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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 94, 7 April 1876, Page 4

— — ' ■ " ii.*. The Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times in a recent letter says: — " Diptheria has been very fatal ta some families here, In one case three fine little girls were carried off in ten days — the last two the day after each other. The. season altogether has been unusually sickly, and among adults there has been bronchial inflammation — fatal in some cases and painful in all. The Moniteur of New Caledonia contains a rather glowing acccount of the nickel mines now. being worked in. that colony.- A : visitor to tbe mine at Canala, speaks of "an immense mountain, one vast mass of nickel ore, pierced with galleries, and busy with work-people," and having a tramway to carry the mineral to the sea shore. A considerable number of miners and artisans appear to be employed, and the prospects of profitable results are suoh that nickel is referred to as the | "saviour of'N'ew Caledonia." A well known farmer in the Brechin i district offered to. pay the expense of a picnic to 30 farmers, provided one of tbem would bring to him in the market, on a certain Tuesday, one grain of oats, doubling the number of grains every Tuesday for twelve months. Tbe offer was taken by one farmer, and an Ar- i broath manufacturer offered to carry the whole on his back at the end of the year, A. calculation was thereafter made and resulted as follow: — The grain of oats would it was found amount at the end of the twelve months to 1 ,034,834,408 quarters two bushels, and the value at 30a per quarter was found to amount to £1,552,261,702, 7s 6J. Of course the picnic was not paid, but the Arbroath manufacturer stood a round of champagne.