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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 943, 14 February 1871, Page 2

A terrible explosion of gun-cotton has taken place at Alexandria, by which at least fifty lives have been lust. The correspondent of the London Echo, under date October 22, gives the following details ; —" On Sunday last, at about four o'clock in the morniug, the inhabitants of this town were awakened by a shock, which everybody at once declared to bo the shock of an earthquake, but which was really the eflect of the explosion of a magazine, in which had been stored' a number of cases filled with gun cotton that had only lately arrived from Trieste, The Austrian manufacturers warned the authorities here that this cotton would have to be turned daily, as it was liable to spontaneous ignition, but this, in all likelihood, was soon forgotten, and the result is the misfortune I have to write, about. The magazine was situated - in the quarter of the town called Kom-el-Dvck (The Cock's Hill), a calcareous rock, where stood in olden times a theatre, and which until lately was covered with Arab huts; but where Europeans and Syrians, having discovered the salubrity of the spot, had built houses and villas with gardens. A great number of these are now either destroyed or more or less injured, as the. huge stones with which the magazine had been built had beeft

sent with*a lateral' furca "against the houses, and bombarded them, in some caS es completely destroying them, in other cases going through several walls and doing little harm. The house of Mr an English resident, was completely destroyed, yet though the rooms were filled with stones, he and his family were not injured, a wonderful . escape indeed. Beyond the destruction of the houses in the immediate quarter, no greater mischief was done to property than the breaking of windows in nearly a ll the houses situated within a quarter of a mile from the magazine, but the loss of life occasioned by the accident, arising frooi carelessness, is very great. It is true that the official account gives the number as fifty, it is,true that most of tbem were " only Arabs"; but then I believe the number is .very far below the true one, and I also believe that the lives of these "only Arabs" were valuable. The excitement here is very great, everybody blaming the Government for storing such an explosive material in the midst of a thickly populated quarter. The Record prints the following letter, which has been received from the Bible Society's agent in Rome : —" At last the Bible is in Rome, and four, if not six, of the Society's colporteurs are in the city. Having marched with the soldiers from beyond the frontier, they entered with a portion of them, soon after a breach had been made in the walls by General Cad roa. The tirci to get, iu and he was tlert-rmined to be the first—was Frandini, who was exiled in 1860, and who was keen to see his parents once more, and to carry the Bible back with iiira to his native city. I have not seen all the men yet, but expect to do so this evening. It is premature to say what reception the Bible may. receive from those to whom it is offered for the first time ; but from the .Kittle I saw with one of the colpcrteurs at Viterbo, Come to, and Civita Vecehia, the prominent feeling in the minds of the people is disgust at all that is ' sacra.' Such prejudice, such confounding of the false with the true, will, I trust, soon give way to feelings that are wiser and more -to lightened."

At the nomination for Waimea South, Nelson, one of the candidates, Mr Bailment, spoke as follows regarding local industries: —"As regarded native industries, he had always contributed his means to help them, and as an illustration, he twenty-eight years ago, in conjunction with Mr i. Young, of Richmond, had produced a machine for weaving flannel miernseys, and stockings, although the person to whom this assistance had been given was too fond of drink. He (Mr Baigent) had worn both stockings and guernseys of good quality made by the machine, but owing to the had propensities of the man who made the articles, the work was discontinued. Ivi was .sorry he was not able to place the machine in the Museum, as a sample of what was done in home manufactures years ago. Mr Baigent said he would produce a sample of another manufacture —Nelsonmade flannel. This article created quite a surprise from the excellence of its quality. [A Voice: There is nothing in my store equal to if.] Mr Baigent: The mater of this article only wanted a little assistance to enable him to succeed in furnishing any quantity of it. [An Elector : Name the maker.] Mr Baigent: A person now residing in this neighborhood ; a brother, he believed, of Mr Blick, who first established a machine for making Nelson cloth."

Some time since a paragraph appeared in several of the Lond< n papers stating that one of the sons of Oouat Bismarck, an officer in the Prussian navy, serving on board the Danube, had committed suicide at San Francisco, by swallowing prussic acid. This paragraph was copied into the Melbourne Argus, and Mr W. A, Brabe, Consul of the North German Confederation at Melbourne, has written to that journal a correction of the statement he says:—" The story has arisen in the following way:—A son of Count Beust, of Austrian celebrity, who served on board the Austrian frigate Donau (Danube), died lately of fever at Honolulu where the Donau touch ed to refit after encountering a terrific cyclone in the Pacific. A French paper published the information., merely substituting a sou of the great Prussian statesmen for the name of the deceased, and. now the poor young nobleman is said to huve committed suicide. Count Bismarck bas two sons,

who were both students at the University of Bonn about four months ago, and are now probably fighting for their country. The Prussian navy has no vessel called the Danube or Douau."