THE CORONATION OF THE CZAR.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1266, 4 June 1896, Page 18

THE CORONATION OF THE CZAR.

The coronation of the Czar of Russia took place at Moscow on May 27. The Czar recited the Creed, and then placed the crown on his own head, ascended the throne, and assumed the sceptre. Then he crowned the Empress, who was kneeling before him, and gently raised and kissed her. The Emperor was afterwards anointed, and took the sacrament. The Royalties who wore present at the ceremony returned to the palace amid continuous cheers. A salute of 101 guns was fired, and all the bells of Moscow were ringing. The Dowager Empress Dagmar, who was present at the coronation of her son, was much affected. The Empress was dressed in silver brocade, after the national Russian fashion. The Kaiser congratulated the Czar on his coronation. The Czar has. announced that lie will remit the arrears of taxes in European Russia and Poland, and that ho will reduce the land tax by half. Ho will also reduce the penal sentences by one-third, and life sentences to 20 years. Siberian exiles after 12 years will bo released without restoration of civil rights, but political exiles who havo lod blameless lives will have their civil rights restored. Twelve hundred delegates from all classes of society congratulated the Czar on his coronation. Tho Czar, replying to the message announcing that the French army was celebrating tho ceremony by festivities, said that this mark of alliance witli tho Russian peoplo was a fresh proof of sympathy by which he had been profoundly moved. There woro rejoicings in Tans m commemoration of the coronation. A FRIGHTFUL DISASTER. THOUSANDS OF PEASANTS KILLED. A terrible scene took place at a peasant feast held outside Moscow in honour of tho Czar's coronation. An immonse crowd of 400,000 assembled, and the number of attendants not being adequato tho people madly rushed tho booths. , .

The crowd woro wedged in a narrow passage, and the pressure was terrific. People were trampled to death, chiefly women and children. The hollows in the ground proved £roat death-traps. The polico and Cossack soldiery were quite unable to stop tho mad rush. It is officially announced that 1100 havo been killed and 450 injured. Later nows says that the fete took place on tho Khodynoski plain. The people were to bo treated to free amusements, supplied with food, and provided with gifts in honour of the Czar's coronation, and immense crowds, chiefly peasants, were assembling all night prior to tho fete, but very fow polico were on the scene. A false alarm that tho division of gifts had commenced caused a rush early in tho morning. . . Tho attendants, becoming frightened, scattered bundles of food and gifts in all directions, and this had tho o'Teet of inciting the people at tho rear of tho concourso to°make a rush for tho front. In doing so, thoy fought, crushed and trampled each other, with tho rosult that hundreds were suffocated, many being flattened like pancakos. Thirty people fell into an old well, and woro killed. When tho crowd had been dispersed the plain presented tho aspect of a battlefield. Tho screams of tho sufferers and the bereaved were heartrending. Considerable heroism was shown. Many women escaped death by passing over the heads of the crowd. Some estimates give the total number of persons killed as 2500. Tho victims were buried in immense trencher. After the burial the fete was continued, tho Czar and Czarina being anions those presont. The chief of police was blamed tor not taking steps to provide against tho panic, and an attempt was made to lynch him. The Dowager Empress Dammar has sent abottloof Madeira to each of those injured in tho recent disastrous panic. Tho Standard's correspondent telegraphs that 3b'oo wore killed in the panic, and that 1200 are lying in the hospitals, most of them with injuries which must prove fatal. . Tho Czar and Czarina havo visited the hospitals. Tho Queen has sent a message expressing her profound sympathy.

Tho preparations in Moscow for tho Czar's coronation woro, as the cable has informed us, made regardless of cost. The Westminster Gazette says that apartments wore retained by the ambassadors and representatives of foreign powers for distinguished people from their respective countries. The demand for accommodation enhanced rents enormously. In many instances tho sums paid for rooms for tho month of May alone amount to doublo their annual rent at ordinary times. Open air stages havo boon constructed at various places, on which public performances of plays based on Russian history and legend will bo given during the great popular festival, which is to begin on Ist Juno. Tho municipal theatre, in which five performances are also to bo given, has been entirely redecorated, while the arrangements for the illumination of the Kremlin were entrusted to several well-known Russian artists. , There are some delightful people in tho Russian, court, and then there are othors who havo tho convivial habits of tho oldtime swashbuckler. Among those who en-

joy tho good things of this world as regarded by the epicure and bon vivant is Secretary General Pololzoff, among the very rich men of tho world. The other night he had dined not wisely but too well, and "ratified a stimulated fancy by walking home. Moving along an almost deserted street the secretary saw a "rayhaired veteran whose shoulder straps betokened an officer of high rank. He had also been dining, and was leaving 1 in tinsnow a trail with all the angles and uncertain lines of a rail fence. With that sense of brotherly responsibility which sometimes possesses men in their cups, tho secretary followed tho man of arms to see that no one robbed him. Put an old soldier is always alert. He saw that he was being followed, gradually slackened his devious pace, and happened to discover that his watch was not in his vest pocket, just as the secretary was a few feet away. Jumping to the conclusion that he must have had a nap on foot, and been robbed by his pursuer, tho general whirled, presented his sword at the throat of the secretary and demanded a return of his watch, threatening to run Polot/.oli through in case of refusal. The latter is a diplomat and <]ttick to act. Ho delivered his own watch, and then darted oil' to shake things up with the police officials. Reaching homo the general was horrified to find his watch on his dressing toilet. lie, too, hurried to the police station, where the secretary was raging because pickpockets were going about in uniforms. There was a tubleau, an explanation and a bribing of officers to keep still. But all St. Petersburg- laughed next day. Though nearly iM,<XX>,OOO is being spent in crowning tho Czar, all tho lavish pomp and magnificence of the Moscow ceremonial cannot conceal the real wretchedness of tho Russian people. Even tho landlord class, despite Government assistance, find their estates more and moro heavily mortgaged, and themselves face to faco with ruin. Mr Jo'.in Mitchell, British Consul at St. Petersburg, in the course of his annual report to Lord Salisbury upon tho condition of tho country, says:— " Ten years of strenuous support of a financial character on the part of the Government of the landlord class has failed to yield tho desired results. Tho Nobility Land Bank has proved unequal to the task of arresting tho suio but gradual decay of tho class in question. Mortgaged estates were repeatedly, by hundreds and even thousands, destined to be dealt with by tho auctioneer's hammer, but at tho critical moment the Government has always intervened with now acts of grace which postponed tho evil day. "At tho present time more than 100,000 estates, or 41 per cent, of the whole area of tho land owned by uobles, are mortgaged to various Government and private land credit institutions, and the amount of money advanced on these estates has reached 1,200,000,000 roubles (£120,500,000), of which sum 1,174,000,000 roubles (i.'l 17,200,000) still remain owing. In tho course of the last five years (1889- 1894) the indebtedness of landed estates to private land banks increased by 84,000,000 roubles (£S,2'K),OOO), and these banks List year reaped a profit of more than 7,500,000 roubles (£700,000) on these operations. " Of the enormous capital of the Nobility Land Bank, exceeding £50,000,000, created by the Government for the express purpose of making money advances to landlords, but little has been paid back, and but little improvement has been made in tho cultivation of estates. It is asserted by those well acquainted with provincial life that the millions advanced to tho noble landlord class have not been expended in the improvement of their estates, but were spent on amusement, luxury, travels, payment of old debts and unprofitable enterprises.

" One of the chief causes that threaten tho almost complete extinction of tho noble land owning class is to be found in absenteeism. The cultivation of land unfortunately does not afford tho nobility those attractions that are presented by life in towns and by careers in various branches of the Government service, the latter being, moreover, accompanied by the acquisition of rank and social distinction."

And these are the landlords. Wh.ltjof the unhappy peasantry beneath them--the despairing serfs of Russia ?