The hope of its managers lies in French annexation, when there will be a supply of labor and an immediate and profitable return in the sale of the lands at the principal ports to the Govern ment. The company professes to have bought every piece of land of value for business or strategetio purposes in the chief harbors in. the group. But. those who know, say that the landed possessions of the company ; are much exaggerated. Some gentlemen,. who which to see the British flag restored to its former position in the group, propose forming a syndicate, and starting trade in copra and plantations in the most. fertile islands. They will deal with the natives in a bona-fide manner, aud os, according to the letters of our late special correspondent, there is a profitable trade to be done in oopra, and planting, properly managed, ■ will pay, an Australian syndicate will no doubt meet with success. This syndicate will have its offices iu Melbourne and Noumea,

As topical of the inventive age in which we j live, and as marking the vast advance over the methods of only a generation pa*t, the En gineering News notea the successful com pletion of a book perfecting printing machine, the invention of H. P. Keister, mechanical engineer, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This truly wonderful machine is nearly as large as a passenger locomotive, weighs almost as much, and cost -0,000 dollars to build. It cuts from an endless roll of paper sheets of the size required for the work in hand, prints one side, transfers it to a second cylinder and prints the other side ; prints the cover in from one to four colors ; fastens the sheets together folded, bound, covered, and trimmed ; and finally counts the books, a boll ringing when 5000 are finished. All this is done automatically, human hands being only require 1 to start the web of paper into the machine. It will turn out a complete 3’2-page almanac at the rate of 100 per minute ; this requires the cutting off of 48,000 sheets of paper, and 88,000 type impressions per hour, not including in the count the cover. 