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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 232, 15 August 1873, Page 3

. The increase of rabbits oh' the Gralloway Station- is so "great that the proprietors,. Messrs CanrpbelT and Low, are compelled to take active measure to put a stop to the nuisance. A few days since, a strong party from the station went out for a day's sport, and succeeding in bagging & ":£ery respectable quantity, a number of wlndfl Mr. Low kindly distributed the district; about a dozen were sent $o the Hospital, and we have no doubt -they were a grateful treat to the inmates.- A Northern paper in speaking of the pest, says,—" Some idea of the damagg to Station propertv rabbits will commit, may be gathered ironi the fact that on one Run at Kaikoras, last year 50,009 rabbits were destroyed, and their skins, exported to England. As five will eat and destroy as much grass as wilt maintain one sheep,, there was a Ipsa, oa that*' Station of the feed capable of keeping 10,000 sheep. The skins of the rah* bits are of sufficient value to pay for the cost of obtaining them.—' Dunstan Times.'

The Derby was run w under very favorable circumstances, the rain of the previous day having laid the' dust, and the day of the great festival itself proving clear, if not Tery sunny. The Favorite had been Gang Forward, after which came Kaiser, and Hochstapler, a German .horse, the betting being not much more than 2 to 1 against the Favorite, and but little more, than 4 to 1 against the German candidate for the Derby, stakes. Montargjs, "a French horse, was also well thought of, but the odds against him were 15 to 1. However, a " dark" horse, Doncaster, belonging to Mr. Merry; who won the Derby in 1860, —a horse so little regarded that the odds against him were 40 to 1, — carried the day, aud a poor man who at the last moment staked ss. on the horse was seen carrying away an order for £B. The two favorites came in second, neck and neck, while the German horse was nowhere, his French rival beating him by a considerable distance. A Derby with so few competitors—there were just a dozen —has not been run for a great many years ; but if the competing horses were fewer, the spectators were more numerous than ever. Clearly the interest docs not vary with the elements of the race, but is a constant quantity so far as the racing attractions are concerned,- varying only with the Londoner's need for a holiday, and his means of enjoying it.

We notice that, as we conjectured, the " Mining on .Private Property Bill," introduced into the Assembly, is fathered by a private member. The following notice of it Appears in the 'Guardian's'- Wellington correspandence :—Mr Bradshaw's Mining on Private; Property Bill; is also on for to day. It has at all events the merits of extreme brevity and simplicity, and will meet with a considerable amount of support, It simply provides that when Government are persuaded that any private lauds are auriferous, they caii be taken- possession of by the Crown for mining purposes, - on paying compensation for the value of the laud to bVdeterrnihed by a-tri-tration, and a small royalty on all gold taken from the said land."' Of course, in committed there will be found that an infinite amount dP provisions to the Bill will • be* that if it ever passes through that ordeal* its fair proportions will have visibly increased, litis high time, however, that something, km. done in that direction.