General News.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 361, 11 January 1879, Page 21

General News.

SUEZ MAIL NEWS. London, November 26. The presence of Russian cruisers in Chinese waters continues to give cause for most watchful vigilance. The Frolic arrived here on the 28th, aud reported the arrival of Russian monitors at Smertch, Uragan, Edinorog, aud Peroon, at Bakadi, a gulf of the Pacific in the extreme north of Japan. It was considered advisable to send on the Illy, Magpie, and Frolic, by different routes, to intercept the Admiral on his cruise, and advise him of the Muscovite advent. The locked out agricultural laborers of Kent and Sussex assembled to the number of between 5000 and 6000 at Exeter Hall, with a view of enlisting the sympathies of the working classes. Resolutions condemnatory of the actions of farmers and of existing land laws, and expressing a determination to support the men in their endeavor to support the Union, were passed. Offers of help from Indian chiefs still continue. The health of the troops is good. The Turkomans are willing to co-operate with the British against either Russians or Afghans. The exposition of St. Francis Xavier has taken place at Algoa. There was immense enthusiasm and elaborate ceremonial. The number of Catholics who attended is incalculable. London, November 22. Lord Beaconsfield’s declaration in his Guildhall speech, that the object of the threatened Afghan war was to acquire a secure frontier, has provoked an animated discussion in the Press. Eminent Jurists have written elaborate letters in The Times justifying or condemning hostilities with the Ameer for such a purpose. In Turkey a more cheerful feeling prevails. The confidence expressed by Beaconsfield in regard to the intention of the Russian Government was followed immediately by the Czar’s re-assuring message declaring his determination to carry out the Berlin treaty in. its entirety. which has tended to tranquilise the public mind. The Russian Press, too, has been bridled, and no longer indulges in menaces and defiances. The Russian Government has sent a circular despatch to its representatives abroad declaring that the strict execution of the Berlin Treaty is the basis of the Imperial policy. Many of the alarming statements made months ago regarding the Russians’ movements in Roumelia are contradicted by a Times correspondent on the spot. Serious disturbances occurred at Hamburg in consequence of an official order prohibiting a torchlight procession arranged iu honor of deputy houses. Thirteen influential citizens were wounded ; some are since dead. A Nihilist conspiracy has been discovered at Ivessio, in Siberia. Twenty-nine conspirators have been arrested. They iutended to massacre the inhabitants and turn the buildings into an arsenal. The appointment of a Papal nuncio to England is abandoned. In the Antonelli law suit the Court of Appeal has decided in favor of the brothers of Antonelli. The Countess Lambartini is required to give the name of her father. Cape advices state that fighting has recommenced in Transvaal. An overwhelming force the Kaffirs compelled a British detachment 500 strong to fall back. Subsequently, in making a night attack on the English, they were repulsed with heavy loss. Military preparations are being actively carried on by the Colonial Government. The alleged proposal of a supplementary Congress to amend the Berlin Treaty does not find favor amongst the signatory Powers. France, Italy, and Russia have been exercising pressure upon the Porte to induce Turkey to come to an arrangement with Greece. The Sultan’s Ministers have agreed to the principle of the ratification of frontiers, but are objecting to the definition recommended at Berlin” They are willing to give an equivalent in the direction of Valor. Princess Alice, her husband, son, and four daughters have been suffering from malignant diptheria, and the youngest daughter died. Lord Justice Christie has retired from the Irish Court of Appeal through ill-health. Gerald Fitz Gibbon has been appointed his successor. The election of Fred. Leighton to the Presidency of the Royal Academy gives univex-sal satisfaction. The Duke of Cumberland has announced his resolve not to abdicate his rights to the Crown of Hanover. The contents of Gads-Hill House, including many articles which belonged to the late Charles Dickens, were recently sold by auction. At the Paris Exhibition, which closed on the 10th, the total number of admissions was over 16,0u0,000, averaging about. 82,000 per day. The gross receipts since the Ist of May amounted to 12,653,743 francs, exceeding by nearly 3,000,000 francs those of 1567. Great distress exists in the labor market, and wag’es reductions are announced in almost every branch of trade. There are alarming reports of distress and destitution in homes from the Black Country.

CHINA AND JAPAN. (own correspondent oe the press agency.) Shanghai, November 28. The Customs returns for this port for the last quarter compare favorably with toe corresponding quarter of 1877, showing a slight increase in the amount of duty collected. The Marquis Tseing, the newly-appointed Chinese Minister to France and England, left Shanghai for Europe two days ago, taking with him his wife and family. Since his short stay in Shanghai he has made himself very popular, and be seems desirous to cultivate the good wishes of foreigners. The results of his mission are being looked forward to with much interest, as it is thought the Marquis i> just the man to help China in the onward movement believed to be commencing. Great interest is taken by the Chinese in the Afghan affair. A 'telegram which reached here yesterday states that Sir Thomas Wade instead of coming direct to China will proceed to Lahore to confer with the Viceroy as to the attitude of Russia and China with regard to the possession of Kashgar. This telegram is exciting a lively interest amongst the Chinese, aud it is believed in very high official circles an alliance may be come to between China aud England to oppose the advance of Russia in Central Asia. If Russia should openly support Shere Ali, and England be in need of outside help, China might prove no insignificant auxilliary. The British schooner Barbara Taylor aud an Italian have been lost on the coast of Corea. It is believed no lives were lost, and it appears the shipwrecked crew were kindly treated by the natives. The results of the boring operations near Teintsin are very satisfactory. A depth of 216 feet has been reached, and three seams of coal have been struck, one two and four feet thick respectively, and there are indications of a deeper seam. The quality is said to befully equal to the best Welsh coal imported. A staff of engineers and miners has been sent for from Europe or America, and that mining operations will be actively prosecuted. The working of these coal mines will have a serious effect on the importation of foreign coal, besides probably leading to the establishment of cotton mills and similar industries in China. Indeed a large building is now being erected near Shanghai for a cotton mill. Native grown cotton is of very inferior kind, but it is cheap, and it is thought may be worked up into materials suitable for the Chinese, and sold at a lower price than imported goods of a similar class. There was a serious affray on board the American ship Gold Hunter last week. The police went aboard to.arrest some of the crew. The arrest was resisted. The captain armed himself, his officers, and the police. A brisk fire on both sides was kept up, and the crew ultimately were driven into the forecastle. Owing, probably, to the darkness of the night when the affray took place no lives were lost, but several were wounded. Next day, the United States Consul-General sentenced four of the crew to eighteen months’ hard labor. A prospectus has been issued of a series of school and text books for the Chinese.. The scheme is very comprehensive, and will be carried out chiefly h.y the foreign missionaries in China. It has influential support. Very serious floods are reported iu the Province of Shantung, caused by the Yellow River bursting its banks. Whole villages have been swept away, and the sufferings of the people are fearful. Yokohama, November 11. The Mikado has just returned from an extended tour throughout the px-ovinces of his empire. He was detained several times, and compelled to make circuits in consequence of heavy floods aud cholera having broken out on his line of route. The rumors of imminent political changes for some time current ai’e daily becoming more clear and defined. In consequence of the widespread insubordination in the regular arrnp, a new Minister of War is to be appointed. Mr. Rennie, of the Shanghai Bar, has accepted the Judgeship of the .Jap'au Court. The financial outlook of the empire is still considered anything but hopeful. The attention of Government is being devoted to the necessity for adopting precautionary measui’es against the importation of epidemic diseases. A committee of physicians has been appointed to draw up quarantine regulations. * The editor of a native paper has been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment because he g£(ve publicity to a rumor in the capital that four of the Ministers had resigned or were about to do so, though he added that he believed the rumor to be unfounded. The cholera which prevails at Nagasaki is not of the malignant Asiatic type, and does not cause any serious alarm. A Japanese vessel, the Tokushima Maru, built to run between Osaka and Awa, left the former , ; place on the 28th Octobei’, and the same day was blown to pieces by an explosion of gunpowder which was on hoard. Eightythree passengers and crew of twelve were lost. The explosion occui’red off Tsuda, within sight of land, and those who witnessed it say that in a few moments there was not a vestige of anything to be seen on the surface of the water. The Japanese Government have just caused a survey of the coast of Corea. Criminals condemned to imDfisonment are not now allowed to read newspapers, though formerly allowed to do so. It has been ascertained that the total number of rebels who joined Saigo’s flag last year was 15,555, of these 117 were leadtrs of divisions. The Japanese Government ai-e taking great trouble to prevent opium smoking, the punishment for which bv the code is now death. The absorbing topic of last week is the depreciation in paper currency, nominal quotion being 13£ per cen. discount, and the fluctuations in price of the Mexican dollar, which has fallen to 3s. 7d., the lowest ever reached.

DREADFUL CANNIBALISM AT NEW CALEDONIA. (PER PRESS AGENCY.) At Kere fires of hostile natives were seen in the valley some miles distant, and the friendly chief Cattelier went out with 200 men. They surrounded a group of fifteen men engaged in roasting a bullock. The friendlies slaughtered the fifteen enemies, put the roast bullock aside, and replaced it with the fifteen dead bodies, which were cooked and eaten. After which the warriors retnrued uith appeased appetites. Numbers of the enemy were killed at the recent engagements. Twenty-eight women and children were taken prisoners. Naounou, chief of the Mauifoo tribe, offered to surrender with 150 men if their lives were spared. CAPETOWN. (OWN CORRESPONDENT TO PRESS AGENCY.) Capetown, 21st November. Our differences with Cetymayo, the Zulu King, are as far off settlement as ever. The Governor is still in Mautzburg, Natal, and all our available forces are being massed at various points on the border, but Cetymayo (whether from fear or want of preparation appears uncertain) refrains from any overt act of war, although there can be little doubt remaining that he is the instigator of Tiecoceuis’ troublesome conduct. Tbe natives on the northern border, having taken to fighting among themselves, make our task of dispersing them easy, and matters have so quieted down that the administration of Griqualand West has issued an amnesty, from the operation of which only the chiefs and all councillors and leading men who have taken a prominent part in fomenting or maintaining rebellion, all rebels who were in receipt of pay from the Government as headmen, and all who are suspected of having had an active share in any murder, are excluded. The first Parliamentary elections will take place 22nd November, for the Legislative Gonncil. The House of Assembly elections are postponed until January.—Exceptional weather has prevailed here lately. An immense quantity of rain has fallen, and it has been colder than for many years past. Our summer appears to have now regularly set in. —The wool season has just commenced. It is later than usual, but has been retarded by tbe cold wet weather. No sales of importance have as yet taken place, but prices generally rule firm at last rates.—Our harvest promises well, and grains and forage are likely to rule low. Our present stocks, with the exception of maize, are large. The Berlin correspondent of the South Australian Chronicle gives the following explanation of German Socialism :—“ When the Communistic movement in France was beaten down in 1871 German workmen returned to our country, and imported the Communistic doctrines, which, offering a Utopian millennium, were gladly accepted by the unreasoning multitude; and as our laws gave full liberty of meeting and discussing these ideas, and as the Press had no check in propagating them, it cannot be surprising that the Socialist evil has within a few years grown to such alarming proportions as to demand a law like the one now placed before Reichstag.” The value of the sun as a motive power is shown in the Exhibition by M. Mouchat, a French engineer, who shows, in the machinery department of the Champ de Mars, an ingenious combination of mirrors, by means of which he concentrates the solar ray on a boiler of special construction, and thus generates steam sufficient for all practical purposes. A large number of agricultural machines constructed on this plan are already in use, and highly esteemed, in Algeria ; but M. Mouchat has already adapted his invention to various other purposes—among others, to cookery—and with excellent results. In a small machine, with a reflector only one-fifth of a square metre in surface, he roasts (at the Exhibition) a pound of beef in twenty-two minutes, and distils a pint of wine into brandy in half an hour. With larger mirrors he has been able to generate steam, even under the very variable sky of Paris, and to raise the steam thus generated in thirty minutes to a pressure of six atmospheres. The great problem (observes the London Daily Telegraph) what should be done with our surplus population, receives additional force from a circular which has just been issued by one of the suburban gas companies of London. A collector, whose business it would be to go from house to house with a book and a pen, receive payments and give receipts, was advertised for very lately in these columns. To the notice over eighteen hundred answers, we are told, were sent, the great majority of the writers being fairly well fitted for the post. This was not a huge ambition, for their only desire was to collect tolls at a very moderate stipend, and yet nearly two thousand persons offered their services. The fact shows a lamentable state of things, and recalls to mind the agitation which has lately taken place amongst city clerks for an increase of salary. There can he no doubt that a vast number of people are thrown upon the world devoid of any special knowledge by which they may procure their bread. Their friends thought that, were they only taught to real, write, and cypher, they might, by some means or other, contrive to struggle through the period of their existenee without being a direct burden to others, and they were made clerks, accountants, and shopmen. A time of business inactivity throws them out of employment ; they cannot dig, to beg they are ashamed, and they are at their wit’s end for the means of livlihood. At even the place of a collector of gas accounts they snap with avidity ; it is not a kind of labor which brings any considerable accretion of distinction, but it will provide bread. And they compete with each other . accordingly in attempting to obtain a place upon which, were they able to plane wood, cut slates, or trim iron, they would look with contempt. The question arises, “ How is it they do not emigrate.-” But even to this a sufficient answer

is returned in the fact that they have not the money which to cross the seas. Thewidesprealdng plains of Canada, Australia, and Africa, all call for men whose labor is needed, but distance and the coat of travelling are at present insuperable obstacles. The day may come when Government aid will be extended to such impecunious unfortunates, and will convey them to places where, in the words of the popular song, there is “ fair elbow room for men to thrive in ;” but until such is the case they must be content to remain here ard starve, while one in eighteen hundred obtains the employment of a collector of payments for gas.