ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH MAIL VIA SUEZ.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3137, 2 June 1879, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH MAIL VIA SUEZ.

GENERAL SUMMAEY. Our portion of the Suez mail was brought by the s.s. Hiucmoa on Saturday last, being exactly fifty days from England. The following is a summary of news :—: — London, April 11. There has been launched f.iom Messrs. Elder & Co.'s shipbuilding yard, Glasgow, an iron steamer for the Givion line, second only in size to the Great Eastern among mercantile ships. Pier length is 465 feet, breadth 37 feet (> inches. The Ncwbury Freemasons have unanimously elected the Earl of Carnarvon, Pro. Grand Master of England, an honorary member of the Royal Berkshire Lodge of Hops, No. 57i. The Cornish smelters have advanced the tin standards £2 per ton. This makes a total advance of £9 per ton in three weeks. The standards now are — superior common, 635. ; superior fine, 645. per cwt. After many months of almost unparalleled slackness, a slight improvement is at last perceptible in the slate trade of North Wales. In consequence of the Pope's offer to create Dr. Newman a Cardinal, the Catholics are taking steps to provide a fund to be presented to him as a mark of affection and respect. Mr. A. Chirn side's Australian bred horse, Skyscraper, won the Grand National Maiden Hunter's Plate at Derby, by a head from Minotaur.

A public subscription is to be opened in Paris for the purpose of erecting a statue to Beiunger. Victor Hugo is the president of tho Committee formed for the purpose. The at one time notorious William. Broadhe.id, foi-morly secretary of the saw grinders at Sheffield, and the instigator of most of the terrible trade union outrages which were per-pretate-J, has just died from softening of the brain.

St. Patrick's day was observed with all honours.

The Queen has conferred the decoration of the Victoria Cross on Captain John Cook, of tho Bengal Staff Corps, for a signal act of valour, at the action of the Piewar Kotal, on the 2nd December, 1878.

The pretty village of Yernct, near Vichy, consisting of 100 houses, has been entirely burnt down.

The Cob len Club prize in political economy, for the University of Cambridge examinations of session 1877-78 has beea awarded to Miss M. A. Macmillan, of the Crystal Palace Company's School oE Art, Science, and Literature.

Willie Ward, of Peace notoriety, has made his appearance as a star at a music hall in Yorkshire, and' exhibited the spectacles of the Bannercross murderer.

Several serious avalanches iv Switzerland have caused much alarm among the inhabitants of tho valleys. In one village, nine houses with all their inmates were" carried away, and fifteen perso.is arc reported to have been buried under the sno v. It is calculated that eighty avalanches have fallen from mountains in the vicinity of villages, and tho victims are said to hi far more numerous than the authorities are willing to admit. The French iron el a I floating battery Arrogaute has founderc 1 oil: the Llyeres Islands. Sic had a crow of about 120 meu, of whom 47 were drowned.

Affairs in Burmih ;ire not at all satisfactoiy, but it is not inten led to send any ultimatum to the King. The policy is to wait for the movement of the Burmese troops. As a result of the long and severe snowstorms experienced in December and January the shareholders of < lie treat North of Scotland Railway will receive no dividend for the half-year just closcl.

The weather is still bar], and snow and frost have been lately prevalent in London.

The death is announced of Dr. Johannes Hubcr, Professor of the University of Munich and one of the leaders in the old Catholic movement.

There is a report current that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will endeavour to re-adjust the national finances by raising the duty on tea from (kl. to 10.1.

What is knpwn as the Barnes Mystery has advanced a stage or two. After the box with the remains of a woman had been discovered in a muclbank on the Thames, a boy at Richmond identified the box. This led to the pursuit and apprehension of a woman named Catherine Webster, and she states that Mrs. Thomas, the victim of a foal murder, was first poisoned by a man named Church, who keeps a beer shop at Richmond. The death is announced of Admiral Smyth, one of the few survivors of Trafalgar.