NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 67, 9 March 1877, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

[From the Home Neius.~\

OLD COINS. An urn full of old coins, dating 200 years after Christ, has been dug from the Cloud Hill Lime Rocks, Breedon, Leicestershire. The workmen making the discovery, it is stated, sold them. The Secretary of State, becoming acquainted with the circumstance, has claimed them as " treasure trove" belonging to the Crown. REMOVAL OF CANNON IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. The New York correspondent of the Daily News telegraphs :— " President Grant admits that he is removing cannon and ordniance stores from the Southern arsenals in order to secure them against possible seizure." W r ESTON AT HOME. Sensational pedestrianism continues the rage, and there are walking feats extraordinary now in progress all over the county. Weston failed on Saturday, December 23, to accomplish his 505 miles in six days, and failed after, to accomplish 400 miles in five days, which he is now again attempting to do. Several other rivals of Weston have been occupied with the same sort of effort on a less ambitious scale. ANOTHER POLAR EXPEDITION. It is now stated that there is a likelihood or another Polar Expedition being fitted out next summer. It is to be a private undertaking, set on foot by the united yacht clubs of the kingdom. Each yacht club has guaranteed a subscription, and the scheme has advanced so far that the distinguished geographer, Dr. Petermann, is now in London for the purpose of consulting with the promoters of the Expedition on the best route to be adopted. BRIGANDS AT GIRGENTI. Telegrams which have reached Rome from Girgenti announce the capture by three brigands of a child, the son of a certain Antonio Reina, for whom they have demanded a ransom of 500f. They had sent previously a requisition to Reina for a sum of money, and this not having been paid, the child was captured in revenge. WARRANT AGAINST AN M.P. It is rumoured that a warrant for the arrest of Lord Doulghlas Gordon, M.P., for West Aberdeenshire, has been issued by the Judge of Westminister County Court for contempt, the hon. member having paid no attention to an order for the payment of an account. MURDERS IN ENGLAND. Murders and crimes, or violence, have greatly prevailed of late ; four men have been executed during the last feAV days for murdering women with whom they had cohahited, and others are under sentence of death. AN UNPLEASANT INFERENCE. The cl aplain of the city gaol, Manchester, in his report read at the quarterly session of the Manchester Justices, expresses his opinion that there is " an ignorance of evil as well as of good which brings some criminals to prison." He could mention many instances where a child has been punished in gaol for proficiency in stealing and has been punished at home for backwardness in the lesson. More than three-fourths of the prisoners admitted to the gaol during the month of November were fairly instructed in reading and writing. The experience of the assizes and sessions at Manchester shows " that mere reading and writing have been the instrumental means, without the use of which the forger, the embezzler, the fraudulent trustee, the base coiner, the false begging-letter writer, the dishonest warehouseman and clerk, and such like, could not even come into existence as criminals." Such is the inference drawn by the chaplain from facts that have come under his observation during the past seven years, and a very unpleasant inference it is. THE TREATMENT OF JEWS IN ROUMAKIA. A Jewish deputation waited on Lord Derby on Wednesday, December 27, the spokesman of which made it sufficiently clear that it is as necessary to obtain equal treatment for Jews at the hands of Christians, as for Christains at the hands of Turks. The memorial presented to the

Foreign Secretary recited a variety of outrages recently perpetrated upon the Jews in the Danubian Principalities. Their synagogue in Bucharest was destroyed in 1866. In 1867 ten Jews w r ere thrust into the water by Roumanian soldiers with their bayonets and the but-end of their guns. In 1872 there occurred reapeated instances of murder, violation of chastity, plunder, and otner outrages, including the expulsion of the Jewish families from the country districts in the coldest weather. Even inthe present year Jewish families have been barbarously expelled from some districts. Mr. Sergeant Simon went so far as to say that "every crime committed by the Bashi-Bazouks in Bulgaria has been practised by Christains upon the Israelites on Roumania. The barbarity has only been on a smaller scale." Lord Derby admitted the existence of the oppression alleged, and promised that the influence of the Government should be exerted to remove it. STANLEY IN AFRICA. Mr Stanley's semi-military progress as an Africa explorer continues, and undoubtedly he is doing much to advance the cause of geographical science. But his cruelties to the natives cannot, on his own showing, be denied. He is neutralising the work of the peaceful and philanthropic Livingstone, and is rendering the position of sny future Speke or Cameron very precnrious. Mr. Hyndman'seffiortto make the Royal Geographical Society censure Mr. Stanley formally was very properly rejected, since the object of that Society is scientific, and not ethical. But so far as an informal expression of opinion can go, all the members of the learned body in question agree with the Earl of Derby in condemning much of Stanley's ruthless action.