New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4141, 29 June 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1874.

By the arrival of the Omeo at the Bluff from Melbourne yesterday morning, we have intelligence from Europe to the 37th instant, and by the City of Adelaide, which reached Auckland late on Friday night with the San Francisco mail, we have news from. England to the 20th, and from America to the 27th ultimo. Long and interesting summaries of the news by both routes will be found in another page. The latest intelligence is the most important. France would appear to bo at present in a more than usually excited state, if the proceedings of the French Assembly are a reflection of the feelings of the people. The great fear of the Republican party appears to bo that the Bonapartists are gaining so much strength that the Republic is threatened. Oh the 13th of the present month the Left Centre introduced a vote of eonsuro on the Minister of the Interior for laxity in dealing with the Bonapartists. It was resisted by the Government, but received 320 votes, the number against it being 377. Two days afterwards, however, the same section of the House brought in a Bill proclaiming the Republic, but confirming the Septenniate on certain conditions. This measure, from the amount of support it received on all sides of the House, they succeeded in carrying by 345 to 341 votes, although the Ministry voted in tho minority. The Assembly also rejected a motion in favor of the restoration of tho Count de Chambord. The meagre reports forwarded by telegraph render it difficult to understand the precise value of these votes, but they seem to indicate —although the Orleanist newspapers appear to regard tho situation as unchanged—that '* the hope tho Royalist party indulged of tho restoration of Monarchy is now out of tho question. A formaldeclaration of tho Republic has been made, but it would seem to be no more than an affirmation of a principlo already acted upon, coupled with a warning hint to the President that tho attitude of. tho Bonapartists is bocoming dangerous to tho established form of Government, and is likely to booomo still more so during tho Septonniato unless it is watched and checkod by tho Government in. the interest of the public. Tho excitement seems to have extended beyond tho walls of tho Assombly. For days the Paris I Station of tho Versailles Railway was besieged by crowds, who appear to havo only been kept in order by tho vigorous action of tho police Gambotta had again booomo a sourco of considerable trouble, by

his violent declamations in favor of the Republic ; so much so that he had been publicly assaulted by a gentleman of Orleanist tendencies—the Count St. Croix —who had in consequence been arrested and fined. Whether the arrival in Britain of Rochefort, probably in company with some of his Communist friends, had anything to do with this sudden outburst of feeling on the part of Republicans and Communists will not be ascertained until fuller particulars of what has occured are to hand, but it is evident their comparative nearness to Paris has not been without its effects upon the parties Avho sympathise Avith their political views. It is with a full consciousness of trouble ahead, probably, that the President appears steadily to refuse to admit the possibility of immediate or any trouble with Germany. His policy must be peace, until France is at least much stronger than she was or is. Lord Derby appears to share that feeling, though that an opposite idea prevails in the minds of othei'3 of the public men of England is made plain by the questions which Lord John Russell is reported to have put to tho Government in the House of Lords on the subject. At any other moment Lord Russell's questions might have passed with little notice, for what other answer could Lord Derby give to a question as to what the policy of England Avould be in the event of a renewal of war between France and Germany, after the late assurances of the President to the German Ambassador, than that at present there was no apprehension of such a contingency, and that the Imperial Government would, as far as it could without embroiling Britain, endeavor to preserve peaco between those two great Powers. The Avar of parties in Paris, however, must be embarrassing to the President; and great events have before occurred so suddenly in Paris—forced upon or by the authorities of the time—that the Septenniate may come to an end long before the time when that result was expected. From Italy avo learn that while tho Pope has been holding a grand reception at the "Vatican to celebrate the twentyeighth anniversary of his accession to the Papacy, the confiscation of Church property in Italy continues, Avith immense advantage to tho Treasury of the King. From Russia we have the pleasing intelligence that the Czar has performed a signal act of clemency in permitting all exiled natives to return to RussianPoland, excepting those who have been guilty of assassination. The distress in Louisiana—once one of the Avealthiest of the Southern States —in consequence of the bursting of the levees of the Mississippi, would appear to have reached an alarming height. The number of families rendered destitute is very large; and urgent appeals are made to the American public for help. The. inundations have been followed by others in Massachusetts, where the melting snoAvs appear to have sent enormous floods down the watercourses, sweeping away reservoirs, and desolating the valleys. It is often said, sometimes in earnest, sometimes in joke, that everything in America is on a great scale. These calamities rank, unfortunately, with those which lately afflicted Chicago, and, still more recently, New York—fire and famine. Moderate men will observe Avith satisfaction that the absurd "Woman's Crusade" has been put down by the law. The homo news is of an unusually mixed character. The public of England will not be surprised, though they will undoubtedly regret, that some question of etiquette—some matter of Court precedence—has estranged the Princess of Walos from her Royal sister the Duchess of Edinburgh. These matters, it is known, are carried very far in the Russian Court. It may be hoped, however, that the disagreement is not one Avhich Her Majesty will not be able to arrange satisfactorily. The strikes in the North appear to have attained a great magnitude, and are becoming serious from their adverse influence upon trade. The shipwrights are reported to have been successful in obtaining the object or objects for which they struck work in a number of yards some time ago; but it is stated that no fewer than seventy thousand miners and laborers connected with the Durham collieries are idle. The coal and ironstone mines of Durham and North York are now x j erhaps the most important in Britain, and the strike or lock-out of so large an army of workers cannot but have a prejudicial effect upon all concerned—injurious to the masters and demoralising to the men. While this is the stato of mining affairs in tho North, it is much more pleasing to observe that tho cloth-workers in the West. are better employed, as is indicated by a rise in the price of wool, in which the produce of Port Phillip and New Zealand has had the largest sharo. Tho AgentGeneral has obviously had some trouble in arranging for passenger vessels. He is reported to have chartered fivo ships on his account to carry emigrants to this Colony ; but the New Zealand Shipping Company are to continue to bring out passengers during the remaining portion of the year. It is pleasing to hear, also, that many of those who are coming are of a class superior to some of the late shipments. Agricultural laborers from the south of England Avill make valuable settlers, and wo now hear that thero is likely to be an exodus from the large island of Skyo to New Zealand. The Skye men have always been unwilling to leave their native land. They are a quiet and peaceable race, part farmer, part shepherd, part fisherman ; frugal, temperate, and accustomed to exposure. They are "lawabiding men " in these later times—at least since the Lord of the Isles has been only a Nobleman and not a King, and tho fairy banner of tho Macloods has lost its power of loading to victory. It is said that if one of them should happen to mistako a neighbor's ewo or wether for his own, tho police do not find it necessary to apprehend him and lodge him in jail for months beforo his trial. The officer has only to tell him ho is found out, and must appear in tho capital of tho county on a day fixed, to stand his trial. "It is the Fiscal's wish," and there, true to his word, poor Donald makes his appearanco in due timo. They are poetical, and attached to their romantic land. But tho hills in New Zealand are as romantic as tho Coollin Mountains themselves, and the valleys and lochs as picturesque as those Horatio McCulloch delighted to depict. His natural tendencies, therefore, Avill mako tho Skyeraan a valuable colonist.