Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 224, 20 September 1881, Page 1

• ■ • .:. ill .11 ._--. -i -,-/-l-^T-l!'-l!-K-!ggggPy' ■ ' , .; " ■ For those, who My fanning will not ; pay In &aland (says the Auckland .Star) the ., agricultural statistics of rtlie neighbouring colonies must be a ; mystery than a Chinese puzzle, year after .year Sautli i&ujs- ; tralia has had an enormqusrsjiirjjkis of wheat for export, and yet the average : yield ,p.ef acre ,'forj th e 1 . past! seven .: has, ; been about 8£ bushels, per jacrle.-i L This .year,: the average yield is .less than five bushels per acre and yet the colony has 3J3^4,000 bushels for exportation. The yield in New Zealand this year exc.eededi2s bushels perj acre, and the average for the last tseven. years has .been .26^ bushels. T Tie yield of oafs and otfier crops .has >■ f joe&i in proportion;. The; agricultural sjatibtics of five Australian colonies ■ brihg buf .the following ;fesults. . in New, Zealand /; the yield ' was equal to 25^ busHeis per acre jinNew South Wajqs, ;1^*687 bushels, to the acre; in Victorfej, 9*965^ ai;d' in Tasmania, . 15 ;bushe|s, ' New South Wales, Victoria, 'arid Queensland, are not yet self-supportmg in their production of breadstuffs. The deficiency in the former colony .hjas p,verpged. for 'the last seven year,s, 3,832,000 bushels; Victoria, 699i0Q0 bushels • and Queensland l,37o,0(j)0 bushels. '■ On ! the other hand Soujth Australia, calculating the home consumption .on the same ratio, has had a surplus for export of 7,512,GP0 bushels' a ' year, and New ■Zealand, 1,640,000 bushels. . The area sown in whesat in New Zealand this year wjas greater than in any former season, jit is certain, from these figures and- other well-establis'heii. facts, that the saiiibi-i---ous climate of New Zealand renders j it the most productive of the Australairikngroup. The' difference in its.fayorjis as more than two to one pompared" wi^th New South Wales , and Victoria, afad three to one as compared with South [ Australia. With such odds in th^ir 1 favor, the farmers ought not to siiy ,much about the unprofitableness jof> agricultural pursuits. i ' A singular drama occurred at St Efcien^i'e ; dv Eouvray, near Eouen, recently Arth|ur ;! Gand, 16 years of age ' resold jto' 1 commit suicide with his brother, ag*t thr^e, and his sister aged five, all three having bejen ' abandoned i. by their mother. They shut themselves up, and Arthur lighted a charcoal fire, from the fumes of which the youngest j died bef ore the door was broken into. The ' little girl is in a precarious condition. The j boy Arthur, who appeared very ''little the I worse for his adventures, was taken into.' custody. He appears to have borne a good . character sby information in the 'hands of the ' police. . r. ■ \l : . ' ' The electric light is said to be t now tisedjat : the New Tsbrk theatres- to produce/varipus new and startling effects,; It is applied to the incantation scene in; the "The Blajck Crook " at Niblo's, for instance, with curicjas results: It flames from the eyelesa sockets j of I the necromancer's skull' crackles alojng the dead branches on skeleton;. trees, amd floods the whole stage with unearthly ' brilliancy. In the duel scene electric wjhre run through the handles of the swords: 'of; tjhe CoinDatantß^-aifnl awhf*n the blades naeetj a i iasbSon, j