ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL AT AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 31

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL AT AUCKLAND.

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) (Per R.M.S. Zealandia.) GENERAL SUMMARY OP NEWS. A stone was thrown into the courtyard of Marlborough Souse on Saturday, May 24th. wrapped in paper bearing the words Y' lve us bread if you would reign, 5 and signed thousands of starving Englishmen.” _ The Government proclamation forbidding the Tipperary meeting was again defied on May 27. Messrs Dillon and O’Brien held a meeting just outside the town of Cashel, and spoke to immense crowds. The gatherings were several times interrupted, but were resumed with determined persistence. Bodies of police charged with their batons, but finally, the policemen’s efforts proving unavailing, a troop of Hussars was called to charge. The affair theniassumed the proportions of a riot. Many were injured by the police and soldiers, and some of the latter were also hurt. Mr Gladstone predicts an early general election. In the course of a speech he made at Hawarden on May 27, he denounced the Bill for the compensation-of publicans who were deprived of their licenses. The whole control of the license system, he said, ought to bejrested in the local elective bodies. It would add L300,000,c00 to the national debt to purchase the publicans’ licenses. In reply to a delegation concerning the eight hour question that waited on him on May 21st, Lord Salisbury declared the limitation of a day’s work to eight hours impossible. The system meant ruin to small concerns; time and wages should be regulated in accordance with the capacity of capital. He was opposed to anything like compulsory measures. Leopold, King of Belgium, went to Balmoral on the anniversary of the Queen’s Birthday, and presented Her Majesty with a large bouquet, 3ft in diameter, composed of mauvecoloured orchids. The English market was reported on May 24 to be glutted with beef. Seven thousand cattle awaited slaughter at Deptford. |The American steamers had abandoned cattlecarrying charters. lhe Longue Point Insane Asylum, near Montreal, caught fire about 10.30 o’clock on the morning of the 6ch May, and at 2 the same afternoon was reduced to ruins. A detachment of the fire brigade from Montreal did good service, but all to no purpose. The fire originated in the middle wing of the structure. Terrible scenes followed its discovery. It is said that fully 220 patients perished in the flames, with seven of the nuns who were in attendance cn the insane. No power on earth oould have checked the fire. At the windows were maniacs peering through the bars grinning and jabbering uutil, enveloped by the flames, they were compelled to release their holds and drop back to an awful death. The grounds presented a scene never to be forgotten. There upon the wet grass, huddled together under the cover of blankets or wandering through the grounds with faces untouched by the horror of the time, were those of the unfortunates who had been taken from the burning building. Some lay down with old quilts for pillows, or hummed airs which breathed a spirit of happiness. More, than a thousand helpless creatures were gathered together within the enclosure, guarded, by only one man. One young girl in the midst of a drizzling rain sat at the piano in the grounds and played sweet music while the flames were above her. The building cost one million dollars, aqd was insured for 300,000 dollars. ft is rumoured that Queen Victoria Wanted to make her daughter Beatrice Lluehess of Sussex, but Lord Salisbury declared he would resign if such a step were takep. The English people, he said, regarded the peerage as no longer a mere appendage.of the Crown, but a rank created by the British Constitution, only to be conferred as a mark of Royal favour under most exeptional cases. W„ S. Gilbert, the playwright, has receded from his literary partnership with Sir Arthur Sullivan and d’Otyley Carte, after a violent altercation, induced by Mr Carte's financial methods* He will probably collaborate with Arthur Oellier, while Sir A. Sullivan will Work in conjunction with George R. Sims. In London, on Mav 14, the betrothal of the Marquis De Leuville and Mrs Frank Leslie, widow of the proprietor of Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, was formerly announced. _ A successful experiment with electricity for tanning hides was made at Bermondsey, London, on May 14. The time required for the process is five days. There are many conflicting stones as to Mr Parnell’s defence. in the divorce case. One prevalent report is that he will not defend the case, and that the npshot of the affair will be that he will marry Mrs O’Shea. " ‘ Emin Pasha, previous to his re-entering Africa, invested his private funds in a plantation of Bagamoyo, with the object of cultivating cotton and other products. The investment represents the savings of many years. It was bruited in political circles on May 10th that Mr Gladstone would probably sacrifice his own hopes of returning to power by joining Lord Salisbury in an effort to make a j and Purchase Bill that will be acceptable to Ireland, and to secure for it the support of the Liberal party. Mr H. M. Stanley is engaged to be married to Miss Dorothy Tennent in July next. The engagement was made previous to his last departure for Africa. She is the lady who posed for Sir John Millais when he painted his famous picture “ Yes or No.” After his marriage, according to report, Stanley will be appointed Governor-General of the Congo Free State by King Leopold, to rule ove.r an area of 1 056,000 square miles, and a ’ population, black and white, of ’27,000,000. The bit of yqmance' in connection with Stanleys marriage is that years ago Miss Tennent refused him because he dyed his hair. When the Baroness Burdett-Coutts welcomed Stanley at Dover on his return from Africa, she told him Miss Tennent was willing to marry him if the old affection existed. Stanley acted promptly on the information. Just now, ‘ according to. a London despatch of May 21, Stanley is full of the. idea of tians-. porting' negroes from the Southern States of America to. Central Africa. Tfie precise site fixWd upon is the Upper. Congo Forest, a country' of 25,000 square miles in extent, which Stanley estimates would provide for each of the negroes of the South something like a quarter of a mile of land for his inheritance. Lord Salisbury has administered a rebuke to Stanley for meddling in matters of British State policy that do not concern him. A despatch of the 23rd May says that the explorer’s overbearing manner and assumption of superiority have provoked enmity toward fiim in English quarters where it was most de*

sirable that he should be regarded with favour. His attempt to introduce African manners into English society while endeavouring to direct English enterprise into Africa has proved a lamentable failure.