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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1164, 24 June 1870, Page 3

Double FarrowedPloughs. — Amongst the improvements in agricultural machinery recently introduced into the colony may be mentioned double-furrowed ploughs. One of these (Pirie's patent, Aberdeen) has just been imported by Mr. Thomas Fleming, and is now at work upon his farm, South Tokomairiro. These ploughs are carried on large angular-rimmed wheels which, while they carry the weight, also resist the pressure exerted in lifting and turning the furrow. They have neither side nor sole plates, and are thus free from friction ; the cutting parts of the coulters and shares are constructed so as to make room for the rest of the plough, and only the mould board touches the soil. Thus the power required to work the plough is reduced at least one-third, while, as they guide themselves, themanuallabour required is similar to that of driving harrows. The saving theso ploughs effect to the agriculturist is very considerable, as one man and three horses can with case perform the work of two men and four horses with the single-furrow plough. The special plough referred to is fitted with cast steel skives, mould-boards, and shares, one of the skives being adjustable for furrows of from eight to seventeen inches wide. It has also right and left hand lifting levers for adjusting the depth of either furrow, and this can be done without stopping the horses. It is considered far superior to the ordinary plough for raising and loosening the soil, while the furrows arc square-cut, and completely pressed together, thus saving the use of the dresser. It has been used in all sorts of soil — lea, stubble, fallow, &c, — and has given entiro satisfaction. AClerical Swindler. — In the Ballarat Star we perceive the following notice : — " Many of the settlers in the Western district are being duped by a very reve-rend-looking person, whose get-up is firsfcclass ; buggy and pair, eheSnut and grey, smart-looking groom, &c. It seems that he is anxious to build a fallen church in New Zealand, known as Cliristchurch, and has met with great success up to this date, netting something over £200. On Friday last he di'ovo through this place, and waited upon Messrs. Adams, at Saint Enoch's station, had his horses stabled, and was makiug sure of his mark. Mr. John Adams was in the act of signing a cheque for the purpose of rc-building the church, when a messenger arrived with news which caused Mr. Adams to pause and survey the reverend gentleman before him, and made it known to him that it was going to be thunder, and, if ho did not want his assistance to the door, he had better mako tracks. The would-be old gentleman stated that he was not the impostor referred to, and that ho was the real builder of Christ Church. Ho was soon on the road. When last seen here, ho was making for Ballarat." " The Mystery of Edwin Drood," by | Charles Dio£ens ; No. 1 (Chapman and Hall).— All the world is eager to welcome Mr. Dickens back to the realms of serial fiction, and, so far as we can judge from the first number of his new work, public expectation is not likely to be disappointed. The story, indeed, is scarcely opened ; but the groundwork is laid by a series of elaborate delineations of the personages who are to take part in it, and of the scenery amid which they are to move. These pictures have evidently cost Mr. Dickens much pains, and display all his marvellous faculty for observing and recording minufco traits. The descriptions of the opium-smokers, and of the " Nun's House," alias seminary for young ladies, arc, perhaps, the most effective. The most racy and successful of the character-por-traits is that of Durdles, the dissipated stonemason — " chiefly in the gravestone, tomb, and monument way, and wholly of their colour from head to foot."