NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 186, 31 August 1871, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

An extensive railway strike has taken place in Ireland. 200 drunkards were brought before the Liverpool magistrates in one day lately. Germans are returning to Paris, and meet with no manifestations of illfeeling. The Passion Play has again been performed at Oberammergau, Bavaria. The G-erman Government have ordered two more powerful ironclads. The attendance at the London Exhibition is now only SOOO or 9000 daily. The Duke of Edinburgh has been on a visit to Germany. A Egpubliean Club has been established at Newcastle. The prospects of the flax crop in Ireland are very good this year. Thousands of the finest estates in Virginia are said to be for sale. The site for the new Mint near •Blackfriars, London, will cost £50,000. The subterranean fire at Sheffield is believed to have been burning for several years. Great distress prevails among the colliers on strike in South Wales The Queen declined to open the Channel Islands Exhibition in Jersey. The body of a man has been found in the sand at St. Ives, Cornwall. Mr. Grote, the historian of Greece, was buried in Westminster Abbey. Extensive additional dock accommodation has been completed at Chatham. It is proposed to construct an aquarium in the West End Park, Glasgow. The Rev. Dr. Smart, of Leith, well known throughout Scotland, is dead. The Bonaparti ts in France are said to be agitating for a plebiscite. Tbe bad feeling of the Parisians towards England is daily increasing. 10,000 incendiary bombs were found in the Catacombs of Paris. Sheffield continues to keep up its evil reputation for trade outrages. The costs of the prosecution alone in the Voysey case were £2400. Favourable accounts have been received regarding the Welsh colony in Patagonia. An extensive fire has taken place in Dundee, rendering 25 families houseless. European democracy and socialism are said to have shifted their headquarters from Paris to Rome. The new jury system in England is said not to be a success. It is still difficult to get jurors. A large number of female telegraphists are being trained at Glasgow. They get only Bs. a week. According to Dr. Lankester, over 300 childern are found in the streets of London every year. The total debts uf Messrs Jeffry & Co, Compton House, Liverpool, are £307,706, and the assets £105,773. A Manchester policeman has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for robbery. A lucky doctor at Bristol has received a legacy of £20,000 from a deceased lady patient. Mazzini, in an article in an Italian paper, vehemently condemns the doings of the • Com mune. Tbe population of Scotland shows an increase of 296,319 since 1861 ; that of Ireland a decrease of 396,208. Lady Burnett Ooutts, on becoming a baroness, gave £75 to every clerk in Messrs. Coutts and Co's bank. Earl Ducie has succeeded Lord Elcho as Chairman of the Council of the National Rifle Association. The total number of militia officers in England is shown by a return just issued to be 3189, A sturgeon 8 feet 3 inches in length, and weighing 2001b5., was caught lately in the Forth, near the Bridge of Allan. Crawford Priory, Cupar- Fife, is being restored by the Earl of Glasgow, who intends to reside there. A central station for the keeping of the keys of offices, shops, &c, has been established in Glasgow. In a speech in the National Assembly General Trochu charged the Prussians with acting in concert with the Communists. At Brighton, a child has been poisoned by eating chocolate sweets in which traces of strychnine were found. A very severe thunderstorm prevailed on June 10th all over the West and South of Scotland. St. Albans Abbey is to be restored. £10,000 has been subscribed for the purpose. The standard height of recruits in the British army has been raised from sft. 4iin. to sft. sin. The debts of Switzerland amount to £0,280,000, the annual charge per head being 2s 4d. A proposal was made, and at one time seriously discussed, to preserve intact the ruins of the Hotel de Ville in Paris. The Leeds Town Council have voted over £100,000 for street improvements, including additional market accommodation. Public opinion in Italy is in favour of preparation of the army against a probable French attack. The City of Ragusa, manned by two men and a dog, has started on her return voyage from New York to Liverpool. At the Edinburgh Rifle Meeting on June 22nd, the Caledonian Challenge Shield was won by Colour-Sergeant Clews, of the 3rd Renfrew Volunteers, with a score of 50.

An extensive fire of esparto grass has taken place at Newcastie-on-Tyne. The damage is estimated at £20,000.

Upwards of 2000 of the clergy of the Irish Church have elected to accept a commutation of their incomes.

It is reported that the International Society is about to attempt great strikes in the Belgian coal districts. Crowds of sightseers are going into Paris, but it is nevertheless a curious fact that resident Parisians are emigrating wholesale.

While there is a decrease of 10,000 in the population of Dublin during the decade, that of Belfast has increased 4341 per cent.

A boulevard has been opened at St. Louis, U.S., which is eight miles long and 100 feet wide.

Correspondence from Savoy slates that secret societies are fomenting grave political difficulties there.

At Birmingham a tailor named Richardson has been choked by a piece of meat sticking iv his throat.

The tax returns of Great Britain for the financial year 1870-71, show an increase of about £100,000 in the Probate duty.

The Queen has expressed a desire that the Scottish National Memorial to the Prince Consort should be erected in Charlotte Square, Ediuburgh. At the Oldham workhouse the horrifying discovery was made that the inmates had for a week been drinking water in which a dead man was lying.

The herring fishery all round the Scotch coast has been very productive this year. In the Hebrides, however, it has been the reverse.

At Richmond, the Earl of Aylesford has been fined 4<os. for throwing flour in a public thoroughfare, to the annoyance of passers-by.

The Turkish Government are in treaty for the purchase of an American ironclad, said to be by far the most powerful war ship in the world.

The Baby Farming Committee of the House of Commons have ascertained that the general death-rate of illegitimate children in Britaiu is between 60 and 90 per cent.

In Leicestershire a cow was lately killed by lightning, and on examination a meteoric stone was found under the skin below the left eye.

A lad in London found and" restored to its owner a packet of notes and securities amounting to £5000. He was rewarded with a sixpence.

Buenos Ay res was so depopulated by the late plague, that the troops had to be called out to prevent the Indians from attacking the city.

The Spanish Minister for the colonies declared in the Cortes that Spain will preserve the integrity of Cuba as long as she has arms and men.

A great central metropolitan railway station is to be erected in London between the Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon Road station.

The supposed waif from the long missing steamer City of Boston turns out to be a hoax.

It is in contemplation to erect at Westminster, by means of funds subscribed, statues of the late Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston, and Lord Derby.

According to Professor "Beesly, Positivism and Communism are irreconcileablr opposed on the most essential questions, and no good can be served by confounding them. The Queen was expected to visit Inverary Castle, in August, in connection with the home coining of the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome.

According to the "Times'" correspondent, the shopkeepers of Paris "want a Court with the luxury and paraphernalia of royalty, and abhor the idea of the stern simplicity of a Presidential establishment."

The religious census of Ireland shows that of the population, of 5,402,759, the Roman Catholics number 4,141,933, the Protestant Episcopalians 683,295, the Presbyterians 558,238, and other religious denominations 19,283.

During the triumphal entry of the German troops into Berlin, the Prince Albrecht, brother of the Emperor, fainted from heat and fatigue, and an infantry soldier, who had been ten hours under arms, died from the same causes.

A deacon in Illinois objected to the organ purchased by his church, and when called upon to close the service with prayer, said, "Call on the machine! If it can sing the glory of God, it can praj too. Call on the machine !"

The Pope's Jubilee passed over very quietly throughout Ireland. Bonfires were lighted at Clonmel and Cashel, and at the latter place some Roman Catholics who lefused to illuminate their houses had their Adndows smashed.

The Cemetery of Pere-la-Chaise presents a deplorable sight ; the resting places of the dead are much defiled ; the monuments have been greatly injured by the firing ; coffins have been broken, and the remains lie scattered over the ground. You may measure the dead not by numbers but by the rod. They lie in a double tier on the grass, powdered over with a coat of lime. There are many women among them, and faces the ferocity of which makes one sick to look upon.

A Calcutta newspaper says that the principle of Darwinism was maintained a hundred years aero by a Mohammedan saint named Mahumd, who lived in a village named Gilan, near the Caspian Sea.