AMERICAN ITEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3966, 24 June 1887, Page 3

AMERICAN ITEMS.

Efforts are being made to concentrate tho transit of Australian mails across the Continent, and thus obviate delay m the sailing of the monthly steamer. Much disappointment wa3 expressed by the English and Irish residents of San Francisco on account of the non-arrival of the Earl of Aberdeen by the steamship Zealandia on May 15th. Preparations had been made to give the ex-Lord Lieutenant of Ireland a complimentary reception. The Zealandia brought a new shaft from Sydney to San Francisco on her last trip, intended for the s.s. Australia, a sister ship. The shaft is 24 feet long, and was forged at Glasgow, Scotland. It was shipped thence to Sydney. W. L. Hanser, a young man aged 32, agent for the New Zealand Life Insurance Company at San Jose, shot himself fatally on May 15th. He was short m his accounts, and that and a love affair are said to have caused the act. The signing of the Russian-American extradition treaty by Secretary Bayard on the part of the United States, whereby political refugees are to be surrendered to the Czar by the American Government, has created an intense feeling among foreigners residing under the stars and stripes, and also among those native born. The Knights of Labour are intensely excited, and mass meetings are being held, at which Secretary of State Bayard ia denounced m unmeasured terms. IRISH SUMMARY. Fathers Keller, Ryan and Slattery were released from Kilmainham prison m Dublin on May 21, the Court of Appeal having decided that the arrest of the priests for refusing testimony was illegal. A memorial on the Irish question, prepared by the Irish College at Rome and published on May 18th, is entitled " Ireland as it is." It explains Parnell's policy, and apologises for the attitude of tho Irish episcopacy, referring expressly to Archbishop Walsh. The memorial is rather firm and uncompromising m tone, but not revolutionary. It is supposed that Monsignor Kirby, Rector of the College, consulted with the Vatican before issuing the document. A later dispatch doubts the issuing of this memorial.