MISCELLANEOUS.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 113, 1 August 1885, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS.

Fishing vessels from Iceland report that the past winter in that place has been the moat severe ever known. Almost all the cattle have perished, and fish aro very scarce. Up to the middle of May heavy snowstorms were still raging. The native African Prince, Alloghoga, of Brass River territory, in Upper Guinea, and a professed Christian, while trading at a native village recently, was shot at and wounded in the shoulder by a native, who escaped. The prince took nine villagers as hostages, and failing to get hold of the would-be assassin, killed and ate bis prisoners. As the result of the recent earthquake in Cashmere, a Simla despatch of June 21 says 3,081 persons lost their lives, 7,000 houses were laid in rums, and 33,000 animals perished. An officer had been sent to survey the scene of the shocks. The Governor of Gaboon, Africa, reports under date June 24 that a number of German sailors from the frigate Bismarck recently seized the wife of a native and murdered her husband, who was attempting to defend her. Admiral Knorr refused to give up the assassins to the Governor. The latest accounts received from Tonquin state that the ravages of disease among the French troops are simply appalling. Three thousand invalid soldiers have been sent home, and three hundred soldiers are down with disease. The deaths are from 15 to 20 daily. Advices from Taschkend, June 26, Bay that rebellion against Chinese rule in Chinese Turkeßtan is spreading. In Kashgar the labourers have risen. The last accounts received from thence state that the insurgents had killed all the Chinese officials and native overseers in the city, and had cut off all communication with the interior of China,

1 Russian iulyipes ; from , Vladivostok, £ay 5 that a RueBian;et4ajaj)i"Bfiip yhioh? attempted, to enter Port i Hamilton 'was intercepted W forbidden to do.so feyjan'Bnglißhjnari-of-war. ThfcEngHs.h ar£ eWtabe fortifying the port. , !,' ,';, -' l'[ t Y , --)/,'. ]„-- • ♦ Tbe Qeographioal Society isinappirjg O)it anoiher A'frioan,expedition, ( t6, be.jand^r.tfie direction of , Mr - Last. '\ , It is intended to start in August next from Zanzibar, and proceed thence to Lindy. Charles Warren Adams and Mies Mildred Coleridge, daughter of the Lord Chief Justice, were married in London on June 24. The maternal uncle was the officiating olegyman. The marriage was private. Lord Coleridge refused" to attend, although so requested by his daughter. No other members of the family were invited. AU the family of the late Lady Coleridge were, however, present. Mr Spurgeon has created a great excitement by an article in the ' 'Monthly Review" of June 27, in which he narrates in detail the circumstances attending the death of Justice Williams and the disclosures brought out in the Jeffries's case. He makes these examples from high offioial life the basis of a full-flavoured denunciation of English morality. The "Pall Mall Gazette " of June 23 prints a hitherto unpublished proolamatiou of the Ameer of Afghanistan to his subjects issued in 1882, which incidentally reviews the history of the lost ten tribes of Israel. Lord Garmoyle has settled down at his father's residence at Bournemouth, and has resumed correspondence with Miss Fortesque. It is expected they will be married within a year.

The Panama Canal. Sidney Stevenson, who has returned to New York after years of employment; on the canal at Panama, communioated some interesting facts to the "Sun" of June 18th. It appears that the canal is entirely under French control. Belgium furnishes the most machinery, and Belgium and Germany most of the mechanical engineers. The labourers are largely composed of Jamaica negroes, whom the authorities of that island are glad to get rid of. There are from 15,000 to 20,000 persons employed on the canal, The labourers get 1 dollar 20 cents per day, and operating engineers get from 90 to 120 dollars per month. Two and a half miles from Panama it is proposed to build the dry dock for ships. De Lepseps says the canal will be finished in 1890, but Stevenson thought that from the clow progress made it would be 1900 before it was open for business.