DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 576, 24 April 1876, Page 4

DE OMNIBUS REBUS.

In the House of Commons, Sir Stafford Northcote, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered the Budget speech on April 4th. The revenue for 1875 amounted to £77,125,000, and the expend!;,ure to £76,375,000. The estimated revenue for 1876 is £77,250,000, and the ex( enditure £78,000,000. The income-tax is to be in creased a penny, and the exemptions and deductions are also to be Increased, lea\ing an estimated surplus at the end of the year of £375,000, Intelligence has been received at Khojend that a large force of insurgent Turcomans under Avdobadschi having assembled at Andidshan, which had been fortified by in trenchments, the Russian troops commanded by General Scobeleff and Colonel Moller Zakomelsky, in accordance with their pro vious warning, commenced bombarding the town. Shells were sent into the place during the whole of two days, when it was taken by storm. The enemy fled with very heavy loss. A telegram from Taschkend says that Ishan Chodsha, a special envoy from the Emir of Bokhara, has arrived there to give explanations respecting recent armaments in that country. From Russia we learn that the estimates of public revenue and expenditure for the current year, published on Saturday, give the total revenue as about 570,000,000 roubles, of which 535.000,000 will be from ordinary, and 35,000,000 roubles from extraordinary sources. The estimated expenditure is about 569,914,000 roubles, thus showing a surplus of 86,000 rouWes. In the revenue estimate allowance is made for a decrease of 6,000,000 roubles in the yield of the taxes and in the extraordinary revenue. On the other hand, however, the excise is estimated to yield 5,600,000, and the customs 6,000,000 roubles more than in 1876. It is now stated that the Intelligence of M. Brodsky’s libera* tlon was premature. M, Brodsky continue* imprisoned At Kaluga,

The Argvs says : —'* An interesting fossil has been found by Mr William Bglington, of North Gumeracha, in an excavation about fifteen feet from the surface, in a drift at Blackrock Plains. The specimen consists (states the South Australian Register) of a portion of the left lower jaw-bone with one perfect and two broken molar teeth, of an extinct gigantic species of kangaroo, named by Professor Owen ‘ Diprotodon,’ on account of the crown of each tooth being so deeply cleft as to give it the appearance of being double. In remarking oa this fossil, Mr F. G. Waterhouse, O.M Z.S., Curator of the Adelaide Museum, says : —‘ The bulk of these extinct kangaroos may be surmised from the length of the skull, which equals Bft. Fragments of jaws and teeth of great size, indicating several species, have been found distributed over a wide extent of our tertiary drift,’” The Edinburgh corresnondent of the Daily Times writes:—“The foregoing mention of the Duke of Edinburgh’s name reminds me that he is about to take the command of a ship again, to prevent his being placed on the retired list, in accordance with the regulations. The ship to be commissioned by him is the Sultan, an armour-plated vessel carrying 12 guns, launched in 1870, and built at a cost of £356,000. She is said to compete with the Hercules for the honour of being the best broadside ironclad in the navy. After repairs, she will be re commissioned by the Duke, on April Ist, for a two years’ cruise in the Mediterranean, which will doubtless be found to extend as far as the Crimea. The Duchess will proceed to Russia for a long stay, and the mansion at East well Park, Kent, will be shut up. Already it is announced that the herd of cattle at the Duke’s home farm is to be disposed of, on account of bis absence. When he has served his time in the Sultan he will, no doubt, be made an Admiral, and promoted as fast as the regulations of the service and other obstruc'ions will permit, to the post of Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, which has always been regarded as the honor ultimately awaiting him." “ Snyder ” sends the following to the Coromandel Mail He says—“ I see by the newspapers that the subject of rechristening New Zealand is again being discussed. I would venture to propose that the name of New Zealaudbe abolished by Act of Parliament ; and I humbly suggest the name of 1 Loanland’ be substituted. The name is at once euphonious and suggestive. I would call the small islands in the vicinity of Stewart’s Island ‘ the Debenture Group.’ The deepest river, and one that runs the fastest out to sea, carrying away with it all the rich deposits formed from its banks, I should call the ‘ Julius.’ The river that runs the shallowest and smoothest, but with a shifting bed, I should name the ‘ Smaller Pollen.’ The river, the source of which has not been traced, neither is it known where it discharges its contents, I should call the Maclean. The narrowest and most tortuous serpentine stream, I think, might be named the Larger Pollen. The biggest mountain and the most difficult to overcome in the Nascent I should name Greymont; the smallest I think might well be called the Bathgate. Near Welling ton is a little rock at low water sticking out at sea which might be called the Smiler, as at high tide the rock is out of sight, but the surface is covered with pleasant ripples. It is a dangerous rock and should be blown up, which could easily be done with a small charge of gunpowder.” A railway to the North Pole is one of the latest projects. The following plan is suggested by a correspondent of the Scientific American ;—“ I propose to reach the North Pole by the construction of an overground tubular railroad, under the auspices of several government*, which should pay sufficient money to construct suitable shops for the making of a wooden tube, sft to 6ft in diameter, to be made in light sections for transportation. After some suitable landing place has been chosen, the road could be commenced at the dock. The sec tiou of the tube could be placed on a car which would run inside of the tube and be propelled by hand and furnished with a light, strong, convenient dummy engine and boiler, to be used when required. Theoretically. this idea has many points of great benefit to the explorers, A car can be made and furnished with nearly all the comforts ef a home ; and the tube, getting covered with snow in the winter, would be quite warm. With properly constructed stoves, plenty of provisions, and fuel, a scientific party could pass a winter in the tubes quite comfortably. I have no doubt but that”there ar) plenty of civil engineers who would jump at the chance of constructing a road of this nature if solid Government support was guaranteed. If this idea proved feasible, and the barrier of 120 miles that is supposed to exist could be overcome, and the unexplored supposed open sea found, this road cou'd be made the means of carrying material for the construction of fishing vessels. If the open sea does exist, there is no doubt that whales are to be found there in immense numbers, so as to make the road, profitable, and furnish oil for the people when the products of the oil-region commenced to give out. Shelter in nearly all emergencies would be found in a road of this desorption. Who can tell of the benefits that might come to the nations if the mysteries of the vast unknown region could be Drought to light ? The outlay on a road of this character would be a mere bagatelle to the results that would accrue from it.” An English paper says:—"On Sunday, the 19th December, Maurice John Stack, B.A, of Qonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Salisbury Diocesan Theological College, was ordained priest by the Bishop of Salisbury. He is the youngest brother of the Rev James West Stack, of Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand, and also of the Rev Edgard Moriarty Fitzgerald Stark, Vicar of Luddenden Foot, Yorkshire. Their father is the Venerable James Stack, of Porta month, now in his seventy-fifth year, hut still a strong and vigorous labourer in the Gospel, in which he laboured first in the Wesleyan, and afterwards in the Church Mission in New Zealand from 1823 to 1847, when he had to leave in consequence of ill-health, and lauded in England in 1818, with his family, where his affectionate devoted wilt and invaluable fellow laborer in the mission ary field succumbed to the severity of an English winter, so unlike the New Zealand winters, leaving him and his infant sou Maurice John, with seven other young children, to mourn their irreparable loss. In a few years after his arrival in England he was mercifully restored to vigorous health, much to the surprise of some and contrary to the expectations of others, and in which he has been most wonderfully preserved to the pre- ■ Bent j and during the past twenty-one years he bai deyoted himself to the honorary

labor of open air preaching and other missionary work in Oldham, Liverpool, London, and at the Arsenal and Dockyard gates at Woolwich, and for the last three years of the above period at the Dockyard gates at Portsmouth to the seamen, marines, and dockyard men, speaking to them of the unsearchable riches of Christ.”;