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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1181, 25 November 1871, Page 2

A famine is threatened in China, owing to a long-continued drought, which has dried up the irrigating canals. There were, in August last, over 17,000 members of the Independent Order of Rechabites, S.U., in the United Kingdom, The establishment of a school of typography, similar to that in operation in Leipsie, is now being advocated in England. At the last annual meeting of the London Gas Consumers' Association, a paper compiled from the Parliamentary documents was read by Mr Flintotf, their engineer, from which, it appears that the gas consumed in the district of the Metropolis Gas Acts last year was 10,908,069,000 cubic feet; its cost to private consumers ,£2,045,262, 19s 9d, and for public street lamps alone .£226,690 12s; while the quantity of coal used in its manufacture was 1,363,508 tons. The King of Siam has 300 wives and considers himself moderate, his father having had 700. A herring boat on the north eastern coast of Scotland caught. 85,000 fish at one haul. Their value was about <£] 20. Among the qualifications urged on behalf of one of the candidates ai the East Surrey election was that he was a good cricketer. The new Government of Fiji evidently do not have very rosy times of it. It appears that they have initiated a pilot system for the chief port of the kingdom, Levnka, and wish to enforce certain fees to pay for its proper carrying out. They find, however, great difficulty in enforcing those fees. Vessels from New Zealand appear to he the greatest trouble to them, as up to very lately " masters of New Zealand vessels have invariably refused to comply with the regulations, and, to avoid, as they imagine, any liability, dispense with the service of a pilot." In their difficulty they have appealed to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce to lend thcni its aid. Jt is surely to the interest of those trading with that rising port that proper harbor lights and a pilot staff should be kept up. If information were given to the masters of vessels in which their goods were shipped, that for the future they would employ only those vessels which used a pilot at the wish of the Government would be obtained. Insurance Companies might also insure such yessels as agreed to use a pilot.