The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-01-04
THE PACIFIC
GOmnlertlalAoOrrtlse .
SATURDAY,. JANUARY f..
From our RegulEr Correspondent
Monthly Letter from Europe-No. XIV

LONDON. DEcEGBER IsT, 1873.
The French Government is said to have closed
contract with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
for regular steam connection between San Francisco
and Noumea. New Caledonia. For a yearly subsidy
OF 900, 900 francs, mails are to be delivered within
20 days. which will bring the Colony within SO days
Of Hivre. The great delays Of transmitting news
during the ksnaka rebellion, via Australia, have
caused this measure. II is also hoped that q sub
marine cable between San Francisco and Honolulu
may still further shorten the distance. The French
Government will also give its attention to this sub
ject. Tie sum Of 50. 900 francs has been voted in
the budget for the expenses Of The New Caledonia
rebellion.
The total loss by the Santa Cruz, W. I. riots ex-
ceeds So, OO0, 900. There were Il plantations burned
and "a saved; the canes would not catch FIRE on
accounts Of the juice. In Jamaica, the 10 plantations
belonging to a bankrupt London firm have nearly
all stopped cultivation; six on the north side have
turned cattle into the canefelds. In Barbados the
growing crops promise well, but in Trinidad the
weather is too dry for the canes. At Demerara all
estates are now busy grinding, but the canes give
poor returns, the juice is exceptionally poor, and
the cost of boiling down in consequence unusually
high, go that there will be a great falling of from last
years crop.
The German Government has issued an official
contradiction to the report that il intends TO convert
Samoa into q German Colony, but it proposes to
hold the places seized on Upolu, until the Samoan
Government will accord the same treaty privileges
to Germany as to the United States. England may
also interfere again. To all well wishers of the
Polynesian race, it must be gratifying however, that
one European power at least has no intention of
founding any colony in the Pacific.
Sir Arthur Gordon, who is now here on q visit,
Qffpr annTuTn fhn fraaIA- af fLn Ito ~ 4.1za
delivered q lecture on the Colony of Fiji, which he
governs. Major Noble, r. A, a member of the
British Transit party at Honolulu in 1874, has been
appointed Assistant Adjutant General of the siege
r. N, has just died of wounds received during tie
attack on the Gate Psh, a rebel Maori position at
Tauranza, n. L.. in April, 1864.
The Wanganui tribes in New Zealand have
erected on their reservation o sort of Parliament
House, which establishes a new order of architecture,
as it forms a combination of English and Maori
materials and workmanship, and for this reason, as
well as on account of the elaborate carved and
ornamental work by Maori artists, has become an
object of attraction to visitors. The building is
used by the natives as a meeting house for public
discussions, &C., q sort of hdlepuie. Among these
Wanganul tribes much misery is caused by intern
perance, the liquor furnished by the traders being
dragged, highly injurious and even poisonous. Ha-
Wallan legislators will do well TO remember this,
when they again would attempt to repeal the pro-
hibitory law. There are now 1880 miles of railroads
open and working in New Zealand.
LiterGry.-The approaching centenary Of Captain
Cooks death at the Kaawaloa boat landing has
brought cut a new edition of the Great Nayigator's
" Voyages round the World,'' with an account of
his life by A. Kippis, and II plates in facsimile from
drawings made during the voyage. A new book on
the Challenger cruise has also appeared, called
Sat anchor, a narrative of exploration aaoat and
ashore during the voyage of H. NJ. s. Challenger
round the World, in 1S72-6,'' by John James Wild,
member of the civilian scientific staff, with many
colored sketches, ~etchings, sc. Stanford's ''Austra-
will contain an chronological appendix on the
tribes of the Pacific by A. H. Keane.
Among the 203, 900 foreign visitors at the Paris
Exposition SO came from Oceania.
.NaUaL .NetrS.-The Russian frigate Minnie, %
guns, has passed the channel en- ronte for the North
Pacific, and is now due at San Francisco. Letters
from Commodore Hoskins on the Australian station
in the Woluerene at Sydney, are dated Sept. 80.
He left Aug. 8, visited Norfolk Island, Levuka and
and returned to Sydney Sept. II. The
would leave Auckland Oct. TO, for Tonga,
Samoa and Fiji. The Sapphire would sail from
Sydney for Melbourne. Sappho sailed Sept. %, for
Conflict would leave Port Moresby to
reach Sydney end of November. .Alacrify was sur
veying the eastern FIJI Islands. Beagle left Cimbo
July y, for the eastern Solomon islands. The
was in Solomon Group. 1T Woolwich
Arsenal, four vessels are loading 800 tons of guns
md ammunition for New Zealand. A number of
field guns and their equipment are to be sent out to
the Governor of Queensland by the first ship. The
bark Louise, Capt. Meyer, sailed Nov. 9th from
for Honolulu. F. B.