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Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 474, 8 November 1879, Page 3

The promised legislation for the promotion of settlement on the waste lands of the Colony is (says the New Zealander) already exciting much attention in various parts of the Colony, and several applications have been made, or about being made, by intending promoters of special settlements and small farm associations. The prospectus of the Wellington Small Farm Association is already before the public, and has been favorably received. The promoters propose to obtain a grant of land on the Waimate Plains or elsewhere, and cut it up into sections ranging in value from LIOO to L4OO, which applicants will obtain on deferred payments. An American paper says :—Great Britain on the stocks two steel-clad ships of war; which are the costliest ever built; the estimate for building each, without armament, being 6,000,000d01., about one-third the entire sura yearly appropriated for the American Navy. Each vessel will mount four guns, measure 8,100 ton, and run 16 miles an hour. ’ They are to be plated with 16 inches of steel, but their lines had scarcely been laid down before a conical Whitworth bolt of chilled steel had been sent through a steel-plate 24 inches thick ; and by the time these steel-dads are built, the money they have' cost will prove to have been thrown away. The only consolation for the American navy is that w’e don’t throw away as mneh money as the English on naval nonsense, although we squander too much.: The Bank of England was incorporated in 1649. It covers five acres, and employs 900 clerks. There are no windows on the street. Light is admitted through open courts, therefore no mob could take the bank without cannon to batter the Walls. The clock is in the centre of the bank, and has fifty dials attached to it. Large cisterns are sunk in the court, and engines in per-* feet working order are always in readiness in case of fire. .

From the Napier Telegraph wo extract the following : —The last poverty Bay Standard to hand, we regret to observe) . Ijjra an article, entitled “ Ourselves," in which the proprietor calls attention to an advertisement inviting a meeting of his creditors. The article states tjmt the proprietor, who is Mr H. E. Webb, well known .ip. Napier, is reluctantly compelled to lake 'advantage of the Bankrupt Act, owing in a great measure to the remissness of subcribers in the matter of their payments. The publication of the Poverty Bay Standard involves a cash outlay every week of about £35, and it stands to reason that, if this amount of money cannot be regularly collected, a financial crisis is only a question of time. Though differing in politics from the Standard , and having had many an editorial encounter with our Poverty Bay contemporary, we can recognise the ability with which it has been conducted. The article to which we have referred assures its readers that the publication of the paper will not be stopped. Dr. Charles M. Cresson, of Philadelphia, has invented a megascope, or instrument for detecting forgeries. The genuine and spurious signatures are put in the instrumerit, and the two are thrown on a srreon before the jury, and the story is told at once. The peculiar arrangement of the light and screen enables the examiner to discover the surface of the paper through the ink, so that the patching or shading or painting of letters becomes evident the instant it is brought under the focus of the megascope. * “ Sending coals to Newcastle ” would surprise most people ; but what will be said of sending tea from London to China? Yet in an issue of the London Times a few months back, we find the following curious intelligence:—“ Messrs Sillar and Co. remark that within the past few weeks between 40,0001bs and 60,0001b of tea have bee shipped from London to China. Upon the principle of buying in the cheapest market, and selling in the dearest, the transaction ought to leave a profit. The teas are entered for Hongkong, but it is supposed iShangai will be their destination, and it is not impossible that they' may make their appearance again in the market ns new season’s tea.” Two Californian sharps Were playing a game of cards. “It is very singular,” ob* served one, “ that I haven’t seen a king y'et.” “Not at all,” replied the other ; 1 you have one in your sleeve, and I have the other three in my boot.” Holloway's Pills. —Tins purifying and regulating medicine should occasionally be had recourse to during foggy, cold, and wet weather. It is the best preventative of hoarseness, sore throat, diphtheria, pleurisy', asthma, and a sure remedy' for congestion, bronchitis, and inflammation. Attention to the directions folded round each box will enable invalids to take the Pills in the most advantageous manner ; they' will he taught the proper doses, and the circumstances under which these must be increased or diminished. Holloway’s Pills act as alteratives, aperients, and tonics. When taken as a last resource, the result has always been gratifying ; even when they fail to cure, they always assuage the severity'of the symptoms and diminish ihe danger.