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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 912, 9 January 1871, Page 2

The Inter-colonial Wool Show at Sydney is fixed for the 24th of January. The following interesting particulars, are taken from Messrs Major and Smith's (Shanghai) Circular of the Gth of September :—The chief feature of interest during the last fortnight has been the unexpected rising of the Yangtse to a higher level than has been experienced since 1849. The water is n w nearly two feet higher than the highest flood of last year, but still six feet less than 1848, hi those years the Hunau, Ilouan aud Szechuen waters arrived at their full force almost simultaneously with a continuous series of local heavy rains. This year the floods have been entirely owing to the effect of Szechuen waters, which, commenced passing I- cang in its intensity on the 6th July, causing the destruction, of a vast quantity of property and three, to four thousand people. This year tha effect of the flood, locally, will be as, disastrous as last summer's. The Cerberus, 4, double screw, iron armor-plated turret ship, 2,107 tons, 25ft horse power, has. at length left Chatham, She left her berth opposite the dockyard on the 10th yist., to proceed down the Medway to Folly Poiut, where she will in her shot, shell, and powder, brought round from the Ptufleet maga^

zines. When this has been completed she will go to Sheerness. There she will adjust her compasses and take in .coal, and will afterwards leave for Australia. The vessel is commanded by Navigator Lieutenant Panter, R.N.; a crew has been hired to take her out to Melbourne, where they will be discharged. The Cerberus has been at Chatham in No. 4 dock or lying in the river for moie than a year. She was built at Jarrow-on-the-Tyne, but she was sent to Chatham not only to be fitted for sea in the ordinary sense, but to be specially fitted for her long voyage. How necessary that is the fate of the Captain shows. Strong iron bulwarks were built above what is to be the ordinary level of the ship for fighting purposes, and an iron -upper-deck constructed. This has given, what the Captain wanted, a good freeboard high out of the water. Bulwarks and deck will be removed when the Cerberus arrives in the harbor of Melbourne, and then only her two armor-plated turrets will stand much above the level oi the water. The Cerberus has been lightly masted for the voyage; of course masts and rigging wiil be removed after the voyage. The Government of Victoria will pay for the construction and arming of this fine ship and all expenses connected with her voyage out, though in the Navy List the vesssel figures among M her Majesty's ships for the defeuce of the .colonies." The Victorians will, no .doubt, be not a little proud of this handsome addition to their defences—paid for by themselves when she enters Melbourne harbor. The Cerberus is armed with very powerful guns in the turrets. — Home News, October 29. We learn from the Dunedin papers ; that the Robert Henderson, from Glasgow, arrived at Port Chalmers on the 23rd December. Scarlatina had broken out on the passage, and eight deaths had taken place. Several, out of the 106 remaining passeugers, were suffering from the fever when they arrived in port. The vessel was immediately placed iu quarantine, and it was determined to land the passengers on Quarantine Island, to have their clothes and luggage washed and fumigated, and to have the ship thoroughly cleansed before coming to her anchorage iu the port. The Board of Health visited the quarantine station, where, says the Evening Star, " they witnessed a scene of .neglect and dilapidation in the buildings •that reflects the deepest disgrace upon the Executive. The person who lives on the island to take care of the buildings had a xow of tubs on the floor of the building to catch the water as it fell through the roof into the apartment. The hospital was a thoroughfare for the wind through openings in the walls; and off the roof of one J of the buildings were two sheets of iron, i |hu* leaving a large portion of it un- ; covered. So complete appeared the wreck that the health officer demurred to removing the passengers, under the appre tension that the buildings could not be made habitable." At the Resident Magistrate's Court, "Wellington, on the 3rd instant, Patrick Sullivan, late shoemaker at Waipawa, and Robert Stuart, late steward on board the p.s. Coomerang, were brought before his Worship on a charge of horse stealing at Wanganui. They had made their way overland to Hawke's Bay, where they were arrested by Inspector Scully near the Forty-mile Bush, and sent on to Wellington by the Lord Ashley, which .arrived yesterday, They were remanded to Wanganui. A gum-digger, named Denis M'Manus, Jias been burned to death at Riverhead, Auckland. The verdict of the Coroner's jury explains the particulars of the accident. It is as follows :—" That the said Denis M'Manus on the night of the 21st day of December, 1870, being asleep in a whare near the dwelling known as • Johnston's store, 5 it so happened that, in consequence of a caudle having been left burning after the said Denis M'Manus had retired to rest, the aforesaid whare flccidently, casually, and by misfortune, took fire, by means whereof and from the smoke of flames arising from the said fire, the said Denis M'Manus w«s then suffocated and burnt, of which suffocation and burning the said Denis M'Manus then instantly died ; aud so the jurors aforesaid upon their oaths aforesaid do say that the said Denis M'Manus in manner by the means aforesaid, accidentally, and by misfortune came to his death, and not ©JberwJse."