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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 161, 27 July 1889, Page 3

The Sydney Morning Herald gives the following as (.he result of recent; Australian loans : — Victoria 4- per cent., average prioo, £108 13s lOd ; net interest per annum, £3 12a 4d per cent. ; New South Wales %\ per cent. (1888), £103 12s 2d ; interest, £3 7s 7d; Victoria 3£ per oent., £103 (sd, and £3 7a 4d ; South Australia 3£ per cent., £100 2b lid, and £3 10s 6£i ; Tasmania 3£ per cent., £98 5a Bd, and £3 12a 5d ; New South Wales '6\ per cent., £102 Bb, and £3 8s 6d. The iVis/» York World states that an object of great curiosity in Bridgeport, Conn., is a rabbit which Professor George Poe, a relation of the late Edgar Allan Foe, has drowned 11 | times and then brought back to life. The professor has invented an artificial pair of lungs which he uses to restore life by drowning or asphyxiating, To demonstrate its usefulness he submerges his rabbit in water in the presence of witnesses, and holds it there for 10 minutes. The rabbit has alßo been smothered with the fames of burning charcoal until all eigng of life have been extinct. A mirror held at the mouth and nose showed no vapour, neither was there any heart action. Professor Poa then attached his patent bellows, covering over the month, and forced oxygen into the lungs. The returning suction of the pumpß draw out the deadly gases, and thus an artificial respiration produced a muscular expansion and contraction of the lungs of the subjeot until life was restored. Professor Poe claims that he can drown and restore human beings as well as rabbits. He will not divulge secret of compounding or the quantities of gases used. He thinks his artificial lungs will become generally adopted by fire departments and hospitals throughout the country. , Tbe Ohristohurch Press speaking oi a recantly invented machine for destroying insect pests soys : — A Home paper calls it the mechanicd murderer." It is an invention of Mr Straweot, of Berkshire, and ia officially known as " The Strawaoniser." Its essential features are n tank whioh oontains the kerosene, powdered lime, or other insecticide to be need, and a fan, whioh is driven at a great speed by the revolutions of tbe wheels of tbe maohine, scatters it over tbe plants or land th be ooverf d. Thus kerosene falls in a fine spray, and powdered lime ia emitted in a white cloud- like smoke, covering everything over which they pass with a fine film or coat, sufficient to destroy the dreaded fly. A horse travelling quickly with one of these machine* can travel over a tec acre field in aA hour, so that rapidity* which is so essential when a crop is at* tacked, is secured. The smallness of tbe quantity of material uaed is surprising, a piutipf keros-eue being sufficiont to cover an acre, and yet so effectively distributed is if that a single leaf cannot be picked up without the email of the liquid being detected, The French Minister of Agriculture, it is eftid is sanguine that this maohine will oust thf dreaded phylloxera from the vineyards oi France. One is tempted to ask where the application of machinery to agriculture— whioh was once looked upon as being almosl outside its domain— will end ? I i ■■■■■■■.. ■ ruing. ■ — ■— ■■

EJThe StraAß Industry in Queensland. — A Royal Commission spent a week in. the Mackay district, visiting a large number of I the plantations and examining- into the .' circumstances of the farmers, as well as inspecting and inquiring into the numberless details of the working of the mills. It is very certain that here the bulk of the testimony given will have tended to show that though the depression of the industry may have been chiefly due to the abnormally unfavourable, seasons experienced for the past three years, combined with a heavy fall in the price of Bugar, brought about by the competition of the beet industry, yet the difficulties surrounding the labour question have very materially increased^ the disabilities wMoh the Mackay sugar grower has been called on to cope with. The planters allege that it is impossible to ±.j ■•»fltn,bly produce sugar in Queensland with white labosr alone. The progress of the famine in China shows how miserably inefficient the Government of Pekiu is when compared witu that of Caloutt:*., Twelve years ago a famine in China swept off from 10 to 20 millions of rhe people, and the present) famine gives promise of being equally disastrous. Twelve years a-40 there was also a bad famiuo in India, and the Government was not prepared to deal with it ; but the loss, although great, waa far below the Chinese loss. From the ezperienoe gained in India and the preoautions taken, it is considered to be almost impossible that there can ever be a disaster so great as that whioh has already been enoountered. The difference between now and then lies ohiefly in the development of the railways. I