The following letter has been addressed to ;he members of the Legislative Houses, Wel-

ington, by Mr Peter Dai.-yrnplo, of Appleby,

Invercargill: " Gentlemen, —I beg most respect fully to remind you of the importance of passing a liberal land law this session of Par-

j liament to induce good farmers from the Harae country to come and settle in this colony. We have here now railways, roads, tramways, bridge?, docks, and 20 other things that many old countries would be proud of, and we have the grandest colony nnder the British Crown,nearly aB large as England, Scotland, and Ireland, with a population of only a little over" half a million, and for the last two years they have been rather on the decrease; and we find that our rates, taxes, and interest is sadly too much for such a small population. Unless good farmers are induced to come and settle in our colony depend upon it that our high taxation on such a small population will bring the colony into poverty and disgrace. As an old colonist and an old man, I beg to remind onr members of Parliament that ' population is the first ele ment of wealth.'"

The Waipawa Mail says:—" We have been served with a writ at the instance of Rudolph yon Mirbach, claiming damages at £1000 for an alleged libel contained in the Waipawa Mail some 12 months ago. This may be quoted as an instance of the necessity for the introduction of a measure such as that at present before tbe House of Representatives."

With regard to the disastrous inundation in Northern Kwantung, by which 6000 lives were lost, the Hongkong Daily Press of June 17 says:—"lntelligence has been received from Kiaying Chau prefecture, in the north-east of Kwantung, that early on tho morning on June 2 the Chan Ping and Ping Yuen districts were flooded by the bursting of a waterspout or a tornado, described by the Chinese as a water dragon, aud the level country flooded with three cheons (nearly 36ft) of water. The villages of Chae Kon and Ha Ku-hui, in the Ping Yuen district, and Cheong Tan, Hop Lvi, Ngai Ku, Sam Chan Kiu, and San Fo-hui, in the Chang Ping district, were overflowed, many houses being wholly swept away, while others were inundated. 