SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2599, 7 May 1877, Page 2

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Pee s.s. Ringabooma,

(Pee Pbess Agency.)

Blotf, Sunday."

Captain Thompson, of H;M.S. Challenger, has been appointed to the command of the-Eoyal :yacJit Victoria and Albert.

Sir J. Pagett succeeds «s Surgeoomajor to her Majesty the Queen. Several naval disasters are chronicled. The Sirius and Thetis are both disabled, and the Lynx, (with a-crew of over onb hundred men) has not been heard of since last November. ' ;

The report of the Admiralty Committee shows that, although lime-juice was recommended to the sledging parlies, Sir George IN ares decided to omit it, .as the men had been previously saturated with lime-juice. Five new ironclads have been added to the service this yeer : The Dreadnought, the Nelson, the jNorthampton, the Shannon, and the Temeraire.

A new description of vessel, a torpedo ram, carrying no guns, is to be constructed.

Sir Harding Gilford, the SolicitorGeneral, has found a seat for Launceslon ; and Sydney Herbert (brother of (he Earl of Pembroke) has been returned for Wilton. ' '

Obituary: Field-Marshal Fitzgerald, Admiral Sir E. Belcher.

Eleven steamers are advertised to sail for Melbburhe;via the Cape.

There is an immense demand for American meats.' Shops for its sale have been opened in the suburbs of London. Captain Havelock, late Colonial Secretary of Fiji, has been appointed President of the Island of Nevis, in the West Indies. •

Great distress prevails amongst the. working men of Germany, and large immigration has taken place into Belgium. The famine in Southern India continues very severe, and it is feared that the July and August crops will bo a comparative failure. . \ ' ■

Harrowing accounts are given of the famine in Northern China, where no aid is available for the unfortunate people. The Times notices that Lord Mayor Cotton has received from the Mayor of

Dunedin a sum of £180, conk'ibuted in Otago towards the relief of ihe sufferers in Bulgaria, and remarks that if was the only public subscription for the purpose in thje Australian colonies.

;. 'UiUUishop of Nelson has replied to the Archbishop of Canterbury's invitation 'Jo '■a't'tmd the approaching Pan--Anglican;Synods that he is prevented by pressijhg. work'in his diocese, but he .strongly disapproves of the resolutions carried at any "such meeting being elevaled to tlie rank of an authoritative decision. He thinks that the independence of an ecclesiastical province will be endangered by s>ueb a conference, and that it will lead to centralisation.