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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3051, 6 April 1881, Page 2

Mr H. Hill, Inspector of Schools, has been engaged for some days past in a tour of inspection at tbe southern end of the district. He is expected back in town at the end of the week. Mr Cottcn wishes us to state that, in the matter of the conveyance of the Port school children, he has been forced to take tbe credit of an act of generosity whether he would or not; firstly through an oversight of Mr Gillies', and secondly through a line having been left out of his published letter. A cricket match between the Petane and Port Ahuriri clubs will be played at Petane on Saturday next. The following will represent Petane:—A Hamilton, Hill, R. Brathwaite, F. Newton, R. Sim, C. Villers, J. Dinwiddie, Mullany, P. Dinwiddie, Davis, H. Brathwaite, Ticehurst, and T. Villers. A farewell supper was given to Mr J. G. Becker last night at the Criterion Hotel, at which a good many of that popular host's friends sat down. Mr Swan occupied the chair, and proposed the toast of the evening, which was drunk with enihusiasra. Toasts and songs enlivened the proceedings till past midnight, when the party broke up, wishing health and prosperity to their guest, who left this morning to take possession of the Taupo Hotel, of which he has become the proprietor.

The Rev. W. C. Oliver leaves for Auckland by the Arawata on Saturdny next, and the same vessel brings the Rev. Mr Bunn to take charge of Trinity Church. A bazaar in aid of the church funds was opened in St. John's school-room this afternooon at 3 o'clock, and is to continue open to-morrow and Friday. There ia to be vooal and instrumental music each evening. The challenge issued by Mr F. L* B. Clemmonts to run any Hawke's Bay pedestrian 100, 200, and 300 yards, for the sum of £20, has been taken up by Mr W. Poole, and a sum of £5 deposited at the Empire Hotel. The Corporation has been reluctantly compelled to take out warrants in execution of judgments against defaulting ratepayers, one of whom had his furniture seized yesterday in satisfaction of his debt to the borough. The effect this summary proceeding had upon the neighbors was that tho.se indebted to the Corporation paid up without a word. In some extreme cases the Town Clerk has been instructed to enter upon the land, and to sell it by auction according to law. Messrs Allan and Boyle, the Ruahine prospectors, have reported to the Association formed fir the purpose of carrying out this prospect the failure of their second expedition. It appears that they reached a place twelve miles below their former camping ground on the Porangini river, and there " rained the color of gold several times in panning off" This appears to have been the only result of their expedition up to the present time. They express an intention of renewing their search at some future period. Mr Gill, the Under-Secretary for Native Affairs, arrived at Napier last night, overland from Wellington, and proceeded to Taupo this morning to attend the Native Land Couit. In travelling up to Napier Mr Gill was very nearly losing his portmanteau containing all his State papers. This box was labelled " Miss Gill,' and some ladies geiting out of the train at Farndon claimed it and too& it away. The loss was not discovered till arrival in town, and then there was a certain personage to be paid and no pitch hot. The engine was run back to Farndon to bring back the property, and in the course of the night Mr Gill's anxiety was relieved by the repossession of his box and papers. A meeting of the Taradale River Board was held yesterday in the Taradale Hotel. All the members of the Board were present. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed. It was decided to give the ratepayers who had not settled their rates on the day appointed till the end of the present month, when all rates owing after that date would be sued for at once. A lengthened discussion took nlace with regard to settling the account for the plan of conserved lands and southern boundaries of the district ; it was held that, as the Board had already paid a large sum for a plan that could not pass the Land Transfer Act, they would not again lay out money on a plan of the same part until completed and in the hands of the Board; the secretary was instructed to write to Wellington and ascercertain why it had nob been forwarded to to the Board. Mr Rymer reported having obtained the gift of a couple of white pine trees from Mr Sutton for experimenting with as booms on the bed of the river, and when an opportunity offered he would go over and get them and place on the river bank ready for use. Accounts to the amount of £11 4s 6d were passed for payment, and the Board adjourned. " Mr Gillies" (of Ormond)," writes a correspondent of the Poverty Bay Standard, " has just imported a grand lot of fruit treets from New South Wales, where he has had much to do with the orchard and garden. What surprised me most was the peculiar peas which were supported by no artificial means, and grew to the height of four feet, the stem of which from half an inch to two inches in circumference. They branched out at every ring, and from these branches hang the peas, but the best of it all is when you take off the crop, you mow them down just as you would a plot of maize, and in a month they are ready to pull again. This is certainly a plant that all gardeners should try and procure for it saves much time and labor. The peas are of an immense size, and once sown bear for years, always cutting them down when cleared of the crop." We commend the above to the attention of our country gardeners and settlers. This pea would make a valuable addition to our esculents and we should see about its introduction here. Probably Mr Gillies would, if applied to, furnish settlers with a parcel of the peas to enable them to cultivate them for themselves. An amusing end to a performance occurred recently at the music hall in Lancaster. Mr E. Fletcher was playing Hamlet to a large audience, and the play had gone well up to tbe last scene, when Hamlet, who had to kill the King, stabbed the unfortunate monarch, and threw him back in his chair. And to the horror and surprise of the melancholy Dane, he saw the throne-chair on which lay the corpse of his guilty uncle slowly wheel to the edge of the platform on which it had been placed, and in an instant toppled over. Down went the King on his head, up went the feet of the now struggling, living King, and vainly did the courtiers try to help him—he was wedged too fast in the chair. The audience roared with laughter, the actors chuckled, the musicians screamed. " Drop the curtain." said Hamlet. But the scene shifter was too much taken up by the joke to obey the summons, till at last the audience, breathless with laughter, saw the drop scene fall on one of the" most amusing episodes ever seen on the stage. After a short interval the curtain again rose, and Hamlet tried to regain the sympathy of the audience, but the ghost of the wicked King still cast his halo over the scene, and it was with a hard struggle Hamlet regained his composure, dying in the usual orthodox manner. The Scotsman gives an account of an almost incredible *care of which the people of Skye have recently been the victims. A Free Church minister made the startling announcement on Sunda;; morning that the Russians had invaded England, and he warned his congregation to betake themselves at once to the defence of their hearths and homes. The Russian invasion was further declared to be prompted by domestic treason, and th". Queen, acting on her own responsibility, had committed Mr Gladstone to prison for complicity therein. The story was accepted in good faith by the simple islanders, and their consternation was unbounded until some superior person discovered it to be a hallucination. The explanation of the whole affair was not that the minister had been hoaxed or had gone mad, or had played off a practical joke upon his people, nor was the sfc >ry of Mr Gladstone's imprisonment a distorted version of recent events in the House of Commons. The innocent cause of the scare was an English comic paper, containing some sorry jest about the hussians invading England and Mr Gladstone bring sent to the Tower. It had somehow found its way to Skye, and, falling into the hands ot the minister, was mistaken by that worthy man for a serious newspaper All Scotland is laughing at the joke and wondering how many ministers of like simplicity are still to be found in the Highlands or m the Free Kirk. The North Otago Times says :—lt may be remembered by some of our readers that Mr Bryce, ex-Native Minister, when speaking at Wanganui, stated that the correspondent of the Lyttelton Times had tried to get money out of the Government, had applied to Mr Bryce for a private secretarship, and, afterwards, on failing to obtain this, published calumnious inventions about the Government and native affairs out of revenge. It is but fair to elate that the correspondent has written to his journal denying the charges made against him by Mr Bryce. He declares that the only money he ever tried to get out of the Government was money duo to him for literary work done for the Native Office, under tbe approval of his employers. In

regard to the other charge the correspondent's own words may be quoted: He says: " With reference to asking to be appointed private secretary to Mr Bryce, there seemed strong probability at one time that newspaper correspondents would not be allowed to cross Waingongoro with the Constabulary. My instructions were that I must _o, and being on friendly terms with Mr Bryoa, I suggested, in view of the possibility th_r correspondents would be stopped, that the difficulty might be got over by getting some nominal appointment on his staff." The Lyttelton Times, in a leading artiole sustaining all that its correspondent says, entirely deniesMr Bryce's acousations, and so the quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands. A question has arisen as to whether or not the Boers are in any way conneoled with' the native races of Sonth Africa, tho particular tribe to which it has been asserted that they are related being that of the Hottentots. The account of the origin of these people we find given by Mr Leoky in the British Quarterly for October, runs as follows:—A Dutch garrison and a few tradespeople, sent out by the Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeok in 1652, increased from time to time by runaway sailors, exiles, emigrants, and shipwrecked passengers —these and 300 Hugue« nots were the original ancestors of the African Boers. The Huguenot refugees sent out by the Company at the request of the States-General, between the years 1687 and 1690, contributed very muoh to raise the moral level of the oolouists ; but while many" of the woman brought over were respedtable girls from the Orphanaga at Amsterdam, there were many others among them of dubious character." The reviewer gives some further information on the subject in a note:—" The>e refugees, who had fled to Holland after the revocation of the >■ diet of Nantes, were sent by the East India Company, with the following letter, to the Governor of the Cape:—" We have resolved to send to tho Cape, besides other free burghers, a party of French refugees, according to the regulations which we forward in Dutch and in French, all Protestants, and we send a French pastor with them to perform their services in the French tongue. There are wine farmers among them, who know well how to make vinegar and brandy, which will be useful to the colony also. Whereas these poor people are deprived of everything, it is now your duty to help them when they arrive, and to give them all they require till they are able to take care of themselves. They are zealous people and easily satisfied," Bazaar at St. John's school this evening. Tenders are invited by Mr Tylae for filling a part of a section in Emerson-street. Messrs Blythe and Co. have leather cushions for sale. Tenders are invited for carting an engine, boiler, &c, from Carterton to Ormondville. The vertical feed sewing machine can be had at Messrs Large and Townley's. Mr F. Tuxford daily expects a shipment of all kinds of ironware and ammunition. A house and shop to let at West Clive. Messrs H. Monteith and Co. hold theirusual sale at the Horse Bazaar on Saturday, A number of new advertisements in our " wanted" oolumn. ~-t