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Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 52, 29 August 1872, Page 3

In Ins recent work entitled " The Natural Laws of Husbandry," Baron Liebeg says :—" How little we suspected' that the manures, when placed in the soil (that is, the three important ingredients of plaut food, phosphate of lime, potash, and ammonia) are immediately and immovably fixed on the granules of soil and cannot be wa«hed from them, and that every particle that is coated wit'i this n:aaure, if not touched or sucked by a root fibre, is of no use to the plant ; so that in fact, as a general rule, 99 parts out of 100 are unavailed of by the plant in a single year, because it has only roots enough to touch one grcnule of soil out o: 100 or more. This is why a heavy dressing of rich shed-manure shows its effects for so many years, espec'ally on heavy land, whe. e the fibres have wore difficulty in spreading than ou light or friable soil, which is muc. move easily intermixed, and also much more accessible to t % .e fibres of plants. Iljuce the art of the agriculturists mainly in selecting such plants as will thrive best on his land, in adopting a proper system of rotation, and in using all the means at his command to make the nutritive elements in chemical (unavailable) combination available for plants. The achievements of practical agriculture iu these respects are wonderful, and they demonstrate that the triumphs of art far exceed those of science, and that the farmer, Isy aiding the agencies which improve the chemical and physical coodition v-f his land, can obtain much move abundant crops tli-va by supplying nutritive matters. Unfortunately (owing to the want of knowledge as to caiises) these successful results have only been obtained at the expense of millions of experiments, many of them costly and unsuccessful.

SOLOMON ISLANDS. The schooner Livina arrived in port on Saturday morning from the Solomon Islands. During her cruise among the group a terrible eatastrophy occurred to a number of her crew, instigated no doubt by the outrages that have been committed on the natives by vessels in search of labourers.

The following particulars of what may be termed a massacre are taken from the log of the Lavinia, and have been furnished to us by Captain Brodie : — On the 26th of April, we anchored in a small bight at the eastern end of the Florida Islands. We lished there for ten days very .successfully—the chief Domo rendering his assistance in keeping order among the natives on shore. It was by his advice that we shifted round to Moboli harbour, about four miles from where we then were. On Monday, the 6th of May, we arrived at Moboli, and got our houses up, ready for curing beche.de-mer. The natives at that place indicated treachery. Friday, loth —Everything looking very quiet on shore arid not many natives about; after we had our breakfast I told Louis Nixon and five of our natives to get into the whaleboat, as I was going away to look for another harbour ; before getting into the boat I particularly told the three men ou board the schooner to allow no natives on board.

Wo started with a fine breeze right aft. After we got away about four miles the wind began to freshen into a stifl' breeze, and I began to be afraid, if we went away any further, that the natives would not be able to pull buck, so I turned round and made for the schooner. When we got about six hundred yards from the vessel, we hoard a shriek, and looking towards the shore, we saw a native swimming oft" to the boat. "We pulled towards him, and, to our surprise, found him to be one of our own. men, and, fvoin what we could make out of him, and seeing no movements on board the schooner, we pulled alonjj shore. The Florida natives Avere yelling and brandishing their spears at us, and I surmised that there must be something wron«?. As we pulled up to the schooner, we all got ready for boarding, and on getting alongside we jumped up all together; seeing no unlives on duck we rushed to the hatches to see if they had got possession, but there was not a living soul on board, but we saw one of the most horvible sights imaginable. James Shearer was lying alongside the wiidlass with his head split open,, and several wounds in his side ; Charles Wolf was lying amidships with his head battered in, and his. brains scattered over the hatches; George Sellars was lying aft with his head very nearly severed from his body. I think from the appearance of the bodies that Sellars was the only one that had a struggle with the natives. Shortly after we got possession of the schooner, our own natives rushed out of the bush into the wafer, and I sent the boat and picked them all up. From shore we learned that the mate, Fsaucis Warnham an'l Edward Nichols had been murdered on shore along with three of our own natives. The Florida natives began to gather along the beach in largo numbers yelling, so we at once buried the bodies and got the schooner underway, for we did not consider it aafu to wait any longer than we could possibly help.— "Sydney Mail," Augusts.