SINGAPORE. [From the Maitland Mercury.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 828, 9 July 1853, Page 4

SINGAPORE. [From the Maitland Mercury.]

We are in receipt of Singapore papers to the 15th April ; bat they are not so full of interesting matter as usual. The P. and O. Company. — The P. and O.S.N. Company we observe wish to drop one of the bi-monthly lines under the new contract, owing to the difficulty in procuring sufficient coal under present circumstances. The communities in China and the Straits we believe would not object to the. return to the old system of having only one mail monthly, and we therefore suggest that the P. and O. Co. be allowed to relinquish one of the bi-monthly lines between Ceylon and China, provided they make the line between Singapore and Australia a monthly one. They would no doubt find this arrangement a rery profitable one. The value of a monthly line to Australia, via Singapore, is now being recognised in England, »nd the authorities would' probably be induced to sanction the exchange if they found that it was agreeable to the public in China and the Straits. — Free Press, 15th April.

Cessation op Cholera. — -The ravages of cholera in Singapore have now ceased. This is ascribed by the Malays to the incessant invocations of Allah which they have kept op every evening for about ten days past, and which peculiar form of propitiation we are informed is called ratib. At Linga the disease is reported to have shown itself with considerable virulence, three to six deaths a day have taken place since its first manifestation, — Free Press, Bth April. Tigees and Alligators. — Tigers are stated to be peculiarly destructive in Johore at presenl, several persons' being taken by them every day. One or two villages have been abandoned on account of the nightly depredations committed by these animals. The alligators in the Gaylang and Kallang rivers, Singapore, are very active just now. A day or two ago one made a snap at a man sitting in a boat, but missed him and bit the boat instead. Ducks and fowls to a large extent have .been carried off. — Free Press, April 15.

Java. — A frightful case of wholesale murder was lately committed near Buitenzorg. A gentleman there owned a family of female slaves, consisting, of an old woman, her two daughters, and three little children. According to report, the owner aud his slaves did not live on the best terms with one another, and the former therefore resolved to get quit of 'the slaves by selling them. He, was negotiating for this purpose with a Chinese, which being, observed by the. slaves induced them to form the resolution of betaking themselves to flight .rather than suffer, themselves to fall into the power of a Chinese. They therefore fled, in company,with a free manjnthe service of their master* , into the district Jampet, where, they put, up for the night jn the kampong Chikebrok. The few, goods which they, had brought witluhem excited the cupidity of- three natives, md they, committed .their horrible crime in cool blood; .They murdered the whole of the six slaves and the free maD, by cutting them

with a native weapon and strangling them. Some of the bodies of the murdered persons were buried and some thrown into the river, The crime soon became known, and the suspicions of the police fell upon a native called Sigun Bapa Alisan, residing at Jampea, in whose house some of the clothes of the unfortunate slaves were found. He confessed his guilt, and stated that be bad committed the murders,- with the assistance of two others, their sole motive being to obtain possession of the few trifling articles which the slaves had with them. — Free Press, March 18.

Pinang. — By various late Steamers wa have Gazettes to the 2nd instant. The island bad been suffering from a drought, aggravated in intensity by the general destruction of the forest trees on the hill ranges, so supiuely allowed by the Government in former years. It appears that a few weeks ago Pinang was left with only one surgeon to attend to all the hospitals, military and civil servants of Government, and the public in general, who might require medical aid. This is bad enough, but it is better than the case of Malacca, where there is no surgeon at all, the troops, hospitals, &c, being left under the care of an apothecary at present. A daring act of piracy is recorded as having been committed between Pinang and Junk Ceylon, but a number of the pirates and part of the plundered property have been found in Pinang and Province Wellesley through the activity of the police. — Free Press, April 15.