NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 69, 26 January 1877, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

(fboh the home news.) About a dozen Englishmen who ha7e held commissions in English cavalry regiments have arrived in Constantinople, and hare found immediate employment in the Turkish cavalry now being orga-^ nised under Colonel Valentine Baker. The latter will admit none into the corps under his direction except such as he is perfectly certain are good and efficient officers, with nothing against them in any way. Under the Colonel's direction of tbe Ottoman Horse, none who are not approved of by him can enter tbe service. It is stated from Paris that the work of sounding for tbe projected Channel tun« nel is advancing rapidly. On the Ist of September the depth of the shaft at Sangate reached 107 metres ; on the Ist of October in had increased to 119, and on the 9th inst, to 122 metres. The boring | of this shaft, which is to be sunk to a depth of 130 metres, will probably be completed towards the end of the present month. The soundings of the Strait were taken some time back. The result of these operations appears entirely to confirm the expectations of the geologists. The Danish Inspector-General of North Greenland says in a letter respecting the Arctic Expedition, that to endeavonr with the means we at present possess to reach the Pole across the ice— no doubt im* mensely old, exceedingly rough, and about one hundred feet thick — would lead only to certain destruction. The northern shores of the Polar Sea north of Baffin's Bay are now defined, and a longer stay would no doubt hare left the recent expedition to the fate of Franklin. Only to the three sledging companies, to whom the most arduous duties were assigned, and to Captain Nares' incomparable skill, is it due that the expedition has returned at all, and only with the loss of four lives. One Sunday last month, in the after* noon, Her Majesty, accompanied by Princess Beatrice, drove to Lochnagar Distillery and paid a visit to Mr Begg. The Queen, after a short stay at Lochnagar Farm, continued her drive by way of Balnacroft. and remained for some time beside a field of oats belonging to Mr Begg, where about fifty men and women were actively at work binding in stooks grain which had been spread out to dry on the Sunday, and the people in the district turned out, and wi r ,b willing hands had the whole field bound and stooked by evening, part of the operation being conducted by moonlight. Before leaving Her Majesty signified to Mr Begg her opinion that the works was one of necessity. In this she differs from some Scotch clergymen who have denounced from the pulpit the practice of Sunday harvesting as a violation of the sanctity of the Sabbath. The reason why the Claimant has lost his chance of early release from penal servitude is that be committed the first act of insubordination by refusing to make up his bed— a thing which he gene* rally did with unusual exactness. The punishment for tbe refuse! was exceed* ingly light, but he was ordered to do some wor'i in the yard of the prison—work of a very easy kind. To this he objected, and said he would see the governor and

officials far enough tfefbra he would submit to sack treatment He has been, in consequence, treated with extra severity? - ) —a circumstance which never previously j occored since his imprisonment