ENGLISH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1199, 22 February 1895, Page 32

ENGLISH.

London, February 13. Owing to the amount of ice in the Thames, big vessels cannot get further up the river than Tilbury. Twenty degrees of frost is registered in the suburbs of London nightly. TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF SOME FISHERMEN. The crew of a Hull trawler, wrecked on the Wigton coast, climbed up a precipice 50it, and there dug a snow hut. The men were rescued, but were paralysed and frostbitten. It will be necessary for all of them to have some of their limbs amputated. A company of the Grenadier Guards was drilled on the ice on the Serpentine yesterday. London, February 14. The Board of Trade has ordered an enquiry into the Elbe-Craithie collision. Up to the present the Canadian Government has not made any overtures with reference to the appointment of a Joint Commission to consider the Pacific cable question. The London Fellmongers Company's wool warehouse at Bermondsey has been destroyed by fire. It is understood Lord Ripon has shown to a number of private members the letters of Sir Robert Duff and Sir George Dibbs with reference to nominees to the Legislative Council, but he is unwilling to lay the correspondence on the table of the House of Commons, as it is of a confidential nature.

The letter written by Sir Robert Duff to Sir George Dibbs regarding the Legislative Council appointments states that he had no objection to any individual nominee. Sir George Dibbs* letter was strongly worded. . Some 40,000 people are starving in Birmingham in consequence of the stoppage of works by the severe weather. The municipal bodies are being asked to raise a relief fund.

Messrs Wilson, Lloyd, Everett and other members are moving in the House of Commons to initiate a world's conference to legalise silver, and restore stability to the currency. London, February 15. Information has been received that the natives of the Jambea district, in Java, plotted to massacre the entire European and Chinese population of the district. Fortunately the conspiracy leaked out before the time was ripe for action, and fifty natives have been placed under arrest. Had the plot succeeded, serious trouble would have resulted, as several influential chiefs were implicated in it. Mr Valentine states that the trade considers the samples of tobacco sent by the New South Wales Government are the best colonial specimens yet submitted, and that the flavour resembles dark Virginian.

The samples are valued at 3£d, and it is considered that if greater skill is displayed in the cultivation it will be possible to obtain from s£d to 6id. „ Mr Valentine advises that several tierces be sent as samples, and Converted into Cavendish.

London, February 16. Sir Wm. McGregor returns to New Guinea in" April. During his visit he has read papers before Several societies urging merchants to send agents to New Guinea to plant sugar, tea and coffee plants, and cocoanuts. Several capitalists wish to form a company to acquire rights of territory, but Sir William is opposed to the proposition belie ving that it would be distasteful to the colonies. He urges the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transfer the Solomon Group to himself, when he would be better able to control the labour traffic. The expense which will be involved by the appointment .of Magistrates is likely to hinder consent being granted. Mr C. J. Stewart, Official Receiver, reporting" in connection with the Bank of South Australia's affairs, says it is necessary to make further enquiries into the circumstances surrounding the payment of the dividend in 1890, and also into the advances made in Melbourne by Mr Eager. Mr Stewart goes onto say that he is not fully informed regarding certain matters in connection with Mr Eager's management; but he does not think there is any reason to suggest fraud or improper motives on the part of the directors or officers of the Bank, and he does not therefore propose to have them publicly examined. Terrible' distress is reported in London and the other centres, and the cold weather is throwing many thousand workmen out of: employment. The West Indian Docks are frozen, and several Australian steamers are embedded in ice. •■? . The Isle of Man is snowbound, and several villages are buried. Eighty deaths from the cold weather have been repbrted in London in four days. London, February 18. It is reported that the French offered King Leopold five hundred million francs (twenty millions sterling) for the Congo territory in the event of the Belgian Parliament'declining to annex it. ; The Official Receiver's report on the affairs of the Bank of South Australia states that the directors and officials are largely responsible for the failure of the institution—first by neglect to control the supervision, especially over the Melbourne manager; and, secondly, by laxity in the matter of individual advances, particularly on the security of land, and for speculative investments. He advises that further enquiry should be made into the affairs of the Bank.

Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, declines to interfere with the right of British vessels / to act as transports for French troops to Madagascar. - Professor Bryce, President of the Board of Trade, in reply to a question, said a re-

port which has been submitted by a select committee advises that shipowners should provide watertight bulkheads on their vessels, but there was no power to compel them to do so.