MAIL NEWS. (Per Monowai, at Auckland.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2244, 4 March 1897, Page 8

MAIL NEWS. (Per Monowai, at Auckland.)

Mr Sims Reeves, the famous tenor, has been declared a bankrupt;. Dr and Mr* Nansen are in London at 1 present, the gunsts of Sir G. Baden Powell. Michael Munfeaosy, the great Hungarian i pn,iuter, is reported to be in sane, and has beea ! placed in a private asylum. I George Brooks, the notorious begging-letter j writer, has failed in bin action for libel against | the Se. James's Gazette. He claimed £500 damages. Miss Madge Ellis, of the Oxford street Masio Hal!, brought an action for slander claiming £500 damages against a witneis who stated before the County Council that the appeared on the stage in bare legs. The cate was cettled l by the defendant agreeing to pay £300, with costs A gridiron party is the latest novelty. The Prince of Wales and many "smart people" I were present at one given by Mrs Dunscomb. '< The dining room was r.urned into a grill room, I and fillets and cutlets oooked on silver grills and served to the guests. In a suit for breach of promise by Miss Mabel Duncan, an actress, against Captain Arthur Bingharn Crabbe, of the Royal Irish Regiment, for £10,000, a verdiot by consent waa rendered on January 20 for the plaintiff. The terms of the settlement are not stated. Lord Dufferin will preside ovar a commerce congress to celebrate at Bristol the 400 th anniversary of Cabot's discovery of North America. Sir W. Rose having looked the gates of the historic grounds of his seat, Moor park, near Farnbam, Surrey, 8 gainst the public for tho first time for generation", hundreds of people, headed by the Farnham District Council, marched thither on Sunday, January 24-, and demanded admittance. This being refused the councillor! cut the bolts and chains of all the gates, having cold chisels and hammers for the purpose. The crowd flocked into the grounds, hooting the mansion as they passed. Mark Twain is living in very modest lodgings at present, working hard at his book in the hopes that the sale of it will lift him out of the depths of poverty in which he finds .himself. He seems to have scarcely any friends. At the inquest held in London on a man who had been killed by an elephant, the evidence showed that he had been a former keeper and was nniformly cruel to the animal. Happening to revisit ganger's Circus, where it was, the elephant seized him with his trunk, pushed him against a wall, and crushed his head with its trunk. The act was one of revenge. » The West Australian gold-mining market in London is reported to be in a vsry sick condition, and a good many people are beginning to despair of it. One of the victims of its fluctuations is Mr Alfred F. Calvert. He was a leading man a year ago and reported to be worth £500 000 in cash and 'twice as much in virtually gilt-edged West Australian ihares. He was offered at one time £1,000,000 for his holding in gold mines and refused. The other day he sold the same holdings to ' a syadic&te for £65,000. The Lady Lampton Stock Exchange "rig" case is still unsettled.