ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 263, 17 October 1877, Page 2

ENGLISH MAIL NEWS.

Tnn following items of English mail news to the 31st August, were received at the Bluff yesterday by the Arawata, from Melbourne :

Thos. Hendley, barrister, who lately died in Northumberland, bequeathed £21)0,000 for endowment of the Bishopric for that county. He was a largo colliery owner. A Commission has been appointed to enquire into the workings and effect of laws and treaties for extradition.

A strike is imminent in the spinning trade at Bolton. Potato disease has broken out to a terrible extent in the neighborhood of Goole. It-is thought that there is every prospect of a potato famine, which can only be met by importation from abroad. The disease has also appeared in Belgium and Holland. In a discussion upon the Colorado beetle, at the British Association meeting, it was generally considered that the English climate was too damp to allow its hyhernating here. The present outbreak of the disease has been caused by late heavy rains. Letters patent have been granted, raising St. Albans and Truro to the dignity of cities.

The Prince of Wales has sold off nearly the whole of his farm stock at Sandringham, reserving only a few choice animals for breeding. On the Ist October, all general officers who have attained the age of 70, will be placed on the retired list. The trial trip of the Shannon, a new and powerful ironclad of the new class, which came off at Plymouth on the 20th, was not a success. She is overmasted, and the engines do not work satisfactorily. The Duke of Edinburgh is visiting Athens. The Duchess is still in Russia. The most disastrous flood known for 3’ ears has devastated South Wales. Railway traffic is suspended, and crops for a circuit of fifty miles have been destroyed.