NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 48, 16 June 1876, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

April 27th. Telegraphic communication with the United States is for the present interrupted, in consequence of the breakage of the Anglo-Ameri-can cables. In the House of Commons this evening Mr. Disraeli refused to delay advising Her Majesty to proclaim the title of Empress. An adjournment of the House was then moved, and a stormy debate ensued, in which Mr. Fawcett took the lead. Party recriminations were freely indulged in. The Marquis of Hartington declined to assist Mr. Fawcett's motion, on the ground of the uselessness of doing so. The Queen has given her assent to the Royal Titles Bill. The proclamation declaring the Queen to be Empress of India was issued to-day. After recital, the proclamation declares that so far as may be all occasions

and in all instruments wherein the style and titles of Her Majesty are used, excepting charters, commissions, letters patent, grants, writs of appointment, and similar instruments not operating beyond the United Kingdom, the following addition to the style and titles pertaining to the Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom and its dependencies shall henceforth be made in the Latin tongue, "Indise Imperatrix in English, "Empress of India." The proclamation further states that all coinage shall continue to be lawful without the additional title until the Queen's pleasure is further declared.

Her Majesty has been pleased to confer a baronetcy on Sir Bartle Erere. The total amount tendered for the new Indian loan of £4,000,000 was £8,600,000. Tenderers at £lO2 Bs. will receive about 73 per cent, of the above in full. May sth. The Rev. Dr. Mylne was consecrated on the Ist of May as Bishop of Bombay, the ceremony being performed at St. Paul's Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Liberal papers, in receiving the proclamation of the title of Empress, sharply criticise the absence of words limiting the title to India only, as promised by Mr. Disraeli. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in replying to Sir Henry James, said that the proclamation covered all the pledges made by Government ; and Mr. Disraeli, in answering Sir Charles Dilke, said that the employment of the Imperial title was necessary for the commission of officers of the army on account of the employment of troops in India, otherwise the proclamation completely covered all exceptions enumerated in Sir Vernon Harcourt's question of the 3rd of April. The Lord Chancellor refuted Lord Selborne's charge that the proclamation in any way violated the solemn pledges made to localise the title.

In the House of Commons, on the 3rd of May, Mr. Disraeli, in the name of the Queen, denied the assertion of Mr- Lowe that two former Prime Ministers were ever requested to propose a new title for the Queen, and Mr. Lowe next evening apologised for and retracted the statement.

A discussion took place in the House of Commons on the 11th May, on the motion of Sir H. James, that the proclamation was inadequate, and would not prevent the use of the title in Her Majesty's dominions other than India. After an animated debate, in which Sir Vernon Harcourt and the Marquis of Hartington supported, and Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gawthorne Hardy opposed, Sir H. James's motion, the vote of censure against the Government was rejected by 334 against 226. The One Thousand Guineas was won by Camelia; Allumette, second; and Seine, third.

Prince Bismarck's scheme for transferring the German railways to the Empire has been voted by the Reichstag. The Porte has reinforced the garrison at Salonica, and promised the French and German embassies full reparation. The House of Commons adopted, by 224 against 167, a resolation by Mr. Smith for stopping the Sunday liquor sale in Ireland. The Government opposed the motion. Something like alarm was produced when it was discovered that nearly all the members of the Royal Family were absent from England. The Queen was in Germany, the Prince of Wales in Egypt, the Duke of Edinburgh in Russia, the Duke of Connaught at Gibraltar, Prince Leopold at Nice, and there was only young Prince Albert Victor in England to represent the Royal line. Among the recently-imported strikes are those of 1,000 dock laborers at Liverpool ; 2,000 men and boys at Britannia Ironworks, Middlesborough; 2,000 colliers at the Clay Cross Pits, in resistance to a reduction of fifteen per cent. Extensive strikes are expected throughout Warwickshire. The operative house-painters of Bath have been out, but their employers have made concessions. Three thousand stone-cutters and mason at Nantes struck last week. A fresh dispute has occurred in the Oldham cotton trade, owing to a demand for an advance, which the employers cannot grant. In Sheffield, trade is so depressed that many leading firms contemplate a reduction of wages. In the county of Durham eighteen collieries are unworked, and 10,000 men have been idle for months. By the end of the present week 15,000 colliers will be on strike in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire against the threatened reduction of fifteen per cent. Incited by Weston's pedestrian triumphs, Joseph Spencer undertook to walk 110 miles in twenty-four hours in the Agricultural Hall, but was compelled to give in after accomplishing about seventy-four miles in 21h. lomin.

Oil the Ist of April a great billiard match was -played at the Grand Hotel, Paris, between M. Vignaux, of Toulouse, and -Wm. Sexton, of New York. Vignaux gained a silver cup at f the International match in America, and held it on condition that he accepted the challenge of all comers for eighteen months. Sexton came over to dispute the iprize, accompanied by many Americans. Six hundred spectators were present. The game lasted three hours and a-half, and Vignaux won. Great Britain will not be represented in the forthcoming American Rifle Match for the championship of the world, owing to the sectional action of Scotland and Ireland. In the chess match between Oxford and Cambridge, at the Freemasons' Tavern, the dark blue scored seven games against four won by Cambridge. On the 4th Spencer commenced the feat of walking 3,000 miles iii sixty days. Three more deaths have occurred from the Bolton milk epidemic, bringing the number of victims up to eighteen. The latest death is that of the owner of the dairy from which the mischief proceeded.

COLONIAL ITEMS. A case of some interest to Colonial seamen has been heard at Liverpool, Captain Taylor, of the Zetland, being charged with an offence under the Merchant Shipping Act, in handing over the vessel to an uncertificated person. Mr. Hicks, to whom the command was handed over, held a Canadian certificate of service, which did not allow him to navigate a foreign-going vessel- from an English port. The Court reprimanded the captain, and said they hoped the inquiry would be a warning to Colonial shipmasters, and prevent any repetition of such offences, as any future cases of the kind would be severely dealt with. A divorce case, Goodsir v. Goodsir, was

heard on the 7th April, and was undefended. The parties were married at York, in 1864, and in 1868, the husband, after ill-treating and abusing his wife, went to New Zealand, whence he has not returned. Before leaving England, he had committed adultery, and frequented brothels. A decree nisi was granted. A coroner's inquest was held the other day on the body of Thomas Aclison Wliittingham, who shot his wife at Leamington, and then committed suicide. His wife was not killed, but is still in a dangerous condition. He was married twice, and lived unhappily with his second wife, to whom he often behaved like a madman. He seems to have gone out to Australia, where he lost his first wife during the gold fever, and made his fortune there. On his way home he received a violent blow on the head, which is understood to have caused temporary fits of derangement. A singular circumstance has come to light in connection with the wrSck of the Strathmore, which is not without a certain value as affecting the truth of the doctrine advocated by the Spiritualists. It appears that at a time when the vessel had been long missing, and when the public mind was much agitated upon the subject, a clairvoyant wrote to Mr. Bruce, the owner, stating that the vessel had been wrecked, and that a portion of the passengers and crew had been saved, and were then upon an uninhabited island. ■ This matter has since been investigated by the Psychological Society, whose president wrote to Mr. Bruce inquiring the truth of the report. That gentleman replied that the fact was as stated, and that the information had been communicated hi writing by post, so that there was no question as to its being made before the loss was known.

AN ATROCIOUS MURDER. For some time past Blackburn and neighbourhood has been in an intense state of excitement in consequence of the murder, under revolting circumstances, of a child named Emily Holland, aged seven years. Policemen and others scoured the country, and tramp after tramp was arrested on suspicion. As it was suspected, however, that the right man had not been secured, bloodhounds were obtained to assist in the search, and then followed the realisation of the adage, " that murder, though it hath no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ." It appears that suspicion has always attached to a barber named Fish, who keeps a lock-up shop, and resides at 162 Moss-street, with his wife and two children. The discovery of the skull was made in a most extraordinary manner. Chief-constable Potts arranged with a man named Preston to bring over two of his dogs, one half-bloodhound and spaniel, and the other a Clumber spaniel. Police-detectives Holden and Livesey were sent out with the doers and their owner to the place where the trunk of the body was found at Batswell, to see if any scent of the remaining portions of the body could be found. The dogs did not appear to scent anything. They were taken to Roysliaw Wood, close to where a man had been seen to go backwards and forwards to Lower Cunliffe, Rishton, where the legs of the child were found, but without any result. They returned to Blackburn, and Mr. Potts then decided to have the dogs taken to Fish's shop and of a baarber named Denis Whitehead, who also had been suspected. The detectives entered the premises of the two barbers simultaneously, Policedetective Holden remaining at Fish's shop, while the other establishment was examined. From the movements of the dog the police had no reason to suppose that anything was concealed there, and Superintendent Eastwood, Detectives Livesey, Taylor, and the dogs, proceeded to Fisll's premises, hi which there are two rooms below and two above. The bloodhound ran round the rooms down stairs and jumped upon the slop-stone in the back kitchen. Then the officers and dogs went upstairs, and the bloodhound at once scented up the chimney of the front room, and the owner of the dog put his hand up the chimney, and pulled down from the recess of the draught-hole the skull and some other portions of a child, wrapped in a paper covered with blood. From a medicol examination made by Dr. Patchett, it was evident that the head had recently been burnt. Two teeth were left remaining in the lower jaw. It was with difficulty that Fish could be taken to the lock-up. He was in danger of being lynched, and if the police had not been prompt in getting him away, violence would have been resorted to. The prisoner appears penitent for the crime he has committed, and overpowering remorse has set" in. His sleep is restless. He turns from side to side, and dozes a little towards morning. Two j)olicemeii constantly keep guard ov(Tr him. His wife has had an interview with him, which lasted half an hour. She took her eldest child, one year and eleven months old, in her arms ; when the prisoner saw them he burst into tears, weeping bitterly. His first emotion overcome, he took hold of the child and kissed it. Then he got up and shook hands with his wife. Both burst into tears, and she frankly forgave him. She told him to prepare for another world, and there was nothing else before him. She said, "Don't think anything about us." She repeated this several times, but he never spoke a word in reply. He was still in tears when his wife left him. While Fish was in the service of Mr. C. Bramwell, he was always reserved, and sometimes would not speak a word for a week. At that time he attended St. Paul's Sunday School, and afterwards Su. John's. When he got married, about five yeai-s ago, he joined the religious sect of his wife, who is a Primitive Methodist. She is described as a decent, industrious woman, and when able she works at the mill as a weaver. When Fish's shop was first searched by the police she declared to a neighbour that she did not suspect her husband, and that if she knew he had committed the terrible outrage she would inform against him. The barber said little to those he shaved, and never visited the publichouse across the street. He often went, however, into a slaughter-house kept by Mr. Branley, in Moss-street, and saw the cattle slaughtered anil the carcases cut up. No doubt he utilised the lesson learnt here in the dismeinbenhent of Emily Holland's body. Before the murder, he professed to be a teetotaller, but after he was suspected, his wife would frequently go- to the shop for him at night, and fetch him a glass of port wine from the .Foster's Arms. It was matter of surprise to the neighbours that Fish should carry on his business-in a lock-up shop when

the house was sufficient to accommodate lj wife and family. When the funeral of Emil, Holland took place, he was seen in the froj kitchen with the door wide open smoking ij, pipe. The houses on the opposite side rf Barley-street command a good view of tin shop, and the back premises of and Fisher-street have a good view of hi, back premises, and there is a large yard co®. mon to half-a-dozen houses. The neighbor express surprise that they heard no screat® on the day of the murder. The ptj, soner's confession is substantially to th» following effect: —That, on the day the tragedy was "enacted, he sent Emilj Holland for halt an ounce of tobacco. she returned he asked her to come iu house. He got hold of her and carried he upstairs, and in the front room the outrage upon her. He took a razor anj coolly cut her throat. To prevent the blooj from covering the floor he wrapped clothes around her. Next he battered brains out and cut up the body, putting t)j head and arms on the fire which he had rt cently kindled in that room, and wrapptj the trunk and legs in newspapers, concealiij the parcels till it would be convenient fo him to remove them. It is stated that afte this he went downstairs and shaved some. (J his customers with the razor which had beg used to cut the girl's throat. The lioniblj work having been finished, he locked tfe door of his shop, and went to the Amplj. theatre of the Varieties, to stifle, perchanct, for a moment, the stings of conscience Great sympathy is felt for the bereavtj parents of - Emily Holland. The mother is it a desponding state, and was only corifinej about seven weeks ago. The father is a littli better now that the murderer has been found out. 1