ITEMS BY THE MALL

Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 3893, 14 January 1878, Page 3

ITEMS BY THE MALL

! A hurricane and tidal wave at Curacoa caused a loss of nineteen Urea, and injury to property to the extent of 3,500,000 guilders. The ship City of Burmah, wrecked at Calcutta, and sold for 4000 rupees, has been recovered, and is worth 150,000 rupees. The demolition of the wreck of the Forest has at length been achieved. It took exactly seven weeks to accomplish, and cost the Trinity-house £10,00©. The approaching termination of the P. and O. mail contract is attracting attention. The Indian press favors the concentration of the mail service for India in Bombay. A torpedo vessel blew up in the Biver Plate on the 4th October. Besides gun-cotton, there were 150,0001b. of powder on board. Ten men were killed, and a number injured. Great damage was done on shore. Field and Leiter'g dry goods store at Chicago has been burned, causing a loss of 10,000,000d01. The destruction of a spirit store at Portadown on the 29th October, resulted in £400,000 worth of damage.

Discoveries hove lately been made in Newfoundland which show that an organised system of murdering shipwrecked crews has prevailed for years in a locality known as Bonne Bay. Several arrests hare been mode. Very disastrous gales prevailed inland and on the coast from the 9th to the 12th instants. Telegraphio communication was interrupted in many directions; many vessels were wrecked, and from all parts of the country there has been news of serious damage to property. A severe hurricane has since visited the north of Scotland. At Wick many houses were blown down.

The old Melbourne residents, Messrs Spiers and Pond, have opened a magnificent new hotel on the Holborn Viaduct, alongside the terminus of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. It is a most luxurious establishment, and the universal acknowledgment in the Press is that it is unsurpassed in London.

The task undertaken by William Gale of walking in the Agricultural HaU. Islington, 4000 quarter miles in 4000 consecutive periods of ten minutes was completed successfully at fifty-three minutes past ten on November 17th. The last quarter of a mile was done in 2min. 9secs., and Sir John Astley, on the part of some admirers, presented Gale with a silver-mounted belt, and Mr H. B. Green made speeches amidst some uproar.