LATEST NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1674, 22 December 1883, Page 26

LATEST NEWS.

San Francisco, November 2G. The s.s. City of Sydney was detained till date from the 23rd, owing to the non-arrival of the English' mails. It is proposed shortly to confine the San Francisco and Colonial mail service' to three steamers, which can be done by shortening the time of lying in port ; but correspondents in all parts of the country will be deprived of the opportunity of answering their letters by the same steamer that they receive them.

The Southern Pacific railroad people are trying to control the wheat-carrying from this port, and the way they propose to do it is this : They have found that the ships which go to San Francisco for wheat carry their cargoes of coal from England, Australia, and elsewhere in order to meet at this point. They have bought extensive coal deposits on Pngefc Sound, where they are building ships to ii eight this coal to San Francisco. In this way they could supply a large amount of the demand for coal, and render it unprofitable for wheat ship 3to coal here.

William M'Cann Nelson, formerly of Victoria, now of San Francisco, was attacked and badly beaten on October 24 while leaving his dwelling by two disguised men. It is thought the assault had some connection with a recent suit against ex-Senator Sharon for adultery, in which Nelson was engaged for the prosecution. The affair is considered sorffowhat mysterious. Before he was attacked Nelson had brought a personal suit against Sharon for slander, laying damages at 120,000d01. The latter had stigmatised him as a blackmailer. This Sharon suit has also led to an indictment on a charge of forgery of Mr Nelson and Miss Hill. Sir Henry Herbert, M.P., the owner of Muckross Abbey, < was about to marry Miss Rebecca Williams, a Baltimore heiress, on November 11, when her father discovered that the baronet's estate was so heavily mortgaged that he was next door to a pauper. The wedding proceedings were summarily stopped. Mrs Langtry started on her second professional tour in America on October 25. She opens in Montreal, then goes to Chicago and San Francisco, and will probably continue her journey to Australia. She gave great offence to the people of Ottawa by rehearsing her plays on Sunday. Matthew Arnold, who arrived in New York on October 21, is reported as saying that he hoped he would like the country, but after all lie thought there was no place to live in like smoky old London. The iron mills of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, are generally closing down owing to the depression of trade. _ _ John Bright denies that he intends to visit America this winter.

A cablegram states that the health of the Princess 'of Wales is not good. She has increased the cold caught in Denmark, and < her deafness has ao increased that her companions talking to her in the theatre are heard over the house.

Gerald Masaey, at present in Now York and en route for Australia, is nearly broken down by bronchitis, . contracted in America, from which he hopes his trip to the Colonies will free him. The Corean Ambassadors now in New York

have been purchasing so recklessly that they fouud themselves short of funds, and bad to borrow money to pay thoir expenses home, A large and enthusiastic meeting of Freetraders was held in New York on November 22. Henry Ward Beecher presided. Captain F. W. Dawson, an Englishman, and editor of the Charleston News and Mercury, ha's been created a Knight of the Order of St. George by the Pope for the opposition ho has made to duelling, and which has gradually led to tho suppression of the practice in South Carolina.

Edward Hanlan, the Canadian oarsman, arrived in San Francisco on Novembor 22, en route to Australia. He will probably leave by the mail steamer of December. Mrs Langtry was playing in Louisville (Ky.) on November 6. fciho is still accompanied by Fred. Gebhardt.

O'Dono.van Rossa, a son of the New York dynamiter, wa3 arrested in New York on the 24th, at the instance of an insurance company, for the larceny of a premium on a policy, and held for examination.

Ben Butlers thanksgiving proclamation, owing to its irreverence, was not read from the Protestant pulpits. Win. J. Ramsay, the proprietor of the London Freethinker, convicted on the 6th of March last of publishing blasphemous libels, and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, was released on November. 24. He was escorted from gaol by Bradlaugh and a large crowd of sympathisers, who cheered him, and he was given a public breakfast at the Hall of Science. Geo. \V. Foote, editor of the same paper, convicted of the same offence, has yet to serve three months.

Wolff, a member -of the Advanced Socialist Club of London, was arrested on the 23rd in his house, where were .found two infernal machines, placed there by a Frenchman named Bolkerane. It turned out on investigation to be a put-up job to obtain the reward expected to be paid to the informer, the Frenchman undertaking the role, and that no real conspiracy existed, as was stated, to destroy the German Embassy, Ambassador, and attache. Messrs James and Co., merchants, of Manchester, failed on the 24th. Their liabilities are £110,000.

Mrs Cornwallis West, the famous English beauty, has arrived in Washington, and will assume the management of the household of her brother-in-law, Sackville West, the British Minister.

On account of the number of British subjects in the Rocky Mountains, Earl Granville has been petitioned to appoint a consul at Dinbar, and a vice consul in Salt Lake Gity. Hanlan, the, Toronto rower, who leaves for the Colonies by the steamer City of Sydney at date, barries with him a new shell boat and a pair of Donoghue sculls for the Australian races.

Canada has demanded' that the Imperial Government pay part of the expenses of maintaining pauper immigrants deported from Ireland and landed in the Colony, but there is no likelihood the demand will be complied with. It is now suggested by the Ottawa Press that destitute or undesirable immigrants be shipped to the place from whence they came, as was done by the authorities at American ports.

Kawill, the English " ped,"'is in New York to contest with Fitzgerald, who defeated him last October, for 500dol and the championship of the world.

A son of Jay Gould, the American millionaire, is about to wed Miss Carrie Astor, of the famous Astor family, a union of wealth that is stirring New York society circles profoundly.

It is stated in San Francisco paper that.a delegation of business men from the Australian Colonies, headed by U.S. Consul Calho, of Sydney, will visit America next spring, with, the view of making themselves more thoroughly acquainted with the country. • The Marquis of Lome, in his " Impressions of Colonial Life," writes that Canada is the least costly country and the least troublesome, and yet the greatest, of the British Colonial possessions.

The s.s. City of Sydney reached San Francisco a day in advance of schedule time. Her speed was due, it is said, to the now improved screw with which she has been recently fitted.

Aylward, who gained fame as a -leader on the Boer side in the recent Transvaal War, was arrested in Chicago recently for being drunk and disorderly.

Steve Raymond, an English forger, was sentencad in New York, on November 1, to lifeimprisonment for passing forged coupons on the Union Paciric railroad.

Port Antonio, Jamaica, was almost entirely destroyed by fire on October 18. It bogan in the drygooda store of Sutherland and Co. The total loss is over £200,000. Tho Canadian Pacific railroad having been constructed on the eastern side to within 35 miles of the summit of the Selkirk Ridge ot the iiocky Mountains, it was then discovered that it might -be impossible to cross via Kicking Horse Pass. The eugineers on the work got into a dispute on the subject, which became so serious that the matter was laid bsfore the manager and officials, and the conclusion was co'mo to to stop all work for two years. Consesequently between 4000 and 5000 men were discharged. Sufficient engineers wll be put to work at once to discover the best route.

Extraordinary precautions have been taken to guard the English men-of-war now lying in the ports of the Canadian seaboard provinces against Fenian attaok.

Oscar Wilde is about do try political life. He will join the Irish party, and aspire to a seat as a Parnellite.

Dr Schliemann has abandoned his excavations for the present, and returned to Athens in broken health.

Lord Ripon has offered his i resignation as Viceroy of India. Mr Goschen is spoken of as his successor, and will bo made a peer. Mr Thomas Sexton, M.P. for Sligo, was attacked by seven men, according to his own account, in Seven Dials, London, on November 10. They gagged him, pinioned his arras, and rifled his pockets of his money and gold watch and chain. All the footpads but one esca; cd. On the trial one of the jurors asked Mr Sexton if he (Sexton) was in liquor at the time he was robbed. Mr Sexton, with considerable temper, answered in the negative. The robbery took place near a public-house, where he had called to get a brandy and goda at 2 o'clock a.m.

The business failures throughout the United States and Canada for the w,eek ending-No-vember S number 215.

Donald Dinnie, the Scottish athlete, sailed by the City of Sydney en route for Sydney, but may probably change his mind and go to Dunedin.

The extra of the Pall Mall Gazette of November _ 3 contained a statement that the authorities were anonymously informed that an attempt would be marie to destroy the train on which tho Duke and Duchoss of Connaughfc were to go to Dover from London on their way to India.