CLIPPINGS FROM THE EUROPEAN MAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 93, 20 April 1874, Page 2

CLIPPINGS FROM THE EUROPEAN MAIL.

Tho Khan of Khiva, has now paid up a hundred thousand roubles of the indemnity imposed upon him. Ho is, however, stated to have met with great difficulties in collecting the money, the warlike nomad tribes who were the most eager to attack the Russians proving the most remiss in paying the penalty. A serious faction fight took place at New Palles, Limerick, on February 10. Stones and sticks were freely used, till the police charged the combatants with fixed bayonets. A man named Read was killed, his sfcull having been fractured. The tonnage loading on the berth at London February 19, for India, China, and tbe Cape of Good Hope amounted to 49,725 tons, and for Australia and New Zealand to 38,085 tons. Ihe Northam has brought home invalid seamen, marines, and soldiers from the Gold Coast. Some of them fought at Abrakrampa. They speak highly of the bravery of the Kossoee, and describe their mode of fighting with the sword and their horrible practice of bringing in the heads or limbs of the enemies they have slain. They also speak in contemptuous terms of the Fantees as treacherous and far more cowardly than the Ashantees. Mr Power, bandmaster of the Tipperary Artillery for a period of 49 years bas just retired, and has been awarded a pension of 5d per day, the highest sum tbe law allows, Mr Lowe was requested to say " grace " at the laßt Cabinet dinner of tbe Gladstone Administration, aod is said to have delivered himself thus:— "Let us eat aud drink, for to-morrow we may die!" California is reputed to have about 8,000,000 bead of Bheep. The wool crop,. in two shearings, at an average of ten pounds per head, would amount to 80,000,000 pounds, or 15,000,000 more than the total product of the United States in 1871. On February 13 a fire broke out at the Pantechnicon in the West-end of London, which, for extent and the amount of property destroyed, has had no parallel in London since the great fire at Tooley-Btreet. Unlike that fire, however, which destroyed articles of merchandise, the value of which could be estimated in pounds sterling, this conflagration has caused the destruction of property which, though not overvalued at millions of pounds, is, for the

most part, of such a nature as no amount of money can replace, and the loss of which, though" falling upon private individuals, may be esteemed to be of a national character. The Pautechnicon, whioh is a large build, tug, is tbe property of Messrs Smith and Rndermacher, and waß used as a repository for furniture aud miscellaneous property and plate of all descriptions deposited by parties absent from London. The spot where tho late Bishop Wilberforce met his death has now erected over it a massive granite cross. The locality is known as Evershed's Kougb, near Dorking. The monolith is of one solid block of granite, 13 feet in length and of corresponding dimensions. The memorial bears the simple inscription--" S.W., July 19, 1873." The characters present a raised surface,' and are chiselled out of the granite, a carved pastoral staff passing diagonally through the two initial letters. The design was supplied by the late Bishop's family; and the memorial is in every way appropriate to the wild and picturesque country where it is erected. Dr Beke, the English traveller, reports from the Gulf of Akaba that he has found the true Mount Sinai one day's journey north-east of Akaba. It is called by the Arabs Jebel el Nur, or Mountain of Light. Its height is 5,000 feet. On the summit Dr Beke found the remains of sacrificed animals, and lower down some Sinaitic inscriptions which he copied. The tunnel by which the circular railway passess under the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, Paris, has for Bomo time pßst caused uneasiness, as portions of the arch occasionally fell, The vault was carefully pbored up, leaving only a passage for trains for carrying goods; but the insecurity was so evident that all ttufiic had at last to be suspended. Active measures were at once taken to restore the work, but at last a Blip occurred, and the crown of the vault fell in with a tremendous crash, carrying with it some forty graves, and an extent of ground about 20 yards long, 10 wide, aod 18 deep. About fifteen coffins were got out, but tbe danger of further landslips was so great tbat the ; men had to be taken off the work.