NEWS BY THE MAIL

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 318, 7 August 1868, Page 3

NEWS BY THE MAIL

FOREIGN MEMORANDA (from the home news.) At noon on May the 15 th, two 1 irge distilleries near Stuttin (one known as the Stahlberg distillery) took fire. 1,500,000 quarts of spirit were consumed and eight buildings destroyed by the flames. The damage is estimated at 500,000 thalers. One person was mortally injured. According to a recent official statement the colony of British Columbia, with which Vancouver's Island was last year incorporated, continues to confirm the impression entertained by the earlier settlers as to its mineral richness. Although the white population of the mainland was only 6000, and tfie native about 40,000, the yield of gold was £600,000 the year before last, and is now believed to be increasing. To obtain this retu' n only 3000 miners were engaged, and the average earning was therefore £2OO per man a year, which far exceeds any average ever reached either in California or Australia. Great hopes, it is said, are also entertained of the prospects of silver mining in the colouy, some specimens from the Cherry Creek Mines having upon assay shown 1300 ozs per ton. Meanwhile, greatadvance has been made in agriculture, especially as regards the growth of cereals and the manufacture of flour from homegrown wheat. In early days the colony was described as a barren wilderness, the only resource of which was the gold hidden in its inaccessible mountains, and it was only during the year 1866 that its agricultural capabilities were conclusively established. The facilities for travel afforded by the completion of the waggon-roads and other communications tended graduallv to remove the misconception. Settlers "have taken up farms throughout the whole course of the roads and large tracks of land have been cultivated, and sown with wheat and other cereals with most satisfactory results. Steam and water-power grist-mills, according to the exigencies of particular districts, have sprung into existence ; and home-manufactured flour of a superior quality is already taking the place of imported flour. Stockraising has also been taken up vigorously, and with great success. In the " Moniteur de 1' Algerie" of May 6, Marshal M'Mahon writes:- " There is no country in Europe in which life is more respected or safer than it now is in Algeria." To support this assertion the Marshal adduces certain statistics which go to show that among the civil European population of Algeria—about 100,000 in number —there have during the last seven months been only seventeen murders and only five persons eaten. A critic in the " Figaro, " computes that, as there are in France 38,000,000 souls, a similar proportion of crime would show 14,400 murders a year, a state of things which, he observes, " nous ferait regretter l'ancienne Foref de Bondy," where assassination used to be the rule, and it the ex-

ception. A military tribunal at Q-renoblfi has just tried a man named Saunier for desertion to the Eussians in 1855, in the Crimea. He had stolen 407f. from his captain and was placed in confinement, hut he managed to escape,and went over to the enemy. He reached St. Peterburg, and thence returned to Trance. At Ennecy he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for robbery, and while in gaol was discovered to be the'deserter Saunier. He alleged he had been taken prisoner, but a majority of the court did not believe him, and sentence of death was pronounced. Letters received from Smyrna, to the 17th May report that on the preceding day Mr Vastetleuness and Mr Stevens (an engineer) had been kidnapped by a band of thirty brigands. Armsom of j £3OOO, is demanded for these gentleman, under a threat of sending in their heads. The family oi Mr Vanleuness proposed to send £ISOO on the 18th.

from all the nautical talent which we can muster here ; but there can be no doubt that she is the most extraordinary craft that ever visited Australian waters carrying her Majesty's flag. She was built in Deptford, and launched only a year ago, and in her, therefore, all the latest ideas of the Admiralty have been embodied. She is of wood, and unarinoured, but so constructed that she can readily be plated on emergency. She is of 1,280 tons, and 350-horse power (with a speed of thirteen knots an hour), and carries au armament of four guns of six anda-half tous weight each, and two broad side guns of smaller size, two of the larger guus being placed on traversing platforms, so as to command a wide circle in their fire. All her guus are Armstrong's ; her shot is of the Palliser chilled steel kind; her small arms are all Enfield's converted to the Snider pattern, and her smaller arms are all revolvers of the newest mode. She carries twenty-seven officers and 169 men. The Blancheis a ram—the first of this class that has ever appeared in these Australian waters. Her prow is a thick solid plate of steel, on the retreating principle, and from it, under water and invisible, projects the formidable ram, which no enemy could encounter with impunity. Her bow-sprit and jibboom, with all the attached gear, are so constructed that in the event of the Blanche being about to use her ram, they can be taken in within five minutes —so, at least it is said. That in such a case her foretopmast, left unstayed, would go over the bows, seems inevitable, but that contingency has no doubt been foreseen. Below the water line the Blanche appears to be perfect; but next after her bow her stern will occasion remark. It is rounded above the water-line, but above the space which may be presumed to be occupied by the cabin, she is drawn together elliptically, until there is just room for one gun to be trained, out and thus the stern looks as if it could readily become a bow if it were necessary to reverse the engines. She is very handsomely masted and sparred —and although no beauty to the prejudiced nautical eye, is undoubtedly a remarkable and a very fine vessel."