ARRIVAL OF THE SUEZ MAIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3929, 16 June 1874, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SUEZ MAIL.

The Suez mail came to hand per s.s. Ladybird, arrived iu the Manukau from South, last evening. VTe extract as follows from our files to hand :— It is stated that the supplies of t : n ore from Australia have so cheapened the article in the Eng l; sh market that a number of the Cornish mines v 111 be closed. The traltic receipts of the Eastern Extension, Australasia, and China Telegraph Company (Limited), for the month of March, amounted to £19,530, against £17, OSS for the corresponding period of 1873. The several emigration agents have been active in procuring emigrants. Dr. Featherston (says the European Mail) finds the work increasing to such an extent that he has been obliged to take extra rooms at ■Westminster Chambers, and employ a much larger staff. Since March 20 nine vessels have left the country for New Zealand, freighted with emigrants. Lady Barker, author of "Station Life in New Zealand," and other charming works, has been appointed superintendent of the new National School of Cookery, South Kensington. She is the wife of Mr. Frederick Napier Broom, one of the principal descriptive writers on the staff of the Times. One of Mr. Broome's litest achievements was the graphic account of the wedding festivities at St. Petersburgh, telegraphed at lengtli'tothc Times. Two clasjis v ill be given with the Ashantee "War medal, one bearing the word " Amoaful," and the other "Coomassie." The medal riband will be black-and-yellow, striped.

ill-. McMahon has made application to Mr. Justice Lush, in chambers, for an order oil the pvoLCci'Mon to produce the roll of all tile pi'of;c''"' o s in the late Ticliborne trial, w jth a \ lew of commencing proceedings oil a writ of error for a reversal of judgment. Ticliborniana is rampant just now, and the friends of the Claimant have had a meeting at Southampton. Anion# those present were Mr. Guildford Onslow, Mr. Skipwortli, the gentleman who went to prison for contempt of Court, and Mr. Councillor Purkess. Much sympathy was expressed for the \\ ifo and children of the Claimant, who were also present. A handsome gift has been presented by the ladies of Cliristcliurcli to the Pr'nco Imperial. It is an inkstank in the shape of a beehive. The liive is uf gold, and rests on a silver base, richly gilt and enamelled. Ten be - *'', most artistically constructed, are placed at suitable intervals on the hive or base. Valuable jewels add to the beauty of the object. It is currently reported that during the ensuing summer their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will visit Ireland, as the guests of the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn.

Through the use of naked lights in one of the deepest mines in the world—the Astley Deep Pit, at Duckiniield, near Manchester— a fearful explosion has been caused, attended with great sacrifice of life. On April 14, about 150 men were at work in the mine. Six or seven of them were repairing a tunnel that had been damaged by fire a few years ago, when part of the roof fell in, and the liberated gas coming in contact with the naked lights they were using, blew up all the workings in the vicinity. .Ninety-one men. who were, fortunately, near the foot of the shaft, were at once rescued. Relief parties worked all night in the desperate hope of saving others. In the morning one man was brought up alive, and afterwards ten men aud boys were discovered in tunnel uninjured. Previously, three brothers had saved themselves by making a circuit of the return air-way. On April 15, thirty dead bodies were recovered, and the total number of the killed is supposed to be about forty. A women's whisky war has been commenced in Manchester. The fair ground at Knott Mill, which during the Easter week had been given up to the annual fair, was on Sunday the scene of a very different gathering. From a temporary platform, • consisting of a lorry, about a dozen working men's wives addressed an attentive crowd on the evils of intemperance. The chairwoman said she had been a teetotaller for 27 years, and liad never regretted it. Some of the speakers Mere members of Good Templar Lodges, and were styled "sisters," and all liad, in some way or other, been brought ever to total abstinence through the terrible examples of drunken husbands or fathers. One woman introduced herself as "no far away bird, but the daughter of old Joe Blank, the drunkennest man in Deansgate." Another speaker, also locally connected, said she "had been 21 years drink-cursed, having for a husband the greatest drunkard that ever walked the streets of Manchester.'' This woman's husband, who was at one time never without an excuse to trash her, was now a reformed character. At the close of the speeches a number of persons took the temperance pledge.

A STRANGE CRIMINAL. The Correctional Tribunal at Bourges lias just tried and condemned one of the strangert criminals ever placed at the bar—a modern Tartu ffe of an exaggerated description. This man, who gave his name as Jean Baptise Lafosse, was born in ISIS at Villebandon, and as a lad showed a remarkable power of oratory, preaching sermons to his schoolfellows. Yet at the age of fifteen he was convicted of swindling and was sent . to prison, for two months. At the age of twenty-two he was condemned for a similar

crime, and had to* pass five years at Mont Sa ; nt Michel. On leaving prison he assumed the garb of a priest, but two years later he was found "guilty of forgery and was sentenced to hard labour for ten years. When he left Brest, being aware that he enjoyed a bad reputation, he changed his name from Lafosse to Raj nal-Duplessis, became a domestic, and afterwards an attendant in a hospital. He was driven from this last situation for immorality. He once more adopted the surplice, bought a ring and a cross and laboured in the dioceses of Rheims, Meux, and Rennes, where he pat; d h'-nself off as belonging to the order of St. Louis of Gouzaga. In the dioce e of Clermont, in ISG3, he pronounced a rem -rkable sermon, from the text," C'ome unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give j-ou rest." He was holding forth at Toulouse when he got into fresh trouble, was detained in prison for eleven mouth;, without tho authorities being able to Ibid out who lie was. He was then condemned to rive years' imprisonment. In ISC9 he was released, and it appears that he went into Italy to found a convent of the order o e St. I-Vancis of Assisi, and he was preaching in behalf of this work at Bourgcs when he was arrested. He had been received by the Archbishop de la Tour (VAuvergno and by the clergy of the diocese with the greatest respect, and it seems that Jean Baptist % Lafosse has the most venerable and proplie like appearance. When arrested, he protested with great dignity against the odious error of which he was the victim. "We arc told that underneath the gown of the priest was discovered the shirt of the galley slave, and the mark of the chain was found on th«i man who had sat at table with bishops. He confessed his guilt, and was condemned to ten years' imprisonment. AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO EDUCATION. When Professor Tyudall was recently lecturing in the United States he was solicited to give his opinions on the best means of promoting the diffusion of the higher education amongst all classes; and especially of scientific culture. lie embodied his views in a paper addressed to the Commissioner of Education, full of most valuable suggestions and uis 3 counsels, applicable to all democratic communities. "Your most difficult problem," he says to the American people, "vi ill be not to build institutions, but to make men ; not to form the body, but to find the spiritual embers which shall kindle within that body a living soul." And that there prevails amongst the better classes in American society a strong disposition to act upon this noble principle? is evidenced by the testimony of Professor Tyudall himself. He had found in that couutry, as he said, a willingness on the part of individuals to devote their fortunes to the service of the commonwealth in the advancement of education such as could not be paralelled elsewhere. The statement is fully borne out by the numerous instances of princely generosity which American citizens have recently displayed in this direction. During the year IS7I. for example, the Hon. George Ba leroft, tho well-known historian, and at present Minister at Berlin, bestowed 10,00 dollars to endow a scholarship at Harvard University. Dr. Joseph Toner, of Washington, similarly bestowed 3000 dollars to found a medical lectureship in that city. Mr. Joseph Garth, of Kentucky, gave 45,000 dollars to endow a professorship in a college in that State. These individual cases might be extended, but it will be better perhaps to give a few total results. The private benefactions to schools and colleges throughout the country amounted in that single year to close upon ten millions of dollars, or about two millions sterling! This is the amount reported to the Bureau of Education for the year ; but the Commissioner, in specifying it, adds that beyoud a l ', these liberal gifts, there are doubtless nume.ous, aud, in some cases, h-rge benefactions to education, individual and denominational, of which the officer received no spccitic information. Possibly, if everything were capable of being ascertained, the amount just stated might be doubled, or even trebled. In fact, the liberality of the American peox>le for the promotion of education seems to be practically unlimited.

AN AUDACIOUS TRICK. An audacious trick was lately played by a "sneak thief" at a London Club. He entered the hall without attracting the notice of the porter, and proceeded to empty the pockets of the g.-eatcoats he found ranged in a corridor. Wlrlc selec-inc; a few of the best, he was interrupted by a member, who, in astonishment, asked him what he was doing. "Oh, this is my regular business," he said, "I am employed to clean the gentlemen's coats in several clubs. I take all the grease out of their collars." " Indeed !" said the gentleman, interested, thinking he had got hold of one he could turn to account. " How long do you take W ny, I i\lll be back with those in a-i hour." "If so, you may as well take mine," said the master, adding his coat to the heap, and escorting the "sneak thief" past the porter. " What great conveniences you have in London !" remarked this country gentleman to a group of his friends. '' I have just given my coat to a man I found in the corridor, who cleans coa ij for the Club." "To whom do you saycried two or three. " The man I found carrying the coats out. Wait—l have his card." But the knowing ones did not wait; tliey hurried out to find the pockets of some greatcoats empty, and other coats altogether gone.

A NOBLE CENTENARIAN. Longevity is a malady which lias long ravaged the Waldeck family. The representative of that ancient house, who assumes the title of Count of Waldeck, celebrated a few days ago his 109 th birthday. He summoned his friends to a banquet to celebrate the auspicious anniversary and astonished them by his verve and gaiety; aud his clear voice, undisturbed by any of the huskiness which age frequently crams into the larynx. He sang several French airs, and gave toasts and sentiments, which prolonged the family festivities until dawn. Sir John Lubbock maintained some years past that there had never been any well authenticated instance of the existance of a centenarian. The venerable Waldeck stood up with his champagne glass in his hand at two o'clock in the morning, when youuger folks had long retired to rest, a?'\ 'ng refutation of Sir John's theory. This modern Methuselah assured his guests, moreover, that his family boasted already of twenty-one centenarians, and he professed to possess proo's that his father died at the age of 102. A Frenchman observed that the old Count's "old pa" beats even Methuselah out of the field. Count Waldeck's baptismal certificate and registration of his birth are perfectly authenticated; he has actually attained his 109 th year, and is still in the enjoyment of faculties which usually fail mankind before they reach that great climacteric, tlirec-score' years and tan. He reads and writes, and is an excellent draughtsman, lie must be cautious of climbing apple-trees during the next, his 110 th year, for the amusement was fatal to old Lady Cork,

Who lived to the age one hundred and ten, And died of a fall from, an apple-tree then. PETROLEUM AS A BEVERAGE. Every one knows that tlie district where grapes are grown of which cliampanga is maue are not sufficiently large to produce grapes for a fifth of the annual champagne supply. Four-fifths of the champagne drunk is therefore quite innocent of any acquaintance 'with the production of the champagne districts. Much credit may be due to manufacturers of wine for having discovered methods whereby a decoction or infusion of gooseberry, rliubarb, plums, and even of turnips with a judicious addition of chemical flavouring matter—can be passed off as champagne or Moselle, or sparkling hock; but we are not so sure that credit i 3 due to the discoverer of tlie method whereby petroleum is .made to do duty as champagne. We are ncverthless assured that American mineral oil refiners and brokers sell large quantities of their oil to champagne makers. It is mechanically mixed with glycerine, is then aerated by a soda woter machine, and is technically known as "Ball Room." It produces] headache o£ the very worst description, and severe diarrhoea, and lasting evil efi'ects. A consignment has, it is said, reached England, via France— yaulical Magazine.