Mail Items.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1598, 31 July 1874, Page 305

Mail Items.

The United States Public Debt. The Secretary of the Treasury has issued his usual statement of the public debt of the United States, showing its amount on the Ist of April to have been the following : Debt bearing interest in gold $1,723,906,60000 Debt bearing interest in paper 14,678,000-00 Debt oa which interest has ceased 6,852,800-26 Debt without interest 519,944,497-77 Totid debt, principal $2,2(55,381,89803 Interest accrued and unpaid 39,670,661,0* Total debt, principal and intere5t...52,295,058,559-07 Money in Treasury:— Coin $86,121,879-26 Currency 4,526,451 , 31 Special deposit 51,720,00000 . 142,367,830-57 Debt, less money in Treasury, April 1 12,152,690,728-50 Similar total, March 1 .....$2,154,850,066-96 Decrease during March §2,180,338*46 —lt will be seen from the above that the revenue during March exceeded the expenditure sufficiently to allow of a reduction in the debt of over two millions of dollars. Since the beginning of the fiscal year on the Ist July, 1873, a period of nine months, the debt has been increased $4,872,014. There is so much attention directed to the debt and currency just now that a description of the items will be of interest. The gold debt consists of 1,214§, millions of Six per Cents, and millions of Five per Cents. The currency debt is the Navy pension fund of 14 millions at three per cent., and $678,000 at Four per Cent. Certificates. The debt, without interest, is 382 millions of greenbacks J 51f millions of certificates of deposit, for which the " special deposit " is required to be kept in the Treasury, referred to above; over 49 millions of fractional currency, and 37 millions of coin certificates. In addition to this circulating medinm there are also 354 millions of national bank notes, which are not enumerated in the debt statement. England's " Little Wars." Four wars have cost the English Go vernment, within the last fifteen years' upwards of £16,000,000 sterling. The Persian expedition cost £900,000. The outlay on the Chinese war amounted to £6,115,000. Then the New Zealand war of 1866 was covered by £765,000 j and the Abysinian war entailed the expenditure of £8,000,000 or £9,000,000. Now it is estimated that the Ashantee war wil. cost about £4,000,000. Dean Stanley's Sermon on Livingstone. Very seldom have the aisles of WestrainBterAbbey echoed with a nobler sermon than that which Dean Stanley preached on April 19, at the afternoon service, on the death of Livingstone. There wero great travellers before him whom we have just buried, but no such tongue set forth their glory and pointed the true moral of their lives. Dean Stanley's sense of the inner life which animates the explorer and the missionary enabled him to give words to the popular sentiment, and vindicate its intrinsic justice as few divines of any age could have done. Well indeed did he say that it is the " glory of kings and kinglike men to discover the secrets of God's providence, the infinite variety of nature and of man. There is no ' soul so dead' but has felt a new man with each freshlyexplored country, at his first glance upon eternal snows, or his first view of the boundless desert. To men who go forth beyond the limits of hitherto discovered land there comes a sense of new respondibility aud of watchful Providence, as when Mungo Park, naked and alone in the African desert, was roused to hope and perseverance by the reflection of the care of God as displayed in the lesson of the ittle plant growing before him." The Dean ended by an appeal to tin statesmen, merchants, and explorers of England to "be strong and to fear not," and to remember Livingstone's own words, "I know that in a few years I shall be cut off. Igo back to Africa to make an open path for commerce and Christianity; do you carry out the work I have begun." A report is current at Amsterdam that the Crown Prince of Holland will marry he Princess Thyra of Denmark,

Preparations are being made in Paisley ' for the celebration shortly of the Tannahill . centenary anniversary. A general holi- ' day, with appropriate assemblages and rejoicings, is proposed. Five additional deaths have occurred as the result of the explosion at the shipbuilding works of Messrs Scott and Sons, at Inverkeithy. A strict investigation is being made as to the cause of the explosion. About 400 hands are thrown out of employment. A great number of French prelates are now in Rome. The Bishops of Versailles, Orleans, and Cambray, and the Archbishop of Bordeaux, will be joined by the Archbishops of Paris and Bourges. Great curiosity prevails in Italy as to the object of this gathering. The Editor of the Scottish Temperance League Journal, the Rev. "John Guthrie, M.A., "in recognition of his faithfal services for thirty-three years as a Minister of the Gospel," at a soiree given on the 22nd ultimo, in the Glasgow town-hall, received the gift of a purse of £I,OOO. One of the most comical of printers' errors is one of the latest, and is in this wise :—" Mr Saville Kent, late of Brighton Aquarium, is announced as about to take charge of a Marino and Fresh-Tater Aquarium in New York." Of course, some one suggests, the fresh " tater " will be kept in hot water. The French papers publish a letter written by the Bishop of Laranda upon the massacre of Christians at Tong King. The Bishop says that with his mission there were 80,000 Christians, but that 10,000 have been strangled, burned, or drowned ; and ho adds that he has no hope of escaping a martyr's doom himself. This improbable communication bears no date, but is generally credited in France. A document relating to Caxton," found amongst the miscellaneous records of the Exchequer formerly preserved at the Chap-ter-house of Westminster, and of which the Academy reprints a copy, mentions that the Father of English printing had a daughter, married to William Croppa of Westminster, tailor, and that she and her husband, about .five years after Caxton's death, were separated by ecclesiastical authority. Demerara was visited by a terrible conflagration on the morning of the 23rd May, destroying the business premises of Ramsay, Hill and Co., Irving, M'Arthur and Co., and M. F. Camacho, and consuming large quantities of almost every description of merchandise. The loss is estimated at £100,000; but all the parties interested are covered by insurance. Owing to the large stocks in the hands of other dealers, no perceptible effect on prices is likely to take effect. A correspondent of the Brighton and Hovo Daily Mail selects a peculiar anecdote apropos of the way in which the Reporters' Gallery of the House of Commous is managed. He states that a reporter who entered the Gallery wearing a light coat was informed that the costume was not en regie, and that, although under the circumstances ho would be graciously allowed to remain, he would be refused admission if he again put in an appearance in a style of dress so essentially unparliamentary. The next thing probably will be that the reporters will have to attend in correct evening dress, .and take their notes in white " kids." One of the most extraordinary printing tenders we (Printers' Register) ever remember to have met with has been under discussion by the Liskeard (Cornwall) Board of Guardians. Two local printers —Mr Deecker and Mr John Philp—had sent in tenders, but on the latter ascertaining that Mr Deecker had also tendered. Mr Philp obtained his tender and altered it. This was not approved by the Board, and both competitors were ordered to send in fresh tenders. Mr Deecker intimated that he adhered to his original tender ; but, to the surprise of the Guardians, when Mr Philp's tender was opened, it was found that that gentleman offered to do the work for nothing, each item being carried out with a cypher! This met with the almost unanimous disapproval of tho Board, who accepted Mr Deecker's tender. On the 28th April, two shops in New-gate-street, London, near Ivy Lane, which were being pulled down to make room for street improvements, suddenly fell with a tremendous crash, raising a cloud of dust which darkened tho neighborhood for a time. Five workmen were buried in the the ruins. Several detachments of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade soon arrived, and in the course of half-an-hour extricated four sufferers—three men and a boy, all seriously injured, one of them having one of his thighs broken. Two more still remained, one of whom was soon got at, but was so completely wedged in, that several hours of hard work were necessary before he could be removed. In tho meantime, he was sustained by refreshments. The other man was heard calling, but was not reached till some time after. Several medical gentlemen were present, and rendered assistance. A crowd of ppn•!• which collected were kept at n ,;; tuioiuby the police. The buildit;-- -v-iv. very ricketty, and part of a wall which remained standing . threatened to fall on those at work in tho ruins.-. No lives were , lost.

Tho well-kuown Dauish writer, Hans Christian Andersen, is reported daugerously ill at Copenhagen. The Roman cement works of Messrs Harpham and Son at Ipswich have been destroyed by fire. The planters of Southern India have begun to see about importing laborers from the famishing districts. Mr George Elliot, who has just been created a baronet, is one of the largest colliery owners in the world, and in his boyhood was a pit laddie in a colliery. A wood of 30 acres, chiefly the property of the Duke of Monmouth, has been destroyed by fire. The fire is supposed to have been caused by boys playing with matches. The spot where Dr. Livingstone is buried is now marked by the simple inscription in large letters, cut in the floor of the Abbey, " David Livingstone, 1874.'' According to the last weekly telegram from the Viceroy of India, the village system of relief is being completed. Symptoms of scarcity are increasing daily, and the distress is greater in Central and Western Tirhoot than was expected. No fresh deaths had occurred from starvation. A movement is on foot in the United States to deprive the Freemasons of a timehonored privilege. The Anti-Secret-Society Movement, on the 19th June, forwarded to the President the following petition:—"To his Excellency U. S. Grant, President of the United States—The undersigned citizens of the United States, learning through a public announcement that it is proposed to lay the corner stone of the new Government building in Chicago with Masonic ceremonies, on the 24th day of June next, St. John's Day so called, respectfully represent that under our Constitution and laws no society, sect, or order is entitled to office, preferment or precedence over any other order, sect, or society, and they do therefore earnestly protest that the order to which it is thus proposed v 1o delegate a work of national interest should not be allowed such recognition, either through its festivals or its rites and ceremonies, which are offensive to the great body of the American people." The petition is signed by 20,000 persons, from sixteen States.