THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 14

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Auckland, October 13. The Alameda, from San Francisco, arrived this afternoon. Passengers, for Auckland: Mr and Mrs J. Bell, Miss Mackenzie, Messrs H. Mackenzie, Thomas York, J. Scott, J. Fraser, C. Reid ; and eight steerage. She has a large passenger list tor Sydney, but no notables among them. GENERAL~SUMMARY. Stanley, the explorer, writing on June 22, says he has been well received by the Tipoo Tibsi people. Cholera is raging at Italy, Rome, Palermo, Messina, and Naples. Archibald Forbes is reported to have recovered his health after being considered incurable. Robert Louis Stevenson, the author, arrived at New York, en route for Australia. A filibustering invasion of Cuba has taken ..place. Large hostile bands have penetrated to the interior of the island. Great Britain has concluded a treaty with Tonga which virtually annexes these islands. «t The British Government has assented to granting a subsidy of £45,000 yearly to the Canadian-Pacific railway for carrying mans to and from the East. Michael Davitt sailed from Queenstown on September 22 for New York. He has been ordered on the trip by his physicians, and will not make any public appearance in the United States. The Canadian Government has received intimation from the Imperial authorities that the British Government cannot undertake the cost of a special survey of the route of the proposed transpacific cable between British Columbia and New Zealand and Australia unless some guarantee is given that the line will be actually laid. Sir John Thurston, long associated with j British rule in the Fiji Islands, has made a j bitter complaint to the Colonial and Foreign ; Office respecting its apathy on the subject of German aggression in the South Pacific. The Somoan difficulty has especially aroused Sir J. Thurston's anger. The Trafalgar, the largest ironclad ever constructed, was successfully launched on September 20 at Portsmouth. The vessel is 11,940 tons and of 13,000-horse power. She is to carry 12 guns — tour of 07 tons and eight of 40cwt. The side armour is 20in thick. Jy Tho British barque Balaclava, from London (March 25) for San Francisco, has arrived at Valparaiso dismasted. She lost 10 seamen, while off Cape Halloran, on July 29. Messrs Henry Labouchere, J. F. Brunner, aud Robt. Leake, English M.P's., were elected members o£ the Irish National League on September 13. The Duke of Devonshire has been converted to Mr Gladstone's Irish policy, and will induce Lord Hartington to follow his lead. The address of the Executive Committee of the new National (English) Labour Party, juat issued, announces that the party will have a separate .organisation from the trades' union, but will co-operate with them as far as possible. The programme is : Adult suffrage, one man to have one vote, State payment of members of Parliament, free education, land reform, poor law reform, maintenance of free trade but abolition of State-paid bounties, home rule, local government reform, and religious equality. It is signed by 21 representatives of popular centres in England. Ireland, Wales, and Scotland are not yet represented. Hanson and Wormald's woollen mills, at Tewkesbury, were destroyed by fire on September 6. The loss is £40,000. While a big gun was being cast at Vickers' foundry, Sheffield, on September 6, it exploded, killing five men outright. Three others wounded at the time died subsequently in the hospital. Lord Lovat dropped dead suddenly on September 6, while moor shooting at Inverness, Scotland. Mr Arthur Charles, Q.C., was appointed justice of the Court of Common Pleas on September 9, to succeed Sir William Robert Geaves, resigned. The English Trades Congress has adopted a resolution to form a labour electoral association for the purpose of securing an increase of labour representation in Parliament. Another resolution demands land reform, beginning with the imposition of taxes, such as will eventually leave the land in possession of the people. The Congress also debated a motion in favour of the eight-hours movement. The speeches of the delegates showed strongly-developed tendencies towards socialism. Mr Gladstone has declined an invitation from Mr George W. Childs, proprietor of the Philadelphia Ledger, to be present at the centennial celebration in that city. The London Times is the only paper that published the invitation and commented on it. Mr Childs' letter conveyed an assurance of unbounded hospitality, not only in Philadelphia, but throughout the Union, and declared that Mr Gladstone should be entertained as no man had been since Lafayette's visit. The Times regards the selection of Mr Gladstone as improper. It says his refusal is hardly complimentary to the American people, and his reply inadequate to so splendid an offer reinforced by such hospitality. It even states that Mr Gladstone has been asked because they wish to show that his attitude during a portion of the civil war is now forgotten and forgiven. The visit would be unwise, if not unsafe, during the next few weeks. Mr Gladstone's voice has come back to something like it should be in its marvellous powers, but he is subject to relapses. He has to guard chiefly against chills, which are sometimes followed by periods of prostration. He is in brilliant spirits, and is carefully looked after by his wife and friends. John Bright has also declined. Archbishop Walsh, in a letter published on September 8, declares Lord Ashbourne's land purchase scheme the best and most suitable for Ireland that has yet been passed. Lonergan's funeral at Mitchellstown was attended by over 1000 people, and was over half a mile long. He had been shot by the police on September 9. A friend of an English M.P. present at the iate Herbertstown elections was terribly beaten by the police inspector, who afterwards apologised. " I mistook him," he said, " for an Irish member. They pay us out in the House of Commons, and we mean to pay them out in Ireland." Mr Chamberlain's visit to Coleraine was the occasion of a grand Unionist demonstration. While returning from a funeral at Mitchellstown on the evening of September 14, a mob of about 300 wrecked the houses of several obnoxious tenants in Galbally,who were compelled to flee for their lives. The police were stoned and compelled to take refuge in the barracks. At Ballypor, Tipperary, on September 11, a riot broke out in a publichouse, and the police used their batons freely on the disturbers. The latter compelled the police to retreat to the barracks, from which shots were fired at the crowd, bat no one was injured. A party of Orangemen, while passing through Greencastle, Ulster county, on the night of the

17th, had an encounter with the Nationalist residents. The police, who tried to quell the* dis. turbance, were stoned and driven away; A force sent from Belfast fully restored order, and arrested 12 of the ' participants.' Mr J. T. Brunner, Liberal M.P, (recently elected for Norwich), has given £1000 to start a distress fund for Ireland. Mr Dillon remarked to an interviewer on the 18th that the outlook for the Irish cause was gloomy. Mr Balf our was determined apparently to bag all the Nationalist leaders. Mr Dillon would not be surprised if in a month or so a majority of them, including} himself, were found picking oakum. The representatives of the Cork Constitution and Mr Brandon (of the' London Illustrated News) were roughly handled at the Nationalist meeting at Bandon on September 18. The speakers had to interfere. Tho Dublin Gazette of September 20 published a proclamation suppressing the league and all its branches in County Clare and baronies of Leitrim and Loughrea, in Galway, Cork, Kerry and Wexford. The proclamations were signed' by Prince Edward Saxe- Weimar (commander of the forces in Ireland), Baron Ashbourne (Lord Chancellor of Ireland), Henry Brewen (justice of the peace), J. G. Gibson (Attorney-general of Ireland), and General Sir B. Redvers Buller, The Gazette announces that General Buller has been sworn in as Minister of the Privy Coun. cU. The proclamation makes it criminal to convoke, hold, or, publish meetings or do anything in connection with the league. The Nationalist leaders are hurriedly consulting as to what measures are to be taken to appeal to Parliament, if necessary, to cover this fresh act. It will not be possible to evade the Lord-lieutenant's orders by turning over the works of the National League to any other association. The Liberal League of London proposes some course of this sort, and they have asked the Irish leaders in London to meet them and discuss a plan for substituting branches of their association hi every place where a branch of the National League is suppressed. Tho Lord-lieutenant's order will defeat manoeuvres of this kind. Under it all meetings of a league in specified districts are unlawful, and any per* son calling together such meeting or publishing auy such notice concerning it, is liable to six months' imprisonment.