SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3909, 8 May 1877, Page 4

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Captain Thompson, of the Challenger, has been appointed to the command of the Roj'al yacht Victoria and Albert. Sir J. Pagett succeeds as principal Surgeon to the Queen. Several naval disasters are chronicled. The Sirius and Thetis .have been both disabled, and the Lynx, with a crew of over a hundred men, has not been heard of since last November. The report of the Admiralty Committee shows that, although lime juice was recommended to sledging parties, Sir George Nares decided to omit it, as the men had been previously saturated with lime juice. Five new ironclads have been added to the service this year, viz., the Dreadnought, the Kelson, the Northampton, the Shannon, and the Temerare. 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 Launceston, and Mr Sydney Herbert, brother of the Earl of Pembroke, has been returned for Wilton. Obituary — Field-Marshall Fitzgerald, Admiral Sir E. Belcher. Eleven steamers are advertised to sail for Melbourne, via the Cape. There is an immense demand for American meat. Shops for the sale of it have been opened in the suburbs of London. Captain ITavelock, late Colonial Secretary at 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, in consequence, taken place into Belgium. The famine in Southern India contimies very severe, and it is feared that the July and August crops will be 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 Lhc Mayor of Dunedin the sum of £180 contributed in Otago towards the sufferers in Bulgaria, and remarks that it was the only public subscription for the purpose in the Australasian colonies. The Bishop of Nelson lias replied to the Archbishop of Canterbuiy's invitation to attend the approaching Pan-Anglican Synod, that he is prevented by pressing work in his diocese, but he strongly disapproves of resolutions carried at any such meetings being elevated to the rank of authoritative decisions. He thinks that the independence of the ecclesiastical province will be endangered by such a Conference, and that it will lead to centralisation.