SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 5997, 5 February 1881, Page 6

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

We make the following additional extracts from the Home News anil the European Mail of December 17th :— EIGHT HUNDRED VESSELS FROZEN UP. i According to advices received in Liverpool by the Cunard Royal Mail steamer Bothnia, it appears that the suddenness with which the winter has set in over various parts of the United States is likely to cause an immense amount of inconvenience and loss to the fleet of grain-vessels on the Erie and other canals. On November 20 the frost commenced with great severity, and notwithstanding the employment of ice-breakers and gangs of workmen in the vicinity of Syracuse, the canal could not be kept open beyond that nk'ht, and up to the time the despatch was sent oil'the ice had become each day much thicker. ItwasestimatedthataboutSOOboats, having on board about 6,500,000 bushels of grain, had been frozen up. Other crafts conveying fruit and potatoes were also frozen up, and in this case it was anticipated that the loss would be very heavy, as the produce would be greatly injured by the frost. Since the opening of the Erie Canal this season about 75,000,000 bushels of grain have been carried through it, which will give a clear idea of the extent of the inconvenience caused by the present block. Between Albany and Buffalo it was estimated that from SOO to 1,000 cargoes were "iced up." The season just closed was said to be a fairly prosperous one, but the delay caused b3 r the frost wo , '.ld have an opposite influence.

A BRIDEGROOM COMMITTED TO PRISON. . Love may laugh at locksmiths, but it must not make fun of the High Court of Chancery. Mr. Frederick Arthur Law, a minor, hail an opportunity of learning this salutary lesson the other diiy. He hud, it seems, married a young lady, a ward of Court, with a fortune of £7,000, not only without the sanction of the judge, but whilst under an express injunction not to write to or address her in any way whatever. He made false declarations as to his ago and hers to the clergyman, and he hail, on the whole, committed tliecriinc of contempt of Court in its most audacious form. Ho has accordingly been sent to prison, pending an inquiry which the Vice-Chancellor has ordered to be mado into the validity of the marriage. There is no getting over the fact that, rightly or wrongly, these young people have committed matrimony, and, after fretting and fuming over theirconduct, the Judges can only say that they had better ea-jh plead IKccaoi, and, after a cautious settlement of the ward's property is arranged, to make the best of an unpleasant bargain. A NEW ARCTIC EXPEDITION. We understand that the Prcsidcntanil Council of the Royal Geographical Society have at present under consideration the plans for a new Arctic Expedition. The first active steps taken will probably be as in 1574-75, to appoint a committee oi experts to report on the whole subject, and though it is not expected that anything will be done in the way of actual exploration in the course of the ensuing summer, the interval will be fully occupied in weighing the many important questions which will have to be discussed. It is understood that the route by way of Franz Josef Land will be the one recommended, but the mere feat of reaching the Pole will not be the main, or even one of the principal objects of the Expedition. It will be simply to explore an unknown area north of the 79th and SOth degrees of latitude. The society, while not inimical to observing stations, can only consider them as subsidiary to the work of geographical exploration. COMING NAVAL CHANGES. In the course of a speech at Reading the other day two forthcoming changes in the navy, one affecting the officers, the other the sailors, were shad Wed forth by Mr ShawLefevre. He affirmed that five years' experience of the present system of nomination to naval cadetships has demonstrated both the physical and intellectual inferiority of the lads thus secured for the public service, compared with those who were obtained by competition. The second reform spoken of is the total abolition of corporal punishment in the navy. The chief argument putforwardfor this change is that the number of such punishments having "dwindled to a very few cases in each year," there cannot be much use in retaining it as avi effective aid to descipline.

NEW CALEDONIA. An excellent work on Fiji and New Caledonia has just been published, it is said. from the pen of a Mr. Anderson, a young academic student, who has personally explored these regions. He tells much coneerniiigourlast colony, which will be probably now to readers in the Antipodes, notwithstanding their proximity to Fiji. But his information with regard to New Caledonia is especially fresh and interesting. The progress of the French penal colony, instituted after similar communities had been for obvious reasons discontinued with us, must be watched curiously by the nation which first made the experiment. Noumea, the capital, is a clean, well-planned tewn, nearly half built, however, of stones which the convicts had to bring. There were numerous good roads constructed by the same hands, and the presence of so much gratuitous labour has precisely the same effect as in our own .'•»'•• *' nrn l --" in thepasttimes. It dohelps settlement f' _jvelopesthe country and to check the .-orward, but it tends also displayed .... enterprise and spirit which are resour- , a - by colonists left to their unaided eolo; ;oe3 . Tkis is the chief flaw in French Pr'.iiisation. The authorities will not leave '-rople to shift for themselves. They are too paternal, too anxious to govern and protect. When these rather demoralizing influences are accompanied, as in a penal colony, with stringent rules and restrictions, the result is that the colony does not rapidly improve. PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE SABBATH.

In a lecture deli veredou "Socrates," under the auspices of the Glasgow Sunday Society, in Glasgow, on Sunday, the learned professor made known his views on the Sabbath in the following terms :—My appearance here on tliis night and at this place will probably, or rather certainly, give offence to many old friends whom I always held dear, and still hold dear. I tliink it wise to say in a single sentence that I am, and always have been, a strictly conscientious Sabbatarian. I mean a Sabbatarian in the sense in which the Christian Church has always been a keeper of Sabbaths, at all events from the time of the Emperor Constantino. For there could not have been n. regular Sabbath, in our sense, till the Christian usages were conformed and sanctioned by the law. Therefore, when I say I have "always been a strictly conscientious Sabbatarian—far more so than many of my friends whom I know—l mean I have always esteemed it a lofty privilege and a noble freedom to escape from the shackles of trade and of the shop for one day in the seven. I have known some fellows who cannot get out of the shop neither on Sunday nor Saturday. They iire always in the shop. These men I call lobsters; their profession has made a crust round about them in which they are imprisoned. But for the benefit of our moral—for our physical in the first place, .our moral, and our intellectual nature, some kind of Sabbath is absolutely necessary. The Sabbath exists mainly for two purposes—for rest to tho body, recreation to the mind, and, in Christian countries, also for the worship of God. In that way I havu always been a Sabbath keeper. But I have never been able to see j that the peculiar Scotch views about tho i Sabbath, especially those entertained in the j extreme north-west end of Ross-shire—audit • may bt in some eiulof Glasgow for all I know— ! are the orthodox methods of keeping the j Sabbath. I don't comprehend why I should not read the Word of God and worship with my fellow-Christians on Sunday forenoon, and why I should not on the Sunday afternoon walk about in God's beautiful garden, whether it be the garden of nature or a l>o anieal tarden, or why people should not discourse on the Word'of God in the forenoon and not sometimes on the works of God in the afternoon. I hope that will be a sufficient explanation. NEW MODE OF FIRE EXTINCTION. A few days ago an experimenthaving for its object the instantaneous extinction of a tire without the aid of an engine was tried in a vacant piece of land adjoining the Savoy in the Strand, in the presence of Captain Shaw and several other gentlemen interrested in matters pertaining to fire extinction and the public safety. The results depend upon the application of a solution of silicate of sodium and other chemicals which are dissolved in water in certain definite proportions, the solution being applied by means of buckets. The invention is that of Herr Windspergerand is being introduced by Messrs. A. Dreyfus and Co., of Monkwell-street, London. To test the merits of the invention a pile of interlaced timbers, 9ft. long, 3ft. wide, and Gft. high, and having the apertures packed with straw, was built. Prior to ignition it had eix gallons of paraffin and a gallon of heavy petroleum thrown over it. The fire havini been lighted ami the flames allowed to take hold ef the timber, aljout twelve or fourteen

gallons of the solution were thrown, over the burning piles and instantly extinguished the flames. In the course of about ten minutes,' however, they again broke out afresh, and were gaining upon the timber when a further application of the solution was made, which' effectually quenched them, but with a total expenditure of a largely excessive quantity of the solution. There was, however, a strong wind blowing, which told against the experiment, which was consequently inconclusive, proving nothing either for or against the invention. It is, however, to be repeated and made comparative, as suggested by Captain Siiaiv, the chief of tlie London Fire Brigade, by having two similar piles fired, one being treated with water and the other with the solution, the liquids both being applied by means of small engines. What the inventor claims mainly is a simple application of the solution by baud immediately upon the outbreak of a fire, but whether this accomplishes any more thau would an application of water under similar circumstances remains to be proved. Save that we are not acquainted with the ingredients of the solution other than the sodium, it would only appear to be reversiiis; the well-known process of rendering substances uninflammable by the application of silicates, and it is questionable whether prevention would not be better than cure.

MECHANICAL REFRIGERATION. There has just been completed and tested, with entirely successful results, in the engineering establishment of Messrs. D. and W. Henderson, Glasgow, a BeU-Coleman Dry-air Refrigator of the largest dimensions hitherto attempted. The machine is capable of delivering 2000 cubic feet of air per minute, reduced from a surrounding atmosphere of 80 deg. Fahrenheit to OOdeg. under zero ; and in order to obtain the power required to produce that result two huge boilers, measuring each '2Sft. by 7ft. Gin., have beon made by Messrs. Galloway, of Manchester The apparatus has been constructed by the Bell-Coleman Company, to the order of the Government of New South Wales, primarily with the view of storing and preserving the meat supply of Sydney. The daily consumption of meat in that city amounts to 100 tons, ami. that quantity the engine, it is calculated, will easily reduce to a preserving temperature in the climate of Sydney. The Colonial Government have further in view, in ordering the apparatus, the encouragement of the meat export trade to Europe, and, applied to that purpose, between twenty and thirty tons of dead meat could be frozen and prepared daily. An interesting application of the Bell-Coleiiian machine, aud one which will materially increase the comfort of passengers on long voyages, has been made aud is in progress with various great ocean steamers. It consists in the use of machines of comparatively small capacity, called "provision machines," for the preservation of the ship's meat stores, thereby dispensing with the nuisance of live stock on board, which, as every passenger knows, is a most unsatisfactory aud unwholesome source of fresh food toward the close of a long voyage. The Orient Line steamer Orient, which sailed from London for Australia early in September, with upwards of 500 passengers, had her fresh meat and poultry, &c. preserved throughout by a provision machine, which furthur prepared a daily supply of table ice, all in a most satisfactory manner. The Peninsular and Oriental steamer Kaisar-i-Hiiul lias been fitted with a provision machine, the cold air from which refrigerates successfully a meat-chamber, a water-cooling chamber, a vegetable compartment, a winecooler, and a thawing chamber, the air passing in succession from the one to the other till, coming near ordinary atinosphoric temperature, it is dismissed into space. I AFFAIRS IN IRELAND.

Threatening notices have been posted, warning persons against purchasing timber at

an auction on Dr. Mackesy's estate, Kilkenny, on account of his voting against giving the freedom of the city of Waterford to Mr. Parnell. There were no bidders at

the sale. The house of a farmer, named Foran, has been burned at Tinhala, Waterford, because he paid his full rent, in opposition to the wishes of the other tenants, who wanted their holdings at Griffith's valuation. On Lord Bessborough's estate, Kilkenny, a farmer, named Dalton, has received a threatening letter warning him, as lie valued his life, to give up a farm from which the former tenant had been evicted. He has resigned the farm. A number of sheep, the property of a farmer named M'Hugh, at Purrance, near Claremorris, have had their ears cropped off. No excuse is assigned for the outrage, as the man is a member of the Land League. Mrs. Roi.s, aProtestantlady, who was lately evicted by her landlord, a clergyman in Tipperary, has been reinstated. She had taken refuge in a disused police-station, and was visited by a body of about 100 armed men, who, placing her in a carriage, drove her to her former residence. They lighted a fire in every grate and warmed the place, and told another tenant who had taken the farm since her eviction, to have all his cattle removed before six the next morning, which lie <li<?. At the Castlchar special sessions a sum of £200 has been voted for extra police for the count3 r of Mayo for the past six months. A terrible tragedy lias just been committed within a short distance of Cookstown. James Mulholland, bailiff, was employed to execute a decree against a small farmer at Lough Fay, I ■vbout six miles distant. Two assistants of the as'.tp. .tiuit-.+'oiiaY/jeoj- ai-ns trades!i..iu at" 'whose s'u'A-Cue"' cleeiL'c ■ J;.-n issued accompanied the baliif, and on arriving I

at the house they were to visit were stopped by a man, who called up the bailiff to stand, and, drawing a line across the road, threatened to shoot him if he dared to cross. Mulholland, however, unheeding the challenge, advanced to put. the decree in force, when the man instantly raised his gun and shot him through the heart. Death was instantaneous, The body was shortly afterwards taken to Cookstown, and the police immediately proceeded to Lough Fay and arrested the man who committed the deed.

MISCELLANEOUS. It is stated that Admiral Popolr' is so satisfied with the type of the Livadia that, in spite of the adverse criticisms directed against that vessel in Russia and England, he lias decided upon applying the principle to a new ironclad that is about to be built for the Russian navy. Designs for such a man-of-war have already been in existence some mouths, but the cruise of the Czar's yacht to Ferrol has suggested some important improvements to Admiral Popoif. which he intends inserting in a froah set of plans. AtaballatSchwarznberg, Saxony, a young man entered, having what appeared to be a cigar in hit mouth. He went to the chandelier as if to light it, and a terrible explosion ensued. The lights wore extinguished, the walls partly gave way, dancers of both sexes were covered with blood, and the young man was blown to pieces. He had resolved on committing suicide, and had adopted a dynamite cartridge for that purpose. A watchmaker at Copenhagen, of the name of Sonderberg, is reported to have made a watch which requires no winding-up inasmuch as it performs that work itself by means of an electric current. An electric magnet fixed inside the watch keeps the spring perpetually in a state of tension. All that is required to keep the watcli goim; is to preserve the battery in proper working order, for which purpose one or two inspections in a twelvemonth are said to be sufficient. Tlie safety of the Czar from domestic conspirators is purchased at a great price. We read that during His Majesty's recent journey from Livadia, ten peasants and two soldiers were stationed as watchmen along eacli verst of the entire distance from Sebastopol. making a total of 36,000 men on foot, with 1,700 mounted. As these wore on guard two (lays and a night, it must be supposed that half were reliefs. The cost of these watchmen, after making allowance for compulsory services, is estimated to have been at least £15,000. According to the Mail, the colonists whom Mr. Hughes, the author of "Tom Brown's School Days," has settled in Tennessee are not quite so satisfied as was reported. They grumble because there are a great many trees on the land to clear away, and because the soil is not so rich as was expected. It lias been justly observed that Mr. Hughes's purpose was to found a colony of workers, not to scheme out a pleasure picnic but a good number of his friends regret that the settlement was not made in some desirable spot in the British colonies instead of in the United States.

A singular circumstance is narrated in connection with the history of the English balloon Eclipse, which ascended from the Crystal Palace a short time since, in the international balloon competition. Some twelve months ago Captain Colville, of the Grenadier Guards, ami his bride made an ascent in this balloon from the Crystal Palace on their wedding day, they being the sole occupants of the car, and in cloudland they spent a portion of their honeymoon, effecting a safe landing at Waterbeaeh, between Cambridge and Ely. Miss Thompson, the eccentric Scotch girl who lately shod her horse with gold, has been sent to a British asylum for the insane. She is the daughter of a former civil official in Dumfries, Scotland, and has succeeded in wasting a fortune through her crazy pranks.