AMERICAN NEWS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 57, 30 May 1874, Page 12

AMERICAN NEWS.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 people have been driven from their homes by the breaking of a levee on the banks of tho Mississippi. In Louisiana, a large breadth of the best cotton lands overflowed, and the crops ruined or greatly damaged. From Cape Girardeau to Red River there are seven or eight million acres of bottom land, ranking as the most productive cotton land in the world, under water. The product of this fertile tract in a good season is worth 400,000,000d01. or 500,000,000d01. By last accounts several thousand people occupying these alluvial lands are not only driven out, but were in a starving condition. New Orleans telegrams state that most gloomy reports continue to be received of inundation in various points. The whole of the Amite Valley is submerged. Houses, barns, implements, and animals are washed away. The inhabitants fled to the high land, where they remain in a destitute condition. Letters from the Red Tiiver country say — " We are entirely overflowed. All bankrupt. Have no provisions ; no money ; many starving. The water over country still rising. The cattle not drowned are dying for want of food. Sheep and hogs drowned by the hundred." San Francisco, April 27. The Bandit Vaischeuz.for whose head a reward of 15,000d01. was offered, is again ravaging the southern counties of California. He seized the Ranchero San Gabriel at his mission near Los Angeles, and compelled him to write a cheque for 500dol. There has been an epidemic of crime at San Francisco. Six violent deaths took place in one week. A murderer committed suicide beside the body of his victim, and another nearly similar case^ occurred a few days after ; but the coroner or jury disbelieved the statement of the survivor, and found him guilty of the murder of his comrade. President Grant vetoed tho Senate Currency Bill. The President's message on the Navigator Islands will soon be printed. The report of the Commissioner Sternbergen attracted considerable attention. The conflict of claim to the Governorship of Arkansas causes great; anxiety. Brooks and Baxter, the rival claimants, have each raised an army. The Federal troops were called on to restore quiet. Bio Janeiro. The mail steamer arrived reports a rupture between the Argentine Republic and the Gruvernirent of Montevideo, because of Zqtmifnto arbitrarily closing the liner Paraguay ng:u'n*t a Banda Oriental vessel. A settlement of the difficulty is hoped for. Venczueli advices stite that Governor Pulgar, of Mai\tcaibo,'fled from tli e Province to Kingston, on account of a revolt against depot ism.

The news has reached Panama of the loss of the ChPeaii eo;istings(ea»ner Tiieha, with 19 persons. The loss ot life is attributed to a panic which seized the crew, two of whom made off with the only boat.

Tho friends of Stokes, the murderer of •Jain.'s Fisk, intend applying for his pardon.

Th.> new gas works at Nelson, constructed under, and f.T'ticJ by the Provincial Government, which prevented a private comiii'.v from taking up tho work, havo proved a failure. All the thire retoi U< having gone wrong, the supply for the time is stopped.