GENERAL SUMMARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7032, 10 December 1890, Page 1

GENERAL SUMMARY.

[Per s.s. Zealandia,at Auckland.] [Pee Peess Association.] The Prussian Minister of Commerce has before him a plan, which has already been approved by the Emperor, for Btarting a working men's colony at Lichtenberg, a suburb of Berlin, which already possesses railway connections with the centre of the metropolis. It is proposed to erect there four thousand model houses, and to place them at the disposal of poor people at a monthly rental of sdols. The houses are valued at four thousand marks, and the cheap rental stands in lieu of payments by instalments on the property, so that the tenant or his family enters into ownership of the houae after twenty years' occupation, without extra payment. It has just leaked out that a meeting has taken place in London of a number of capitalists, headed by IVIrC. A.Bonynge, of San Francisco, with the object of arranging for the immediate putting into operation of a scheme for the laying of a new cable across the Atlantic Ocean. The undertaking is capitalised thus :— .£800,000 of stock is to be taken by eight men at .£IOO,OOO each, to be fully paid up, and no debentures issued. The cable is to be laid from Valencia Bay, on the West coast of Ireland, to a point on the American Continent near New York if possible. The production of Rhine wine from the famouß vineyards in the vicinity of Worms will be greatly curtailed by the changes necessary for the construction of a new harbour at that city. In order to meet the requirements of improvements under way and contemplated, several large vineyards on the banks of the Ehine will be destroyed, and their sites are expected to become the scene of commercial activity. Advices from Yakutsk report a mutiny of Siberian convicts on board a steamer on the Eiver Lena. The inhabitants of a village which the steamer was passing came to the convicts' assistance, and helped them to disarm and bind the guards of the eacorfc. The vessel was set adrift. The Governor of the Province sent troops in pursuit, who killed two of the fugitives and recaptured five. O'Connor, the American oarsman, in an interview at New York, said that it was next to impossible for anyone except a native to win on an Australian sculling course, owing to the number of tides and eddies. He eaid : "In the first race with Stanbury, in which I claimed a foul, I had some chance, as the tide was with me ; but when I rowed the race over again I knew I was not in it, as the tide was right against me." O'Connor is training for the Kemp match, which is expected to take place at Oakland in March. The cablegram from Rome, saying that j the Pope had ordered the Bishops of the American Hierarchy not to give any approval to Messrs Dillon and -O'Brien's campaign in America, caused considerable excitement in Irish Catholic circles in New York. A prominent member of the Catholic clergy however said: "It is quite well known that the Holy See has on more than one occasion of late declared that it will not interfere with the struggles of the Irish leaders for selfgovernment in Ireland. You can rest assured that the Holy See is not desirous of forming any entangling alliance by interfering with- Irish politics." Large bodies of Polish emigrants are leaving Bussia for Brazil to found colonies. Much concern is felt regarding the experiences of these emigrants after reaching Brazil, where the conditions of life are bo dissimilar from those to which they have been accustomed. The Warsaw Courier has engaged Dymasinki, an eminent novelist and evangelist, to join a party of them incognito and accompany them to Brazil. He will embody the experiences of the party in a series of articles.