Cablegrams.

Western Star, Issue 830, 29 March 1884, Page 3

Cablegrams.

(Reuter’s Sbecial.) HOME AND FOREIGN. London, March 24. The cargo of frozen mutton ex Orient, from Sydney, hns been landed in good condition, and portions of it were sold to-day at 5Jd per lb. Tenders for tbe West Australian loan of £154,000, at 4 per eent., at a minimum of 36£, ■were opened to-day. Tbe totr 1.- mount offered was £257,000. Tenders at £97 will receive 83 per cent., and tenders above that price in full. v Telegrams from Berber st-te that the dissatisfaction among the Arabs between that town and Shendy is rap dly increasing, and that the tribes to the southward of Berber are now in open revolt. Fears are entertained that the movement may continue, and that the safety of the garrison and inhabitants of Khartoum will be jeopardised. No news has yet reached here with regard to the attack which Gordon Fasha intended to make upon the rebels on the fith inst. Lord Derby has assured Mr Murray Smith that he has no hope that any remonstrances on the part of the English Government will be effectual in preventing France from carrying out the recidivist e scheme. He has, however, promised to again consult Lord Granville on the subject. •' March 25. In the House of Commons to-day Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, Foreign Under-Secre-tary, in reply to an enquiry on the subject of announcing the intended movement of British troops from Souakim to Tameneb, stated that General Graham’s object was to disperse the rebels who were still in tbe neighborhood of Souakim, and open the road from that place to Berber, through the districts occupied by friendly tribes. The Electoral Reform Bill was under consideration on the motion for its second reading in the House of Commons last night. Lord John Manners introduced an amendment, of which he gave notice on the 4th inst, setting forth that the proposed reform was unacceptable without » bill for the redistribution of seats. The debate was commenced cn this motion, and lasted tlnoughout the sitting of House. It is expected to divide on the amendment early next week. March 26. Adelaide wheat, ex store, remains at 46s ; New Zealand ditto,36s to 425. Adelaide flour, ex store, 30s. . Australian tal’ow, average quality —Beef, 37s 6d ; mutton, 40s 6d. Ndw Yoke, March 25. News has been received here that the Missouri {? Mississippi) has overflowed its banks, and that immense country near New Orleans has been submerged. It is feared that many persons have been drowned. Cairo, March 25. Latest despatches from Souakim stale that General Graham has start oil wit h his staff for Tameneh with the object of forming plans for projected operations in that quarter against tne rebels under Osman Digna. Telegrams from Souakim state that the British troops have advanced against Osman Digna’s camp. It is, however, rumoured that the rebel sheikh fled with bis followers to the mountains, wh»re pursuit will be a matter of very great difficulty. J B March 26. Latest telegrams from Souakim state that tbe British troops commented the march towards Osman Digna’s camp in the hill country near Tameneh at noon. I'he column had arrived midway bet ween the latter place and Souakim, when a halt was called, 400 men being prostrated by the intense beat and the difficult nature of the road. The advance will not be resumed until daybreak. The cavalry had several skirmishes with the enemy, who were closely watching tbe movements of tbe British troops, and numbers of Arabs have been killed. (Special to Melbourne Papers.) London, March 25. General Graham’s column is suffering greatly from the intense heat in Egypt, and many of the soldiers have been stricken down with sunstroke. It has been ascertained that Osman Digna’s camp is situated 25 miles trom Souakim, and that it is very difficult to approach. It is reported that Russia intends to abrogate the remainder of the Treaty of Paris. • . It is feared that the Sultan of Tu.key is going mad. Mr Gladstone has so far recovered that it is expected he will resume his seat in the House of Commons on Monday next. March 26. It is reported that Wm. George Eden (Baron Auckland), is an applicant for the governorship of Victoria. Mr Powell’s New Guinea expedition has been postponed until next year. March 27. Osman Digna’s camp is said to be impas■able for cavalry. The maximum strength of the rebels is estimated to be three thousand. INTERCOLONIAL. Melbourne, March 24. The police have effected the arrest of a man who is supposed to be the murderer of the farmer Beech, at Petravel, near Geelong, in January last. The accused is known to have been a lunatic, who effected his escape from the Yarra Bend Asylum some time ago. March 27. A grand Masonic ceremony took place at Melbourne at the Town Hall yesterday, when Sir William Clarke Was installs t District Grand Master. The English, Scotch, and Irish Constitutions were fu'ly represented, three thousand Masons being present. In the evening a levee and banquet were held at the Town Hall, and attended by eleven hundred people. The day’s proceedings passed off with eclat. Sydney, March 25. 1 E. Hanlon, the Canadian oarsmen, will shortly be matched against a local sculler for ■£looo’ a-side. It is probable that Beach will represent the Colony, and that the match will be rowed on the Nepean River.. March 26. In the Legislative Assembly last night a motion was passed to the effect that before any bill for the constitution of a federal council for Australia is passed into law by the Imperial Parliament, such measure must bo submitted to Parliament in the colony. Intelligence of serious outrages commitcd by the natives of New Ireland lias reached here. Advices stale that tbe natives burnt tbe Hernchin Company’s trading station atNoosa and murdered Captain Mo'ler, and all the crew of the schooner Meokeo Subsequently the vessel was destroyed by fire. The Gc;num corvette Hyoei.a lias since visited the scene of the outrage, and shelled the native village, killing six of the inhabitants. |£A sculling match has been arranged with Hanlon for £IOOO a-side to be rowed on the Nepean River on May 22nd. Hunt, who arranged the match, will nominate either Beach or Trickett as Hanlon’s opponent. Albany, March 26. Arrived, at King George’s Sound, this morning—P- and O. steamship Violetta, with the inward Brindisi mails, dated London, February 22.

MISCELLANEOUS. Archibald Forbes, in the Sydney Morning Herald, relates the following concerning Mr Gfruniesen, the Morning Post correspondent in the Carlist War of 1837: —■“ Gf'uneisen took his chances like other people, and one of these was a very near thing. Ho was sentenced to be shot the following day, but was unable to get off a messenger to the British Consul Bilhoa, who galloped all night up the Asturias Mountain slope, and arrived just before dawn, barely in time to save Gruneiscn, the l our for whose execution had been fixed at sunrise. Long years after, at a dinner party in London, he was presented to au elderlv Spanish officer, who, glittering with mulfudinous decorations, was among the guests. ‘I have had the honor, Senor, to meet you before to-day,’observed Gruneisen. The Spaniard professed himself desolated that he should have no remembrance of the occasion. * Tour Excellency,’ said Gruneisen, with fine politeness, ‘did me the honour of sentencing me to be shot up in the Asturius in ’37 ! ” It is not recorded that his Excellency made the retort General Sherman is said to have done to the American newspaper correspondent who met him after the war, and told him lhat he, Sherman, had ordered him to be hanged. * Then how the devil are you here now ?’ queried Sherman, with disappointment in his tone.”

Says “ Atticus” in the Melbourne “ Leader” : A friend of mine who was at the Melton Agricultural Show lately tells me of a conversation lately held over the first prize fat pig that is worth recording. The local parson said to an admiring butcher, who was a member of his congregation, “A fine pig that, and in prime condition for the knife.” The butcher replied, “ Tes, your riverence ; if you and me was as fib to die as that ’ere pig, we should do.” A woman named Mary Kiddie has been committed for trial for manslaughter on the verdict of a coroner’s jury at Port Adelaide. The evidence showed that her husband, who was a pugilist and a hard drinker, returned home intoxicated and brutally ill-used his wife, who in self-desence threw a pair of tailor’s shears at him, which inflicted a wound that caused death.

Tbe Legistrar of an Irish County Court was recently tried for marrying, without permission, a ward in Chancery, possessed of upwards of £IB,OOO, whom he had falsely represented to he of legal age. The marriage took place secretly in London. The judge was lenient, and merely ordered that strict settlement of the property upon the lady should ho made at the expense of the husband.

The German Press says: —The submission of the tribes of Merv to Russia is worse for England than the disasters of Soudan. It comments on the remarkable success of Lussian policyin Central Asia, which isalwaysdirected against England. If tbe Lussians should again stand -before the walls of Constantinople the English would be disabled from commanding them to halt, as in 1878. Russia will become the immediate neighbor of India, and will be able at any moment to create disturbance in Northern Asia. Now, only Afghanistan is between Russia and India. The frontier tribes are always ready to invade the rich Indian provinces if 1 heir rear is covered, and that they (Russia) can now guarantee.”

The untimely chatter of a schoolboy was stopped in a very ingenious way by au English schoolmaster who had failed by ordinary means to bring the boy to a sense of proprietv. He fastened a strap with a slip-knot around the boy’s unruly member, and then tied the other end of the strap to a chair. The boy’s parents had the schoolmaster arrested, but the Magistrate, after hearing the evidence, and it appearing that the boy had not been injured, dismissed the complaint on the ground that the tying of the hoy’s tongue was not a manual punishment, and certainly far removed from cruelty. It was merely a degradation consequent upon and very apropos to the offence of talking during lessons, and was no more cruel than putting a fool’s cap on a dunce, or tying the arms of a boy given to quarrelling with his fellows.

At the inquest on the hod y of Mr James Mulholland, who died from the effects of chloroform under a surgical operation, the evidence showed that Dr Stalker had no professional assistant at the litre—that there was only a friend of Mulholland, named Hughes, in the room. He had examined Mulholland with the stethoscope previously. The dose was three drachms. The post mortem examination showed that the heart was healthy, but the liver was enlarged. Tiie deceased was occasionally intemperate. The Coroner (Dr Philson) stated that he had performed hundreds of surgical operations on patients under chloroform without having another medical attendant. The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure, absolved Dr Stalker from blame, and added a rider recommending that in future in similar cases two medical men should he present. Deceased had a few months ago got a Government insurance proposal filled up for £IOOO, and been passed by the local medical officer, but this proposal was rejected at Wellington. A missionary in the China Island Mission, in the province of Kan-suh, says that in Thibetan families every other son is given up to the service of the gods, and is supported by his family. A principal temp’e has 300 priests ; another has 100. A letter from Dr Quinn, Roman Calhol'c Bishop of Brisbane, who is on a visit to Rome, says: —“The Pope praised the Irish for their fidelity and generosity, Out of their poverty they arc always giving immense suras towards the maintenance of religion, i Notwithstanding the many calls on their generosity, and their own great necessities, they wore ever contributing munificently to the Holy See”

Hearing that a large steamer had arrived from the Liver Plate with a cargo of South American frozen mutton, I on Monday last paid a special visit to Smith field and Leadenhall markets, my idea being to inspect the meat and learn what the butchers thought of it, as compared with the New Zealand article. The result, you will be glad to learn, was entirely satisfactory. The Liver Plate carcasses are considerably smaller than even the Australian, and look positively mean beside New Zealanders. The main blemish, however, lies in their appearance, w Inch is singularly brown and dried up, almost as though they had been tanned by the sun. The butchers say the meat is sweet and wholesome, hut can never, even under the most favorable circumstances, hope to compete with New Zealand frozen mutton, which still remains par excellence the finest produce of the kind imported. The Elver Plate Frozen Meat Company have showy offices in the city, and are making very shrewd arrangements for tbe disposal of their wares in provincial markets. The consignment just to hand sold at 5d per lb wholesale; an excellent price, as the best New Zealand only fetches 6d. The butchers I spoke to, however, attribute this rate to the novelty of the wares. When trade settles down Liver Plate mutton will, they think, probably run from 3£d to 4Ad wholesale. It is the sort of stuff a certain class of retailers can do with any amount of, provided only it is very cheap. Contractors for goals, workhouses, reformatories, and even hospitals, are always on the look-out for cheap meat, but it must be sound and wholesome, or else they risk severe penalties. —Home correspondent Dunedin “ Star.”

A little pamphlet, entitled “Suggestions as to Oaths; Is the Oath of Allegiance a Profane Oath ?” has just been issued by “ J. M.,” who is understood to be Sir John Mel!or, late Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division. The writer (says a London paper) expresses his belief that “ the existing want of reverence and awe rightfully attaching to the name of God is mainly due to the frequent and profane use of oaths,” and “being profoundly convinced by a long judicial experience of the general worthlessness of oaths,” he advocates their abolition as a test of truth, but would retain the punishment for false declarations wherever the law prescribes a penalty for a false oath. “An honest man’s testimony,” he says, “will not be made more true under the sanction of an oath, and a dishonest man will only be affected by the dread of temporal punishment.” The oath of allegiance he holds to be “an unecessary, vain, and therefore profane oath.” It does not extend or make stronger the duty of allegiance which is a fundamental principle of the Constitution ; and as it does not and cannot do this, Sir John holds that “it must of necessity require the taking of the name of God in vain.” He proposes as a substitute the signature of a declaration by every member of Parliament on taking his seat that he professes “true allegiance to the Queen, her heirs and successors according to law.”

The Dunedin “Star’s” London correspondent says : —“ lam fortunate enough to he able to give you some accurate information as to the reasons which induced Irving and Mrs Langtry to abandon their tours of Australia and New Zealand. Irving, it is possible, never really intended to carry out the idea, hut Mrs Langtry was quiet iu earnest up to the eud of November last—in fact, had even gone so far as to arrange to give a performance at Honolulu on her way to Auckland. What made her change all the plans were the evil stories told told of colonial theatrical enterprise by American managers and actors. They had none of them a single good word to say for the Australians. ‘ The worst place in the world for a big ‘ draw ’ like you to go to,’ people were always repealing. One actor absolutely went through a list of the principal theatres in Australia and New Zealand with Mrs Langtry, and demonstrated to her that even if the most sanguine expectations of the tour were realised, and the colonial public consented to pay double prices and come see her iu big crowds, she would still make less money than by staying and playing amongst friends in the United States. This, perhaps, would not have influenced her if the fear of failure had not been coupled with it. She could not (speaking as a ‘ star ) afford to play at ordinary prices in the colonies ; and many really good judges feared that afler the first flush of curiosity was over the public would resent the extra charges as an imposition and slay away. Altogether the prospect was so far from tempting that it seemed wiser to turn ‘ right-about-face ’ and accept the safe haven of a lucrative engagement in Nesv York, I heard all this at a theatrical club the other night. The speaker was a Yankee actor of standing, so I think his word may been taken.