CLIPPINGS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2987, 21 January 1881, Page 4

CLIPPINGS.

" And after the uproar ceased," was the first line of scripture read by the pastor of a churoh in Ithca after an unusually noisy performance by organ and choir. The French Government has granted a sum equal to about £1800 to Mons Desire Chariiay to expend in procuring photographs of the ancient monuments of Yucatan.

In the opinion of Mr Milklucho Maclay, the Russian explorer, who is probably more thoroughly acquainted with New Guinea than any other white man, that island will never yield gold in paying quantities. The Mexican troops surrounded, and after two days' fighting, annihilated a band of Indians which infested the American border for years past, and by whom 400 persons had been murdered.

The yearly consumption of butter in London has been estimated at ten pounds per head of the population, or 40,000,000 pounds per year, without inoluding some 3000 tons necessary for victualling ships leaving the port. The Amoor territory covers an area of 8000 square miles and has 50,000 inhabitants. The people obtain nearly all their provisions from China. If hostilities were to break out between Russia and China, they would be threatened with famine.

An iron bridge in course of construction on the Pontferrada- road, in Galicia, broke down recently, killing the engineer, who was superintending the works, and five workmen, and injuring six more. The Berlin correspondent of the Morning Post says that political arrests continue to take place in St. Petersburg, and the mysterious imprisonment of two ladies who are highly connected has excited much comment.

Mr M'Arthur, the Lord Mayor of London, ib the first Wesleyan to hold that office. It is notable that the Wesleyans will hold a sort of CEcumenical Council in England this year. Each family of the 300 destitute Irish transferred from Connemara to America during the summer of 1579 has been given a homestead of 160 acres in Bigstoiie county, Minn., purchased by a fund of 100,000 dols. raised at New York. The colony is named Graceville, after William R. Grace, the principal contributor, and its people are prosperous.

A Jew and Jewess, named Golda Yenkelevitch and Mary Kirchmann, charged with decoying Russian girls to Constantinople and selling them there to traders, were recently sentenced, the man to eight years' exile, with hai'd labour, to Siberia, and the woman to eight months' imprisonment. Mr White the celebrated Congregationalist minister of Kentish Town, London, who has been proposed as one of the Merchants' Lecturers in the King's Weigh-house Chapel—• one of the few great prizes amongst the Congregationalists—has met with opposition on account of his heterodoxy upon the question of eternal punishment. Mr White believes in the final extinction of the wicked.

A burglary is reported to have been perpetrated at Mr Spxirgeon's residence, Westwood, Upper Norwood, on October 17. The burglars plundered the study, and removed one or two articles of value ; but the chief mischief done consisted in breaking boxes and cutting bags containing documents referring to orphanage and other public business.

The Shah of Persia applied to the Emperor of Russia soliciting his assistance against the Kurds. While refusing to allow any Russian troops to cross/the border, the Czar promised to strengthen the frontier [guards in the province, of Erivan, and seize any Kurds entering the Transcaucasian region with plunder.

Prince Bismarck has sent a commission to Alsace to study the condition of the workmen there, especially with regard to their dwellings, which are somewhat on the English cottage principle, every man living in his own house. This system seems to be in favour with the Chancellor, who wishes it to be introduced all over Germany by Government help. He conjectures that the plan would go a long way to satisfy the lower classes and make them dependent on the State.

On November 30 Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor of Queensland, laid at Ipswich the foundation stone of a drinking fountain, Burrounded by a column, which is being erected by the inhabitants of the town to the memory of Colonel S. W. Blackall, who was Governor of the colony about 10 years ago, and who died at his post. From the frequency of strikes in England the Philadelphia Record argues that these difficulties show the great impolicy and unwisdom of allowing the manufacturing interests to overshadow other industries and crowd them to the wall.

The Assessment Committee of the City of London Union predict that next year the rateable value of the city will nearly, if not quite, reach £4,000,000, or an augmentation of about £750,000. After escapingj the dangers of the Balaclava charge, the horrors of the Crimean winter, and the perils of the Indian mutiny, John Cornelius, of Plumstead Marshes, one of the " Noble Six Hundred," dropped dead the other day as he was running home to escape the rain.