ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3462, 5 January 1901, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, January 4. Arrived—Sieraa, s.s., from San Francisco, 4£ days late. Delay was caused by bad weather and the breaking of the lowpressure piston. After repairs Uaa been effected she came on at reduced speed. The mail agent reports that the best run the Sierra made was 16 knots for 24 hours. A few days before arrival at San Francisco a railroad accident delayed the final portion of the mail for 12 hours, and a further delay of seven hours was caused through six bags of letters and 11 of newspapers from New York for New Zealand and Australia being left behind at Ogden. Owing to a. gale between San Francisco and Honolulu, the steamer had to go at half-speed most of the time. She was delayed 24 hours at Honolulu, owing to the vessel-not having; appliances for handling cargo smartly. The steamer has accommodation for 238 first class passengers, ,80 second class, and 84 steerage ; four cold storage - rooms with a capacity of 360 tons. Half-a-million salmon ova, shipped at San Francisco for New Zealand have arrived in excellent condition. The Kanieri left Onehunga at noon today with the southern portion of the San Francisco mail. The departure of the Sierra for Auckland and Sydney marks the beginning of a new era. of quick and convenient mail and passenger service between two lands which have so many interests and characteristics in common, that it has always seemed a pity that it was a matter of so much time for them to enact the friendly office of " joining hands across the seas." The fact that the Sierra made a record-breaking trip in her traversing of the magnificent distances which stretch be- . tween San Francisco and Philadelphia, goes to show what may now -be expected in the way of diminishing the terrors of the long voyage to and from Australia. Captain Huaodlite, who came from Philadelphia in the vessel, says that she is the best ship he ever set foot in. The chief engineer, Mr Nieman, adds that he never saw a prettier set of engines than these, which will enable the new vessel to show her heels to anything that sails the Pacific. The Sonoma is now en route from Philadelphia, and the Ventura will leave here at intervals of three weeks after the sailing of the Sierra. . All these ships were built on the order of the Oceanic Steamship Company for this trade, and all have double bottoms on the cellular system, and refrigerating and electric plants. They are expected, after a time, to make the run between San Francisco and Auckland in something le« than 17 days, which will put the London mnil in Auckland in 24 days. SUMMARY OF MAIL NEWS. The " San Francisco Chronicle" of November ,20th contains an account of a shocking catastrophe to a crowd viewing a football match. A report says : —One of the most distressing accidents San Francisco ever experienced, and one that for the horrible manner of the fatalities has io parallel in the pages of the city's his;ory resulted yesterday from the falling of x portion of the roof of the San Francisco md. Pacific Glass Works, and hurling something like 100 hundred men and boys x> death or grievous injury. The building was finished but recently, and as its roof is i place of vantage , from which a football jame was in full view hundreds of men, >ld and young, and mere lads swarmed up ;he beams and braces of the interior and iut through the trap ventilators to the roof. The glass works is surrounded by a ligh board fence, but this was an ineffe*;ive barrier over which the men readily ilimbed. The management of the works nade an unsuccessful effort to keep out ntruders, and warned them not to go on :he roof as it was insecure, but no heed was said to the protest, and in a little time ;he roof was black with spectators. A 'avourite position was the ridge of the narrow ventilator, running the seventy-two 'eet span of the main structure. Football lad been in progress about twenty minutes ivhen the ventilating roof gave way for its sntire length, and with a terrible crash prejipitated those upon it to the floor below. 3o sudden and complete was the wreck ;hat few, if any, of those astride the roof lad an opportunity to save themselves. Nearly one-half of the ground space of the "actory below is a glass furnace made of mmense blocks of rock and firebrick, sound and held together by a network of posts, bands, and rods of iron. It ' had ;aken over a month to heat this furnace to he requisite temperature, and in its caulIrons were fifteen tons of molten glass, rhe outer fire and bricks of this seething nferno were so hot that- a man's boota vould be consumed in the time it would ;ake him to run across the surface, and the iron banding rods were of corresponding ;emperature.. Upon this fiery furnace fell learly one-lialf of the men precipitated hrough the roof. In a flash their clothes ;aught fire, and with th» screams and jroans of the unfortunate victims came :he odour of burning flesh and cloth. In :heir death agony some of the helpless victims struggled, rolled, or crawled from the ! urnace, while others unable to assist themselves were removed by the willing aid of ;hose who quickly arrived on the scene of ;lie disaster. So fiery was the furnace that planks and pieces of sheet iron had to be lsed to drag some of the victims from their position in which they were being literally grilled alive. Those who struck the floor iad but small advantage over those who :ame. in contact with the furnace, for the loor was of unyielding brick. The writhing, noaning, struggling mass in which the dead ind living were intermingled caused strong nen to shudder, and only the best nerve ;ould continue the work of relief. When it ivas found fourteen persons, mostly young boys, were killed, and over eighty were nore or less injured, many seriously. Some :>f those who died expired on the spots from their injuries, and others died in the lospitals. London dates to December lltli show that the late Sir Arthur Sullivan left an 2state of about £50,000, nearly all of which goes to his nephew, Mr H. SulliSm. He made small bequests to his two her nepheivs and to Mrs Stephens' niece, who resides at Los Anglos, Cal., and bequeathed £IOOO or,eh to liis housekeeper and his valet. Deceased also left a number of mementos from his silver and china to personal friends, among them being Mrs Bach Grant, mither of Lady Essex, Mrs Ronalds, Mrs Dovley Carte, and Mrs Crutchley, and also left a number of his original scores to musical institutions «nd friends, Mrs Ronalds getting the scbre of "The Lost Chord." Deceased left his portrait to the nation. Mexico city, December s.—An explosion of dynamite at the mines of San Andres De La Sierra killed or wounded many minevs. At latest advices 2-6 dead bodies bad been recovered. Fifteen injured persons, some of whom will die, were taken from the wreckage, 'and ruins are thought to contain other victims. It is not known as yet how the explosion occurred, but nine cases of dynamite blew up at the powder house with an appalling roar, shaking the country for miles around. When the panic had partially sub."»: •' ? 1 ;he wives and children of the miners hurried to the" scene, finding all the buildings wrecked ancVdead bodies fearfully mangled lying about. New York, November 30. The " Herald's" London cablegram says that Oscar Wilde died this at asmall hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris. For the previous three days he had lain unconscious or in delirium from the effects of an abscess in his ear,' which the doctors could not locate exactly. The inflammation from this gradually mounted to the brain. He died attended by a few faithful friends who declined to accept the general verdict of the world against him.

His end must be compared to that of Verlaine. It is interesting to note that "Mr and Mi's Tanqueray," the play with the authorship of which Wilde was credited* is now the rage. The majority consider it very shocking and everyone rushes to see whether it is as bud as reported. Wilde, it is declared, was receiving onefourth of the profits of the piece in which Mrs Patrick Campbell appears. Dublin, November 30.—A despatch to the " Evening Mail " from Paris says that Oscar Wilde died from meningitis, and was received into the Catholic Church on his death-bed. He had been living in an hotel where he had been known for several months under the name of Manmoth. For some time he had been indisposed, and •in October he was obliged to submit to a serious operation from the effects of which he never recovered. The Paris "Journal" says that it is rumoured that Wilde committed suicide.