MISCELLANEOUS.

Kumara Times, Issue 188, 11 May 1877, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

" The steel flotilla which is now being built, for the British navy, and which is to consist of two ships of extraordinary swiftness and six powerful corvettes, is," the Daily News states, "being rapidly pushed forward by the Admiralty. The two steel ship*, the Mercury and Iris, are being built in a Government yard at Pembroke, and will be completed in a few months' time; while the corvettes, to be named respectively the Champion, Cleopatra, Curoacoa, Carysfort. Comus and Conquest, are under construction by Messrs John Elder and Co., of Glasgow. All of them will be cased in wood except at the prow, which will consist of a single gun-metal casting. They will be of the same tonnage and horse-power, their measurement being 2377 tons, and their engines 2300 indicated horse-power. These will each of them be armed with a couple of heavy 7-inch guns and a dozen 64-pounders. Their powerful engines will moreover permit them to use discretion in any engagement, so that they may either fight or run away, whichever they choose ; while the complement of men carried will render them of unusual value in coast warfare, where a naval command covers several thousand miles, and where rapidity of movement is of importance. In this respect the Iris and the Mercury, wilL surpass even the finely-built corvettes. They are to have a speed of not less than twenty miles an hour; their size is ample for the transport of troops on an emergency; and their swiftnesß would always secure them immunity. Thongh measuring nearly 4000 tons, they will carry nothing "heavier than 64-pounders, of which there will be ten on board. Their engines, will be no less than 7000 horse-power indicated. Why would you prefer a £5 note to five sovereigns ?—Because'when you put the note into your pocket you double it and when you take it out you find it increases.

Extensive preparations are making at Hurlingham for a mediaeval tournament, in which four Saracens and four Christian knisrbts wfll (participate. The Prince of Wales will be present In the field as the Soldan Snleinian, and will have command of the Saracen warriors. The designs for the Prince's costume are supplied from the South Kensington Museum. and when completed will represent days of antiquarian research. Princess Louise has laboriously overhauled'-' the Btitish a design of the needlework embroidery on the Prince of Walea's tunio. The spectacle will he one of the most splendid seen in London for years. The doiicate question will come, however, when a cho»cV i 3 to be made for the Queen of Love and Beauty. Tt has already been decided to settle th is point bv ballot, bat it is currently reported that the choice has 83 n£° d BR fallen n » ori *& Tris h bßlle. The Russian Synod has published a Rtißsian version of the Bible, the result of twenty years' labor. The version is sold at three roubles per copy; but copies are being distributed by the British and Foreign Bible Society gratuitously.