The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-30 00:00:00

GREAT FIRE IN NEW ZEALAND.

The disasters which are making the latter half of
1870 memorable among ourselves have extended to
the colonies. The New Zealand papers bring details
of the terrible fire which occurred in the town of
Lyttelton, in the province of Canterbury, on October
24th. Two-thirds of the town were laid in ruins, and
a large number of families were rendered homeless.
All the butchers' and bakers' shops were destroyed, so
that food had to be sent in from the neighbouring dis-
tricts. The estimated loss is £loo,ooo—a very serious
amount of damage for a growing colonial town. The
cans() of the fire is unknown, but it was first dis-
covered in an empty house adjoining the Queen's
Hotel, and from thence it spread rapidly in all
directions. A. spirit warehouse near the hotel helped
to fan the flames, and a large store by the quay
catching fire, great fears were entertained
that they would spread to the shipping. This further
calamity was, however, avoided. Piles of goods and
furniture, removed to what was thought a safe dis-
tance, were lapped up and destroyed. Happily no
life was lost. As an instance of the progress made
by the colony, it may be mentioned that a steam fire
engine was brought into Lyttleton by special train.

ki,riO4.
011 ft E
CI rtildalt,
Li A;
Li; k,

HER .1I AJEST Y.

OSBORNE, Dec. 29.

The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon, accompanied
by Princess Beatrice, and attended by the Hon. Flora
Macdonald.
Her Majesty walked out this morning, accompanied
by Princess Louise.
Prince Arthur and Prince Leopold also went out.
The Hon. Lucy Kerr has left Osborne.

Mr. Gladstone reached his Gist birthday yester-
day. Mr. Disraeli attains his 65th year on Saturday.
Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Vernon Harcourt, Q.C., the
representatives of the City of Oxford, have accepted the
invitation of the Ancient Order of Druids to be present at
their Annual Druidical Festival on Monday next.

BItEAKFAST,—EPPS'S COCOA.--GRATEFUL AND COM-
PORTING.—The very agreeable character of this preparation has
rendered it a general favourite. The Civil Service Gazette re
marks :—" By a thorough knowledge of the natural laws which
govern the operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a
careful application of the fine properties of well-selected cocoa.
Mr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately
flavoured beverage which -may save us many heavy doctors'
bills." Each packet is labelled—JAMES EFTS & Co., homoeo-
pathic Chemists. London. Also, makers of Epps's Cacabine, a
very thin evening beverage, —Advt.

TUE GOVERNMENT AND TIIE FENIA
PRISONERS.

Mr. Gladstone has sent the following reply to Mr.
Moylan, of the Canadian Government Emigration Office
in Dublin, who addressed a letter to the right hon. gentle-
man by way of remonstrance on behalf of Canada, in rela-
tion to the liberation of the Fenian prisoners, cramped, as
that act of grace is, considered with the condition of exile :
—" 10, Downing-street, Whitehall, Dec. 22. Sir,—l am
directed by Mr. Gladstone to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 19th inst., which he has read with
attention. Mr. Gladstone has every confidence in the
motive which dictated it, but does not consider that her
Majesty's Government would be responsible for allowing
persons, of whose future obedience they have no assurance
whatever, to remain in the midst of the community whom
they had sought, and probably would seek again, to dis-
turb.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, ALGERNON
WEST. —J. G. Molyan, Esq."
The following are some extracts from a letter just re-
ceived from Mr. Denis D. Mulcahy, another of the
political prisoners about to be released :
" Woking Convict Prison, December 24, 1870.
" My own dearest Father and Sister,—Between half-
past twelve and one o'clock, Thursday, the 22nd
Instant, the governor, Captain Brambly, communi-
cated to me, 'Dr. Power, Colonel Burke, &c.,
that he had instructions to ask us if we would
accept our release on condition of leaving the
country, never again to return to it, or the alternative of
remaining in penal servitude to finish our sentences. I
was originally isentenced to 10 years' penal servitude. I
have accomplished half that period in penal prisons,
besides four months' incarceration before my trial. I
would go to Ireland under any restrictions the Home
Secretary would deem necessary to impose upon me, that
I may see my poor father before he dies. I need not tell
you how much I desire to Pee you before I leave, but,
considering the inclement season of the year, and the pre-
carious state of my poor father's health, I could not. I
would not think of bringing you across the Channel for
an interview of a few minutes. But the greatest of all
punishments is compelling a man broken down in health
to go into a foreign landinimical to his constitution, where
he has neither relative nor friend. This, and depriving:me
of the privilege of seeing my poor father, weigh heaviest
on my heart. However, it will not do to give in just now.
Neither you nor father must give way to your feelings.
You must brace yourselves up for this the most crushing
of all blows."

THE SERIOUS CHARGE OF BANK
ROBBERY.

At the Southwark Police-court, Sarah Durrant, 62,
a coffee-house keeper, 1, London-road, Southwark, was
charged, on remand, with receiving two £l,OOO Bank of
England notes, being a portion of £10,175 stolen from a
clerk in the service of Messrs. Barnett, Hoare and
Company, bankers, Lombard-street, while transact-
ing business in the Birkbeck Bank in February
last. Mr. Mullens, the solicitors to the Bankers'
Association, prosecuted; and Mr. Woodman de-
fended the prisoner. The evidence given by Mr.
Sydney Tomlin, clerk to Messrs. Barnett, Hoare, and
Co., and rnspectors Shore and Moon, of the detective
police, has already been reported. On this occasion Mr.
Tomlin, cross-examined by Mr. Woodham, said that all
the notes he took at Coutts's Bank he marked at the back
with the letters "C. X. X." Inspector Shore was re-
called and said that when he took the prisoner into cus-
tody she never told him where she got the notes from.
Ele told her he heard- she had bought them, when
she exclaimed, " Good God ! " She seemed very much
confused, and hesitated before she handed the notes
to him. In answer to Mr. Partridge, witness said the
loss of the notes was advertised in all the newspapers of
any note in the kingdom, the Continent, America,
Australia, and elsewhere, offering a reward of £l,OOO.
Full particulars of the notes were then given. Sergeant
Moon, of the detective police, was recalled, and said he
was present with Inspector Shore when he apprehended
the prisoner. After she was locked up at the station-
house he returned to her house, No. 1, London-road,
and found several foreign letters and envelopes ad-
dressed to Seyffert. That name was on the door of the
prisoner's house, and his wife lived there. Witness knew
Seyffert as a thief under the name of Brown. He was'
tried at the Surrey Sessions and sentenced to four years'
penal servitude, and was at present in one of the
prisons in Paris. Witness also found a passport issued
to him in the name of Brown in August last. Mr.
George Bolton, cashier at Messrs. Coutts and Co.'s
Bank, said that on the morning of the sth of February
he paid " Barnett's charge " to Mr. Tomlin, amounting
to £4,184 6s. Bd. There were four £l,OOO notes, num-
bered and dated consecutively. He identified the two
notes produced as a portion of them, and they corre-
sponded exactly with the entry in his book. Inspector
Fox, M. Division, said he was on duty in the Stones'-end
police station when the prisoner was brought in by
inspector Shore and Sergeant Moon. He did not take
the charge, but after it was entered and Inspector Shore
and Sergeant Moon were gone to search her house, she
said she wanted to speak to him. He told her she had
better not say anything to him, but wait until they re-
turned. He then said to her, "You have got into bad
hands, Mrs. Durrant." She answered. " I have, and it is
all through the villany of that drunkard, who sold
me because I woulthnot supply her. She did this for me.
I found the notes in the eoffee-room on Whit Tuesday,
and I ought to have taken them to the police station,
but she prevented me and told me to keep them as a
provision for old age." Mr. Partridge asked the witness
if he knew the woman or man she referred to? Witness
replied that he knew Seyffert and his wife. The former
was in a French prison, and the latter lived in
the prisoner's house. He knew them by the name
of Brown. In cross-examination by Mr. Wood-
ham, witness said he cautioned the prisoner
before she told him what he had stated. He did not
put it down in writing, but kept it in his memory, and
when Inspector Shore returned he told him of it. He
knew the prisoner as keeping the coffee-house in the Lon-
don-road for more than two years. Inspector Shore in-
formed his Worship that he found two leases in the pri-
soner's house relating to the coffee-house she lived in, and
to another coffee-house, 133, Waterloo-road, next to the
Victoria Theatre. Sergeant Moon, recalled, saidhe knew a
man under the name of Clifford, but whose real name was
Michael Parry. He was a well-known convicted thief. He
is in prison now in the Maison Centrale de Fontrevault,
Maine-et-Loire, France. He produced a letter from him,
and an envelope addressed to him in the prisoner's house
where his wife lived. In reply to Mr. Partridge, the
prisoner said, " I have nothing to say,, only I found the
notes in my coffee-room on Whit Tuesday last. The
money found in the house by the police was for the rent
of the two houses." Mr. Partridge committed her to
Newgate for trial at the next Central Criminal Court
Sessions for reciving the two £l,OOO notes well knowing
them to be stolen. •