CALOGRAMS.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4675, 31 December 1883, Page 2

CALOGRAMS.

Beuteb's Telegbams

Paris; December 29. French Loss at Soatay. Despatches from Tonquin state that desperate fighting took place at Sontay, and that heavy loss was sustained on both sides before the fortress was captured. The French lost twenty-six.', officera and fully one thousand men. The attack upon. Bacninh will not take place until the arrival of the reinforcements recently despatched from Prance under General Mellott. ■;■■-■' London; December 29. The report of the Western Pacific Commission is published to-day. The report condemns the supervision of the labor traffic by colonial agents, and urges that the agents should be appointed by the Crown. It recommends that the labor trade should, be' more closely watched by the naval authorities in Aus* tralia, and that Eesident DeputyCommissioners should be appointed to the various islands. The report is opposed to the control of the Polynesian and New Guinea races being vested in the Colonial Governments. Mr Speight, the . newly appointed j Chairman of the Victorian Railway Board, has sailed for Australia. The Homeward mails, via San Francisco, from Auckland, Nov. 8, were de* livered here to day. Obituary: Sir John Bayley Darvall, K.C.M.G., formerly Attorney-General and M.L.C. of K".S. Wales. ;