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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 148, 26 June 1869, Page 2

The New Zealand Herald states that Auckland will soon be in the possession of the largest and most complete floating dock in the colonies. The length of the dock inside will be 330 feet, with a beam inside of 60 feet, and the width pf the gate entrance 42 feet. It will be immensely strong, and will be sufficiently massive to sustain the heaviest vessel of any size thafc can enter. The timber used will be kauri entirely, and the dock will be coppered and copper fastened throughout. The dock is to be fitted with steam working centrifugal pumping gear of sufficient power to clear her in two hours and a balf; she will be capable of taking a vessel drawing 18 feet of water at spring tides, aud 15 feet at any tide. The dock will be moored in Drunken Bay, which is about seven or eight miles from the Queen-street Wharf, Auckland, in an , easterly direction, and lies in the bight , between Rangitoto and Motutapu. The Southland News says: — "Hall & : Sons' fine sporting gunpowder" is . advertised in the Hobartown papers at • ls. 6d. per lb. in any quantity. As the price in this colony ranges from 4s. 6d. to ss. 6d., it is pretty evident that tha merchants in Tasmania are doing a losing trade, or -"

The Albury Banner, from a large number of returns it has obtained, estimates that the average yield from tha larger vineyards of the district is "about 280 gallons to the acre — a very satisfactory figure as compared with the returns from vineyards in the Melbourne and Geelong districts for the late exceptional season of drought."