SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5583, 7 October 1879, Page 5

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

[PER S.S. 'CHIMBORAZO,' AT ADELAIDE.J The question of the confirmation of the P. and O. Co.'a new contract was discussed in the House of Commons on August 8. It was stated by Sir Selwyn Ibotsens that four tenders were seut iu from the P. and O. Co., the S.S. Co. (of Liverpool), Mr. Smith (of Glasgow), and Mr. Holt (of Liverpool). The Government considered that of the P. and O. Co. was most advantageous, and acceptcd ol it for eight yeara at £37,000 per annum. An amendment was proposed by Mr. J. Holmes to reduce the term by two to three years. Lord John Manners stated that the company wanted £50,000 per annum more for a five years' service than for an eight years'. The motion approving the contract was agreed to by 142 to 51. Calculations shew tbat the Glasgow firm offered its ships at 11a 2d per mile, the Liverpool Company at 12s Id, Mr. Holmes at 8i 10J, and the P. and O. Company at 9s 6d. Public opinion is deoidedly favourable to the mail service to the East being carried out by the company that has performed it satisfactorily for the whole period of four decades. It gives all the advantages tbat could be offered by any other contractors for mails. The Posts Subsidies Committee

allege that it will cost the conntry £2,500,000 unnecessarily, and point out that Victoria having had the benefit of real competition, had reduced the subsidy between Galle and Melbourne from 14s 4d to 6s 91 per mile. Reference was made in the House of Commons on August Bth to the danger of another native war in Now Z"aUnd. Mr. J. Smith asked if it were true that preparations were beiog made to settle at once and for ever the native difficulty. Sir M. Hicks-Beach replied that he had received no communication on tie subject, and should therefore infer that nothing very serious had taken place. Ho added that the news in tbe Press was six weeks' old, and he hoped that had there been any apprehension of disturbance he would have been informed. A postcript of 23rd June, contained in a letter to hand from the " own correspondent" at Wellington of th« Standard, gav* the prin. cipal grounds for alarm, as the writer said : " I learn by telegraph that the settlers have precipitated matters by forcibly ejecting the native ploughmen. It is feared that hostilities are imminent." The Slandatd followed up the letter by a leader commencing :—" It will be seen by a i letter of our correspondent in New Zealand | that the colony is on the edge of another native war." At a meeting of the shareholders of the Rank of New Zealand, Sir Charles Clifford took the opportunity to refer to the scare thus created by the Standard, and pointed out that the area affected in New Zealand was bo small, compared with the rest of New Zealand, as scarcely to be worth a thought. The Southern Island and tbe great centres of population in the country were not affected. The strike of the Durham coal-miner 3 was referred to by Sir Charles, who paid a high tribute to the progress in civilisation. Hm remarks altogether had considerable influence in setting the proper construction of the actual state of affairs before the public. A series of letters which recently appeared in the Daily Weios on English agricultural labour in the Britain of tbe South, together with many other details useful to intending immigrants, have been re-published in pamphlet form, under the title of 11 The England of the Pacific, or NewZ u aland as an English Immigration Field." Viscount Trafalgar has ma*Ti~d Miss Dal potty, th* eldest daughter of Dalgetty, of Locksley Hall, Hampshire. W. Aribathaon intends to call attention to tlio revenue, commcrce, and increase of the population of the United Kingdom as compared with those of the colonics, aud move, " That, in the opinion of tlrs House, the burdens of Imperial defence is unequally distributed, and n quirt? ro-adjustmcnt." In reply to a question Sir M. Ilicks- Be »ch declined to publish certain official information regarding the Australiiu defences though he consented to have the documents plac.d at the liberty of the House for p^ru-al. Iu a letter to the Globe Colonel Arduthnou (?) subsequently pointed out that Sir Michael Hicks-lSeach's reticence was very like locking the stable door after tho horse had been Btolen, as the papers were printed by the colonial Parliament, and sold for a f-nv pence, and were to his certain knowledge in the hands of foreign Governments. On August 2, the emigrant ship Euterpe, for Canterbury, New Zealand, was run into off Gravesend by the s.s. Telford, from Colombo, doing damage to the starbnard bow, injuring one man, carrying away the mizzen booms, running <fcc. Tho ship Pericles, which put back to Plymouth, after having been ashore on the rouks near the Manacles whilst on a voyng * to S) dney with 496 emigrants, discharged her passengers on the 2Gth at the Immigration Depot. It was deemed nccessary to dock the vees d and overhaul her. The Lyons p ipers announced a discovery which, if true, has very important influence on tho silk trade, and on all textile industries. It is stated that tho appearance and durability of silk can bo communicated to tibrcs of llax by a certain chenrcal process. The flax is steeped in a bath of dissolved silk waste, and emerges thorrfrom iu a condition which renders it undistinguishable, save by analysis, from silk itself.