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Southland Times, Issue 1568, 23 April 1872, Page 2

The San Francisco mail was due at Auckland yesterday. Good and palatable wine is being made from the grape by Mr Feraud, of the Dunstan. Mr H. M'Dermid has been duly elected to represent Port Chalmers in the Provincial Council. Nearly 10,000 packages of New Zealand butter were disposed of at one sale in London, at prices ranging from 45a to 49s per cwt. We understand that the New Zealand Meat Preserving Company has obtained a contract to supply the Admiralty with lOO.OOOIba of mutton at 6JJ per lb. It is said that Colonel Harrington's conduct gave great dissatisfaction to the representative Volunteers at the recent shooting matches in Christchurch. The Congreeationalist, a new magazine published in London, reports the acceptance of a call from Dunedin by the Rev. D. Johnston, of Or laflgOW. From the Melbourne Herald we learn that station property is decidedly looking up in Riverina; Sheep-runs are now quoted at an increased value of fifty per cent, over the prices they woald have brought last year. The Oamaru Times says : — The starlings imported into this district some two years ago appear to have multiplied very rapidly. A gentleman informed us on the 11th inst. that he had seen a day or two before a flock of four or five hundred near Totara station. A correspondent writes to U3 to express his regret that Professor Hazjlmeyer, the renowned conjurer, is not likely to pay Invercargill a visit. The writer says that the Professor has been so highly spoken of by the Canterbury papers, that he feels sure a visit to the district would prove profitable." A correspondent of a Newcastle journal fays that in most of the large towns in the North of England, the grocers are selling Australian beef and mutton in half-pounds, so as to suit the humbler classes, who cannot afford to purchase whole tins. The consumption is said to be increasing so rapidly, that there is great difficulty in keeping up the supply. An American paper, in speaking of the state of their navy, says that it is a collection of maritime curiosities, the ships more resembling those of the middle ages than anything else, and that the entire na\y at home and abroad consists of about 50 vessels, 8,000 men, and 570 guns, and goes on to say, " John Bull has avoided numerous wars by the judicious expenditure of 50,000,000d01. yearly, and without increase of taxation has, within eight years, built up a navy that is a match for any two European powers combined. England has spent 180,000,000d01. less than we have, and haa built up the strongest navy in tho