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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 541, 9 January 1868, Page 2

Wairoa Races.—Cheap Excursion.— The Wairoa races, as will be seen by ad* vertisement, take place on Tuesday next, I4th January. The favorite ps. Cleopatra, we are glad to notice, will leave Rapier on Monday, 13th inst,, at 11 a.m., for Wairoa. As the fares are very low, we auger that large numbers of people will avail themsetvos of the opportunity of having a look—if not at. the races, at any rate at the flourishing district in which they are to be held. The Cleopatra will return to Napier on Wednesday, 15th inst. Death of an Old Settler. —lt is our painful duty to record the death, ou Friday the 3rd inst, at his residence, Ta Kopanga, of Edward Spencer Curling, l£sq , one of the earliest settlers in Ahuriri, in his 53rd year. Mr Curling took an active part in the politics of the district at the time of separation from Wellington, and was elected member for Te Ante in the first Provincial Council, on the Ist March, 1859. He retained his seat until a comparatively recent period, and for a cosiderable time held the oflice of Chairman of Committees. The funeral took place in Napier, on Sunday, sth inst., the Rev. J. Townsend officiating. Death by Drowning. —A melancholy accident occurred on Monday afternoon last by which a little boy named William John Jew, aged two years and three months, son of the steward of the Star of the South, met his death. He was discovered by a carter named Cleary floating in the water at the side of the Battery-road, almost in front of his mother’s house, whichj he had left scarcely half-an-hour before. Dr Thorpe was called in, and tried various means to restore animation, but without success. An inquest waa held ou Tuesday, and a verdict of “ Accidently drowned ” was returned.

Vagbanct.—A boy of about 10 or II years of age, named John Murphy was charged at the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Monday, with vagrancy. His mother stated that she could not control the boy, nor keep him at home; that he had been discharged from situations that she had procured for him, and, in short, that she did not know what to do with him. He was sentenced to a fortnights imprisonment with hard labor.

j An Unbidden Guest.—At the Resident [Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 7th inst., a man named Thomas Floyd was charged by Mr Thomas Collins with haring been in his house for an unlawful purpose on the night of Thursday, the 2nd inst. The evidence showed that Collins had been absent all day at Meanee on business ; that he had returned in the evening, and retired at 11 p.m. Shortly afterwards Mrs Collins thought she heard the room door quietly opened, and at 2 o’clock distinctly heard a man under the bed. She aroused her husband, who struct a light and arose in time to see the fellow creeping forth “on all fours.” Finding he was discovered Jffr Collins’s unwelcome visitant asked him to " say nothing about it,” tried to shaky hands, told him that “ he must have made a mistake, and come in in his sleep.” He was ejected, and on examination it was found that he must have effected an entrance by a back window, all the doors being fast. The prisoner of course made the usual excuse—“He was drunk, and didn’t remember anything about it,” but circumstances do not bear out his assertion. It is conjectured that he was under the impression that Mr Collins bad not returned from Meanee. He was committed for trial at the next sittting of the District Court, and as the January session had just terminated he will receive three months’ imprisonment while awaiting his trial. Mr Collins was bound over in the sum of £5Qr I to appear and prosecute.

Setting fiee to a Hat-stace.—a native named Sioni te KangmLiko was brought before the Resident Magistrate on Tuesday morning for setting fire to a large hay-stack, the property of Mr Marshall, causing the destruction of property to the value of *3OO. He was released, as there was then no evidence. On Wednesday he appeared again, and the statement of a little? giri, aoout 10 years of age, named Mary Matilda Reid, who said she had seen bins set fire to the stack, was heard. Her narrative was given in a very plain and straightforward manner. She stated that on Tuesday morning about 7 o’clock she was going along the road which passes Mr Marshall’s property, with milk. She saw the Maori riding ahead of her, who when he reached the part of the fence where the haystack was standing, dismounted, jumped into the ditch, and lighted his pipe with a match under its shelter. The hay from the stack sloped downward over the fence right into the ditch. He stooped down, gathered the hay round his feet into a circular, heap, and laid a fern-bush underneath. He then set fire to the pile, and when it was well alight, mounted his horse and rode rapidly away. The flame arose almost directly to the stack, and she ran with all her speed and gave the alarm. At the time that the Maori lighted the fire she was almost close behind him, but she did not think he saw her until after it was done. A man in the employ of Mr Marshall corroborated the statement of the girl about giving the alarm, and gave an account of the snprehension of the Maori, He said (hat the men had been at work on the stack from 4 a.m., and at the time the alarm was given were at breakfast. Owing to the little girl's tirnelv warning they were enabled, with some difficulty, to save their carts, forks, &c. which were close to the stack. The fire ran along the ground, aud it was only by great efforts that it was prevented from reaching a neighbor’s property, where it must have caused great destruction. The native said that lie had no pipe nor matches, and did not smoke on the way. He said he saw the girl, who ran away because she was afraid of his horse. He had no ma dies, for he afterwards asked for a 'ight for his pipe at Maney’s hotel. The Resident Magistrate said that this seemed to be a very extraordinary case. There was no reason to doubt the child’s story, but there did not appear to be any malice on the part of the native. He thought the case had, better stand over for further evidence. 1 The native was then released, aud toldj that he must hold himself in readiness to] appear again if called on. A native asses sor named Karauria then made some remarks, becoming rather excited. He said that he had known Mohi a long time, and that he was not a man who would commit «uch a crime. He said that they should not believe the story of a girl, and asked why, if it was believed, they were letting the Maori go. He wanted him to be released altogether.

African Curiosities at the French Exhibirion. —The Paris correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes: — Among the extensive collections of animals, birds, insects, fossils native weapons, clothing, utensils, and implements illustrating the native life in these regions, are some extraordinary head-dresses obtained by placing a ring, or a band of rolled-up palm-leaves upon the head, and then sewing the “ wool” of the wearer to the same. If the ornament be in the form of the ring, snly enough “wool” is combed up cover it entirely. In either case, the wooly covering is still further beautified by being filled with gum and grease ; and being thus firmly secured, is worn apparently for the rest of the owner’s life, and only out off and used, with its woolly adornings, to decorate some other occiput, on the death of the original proprietor. An instrument of music, as rude in its way as the hideous head-gear just described, is composed of a flat oblong board across the middle of which are placed two sets of keys (eight to each), formed of strips of a hard dark browd elastic wood, rbout six inches long, by three-quarters of an inch in breadth, and of the thickness of the ordinary whalebones of a lady’s dress. These strips of wood, highly polished, are fastened down in the middle by oisers, the ends being curved up over a kit of wood performing the office of the bridge of a guitar. A fillip applied to the end of these keys causes them to give out a pretty clear musical note. The special oddity about this curiously primitive instrument is the peculiar sequence of the notes as they follow one another. The

treble set of keys struck one after the other ; gives tne following arrangement of a seals whose intervals, if following each other’s as does the modern European, would be nearly if not quite, identical with it—tonic, third, second, fourth, third, fifth, fourth, sixth. The bass set gives, as the hand moves upwards, a sequence of tones descending thus : —six, third, fifth, second, fourth tonic. It is not easy to imagine the kind of “ music ” that can be got out of such an instrument, though it is evident that those who contrived it must have, at least, a vague idea of something , a good way above the mere monotonous rattling of bones or beating of drums. 'The native idols arc uncommonly sorry frights ; and the specimens of native clothing are of the most limited pattern, and particulary ugly.