EXTRAORDINARY SCENE ON A MAN-OF-WAR.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 978, 2 January 1883, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE ON A MAN-OF-WAR.

An Adelaide telegram of 11th December gives particulars o£ a most remarkable scene on board H.M.S Miranda: “ On• Friday night PoliceCorporal Shanahan and two special constables arrested a man called Cameron and another, both seamen of H.M.S. Miranda, who were intoxicated, and conveyed them to the vessel in a steam launch. On the way to the boat Cameron struck Shanahan a blow on the face, and when in the launch attempted to throw him overboard. The two seamen fought desperately, and were only secured by the help of the crew. On arriving on hoard the Miranda, Cameron struck Shanahan with his handcuffed wrists, bruised his eye, and gashed his chock. The second seaman attempted to kick another constable. No one apparently made any effort to assist Hie constables, tbougb Shanahan exclaimed, ‘ I demand protection for the other constables andmyself as British subjects.’ Four or live other seamen then rushed forward and commenced to. assault the constables, whom they drove into the captain’s cabin and'bedroom ; all Mic time assailing them with blows. After the fight bad continued some minutes, an officer interfered, and the constables reached the deck. Shanahan expressed to the quartermaster bis surprise that there was no protection for a British subject on board a British man-of-war, and then the police left. It has been determined by the police, in consequence or this extraordinary occurrence, not to send their men on board mcn-of-war in future with absentees, but to take them to the lock-up, and keep them until sent for by the ship. It is stated that the commander of the Miranda intends dealing with the offending seamen.”

The manufacture of fish guano is about to be establishcd-at or near Tauranga, by Mr Vesey Stewart. This gentleman has an extensive fish-curing establishment in the neighbourhood, and proposes to convert into marketable manure all fish nnsuited for smokingi The preparation of the guano, as carried on in Norway and America, consists in first drying the fish by steam-heat, and then grinding them to powder. When of good quality, that is to say when unadulterated, Hie manure is worth about £'.) a ton for ordinary farm purposes. It contains from 12 to 20 per cent, of phosphate of lime and nitrogen, equal to from 7 ! 2 to 11 per cent, of ammonia. In a fresh state it decomposes somewhat slowly in the soil, hence the custom in Germany of fermenting it with uainc or water before applying it to the land. The fresh material, is- formed into heaps in suitable places, and the urine or water occasionally poured over it at the rate of 6£ gallons to every lewt. Gypsum (sulphate of lime)is next added to the extent of one-ninth of the whole, and the heaps are covered up with gypsum or earth to further prevent the escape of ammonia. It is said that this treatment renders from 10 to IS per cent, of the nit rogen present in the guano easily soluble in water. The man are, whether fresh or fermented, is one of the best for hops. The Pall Mall Gazette says that, if strong language is ever Justified, it is so in the case of the “inveterate libeller of the British armyhailing from Cologne.” A Swedish war correspondent was vouched by the said libeller as a witness to the truth of the charges of slaughtering wounded Egyptians'. “Herr Janson,” we are now told, “ marched on with the vanguard after the capture of ArabTs lines, and testifies that he then beheld no act of cruelty whatever on the part of the English troops ; but that, on the contrary, they behaved magnanimously to the fugitives letting many of them even escape who had not laid down their weapons.” So it is to be hoped that wc have heard the last of this. The correspondent of the Times at Berlin winds up in reference to the “unscrupulous and malignant gentlemen” of the Cologne Gazette , with an energy that is characteristic of most controversy in the city from which he writes. “The only thing,” he says> ‘‘that seems to have been wilfully massacred during the war is the reputation of the German correspondent in question, and he himself has been the systematic murderer of his own professional repute.” Cumbrous perhaps, but true.