AMERICAN SUMMARY.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 202, 7 May 1887, Page 5

AMERICAN SUMMARY.

San Fkaiscisco, Apiil 0, 1887. Mr John D. Spreckels, of the turn of Spreekles and Co., owners of the Oceanic Steamship line, and contractors lor carrying tho mails between the United Stateh ana Australia, will take a trip to the colonies by the Tt.M.S. Mariposa in May next. He goes on business connected with the line. It will be his first visit. People in the vicinity of Somerset and Benton, Texas, are holding meetings daily to devise means to obtain food for a large portion of the community. Many have deserted their homesteads and fields, and gone to search for a more favoured locality. Unless there be rain at an eai ly day, tho situation will be pitiable. The people aie now hauling water a distance of ten miles. The Legislature of Ponnyshani.'i has, by enactment, substituted eleath by electricity for hanging in cases of capital pu> ishment under the law. The British tramp steamer Carmona, which left Bairow, England, on Fcbrua>y 13th with a full cargo of steel blooms consigned to a linn in Pennsylvania, h.'d iutt been Ik aid of up to April sth, and io gi\en up as lost with all hands on board. The captain's name was J. A. Halciov, . The \e-sel It tiled from "Dundee, and v»as o\vned by \\*i iviin Thompson. By an explosion in a coal .^ine at Sax.mna, Indian Territory, Apiil i;ih, pome eighteen persons were killevi b;, suhV.carion. Mi>-s Cathaiine Lorillard Wolle, c>aid to he tie i U'hest unmarried lady in \he woild, dieel in New York April 4th. lice wealth is estimated at 20,00(),000dol. She was related to the Lorillard, Bishop urn; Bruu 1 families. Some of the recent elections in tho Western States are making pioievsional politicians open their eyes. The Knights of Labour elected their complete inunicijKil ticket in the important town of Dubuquo, lowa, and came within 600 of electing a Mnyoi for Cincinnati, Ohio. Generally, howe> er, the Republicans were successful. Shoit ci ops of cereals are expected in California, owing to the absence of the usual spring rains. A tremendous riot took place at the headquarters of the Salvation Army in Savannah, Georgia, on the night ot April 4th, inciteel by several ruffians who were present. Some twenty-five people were more or less injured. Broken jaws ami noses were plentiful. There is extraordinary activity among the Irish-Americans just now in all parts of the United States, adeling members to the National League, ami subscribing money freely. Organisations heretofore Conservative now openly advocate the elynamite policy in answer to the coercive measures to be taken by England against li eland. Six thou.-uml h\e hundred eaipenters in CUuwgo quit work on April oth, and building opoalions in the country will, it is expected, lemain suspended till the eightho'ir question be definitely settled. The famous Hotel del Monte, at. Monterey, California, w.us destroyed by lire on the night of April Ist. The guests, some two or tlnee hundred, m..vle their escape from the bu 1 ning building, with only the clothing they could snatch up at the moment. No li\ es w eie lost. A. S. Cheadle, manager of the New Zealand Meicantile Agency Company in San Francisco, has written to the Board of Harbour Commissioners of that city regarding the kauri timber of Western Australia, which is said to resist the teredo navalis. He recommends it for piling wharves and piers in the harbour, tt was tound, on inquinng of the Commissioners' engineer, that piles of kauri wood had been in use in »San Franeibco waters for some time. Culbeth's nomination a& Consul to tho Samoan Islands having been seH a°ide. the appointment is confeued on Haiolel M. Scwall, of Maine. He leaves San Francisco by this steamer for his post. The "World's" Washington eoirespondent is authority for saying that the President believes Congress was hasty and impulsive in passing the Canadian Retaliation Bill rcgauling the Hsheiies, and that he does not intend to enforce the measure. The New Dominion authorities are a-- defiant as ever, and it is expected American fishermen will be treated more brutally in Canadian ports than they weie lastyeai. Dr. W. W. Randall, of Hayings, Nebraska, on trial, Mai eh 18th. for a criminal assault on an eleven-year old girl, who was under his medical treatment, was shot dead in the Court-ioom b% t,Le girl's brother. The doctors wife, who was charged with aiding him in ruining young girls, remained secreted to a\oul lynchThe ce)ttony cushion scale, an insect said to be imported from Australia, is doing such extensive damage to the citron groves of California that the Go\ eminent entomologist, Dr C. Y. Riley, has been sent from Washington to investigate. The Richmond Hotel, of Buflalo, Now York, was burned on March ISt.h. Six persons perished in ' ] \o flames. Dr. M. Glynn, t ■ New York Catholic priest, suspeneled fro. . his functions for endorsing the land and : 'jour policy of King George, has entered the lecture field. His theme is " The Cross of the New Crusade," or tho doctrine of tho fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man

GREAT BRITAIN AND VENEZUELA. News received at Santiago, Cuba, April 4, by the Spanish steamer Valle Vevde, from Venezuela, reports three British men-of-war in the harbour of Puerto Caballo. the port of Caraccas, the Venezuelan capital. The British Minister had left the capii al, and was on board one of the warships, diplomatic relations between the British and Venezuelan Governments having- been severed. Tho implications are due to the imprisonment of English sailors and citizens in 1883 without just cause, intermixed with the question of boundaries between British Guiana and Venezuela. Sir William Robertson, the British Minister at Ooraceas, demanded satisfaction and the release of the sailors and passengers, of the English vessels, Henrietta and Josephine, and later demanded compensation from Venezuela, but without result. In October last the English Go\ornmoi\t demanded an instant reply. The matter was again brought before the Venezuelan Government at Cai'aceus, but a.s no satisfaction coulel be obtained, diplomatic elations were severed as before stated. The Royal mail steamer had been dispatched to one of the British Islands for troops. Residents of Venezuela considered a dire crisis at hand. There were no signs of yielding up to the time the Valle Verde sailed.