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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 94, 7 April 1876, Page 2

The Superintendent of Westland re- ! ceived a telegram from the General Government the. other day, stating that three Italians had been despatched by ; the steamer Taranaki, for the Jackson's Bay settlement, with a view of reporting on the settlement, and that in the event of their approving of it, a number of jtheir countrymen would be induced to follow. It may perhaps be interesting to some of our old identities, who have known . Wellington from its infancy, when an acre of land onLarnbton Quay wss worth about £5, to learn that the ground oc- '■ cupied by the Empire Hotel was sold yesterday at the rate of £28,146 9s 2jA per acre.--- Argus. The Van . Yoan reservoir, which supplies Melbourne with water, is, it seems, a favorite abode of leeches. These interesting creatures frequently find their way among . the mains, and pop out unexpectedly when the tap is turned. The cost of the narrow- _tauge railways in California .is about £3,000 per mile, and the local engineers evidently know a good deal more about cheap bridge building than we do iv this part of the world. Mr Angus Mackay, the Queensland Commissioner at the Philadelphia Exhibition, and who has been devoting a good deal of attention to the public works in tho State of California, has furnished his Government with particulars of a bridge 780 feet long, built of timber, in threo spans, pu the truss principle, which only cost £3,700. Why (asks the Grey Argus) should not Cobden and Groymouih be connected, if a bridge can be built at as cheap a rale as tbis ?