The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-03 00:00:00

The Great Fire in St. Katharine's Docks.

We are happy to state that this morning, owing
to the indefatigable exertions of the new Metropoli-
politan Brigade, under Captain Shaw, his four
chief officers, and the land and steam floating
engines by Messrs. Shand, Mason, and Co., with
the aid of Beck and Co.'s hydraulic, and the boun-
tiful supply of water on the land side furnished by
the East London Company, the fire may now be
said to be entirely got under. The, land steamers
have been " knocked off," and all the machines at
present required to be worked are the steam floats,
which are throwing four or five tons weight of
water per minute upon the still smouldering ruins,
and it is now expected that the fire will be entirely
extinguished by the end of a week or so.

THE CALCUTTA AND CHINA MAILS,

-4.-

SOUTHAMPTON, TUCOay,

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam
ship Ripon, Captain Rogers, with the above mails,
has arrived. She brings 97 passengers, and specie
valued at £l,lll, also 874 packages cargo, of which
354 are bales of raw silk valued at £30,000,

From St. Vincent to Ushant the Ripon expe-
rienced strong S.W. gales, with squalls of rain
and heavy sea ; up the Channel strong westerly
breezes and cloudy weather.

Her Majesty's ships Royal Oak, Victoria, Cale-
donia, Gibraltar, Meeanee, Resistance, Enterprise,
Firefly, Psyche, Pelican, Racer, Assurance, Hiber-
nia, Cockatrice, Caradoc, Cossack, and Arethusa
were at Malta.

GIBItALTAR, Dec. 28.

The steamer Borysthenes has been wrecked on
the coast of Algiers ; she litiuck upon a rock off
Capo Blanco, near Oran. Of 300 passengers on
board between 30 and 40 perished. Commandant
Juge of the Engineers, Captain Lafond of the 2d
Chasseurs, and seven of the crew are amongst those
lost. The whole of the cargo was lost, but the re-
mainder of the passengers and crew suceeeded in
reaching Plane Island, from whence they have been
conveyed to Oran.
The British brigantine Farmer's Lass, from
Swansea, lost foretopmast off Cape St. Vincent;
and the Princess Royal lost bulwarks, &c., off the
Island of Sicily.

Her Majesty's ships Racoon and Skylark are in
the harbour.

The following British ships have arrived here
since the 22d :—Brigantine Alfred, 12 days from
Swansea ; brigantine Georges, 26 days from Liver-
pool ; steamer Clio, 10 days from Hull ; steamer
Rosetta, 8 days from Cardiff ; brig Queenstown, 38
days from Ramsgate ; schooner Enigma, 14 days
from Plymouth ; and steamer Nyanza, 5f days
from Southampton.
Exchanges are quoted—London, 90 days' date,
49i ; Marseilles, 8 days, sf. 15c. to 16c. ; Madrid,
8 days, par to e prem.; Cadiz, 24 to 3 dis. ; Seville,
par ; Malaga, par ; Valencia, par to j dis. ; prem.
on sf. pieces, 1 per cent.

The Tallow Trade.

-

Subjoined is an extract from Messrs. Smith and
Charles's report of the progress of business in the
tallow trade during the past year :
" The past year having been in some respects an
exceptional one in the tallow trade, it may be use-
ful to review the circumstances which have resulted
in so large an advance and so many fluctuations in
the article. In the spring of the year the high price
of butchers' meat began to tell seriously upon the
home production of tallow, and induced many large
consumers to buy for futureperiods of delivery to the
end of the year. Importers, however, being willing
sellers,it was not until the failure of shipments of tallow
and lard from New York brought in a more purely
speculative class of buyers that prices began to ad-
vance to any extent. A little later the alarm pro-
duced by .the spread of the rinderpest aggravated
the movement, and when it subsequently turned
out that the Russian supply was shorter than the
estimates by 10 or 12,000 casks, a very rapid ad-
vance took place, the price going to 52s for last three
months and 55s for March . At and about those prices
very considerable sales were made by the earlier pur-
chasers, producing a reaction of 2s. to 3s. per cwt.
At from 51s. to 525. 6d. for March, purchases were
again made for the rise, but the home production
having increased and the supplies from Odessa and
the Sea of Azoff, proving somewhat larger than had
been at first counted upon, and they being very
freely offered on the market. Concurrently ship-
ments (though at present only of a very moderate
amount) having commenced again at New York, a
further decline was submitted to, the price going
back to 48s. on the spot and for January, and 495.
for March."