ENGLISH MAIL ITEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4408, 30 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

ENGLISH MAIL ITEMS.

Garibaldi has written the following letter to the Herzegovina insurgents:—" Caprera, October 6. To my brothers of the Herzegovina and to the oppressed of Eastern Europe The Turk must go away to BroUssa. He descended like a wolf, passing the Bosphorus, devastating, murdering, and violating those populations who gave as the Pelasgi, who were, perhaps, the first civilisera of Europe. He must no longer tread upon that part of the world kept by him in misery. At Broussa, with his vices, depredations, and cruelties, he will find enough people of Asia Minor to torment and plunge into desolation. Rise, then, heroic sons of Montenegro, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Servia, Therapia, Macedonia, Greece, Epirus, Albania, Bulgaria, and Roumania ! All of you have a most splendid history. Among you were born Leonidas, Achilles, Alexander, Scanderbeg, and Spartacus. And to-day even, among your robust populations, you may still find a Spartacus and a Leonidas. Do not trust diplomacy. That old woman without a heart certainly deceives you. But with you are all the men of heart throughout the world. England herself, till to-day favourable to the Thirks, ha 3 manifested to you by means of the obolua o.nd sympathy of one of her great men that she ought to prefer the alliance and gratitude of a confederation of free peoples to the decrepit confederation of the Empire of the Crescent. Then to Broussa with the Turk ! Only thus can you make yourself independent and free. On this side of the Boaphorus the fierce Ottoman will always be under the stimulant of eternal war, and you will never obtain the sacred rights of man. —G. Garibaldi. " The New York Timet of the 4th October gives the following details of the second religious riot in Toronto : —"A serious riot occurred here to-day between Orange ' Young Britons' and a Roman Catholic pilgrimage procession. Eight policemen were badly hurt, one it is feared fatally, and twenty were slightly injured. Several arrests have been made. The military were called out to aid the police, but their assistance was not required. A desultory street fight was maintained during two miles of the route traversed by the procession. It is Impossible to ascertain the number of combatants hurt, but it is supposed to be very large. About 20,000 people wore in the streets." Another account says:—"The pilgrimage of the Roman Catholics from church to church took place to-day. After forming at their respective churches they inarched to St. Michael's Cathedra], and, after a short service there, proceeded along Adelaide-street to St. Mary's Church, Bathurst-street, a distance of a mile and a-half. From this point a part of the procession returned by Front-street, while others dispersed on account of the procession being accompanied by the police. A large body of the military having been ordered out for the occasion, in the route of the procession, the disturbance wasrinuch less than had been expected. As soon as the march from the cathedral began, stone-throwing, &c., commenced, when the police charged on the assailants, firing several shots. On the march up Ade-laide-street several attacks with stones, &c., were made. At Bathurst-street quite a number of shots were fired, one or two of the police and a number of others being seriously wounded, but no one was killed as far as known. About two thousand persons were in the procession, and the crowd at some points was estimated at SOOO. Everything is quiet now, nine p.m."

A French journal states that a rich and eccentric Belgian residing at Vermond (Aisne) lately wrote to his relatives to come and see a coat he had ordered. They, imagining the invitation meant a breakfast, went, and were astonished to see a series of coffins, whioh the original was trying one after the other. He had caused them to be made by a number of different joiners. At last ho found one whioh suited him, laid down in it, took some poison, and expired suddenly. In a review of the series of wool sales, Messrs. Webster, Darvall & Co., say:— "The tone of these auctions has been throughout of a very disappointing character, the restricted attendance of the foreign trade depriving the market of a support without which it is impossible to grapple successfully with the ever-increasing aggregate that year by year is thrown upon our hands during the five or six months of summer. This total, added to that offered in May, would represent more fchanhalf a million of bales, embracing the bulk of the season's colonial clip. The various colonies of Australia have to be credited with about half the present exhibit, New Zealand and the Cape with the remainder, and i t is the pressure of these latter competing growths, combined with the before-mentioned slackness of Continental demand, that his caused a depression in prices, varying in degree from Id to 2£d. per lb., and in some exceptional instances even more. From the older colonies of Australia most of the better clips were sold in the earlier sales of the year, but where excellence in breed and condition were Apparent the loss of value was the most restricted. New Zealand made a large sbow of unwashed and eross-bred wooL The prices from the first shewed weakness, which, as the sales progressed, became more marked. The croes-Dred were coarse, but not lustrous, shewing greater depression," An interesting experiment is being made in the shipment of two ner.uj of humblo-bees, which have just left Plymouth for Canterbury, New Zealand. The principal object aimed at in the introduction of these insects into the colony is the fertilisation of the common clover, the pollen of which the common boe is generally unable to collect, while the "humble-bee,' having a larger proboscis and being much stronger, is able to reach sufficiently deep into the flower to collect the' fertilising ausfc. It ia hoped that bj this means the plant will be more generally fertilised, and its cultivation largely extended i» the colony. The bees which hkve just left

i England for the Antipodes were in-two separate neatij which had been prooared by Mr. Frank Buckland, and packed in a suitable box, where thoy were supplied with everything neoessary for the voyage, including honey, farina, water, &o. They are very Sne specimens of the humble-bee. The exact number is not known, as many of the eggs are not yet hatched. They are placed under the care of Mr. John Hall, a member of the Council of New Zealand, who takes a stock of ice for the purpose of keeping down the temperature of the nests while passing through the tropics. Messrs. W. T. Weekes and Co. have despatched from Plymouth two ships, one with emigrants and the other with passengers ; the former is the Caroline, Captam Turnbull, belonging to Messrs. Henry Ellis and Sonß, of London, and chartered by Messrs. Shaw, Savill and Co., for the conveyance of emigrants, and which is bound to Nelson and other parts in New Zealand. Almost immediately after the sailing of the Caroline, the ship Orari, Captain Fox, also sailed I com Plymouth for Canterbury, New Zealand, with passengers. The Orari is a new ship, 1015 tonß register, and owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. She was built by Messrs. Palmer and Co., at Jarrow, and was only launched a few months since. Messrs. Palmer and Co., are at present building four more vessels of the same class as the Orari, and for the same owners ; the designs for the whole having been made by Captain Ashby, the marine superintendent of the company in Englaud. The length of the Orari is 204 ft. over all, thirty-four feet breadth of beam, and twenty feet depth of hold. She is built of iron, has a full poop, and her saloon affords accommodation for eighteen passengers. On this her first voyage the Orari does not take out emigrants, but has on board fifty-five first and sacond-class passengers, among them being the Hon. J. Hall, late Postmaster-General in New Zealaud, and family. Some time since a circular was issued from the Admiralty directing that under certain conditions fugitive Blaves seeking the protection of the British flag on the deck of a British man-of-war, should be given back to slavery. This created intense excitement. At a meeting of the Aborigines' Protection Society, the following letter was read from Bishop Selwyn :—" The Palace, Lichfield, October 4, 1575. My dear Sir, —I hardly know what to think, still less what to say, about the Admiralty instructions to which you refer. It seems to me that there must be something which does not appear on the surface, and of which, therefore, I am not competent to judge. When any act of a responsible Government suddenly arouses public indignation my first thought is that the intention of the Act must be raisundersteod. Ministers are responsible in so great a degree to Parliament and the country that I cannot conceive their doing anything to countenance slavery, which it has cost England so much effort and expenditure to repress. Tested by the only tield of which 1 know much, viz., Melanesia, where a large portion of the population of every island are likely to be the slaves of eveiy other portion, it seems to me impossible that Commodore Hopkins should be bound to return any man who swims off to his ship to any other man who claims him as his slave. How is he to ascertain the right of property ! if property it can be called. And 1 must look upon any nation or tribe which keeps up slavery in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America as on the same level of barbarism in that respect as the savages of Melanesia. Are we to accept the statement of every ruffian that a man is his slave ? If not, where is the question to be tried whether he is a slave or not ? There seems to be no clear course but that every man who sets foot on British soil, or on the deck of a British vessel, is presumed to be free. (Signed) G. A. Lichfield. The Secretary of the Aborigines' Protection Society." In connection with the above announcement, the Times observes : —" The nation will learn with hearty satisfaction, and will receive without any ungenerous scrutiny of motives, the news that the circular issued by the Admiralty on July 31, ' respecting the reception of fugitive slaves on board Her Majesty's ships,' has been suspended. We can hardly doubt that ' suspension ' means ' withdrawal' in this case. Seldom has any act or expression of the Executive Government in this country elicited an outburst of disapproval so unanimous and emphatic, yet so clearly disengaged from party feeling. It was felt that the Government had made a mistake—no doubt a bad mistake, and one to be condemned at once and sharply, but, after all, only a mistake."