SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9179, 8 October 1888, Page 6

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

By the'arrival of the R.M.s. Alameda, from Sydney last night, we have received London newspaper files to August 24, from which we extract the following items : — FEARFUL STORMS IN AUSTRIA. Particulars of the destructive storms that have passed over Austria show that by far the worst that has visited the country lately swept over the district of Mistelbach last Friday night. A succession of waterspouts, accompanied by incessant thunder and lightning, made fearful havoc in rive large villages, uprooting trees for miles around, and destroying the crops. Thirty-one houses were entirely and more than 100 partially, reduced _to ruins. The inmates had difficulty in escaping with their lives, and the panic was indescribable. Many of the fugitives had no time to iress, and were compelled to face the storm With but scant attire. Parents lost their children, and terror and confusion were on all sides. Cattle were carried away wholesale by the floods, and no fewer than 40 persons lost their lives, some being struck by lightning and others drowned ii« the rising waters. At Neiderleis a family from Vienna, who had just arrived by rail were driving across a bridge, when the roaring torrent swept it away, and the strangers, consisting of two men, a woman, and a child, were all drowned. The disaster has caused widespread distress. A terrible thunderstorm, says a Vienna correspondent, burst over the neighbourhood of Kornneuburg, near Vienna. Thirty-five large houses and farm buildings have been destroyed by the floods. Immense stocks of corn are damaged, and 70 pigs were drowned. The people had to take refuge in the trees. Three persons were killed at Aspern, the village where Napoleon I. was defeated by the Austrians, and in two adjacent villages 30 houses were submerged, and it is said that 12 persons were killed. The damage done to the crops is very great. MR. ODONNELL AND MR. PARNELL. Mr. O'Donnell has written a letter. from Italy instructing his solicitor to commence an action for libel against Mr. Parnell, for having charged him with having been in collusion with the Times in bringing his late action against that paper. Before acting upon these instructions, Mr. O'DonneU's solicitor has taken counsel's advice, with the result that a letter has been written to Mr. O'Donnell, advising him under the circumstances not to persist in bringing his action. Mr. O'Donnefl's solicitor, is awaiting Mr. O'Donnell's reply before proceeding further in the matter. MURDER AND SUICIDE BY A BARONESS. A family tragedy was enacted at Karancsalie, in Hungary, on Tuesday. A lady— Baroness Pongratz—shot her two children and then herself while her husband was out on a sporting expedition. It is supposed that she was driven to her desperate deed by poverty. THE GLADSTONIANS AND MR. PARNELL. The London correspondent of the Dublin Express hears it is said to be the intention of the Gladstonian party to defray the whole of Mr. ParnelTs costs in defending himself and his friends from the attacks of the Times, and Mr. Brunner, it is alleged, has put down his name for £000. A FATAL BLOW. A curious accident occurred yesterday to a man named Peter Mansell, a prominent member of the Salvation Army in Guernsey. Mansell and his sou were engaged in driving an iron spike into a wall. The father held the spike while the son struck with a heavy hammer, used in granite-cracking. After a time the sun remarked that lie thought the spike was far enough in, whereupon the father said, " .No ; give another blow." This he did, when the hammer head flew off, struck the wall, and in rebounding struck the lather in the abdomen, killing hill) on the spot. THE BANKER'S DAUGHTER AND THE CLOWN. A Bolton correspondent says :—A Southport banker's daughter recently became enamoured of a clown performing in a travelling circus. She stole away from home secretly, and married him on Wednesday at the Bolton Registry Office, her father being unable to prevent the marriage in time. THE WEDDING DRESS OF A PRINCESS. The wedding dress of the Princess Laetitia Bonaparte, who is about to be married to her uncle, the Duke of Ajsta, is of White moire, in the style of the First Empire, and is ornamented with silver cmbrodiery and festoons of orange blossoms. The Princess will wear on her wedding day a splendid diadem ol diamonds. The long bridal veil of moire is embroidered with MO silver bees and 160 eagles, the emblems of the House of Bonaparte.