NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 26 March 1880, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

_a *_ , It is again stnted, but the statement is quite unconfirmed, thfit the Prince of Wales informed the Hon. Mr Childers that he and the Princess of Wales in* tended to be present at the opening of the Melbourne International Exhibition, The Duchess of Marl borough b»8 disclaimed any connection between her j fund and the Mansion House Fund. Tl>e Duchess, in addressing her committee in Publin, paid that the purest charity could not escape Mr Parr.ell's representations, hut that wss not surprising, seeing that he who slandered Her Majesty the Queen by during to say Her Mujfsty gaye no help in the famine of 1848. should also unjustly accuse the Duchess' fund as being used for politfcal purposes, and not for the relief of a distressed country. Mr Brassey, at the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, pointed out the importance of establishing a coaling station in the | colonies in case of war. He said that ta»g.3 sums were expended for objects really mu<h inferior in importance to that of tlie defence of the colonies. If the colonial resources are to be made available for Imperial as well as local purposes, some new special machinery ! must le devised, and the British Isles. India and our colonial possessions must ber-ome the component parts of an organised Imperial whole, Germany intends founding convict colonies in the South Sea Islands. The m\ ject has been discussed by the Federal Council, but nothing decided regarding the carrying out of the project. It is rumored tint Germany also intends acquiring the possession of other small South Sea Islands, and the new German Consul at A.pia has been directed to pay particular attention lo this subject. A meeting at the Mansion House was held on January 29th, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, in support of the proposed Arctic expedition, which is described as a 'British and Canadian Expedition, under John Cheyne, K.N.* The estimated cost of the expedition will bR £30,000, which is to be raised by voluntary contributions. Commander Cheyne said that the Finance Minister of

i Canada suggests that (he colony should | find money if England did not. It is proposed to ascertain by balloons which of the two channels is^mosfc open. In the first week of June, these balloons would leave the ships with provisions for fiftysone days. The North Pole, it is presumed, can be reached in from twenty four to thirty days,<and the return is to be accomplished partly ty sledge and partly by balloons. In a letter, Lord Bury strongly opposed the scheme as an impracticable one and suicidal for those engaged in it. Tbe first month of~the new year has been one of great severity, and we conse* quently hear of the prevalence of much distress in London. Indeed, very many years, have gone by since I heard an equal amount of complaining in public, and I donot remember a previous winter where there have been so many public meetings of tbe unemployed fo bemoan their hard fate. We expect January in this country to be severe, but this year it is beyond description. For the past two days we have had fogs as thick as that which I described in my last letter as having visited us on Cbristoins Day. while for three successive nights the frost has fallen on us like a thin cloud of snow. Of course this has much inter* fered with business of all kinds, but out door labour ha* been entirely at a stand* still. For three months now such people as gardeners and all descriptions of building; operatives have been at a tofal standstill. I do not bear many complaints from the gardeners, except the sham ones who went about the streets bawling that they were frozen out, until the police, by order of the magistrates, put a stop to what was becoming a system of terror and extortion, but the workmen in the building trade, who as a class have always been improvident, are in great straits. Things have now come to such a pass in London that the unemployed have flocked to the Mansion House by hundreds in the endeavour to obtain some of the relief which the Lord Mayor has been enabled to distribuie, owing to the generosity of some private people and 6rms in tbe city, For one or two days ibe traffic in the centre of London was greitly impeded by the crowds of applicntits, who filled Wallbrook and overfl wed into Cbeapside and the adjacent streets. During one afternoon alone three hundred orders were distributed, each of which entitled the recipient to a two*pound tin of compressed meat, tlie gift of Messrs Hudson Brother*, a very old established firm of provision merchants. Daring the same day five hun« dred tins of meat, given by tbe St. Lwiis Beef Canning Company, were di stributed by the superintendents of the i city police, who made very judicious almoners. Even this did not suffice to affird some relief to every applicant, and a severe dram has had to be made on tbe poor box of tbe Justice room. Tbe bu'k of these distressed people were marrird men, and really artisans who would work if employment could be found them.