously wounded that their lives are despaired of, The other three persons shot are expected to recover. When questioned, the murderer deolared that having, as he believed, killed Mdlle. Malziao he became possessed with a frenzy whioh made him heedless of the number of his victims. LOST IN LONDON'. A somewhat extraordinary case it reported. It appears that a family named Oox bad lived for some time past in Elliott's-row, St. George's Road, Southwark. On Tuesday, the 29th January, the family moved to a honse in a taming off the Walworth Road ; bat, in order that Mrs. Cox should not be worried with the moving, she, with her baby, about six weeks old, went to Bayswater to stay at the house of a friend. Mrs. Cox remained there during Tuesday night, bat started at three o'clouk the next afternoon to her new home, whioh she had seen previous to the moving. She was not certain of the name of the street, but she felt tare that she could find it, and went by the underground railway to Westminster Bridge. From this point she started to walk to her home, and got as far as the Klepbant and Castle. According to her own statement, she eearohed for Duke-stroet (there is no such street in the neighbourhood), thinking that to be the name of the street to which her household had removed ; but, after wandering through the neighbourhood for several hours, she could not discover her new home, all her inquiries and searches proving futile. During the whole of thin time she wai carrying her baby about with her. The little child was warmly clad and wrapped in a shawl. As the shops began to close, Mrs. determined to give up the search and find a lodging. At eleven o'clock that night she found herself near a private hotel, in Newiogton Batts, known as the Queen's Head. Here she engaged a room ; but she had no -sooner sat down than she found that her child was lifeless. She seemed completely dazed at the discovery, and it was some time before ■he could offer any explanation. Ultimately a policeman was called in, and Mrs. Cox and hot child were taken to the Kennington-lane

police-station, where Dr. Fair, the divisional surgeon, pronounced the child dead. The mother, however, seemed to hare lost her memory, and it was some time before ahe could make the statement which is given above. The body of the child was conveyed to the Newington Mortuary ; and after Mrs. Cox had made another but futile search for her home in company with a polioe sergeant, she was taken in an exhausted condition to St. Saviour's Union Workhouse. The cause of the child's death ia supposed to be exposure to tho cold.