THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
345

Fixing Sittings of District Court, Otago Gold Fields.

G. A. ARNEY,
Officer Administering the Government.

IN pursuance and exercise of the power and
authority in this behalf enabling me, I, Sir
George Alfred Arney, the Officer Administering the
Government of the Colony of New Zealand, do
hereby fix and appoint that sittings of the District
Court of the Otago Gold Fields, during the months
of July and August next, shall be held as follows:-

In the Resident Magistrate's Court at Naseby
on the second Wednesday in July next.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court at Clyde on
the Monday next after the second Wednesday
in July next.

In the Resident Magistrate's Court at Queens-
town on the Monday second after the second
Wednesday in July next,

In the Resident Magistrate's Court at Lawrence
on the second Tuesday in August next.

Provided that in case any of the days so fixed as
aforesaid shall happen to be a holiday, then the
Court appointed for that day shall be holden on the
first day thereafter, not being a holiday.

Issued this twenty-first day of May, one
thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.

G. MAURICE O'RORKE,
(in the absence of the Minister of Justice).

Despatch from the Secretary of State respecting the
Vine Scourge in France and Portugal.

Colonial Secretary's Office,
Wellington, 27th May, 1873.

THE following Despatch, with enclosures, from the
Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, is published for general information.

DONALD MCLEAN,
(in the absence of the Colonial Secretary).

CIRCULAR.

Downing Street, 1st January, 1873.

SIR, I transmit to you, for your information and for
publication within the Colony under your govern-
ment, printed copies of papers respecting the new
scourge which has recently attacked the vines in
France and in Portugal, and which threatens to be as
destructive in its effect as the disease which for some
years destroyed viniculture in Madeira.

I have, &c.,
KIMBERLEY.

The Officer Administering
the Government of New Zealand,

No. 1.
Sir C. Murray to Earl Granville.---(Received
22nd June.)

Cintra, 12th June, 1872.

MY LORD, I know not whether your Lordship's
attention has been called, either by the Embassy at
Paris, or by any of the British Consuls in France, to
a new scourge that has recently attacked the vines
in that country as well as in Portugal, and which
threatens to be as desolating in its effect as the
disease called Oidium, which for some years destroyed
viniculture in Madeira, and has inflicted serious
damages on it both in France and Portugal, notwith-
standing the partial remedy that has been discovered
and adopted in the free use of sulphur. The insect
which has lately been making such ravages in the

vineyards, and to which has been given the name of
Phylloxera vastatrix, seems, according to the report
of those who have examined it carefully, to be of the
same species as the "aphis," long known in horticul-
tural and vinicultural science as an insect most de-
structive to plants and vegetables, and it has received
the vulgar names of "puceron" in France, and
"plant louse," or "vine fretter," in England; but the
Phylloxera, whose ravages are now causing so much
damage and apprehension, appears to be not only
particularly destructive, but also very difficult of ex-
tirpation. A printed paper, from which I gather
some of the observations which I am now offering to
your Lordship, states (I know not whether correctly
or not) that the French Government has offered, and
hitherto without success, a reward of 20,000 francs to
any one who can discover an effectual remedy for the
ravages produced by this insect. According to the
statement of the paper above referred to, the injury
inflicted by this scourge on some of the vineyards in
the Douro district has been terrible; and one vine-
yard is specified, the average produce of which had
been seventy pipes of wine, and which last year only
produced one; and a certain Senhor Avelino, who
was sent into that district to examine and report upon
its condition, estimates the total loss on last year's
vintage there at 500 pipes.

The Portuguese Government has named a Com-
mission, under the presidency of the Director-
General of Commerce and Industry, to examine into
the progress of this dangerous evil, and to gather
from all quarters (whether scientific or practical)
suggestions for the best mode of extirpating it. One
French vine-proprietor reports that he has tried with
some success the expedient of digging a hole round
the stem of the vine, which he half-fills with chimney
soot and then covers over with earth. If this should
ultimately prove an effectual antidote to the malady,
it is much to be regretted that the vine-growers of
London, where it could be cheaply and abundantly
supplied; but if the description given of the Phyl-
loxera be scientifically correct, and it is a species of
aphis, it must probably, like most species of that
order, be furnished with wings, in which case it would
not seem likely that any substance placed around the
roots could afford protection against its ravages.

Considering what a large proportion of the exports
of Portugal and the south of France depends upon
the fruit of the vine, I have thought it my duty to
bring the subject under your Lordship's notice, in
order that you may, if you think proper, desire
further information concerning it to be supplied to
you from other quarters.

I have, &c.,
CH. A. MURRAY.

No. 2.
Viscount Enfield to Lord Lyons.
Foreign Office, 25th June, 1872.

SIR, I am directed by Earl Granville to transmit to
you, for your information, a copy of a Despatch from
Her Majesty's Minister at Lisbon, relative to the ap-
pearance of a disease among the vines of France and
Portugal.

I am, &c.,
ENFIELD.

No. 3.
Sir C. Murray to Earl Granville.---(Received 15th
July.)

MY LORD, A few days after sending to your Lord-
ship my Despatch of the 12th ultimo, on the subject
of the ravages reported to have been committed in
the vine districts by the Phylloxera vastatrix, I ad-