AMERICAN NEWS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1280, 6 August 1883, Page 2

AMERICAN NEWS.

From and after to-morrow, Ist July, the railroad time between New York and San Francisco will be shortened 24 hours, with two through trains a day between this city and Council Blufts. The Pullman oars will ruii through the whole distance, thus] avoiding change of cars at Ogden, with its attendant inconvenience. By this route, however, there is still the change at Council BlufFs. But there is now Ein opposition line, in the Denver and Rio Gande, which connects at Ogden with the Central Pacific, aud in connection with the great Burlington system of railroads goes through to Chicago, without touching at Council Bluffs. This line has just announced i reduction in fart:s and 12 hours in ;ime between Ogden and Chicago. It msses through Sail, Lake City inu] Denver, and opens up l.ho most nictiu^i<jiie country in North America.. This

is the tourists' route of the future. Now that cholera is raging in Egypt, blocking the Suez Isthmus route, the California line should be more generally patronised. With a reduction of 24 hours in the time across the Coutiuent, two days at sea, the Pacific main route, if only fortunate on the Atlantic, will always be a faster mail service than the Red Sea route. But the ocean time might be reduced, with efficient ships, to 23 days on an average, aud it may be set down as a certainty that in less than two years the postal time across this Continent will not exceed five days, whatever it may be under that maximum. There is quite a large export lumber trade growing up between the Pacific Coast and Australia. The J. G. Pendleton takes 600,000 ft redwood lumber, doors, mouldings, and other building materials to Sydney ; and will be followed in six days by the Johan Irgens, for the same destination, with • lumber, brewing barley, and general merfchandise. The ship Spartan takes 1,600,000 ft redwood and general merchandise for Sydney, and is now loading .; here. There are loading in Puget Sound for Sydney and Melbourne six vessels, 'which will have despatch inside 45 ; sasylSfslr^^ 4,000, , 000 ft pine lumber. Per contra, we import Australian coal very largely, , and thd •■■> iilanager of the San , Francisco Gaslight Company told me tlmt they had sent to the Westport , mine for a sample ton of its coal. , -Should the samplesustainitsreputation j for gasmaking purposes, a large and ( profitable market .will, be opened for it .. here t thus bringing the West Coast oi New Zealand into close relations with San Francisco/ ' The United States Survey steam ci ', Blake has returned from the wintei cruise for deep sea exploration between J the Bermudas and the Bahams. On ] January 19, in latitude 19 degrees : 41m. N., lon. 66deg. 24m. W., about " 105 miles north-west of St Thomas, 1 there was found the greatest deptb ever measured iv the Atlantic, or 4591 > fathoms. The place was about 8S • miles south-west of the place where the 1 Challenger made her deepest sounding • of 3862 fathoms. .. ' A statement from the jfe§-book of Judah P. Benjamin, the ex-Confederate 5 Socrtary, shows that has income during a sixteen years' residence in London aggregated £143,810 18s 3d, being an ' r average of about £9000 per annum. I His fees in 1880 — the year they were largest — amounted to £15,971 4e \ lOd. „ The San Francisco Bulletin asserts j that most of the Protestant churches in California are to-day ve>y poor. , The exceptions are in some of thf I large cities and towns. But for th« most part the Protestant churches o: this coast cannot afford to pay a minj•■: ister of sterling talent such a sum ai is competent for the support and fo; g ,an unhindered work among hi people. 1 Mitchell has been matched to figh 3 Slade, the Maori, on September lltl I next, for £800. . r Mrs Langtry has been engaged foi I a 16-weeks season in Australia by Mi r Morris Green wall, of Melbourne. Yoi I may therefore expect a visit soon front i "The Jersey Lily." She thinks st i well of America that she will make hei F home here.— Otago Times.