GENERAL MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8387, 15 October 1890, Page 5

GENERAL MAIL NEWS.

MUTINOUS CONDUCT IN JAMAICA. Advices from Jamaica state that the investigation of the circumstances attending the shooting of Sergeant White showed that the Sergeant threatened to shoot Captain Norris and other officers, in consequence of having been refused permission to visit his family ; and while the officers were absent be secured seventy rounds of ammunition, and took possession of the A de 9 Battery, without any attempt be ; made to prevent him by the men on gutud. Corporal Allen and eight men were ordered to proceed to the fort to arrest White, and to fire if fired upon by the mutineer. They marched to within 500 yards of the fort, and then retreated, because White threatened to shoot them. Captain Norris again ordered them to advancc, and insisted upon the escort capturing or shooting White. They went a short distance, but a second time retreated on the same pretext as before, saying that they could not go, and that White threatened to shoot them. Captain Norris theh said, "If you won't go, I'll go myself." But finding that his West India escort were panic-stricken, heob Sained theservices of 20 gunnersand sappers, who subsequently captured the fort and killed White. Captain Brett, in giving evidence at the investigation, said that he had come to the conclusion that shots were fired at the escort by other soldiers in the fort besides White. Major-General Justice subsequently paraded the battalion, and disrated several non - commissioned officers for unsoldierlike conduct and disgraceful disregard of duty during White's mutiny stripping off their badges. The General said he hoped that he would never again hare to resort to such an expedient for maintaining discipline, or that any of the men under his command would ever act in a manner so unlike a soldier. Thirty-seven men of the Ist Battalion, with disrated non-commissioned officers, were sent to Barbadoes. The affair has created great excitement in the West Indies. TRAFFIC IN HUMAN HAIR. Eighty thousand pounds of human hair, valued at £319, appear in the trade returns of Canton, and it could be wished that it did not, says our Consul there, for as the majority comes from the heads of beggars, criminals, and dead persons, it is not pleasant to think of its being worn by the ladies at home, even although it goes through long processes of purification before it is made up into the wigs, chignons, waterfalls, etc. GREAT FAILURE IN NEW YORK. Messrs. Sawyer, Wallace and Co., who have been for a generation the leading produce merchants of New York, have failed. Their last year's business amounted to fifty millions of dollars, and was transacted through nearly two hundred agents, resident in every leading city in Europe. The affairs of the firm are so large and intricate that an accurate estimate of the liabilities is impossible, but they probably amount to two millions of dollars. The entire business has been assigned absolutely, without reserve for any preference creditor, or even of the partners' personal property.

I A SOOTH AFRICAN UNION. | Replying to a toast at a banquet given in his honour at Kimberley, Mr. Rhodes, the Premier of Cape Colony, said that the Goj vernment was pursuing the policy of knitting together the South African States. A meeting had been arranged to be held at Bloernfontein in December next, with the obeject of extending the railway thence to the Vial River, with the hope of ultimately making a connection with the Delagoa Bay line. Regarding the Swaziland Convention, Mr. Rhodes said: — " The Government feel that, if fair privileges are granted to every Transvaal citizen, that State will not be displeased with the terms which Great Britain will deal out to her." The Premier then went onto say : "If we can have a complete Customs union and a complete connection by railway, we shall be fairly on the way to a union. By a South African Union we mean perfoct free trade in our own commodities, perfect and complete internal railway connection, and a general Customs union stretching from Delagoa Bay to Walfisch Bay. The question of the flag may be settled in the future. If not, we may well be satisfied to call the points mentioned United South Africa." A NEW EPIDEMIC. A new epidemic has, it is stated, made its appearance in a remote corner of Paris, near the little Commune of Gentilly. It is a sort of infectious fever, described as partaking of diphthera, cholera, and smallpox. Within a fortnight 16 children have died, and many are still ill. The disease is very rapid in its action, the patient often dying within 48 hours. The inhabitants of the district are convinced that the epidemic is the result of the infectious vapours arising from a quantity of earth which has recently been carted to a spot close by from an old cemetery. A RUNAWAY WIFE. A woman who ran away from her husband after sixteen years of married life at Bolton, was traced by detectives and her husband to Liverpool, whence she was about to sail in the Warren liner Norseman for Boston, together with a barman and her three children. After a stormy scene at the Liverpool Detectives' Office, it was settled that the woman should return to Bolton with her children and her husband, the barman crossing the Atlantic alone.

FIRE AND FLOOD. Salonica has been the scene of a terrible fire. The British and other Consulates, the cathedral, several churches and public buildings have been destroyed. Twelve hundred houses have been burned to the ground, and thousands of the inhabitants are without shelter. According to accounts from Prague there has been a terrible destruction of property and loss of life in consequence of the rise of the waters of the Moldau, which runs through the town. A large proportion of the tow.i is under water, and many blocks of houses are surrounded by a rushing torrent, impassable even by boats. The central arch of the famous Carlsbrucke, which spans the Moldau, has collapsed, having been undermined by the current. Three persons are reported to have lost their lives through the collapse, and 19 out of 20 pioneers who were sent on rescue work are reported to have been drowned. From other parts of Austria, and also from Bavaria, reports of serious floods are received.

HIDDEN TREASURE. A forcible illustration of the danger which people incur who attempt to be their own bankers has just been made known at Hildesheim, in Germany. A peasant, in the course of a long lifetime spent in hard work, amassed a large sum of money. He died recently, and his grandson discovered, hidden in the bolster of his bed, a thick roll of crisp bank notes, which, on closer examination, was found to bear a surface value of several thousand thalers. The notes bore the wellknown form of the springing horse of the Kingdom of Hanover and the arms of other States of the German Fatherland. The roll consisted of 10-thaler, 5-thaler, and 1-thaler paper, which some ten years ago ceased to be of any value, "he whole treasure, which had lain so carefully beneath the "easy head" of this peasant, is of no greater value than a packet of old newspapers.