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Patea Mail, 22 January 1881, Page 3

One Nangle, at Armagh, Ireland, has been sentenced to 20 years for shooting at a landlord. A special telegram to the Lyttelton Times says ;—Mr Vesey Stewart has been appointed Resident Director in New Zealand for the New Zealand Corporation, which has taken over his interest in the Te Puke Special Settlement. The Company is reported to have raised £65,000, which is to be expended in improving and cultivating such land that has not been allotted to settlers. After unoccupied land has been improved it will be open for free selection by new settlers, who will have the opportunity of inspecting and and examining the various blocks previous to purchase. Mr James Brake, of Tai Tapu, has a sample of skinless oats grown from seed obtained from New South Wales. The grains arc well developed, though apparent somewhat smaller than the common oats. It has to be taken into consideration that some allowance must be made for the absence of the skin, which adds considerably to the apparent size of other varieties. Ihe skinless oats fakes very kindly to the climate and soil of Canterbury, and will become a favoiite with our farmers. A farmer at Tai Tapu, Canterbury whose wheat crops averaged fifty*’ bushels to the acre, used over 41bs of imported twine, at a cost to him of Is 3d per lb. The same amount of work can be done by localty-made twines, which can be supplied at 8d per lb, and still leave a satisfactory profit for both the owner and the manufacturer. At a recent meeting of the British Baloon Society, the president read from a member of the Society who had made one of his ascents in a thunderstorm, and found the atmosphere at an altitude of 200 feet and for a 100 feet to be of a dull leaden hue, but as soon as he had risen above this stratum he found the sky quite unclouded, and witnessed perfectly clearly the storm raging below in all its grandeur. A madman was picked up by a Canadian vessel when some forty miles off the Magdalen Isles. He was in a small boat half full of water, had no oars, but was paddling with a piece of board. He had been four days and three nights afloat, and had travelled 200 miles.