LATEST CABLE NEWS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1278, 23 March 1881, Page 2

LATEST CABLE NEWS.

(from ouk own correspondent.)

LONDON.

March 19. At the wool sales to-day 4000 bales were catalogued, and prices generally ruled 10 to 15 per cent, higher. March 21. It has transpired that Sir Arthur Gordon and Commodore Wilson have communicated with the Secretary of State for the Colonies regarding the report of the Intercolonial Conference on the subject of the South Sea Islands massacre, and the powers of the High Commissioner for the West Pacific. Their letters reply warmly to the comments of the report, which Commodore Wilson characterises as a scurrilous libel. Mr. Parnell has been in Ireland for some time past, aud his prolonged absence from the House of Commons is causing much comment and criticism amongst his followers. The Daily News to-day publishes the terms of the peace with the Boers. These include the undertaking by the Boers to disperse their forces and break up their garrisons forthwith, England agreeing to hold an enquiry into the Boers' demands through a Royal Commissioner, so as to arrive at a permanent settlement of the diiliculties in the Transvaal. In the House of Commons to-day Mr. Gladstone announced that he would make his Budget Statement ou the ith prox., and introduce the Irish Land Hill on the following Thursday, and that the House would adjourn for the Easter recess on April 8. MELBOURNE. Tuesday. The ceremony of the official declaration of awards took place to-day in the Exhibition Building. The dav was observed as a public holiday. There was a parade of Volunteers, and crowds of people in the streets, and 20,000 persons visited the Exhibition. The weather was very hot. The Commissioners announced that 0,941 awards had been made, exclusive of 581 honorable mentions. New Zealand holds a good position in the list, with 341 awards, which were formally received by Mr. John Blackwood, on behalf of the exhibitors in that Colony. The whole ceremony passed off with great echU.