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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 35, 9 February 1878, Page 2

We learn from the New Zealand Herald that Mr James Wallace, of Papatoitoi, has reaped 42 bushels of wheat to the acre, the grain being as full and clean a sample as ever came into the market. With such an average per acre as this, worth 6s per bushel, it ought to pay our farmers to grow it on an extensive scale. The following paragraph is from the Wellington Argus of Thursday last :— lt will be remembered that some time ago we drew attention to the departure of a prospecting party en route for the Wakamarina, iv which locality, somewhere, a rich find of auriferous quartz was reported. We have now the satisfaction of announcing that the chief party interested amoug those who left has returned, and reports very favorably of the locality he went, with the others, to explore. There are undoubted signs of auriferous country so far, with an abundant supply of water in the vicinity, which is a condition by no means to be despised under the circumstances. Prospects of the most satisfactory character have been reported, and our reporter has been shown the reputed result of explorations, which, if genuine, gires hope of good results. We make the latter stipulation because we happen to have some considerable knowledge of such subjects, and until we hare an opportunity of absolute verifiaetion, we shall reserve decided judgment. However, so far the reports that have reached us are satisfactory, and we hope they may find ample confirmation. Melbourne wits find food for fun even in the serious crisis from which the colony is suffering. "Punch" thus describes the Berry « Extraordinary,"— " Chief Secretary of Victoria— Graham Berry. As our political head— an Elder-Berry. In character at heart— a Black-Berry. To the eyes of civil servants— a Rasp-Berry. In the estimation of the Press of the colony ~a Straw-Berry. By the impartial public is thought a GooseBerry. By his idiotic action of retrenchment is now become a Mul-Berry." The following narrow escape is narrated in the Thames Adoertiser :— " Yesterday afternoon a little boy of two years, named James Gavretty, was amusing himself in Mr Gordon's garden, situate in Block 27, through which the water race runs. In his frolic the infant climbed up one of the banks and tumbled into the water. A strong current was running at the time, and the child floated down through one of the tunnels, a distance of about 150 yards, before he was rescued. The little fellow was black in the face when placed iv his mother's arms. Mrs Garretty ran into the nearest house with her baby, when the usual remedies were resorted to uutil By Payne, who had been sent for, arrived, and he still further relieved the little i sufferer. Upon inquiry later iv the afternoon it was ascertained that the child was almost well again." The Eiji correspondent of the Melbourne Argus narrates the hanging, at Samoa, by a Vigilance Committee, of Charles Cochrane, for the murder of an American named Fox, as recently described in our columns. The correspondent then proceeds :— " This affair, carried out chiefly by Englishmen, among whom two named Pritchard and Hunt were conspicuous, the trouble into which the British Consul has got himself, and the state of affairs generally in the Navigator Group, shows how urgent is the necessity for the establishment for a more powerful authority over British subjects settling or resident in these islands than at present exists there. The native Government of Samoa has no existence, nor can it be expected. Upon the arrival of Sir Arthur Gordon iv the Pacific, it was understood that he was to hold the appointment of H.M. High Commissioner of the Pacific, with jurisdiction similar to that conferred upon consuls in the Ottoman Empire, China, and Japan, but up to this date his commission has not arrived. The scenes that disgrace Samoa have gone far beyond Eiji iv its very worst days, and appear to have reached the climax in a party of British subjects taking an American citizen out of the custody of the American Consul, and hanging him on the spot." The old Melbourne residents, Messrs Spiers and Pond, have opened a magnificent new hotel on the Holburn Viaduct, alongside the terminus of the London, Chatham, and Dover 1{ 'Iway. It is a most luxurious establishment a:-?, the universal acknowledgement iv the r ss is that it is unsurpassed in Loudoii,