ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1225, 18 January 1872, Page 2

ITEMS BY THE MAIL.

GOOD NEWS FOIL THH COLONIES.

The Homo News, November 16, says:—The price of nearly every <le sci'iplion of Australian produce, tallow, flax, gum, &c, are ad • ancing, and there is every probability of the shipment of flour proving profitable. Australian butter is growing in favor, and New Zealand flax increases in value every cay.

THE LAST 0? THE COLLINS MAIL STEAMER.

A curious sight was witnessed on the Mersey on September 30. At high water, about noon, there was towed out of the Birkenhead Docks, all ready for sea, an enormous wooden, full-rigged ship, with a straight stem, and thai curious dumpy stern which is peculiar to some American ship-builders. This was the once famous paddle-wheel steamer Adriatic, the la:<t addition to the Collins line of steamers, established by an cnterpiHng American firm to share the Liverpool and New Fork passenger trade with the Canard Company. When the Collins line was given op, the Adriatic was run for some lime on the .station between Southampton and New York, and her magnificent fittings and high speed made her a favorite to passengers Afterwards site was one of the abortive Mail Company that ran between Gal way and New York under the as.spices of a Government mail subsidy, obtained through the influence of Mr J. Orreli Lever and Mr Roebuck. When that scheme foiled, too, the Adriatic was laid up in Birkenhead Docks, close to her old rhal the dismantled Persia, of the Cunard Line. Recently she was bought by the wellknown ship-owning firm of Edward Bates and son, of Liverpeol. They took out her machinery and rigged her as a ship, and on September 30 she sailed from the Mersey for Rio Jaueiro with 3,800 tons of coal on board, her registered tonnage being 3,300. As she was towed down the Mersey at full tide, her enormous size and ' f ship-shape " apappearance excited universal admiration, and it f-eemed something like extravagance to degrade such a splendidlooking vessel into a coal-hulk —which is, we believe, her ultimate destiny, her vast Mze enabling her to stow away about 6,000 tons of black diamonds.

GIGANTIC RAILWAY IN EGYPT.

The Malta Times says :—While peo pic are talkirg of a vail way to India direct to accomplish tho passage from London to Calcutta in five clay*, the Viceroy of Egypt ha>s actually commenced one of the mo»4 gigantic undertakings ever attempted in his territory r-rthaij of eormectiiig U jpnev and Lower

Egypt by rail, At the terminal point of all ancient and modem conquest, where the mighty Persian and Roman invaders found the desert an impasssble barrier, the Khedive, assisted by an army of English engineers and navvies, will, unless stopped by the jealousy of the Sultan, drive an iron road and a team of iron horses, not only to th_e very confines of Nubia, but into the heart of Africa, opening up new fielda of commerce, and perhaps bringing home Livingstone iir a t class. Twenty of the engineers for the above undertaking passed thiough Malta a fewdays ago on their way, and will be folio wed by the remainder of the staff in a short time. When it is considered that the line, commencing at the second Cataract, is to be 600 miles long, some idea may be formed of the amount of labor required to complete the work. We learn that several Maltese have been engaged to assist as interpreter*, or dragomans, and wo should be delighted to hear that a few hundreds of the superabundant population of thpse islands have found profitable employment in the same direction.

A MODEL CITY. Near the foot of the Rocky Mountain, midway between Cheyenne and Deu\or, is the city of Greely. Mr. St. Clair, the lecturer, about two years ago» traversed this country, then a wilderness, in his own carriage, making the journey by night to avoid the Indians, and near where Greely now stands, was attacked by savages. He says that a few weeks ago he landed from the cars at this new city, which boasts of 2,000 people, over 400 tine houses, two hotels, two public halls, some twenty stores, and two churches. An irrigating canal of 30 miles, besides +lic lateral ditches, furnishes water for the town, and miles of fence enclose the city. A large grist mill ia process'of erection indicates £* most wonderful energy and success, where, fourteen months ago, never a spade had been struck or a single hut erected. This seems to be a practical illustration of the principles of co-oper-ation and a community of interest ', but perhaps the giand key oi its unprecedented success is to be found in the lofty moral tone of the emigrants and settlers Every person is a property holder, and has personal interest in the town, while the ti ustees of the* colony v ill give no deed of any kind of property except with the pi'oviso of forfeit in case of sales of intoxicating bs'.erages on the premises. As a con* sequence we find it is the only village on the great North-west, excepting Utah, where exists a prohibitory law. Dram-drinkers, bummers, black-legs and liquor-dealers, avoid Greely as if it were a pestilence.

A. CHANGE IN" TIIB FRENCH GOVERNMENT IMMINENT. Paris, December 9.—A change iat the French Government is imminent. Thiers will relinquish the Presidency in favor of the Duke D'Aumale. He has agreed to this movement with the Duke, and all the influential memhers of the Right approve of it. The Orleans Princes will not take their seats until this plan is cariied our. The change will be effected directly. All the details have been arranged. The cause of the cb»nge is Thiers in--ability to withstand the Ilight, which; has been ret urned from the Provinces, and is very hostile, and his fears of the constantly increasing power of the periaUsts in the army.

The seven hundredth, thousand of Col. Ch.esney'a " BaUle of Dorking" is for -ale.

Walter Scott's works, which were completed long'ago, are now to ha\e an Finnisk put upon them by the translators, for the benefit of Finland.

The Imperial Government has* in answer to an application made by the Agent-General, Mr Cow per, decided to present to" the colony of New South Wales a number of guns, to be used for the defence of Port Jackson. The Lancet calls attention to, the enormous manufacture of the new sedative, drug, Chloral. It states that it is sold by tons a week, and quotes a, letter from Liolrig, affirming that.one German chemist manufactures and sells k*l( i toa. every week.. 0( no.

such quantity is used in medicine, and the Lancet seems half afraid that it gets, into beer, but there is a simpler explanation as it will find on enqttiiy. Taking chloral is the new and popular vice particularly among women, and is doing at lea«.t as much harm ad alcohol. The drug is kept in thousands of dress ing cases, and those who begin its ur>e often grow so addicted to it tnat they pass their lives in a sort of contented stupefaction. Chloral drunkards will eoon be an admitted variety of the Species. At Prumlanrig, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch, a tunnel of half-a-mile in length has been constructed from the Castle to the wooded hill on the west, in order to carry away the smoke from the Castle and gue it escape by a chim-ney-stack erected in the wood,