Mail Items.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5014, 6 February 1885, Page 3

Mail Items.

The French press is notoriously »l>surdly credulous, but the'following ridiculous "yarn" caps anything we have ■otieed for some time :—The Telegraphe Of the 12th init. is informed that three torpedo boats, built in England, have been tent to Australia, from which they are to be forwarded to Shanghai nnd handed O?er to" the: Chinese. This intelligence does pot iostbe least surprise the Tele jtraphe, because it knows that the hold of nwGlencoe, one of the last steamers that •ft Bngland for China, was filled with a «rge quantity of arms for the Chinese.— AoglovNew Zealander. - j[n incident unparrelled in the history of railroading occurred on the Missouri road, between Lincoln and Denver. A train of eight cars loaded with coal was blown a hundred miles by a tornado, the •peikT much of the way exceeding a mil* a minute. They were overtaken at las) by an engine, which coupled on and hau'ed them back. /

'. (The "mpHnonlj of British'over Turkish role is forcibly illustrated in the island of Cyprus'. . Thongh many taxes hßvo been renored acd. the custom* duties arc Ifss bnrdemome, the revenue is increasing, After meeting all the indispensable outlays for (he public service, and enlarging the expenditure for education and making various needed improvements, there is a •surplus of £BO,OCO in the treasury. This is only £8000 less thnn the British are re* quired to-pay the Sultan for the use of the. island, 1 and it is believed that tho revenues will soon famish the entire •urn.