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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 121, 5 June 1863, Page 3

The Home News says that a detachment of Royal Engineers are about to be sent to New Zealand, and that it is intended to employ some of the most intelligent of the noncommissioned officers and engineers in the Australasian Mint. A Sydney telegram in the Argus of the 13th ult., states that according to private advices from New Zealand, Governor Grey has sent a gentleman to England to ascertain precisely what the Government will or will or will not do ; and whether, if it will not give a definite decision, it will give him carte blanche. The Argus states, on the authority of a private letter received at Melbourne, that his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, will accompany Prince Alfred on his visit to the Antipodes. The statement derives additional probability from the fact that the Duke accompanied the Prince of Wales on his visit to the United States and Canada, and also from the confidence which Her Majesty is known to repose in his tact and prudence in matters especially requiring the exercise of such qualities. A telegram from Sydney in the Argus of the 11th states that a cupola battery for New Zealand is being constructed in Sydney. We presume this cupola is intended for the steamer to be placed on the Waikato River Maoris Buying Saltpetre and Marbles. —Caution to Storekeepers. —For some days past a number of Maoris, strangers to this province, and believed to come principally from the neighborhood of Picton, have been living in Nelson. During the past eight days these Maoris have been endeavoring so buy saltpetre from the storekeepers, and it is stated that an old soldier who has been living with the Maoris, has been employed to make similar purchases. They have also been purchasing marbles at

various stores ; and apparently to show the innocence of the purpose, one or two Maoris, boarded men, have been playing marbles with Nelson boys—a thing, we believe, quite new in the games of Nelson youth. When it is remembered that saltpetre is the principal ingredieut in gunpowder, and that the smooth stone marbles are as deadly as bullets, and much cheaper, it will be scarcely necessary to warn storekeepers against selling any of these articles to the natives. There is a prohibition in the Arms Act which renders the sale of saltpetre to the natives illegal, and we are informed that reference is made in a cautionary way to the danger of selling marbles to them. Some people, we are told, imagine that a marble would be useless as a bullet, but almost any one could see that this is an error. A case occurred in Scotland about a couple of years ago, where either a soldier or a volunteer in Dundee, while tiring his rifle in blank cartridge on some practising occasion, in one shot pnt a - parched pea into his piece. The diminutive missile bit a boy some forty yards’ distance, by which the skull was fractured, and the hoy died from the wound. If a parched pea is effective at a distance of forty yards, a smooth marble will undoubtedly be good at 200 or 300 yards.— Colonist, May 22.

Yolxjntee ns from the Middle Island. —The Otayo Times says:—lf war take place, and there is only too much reason to fear that it will, why should not Otago, foremost in most enterprising movements, set an example of generous loyalty and patriotism to the rest of the Middle Island by sending a band of bravo volunteers, whom, we trust, would form but a portion of the Middle Island contingent. At least one thousand men could be and ought to be raised in the Middle Island. If not required for service in the field they could relieve the regular force of garrison and other duty, which would place the whole body of military at the disposal of the General for field operations. At any rate, in whatever capacity their services might be required, a regiment of volunteers would materially strengthen the hands of the Governor. Let, then, Otago lead the van, and be the first to cast in the teeth of the calumniators of the New Zealand colonists the aspersion that they are unable or unwilling to defend themselves. How to Secure a Good Crop of Potatoes. —We invite those who are fond of experiments to plant a piece with a first-class late potatoe, such as the Fluke, for instance, and to proceed in this way. The ground is to be in good tilth from having been trenched and lain up round, and there is to be no manure used in preparing it for planting. Level it down, and plant it over with moderate sized whole sets, four feet apart Jevery way. Dig right and left between the sets, narrow trenches, and with the stuff from these cover the sets six inches deep, so that each forms a hillock. Now manure these trenches, and when the time comes appropriate them for cabbage and broccoli; and to keep down weeds hoe the sides of the hillocks in dry weather, and draw all the crumbs upwards towards the collar of tire plant. The depth of earth will prevent the haulm rising till all danger of spring frost is over, and then, as it extends, it may be allowed to hang down the sides of the hill as it places. As for the rest, nothing more need be said, except that on such an experimental piece there will probably be a far larger produce in the end ; for if the bulk of the potatoes is less, they will more than compensate for that in quality. The desire to snatch from the ground more than it is capable of giving has been one of the main causes of potatoe disease. — Gardener’s Weekly Chronicle. New Cure for Diphtheria. —A paper has been sent in to the French Academy of Sciences by Dr. Tridan, of Laval, containing a most important discovery; if it is really so efficacious as the author asserts :—“ In tbe midst of a severe epidemic,” be says, “ of diphtberite, which carried o!f from two to three hundred persons in the canton of Chaillant (Maycnnc), I was struck with the idea of employing some powerful modiflcator of the mucous membrane, of a nature to change its vitality, and I selected copahu and styrax. From the first day I used them, I have cured five cases of croup and forty of diphtheritic angina (sore throat), in the course of about five months and a-half. I have only lost a single patient. In most cases the improvement takes place within twenty-four hours ; the cure is usually effected within four or six days. I use copahu under the form of a syrup (Dr. Puche’s formula), or else in a solid state. I also use the syrup of styrax of the codes. For adults, I prescribe a table-spoon-ful of capahu syrup every two hours, alternating with the syrup of styrax, also taken every two hours. For children, I prescribe teaspoonfnls taken in the same manner. In serious cases, the patient takes five grammes of copahu under the form of an enema twice a day. Copahu is generally well borne by the patient so long as the disease is not conquered.”