LATEST NEWS ITEMS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 835, 7 October 1870, Page 2

LATEST NEWS ITEMS.

The Southern Cross reports the surrender of 35 Hauhaus at Whakatane. A couple of herons and several quail are reported to have been seen lately in the gorges of the Molyneaux. The construction of the line of telegraph from Invercargill to liiverton has been commenced. Southland has followed the example of neighboring provinces, and started a Flax Association. Why not start one in Hawke's Bay ? The New Zealand Herald states that His Excellency the Governor's visit to Waiuku is to be of a purely non-official character. The Evening Post says that Mr H. Sewell has undertaken the duties of Telegraph and Postal Commissioner during the absence of Mr Vogel at Auckland, The Post has learned that Frederick Russell, Esq., M.H.R. for the Northern Maori Electoral District, has been appointed to a clerkship of ,£2OO a year in the Native Office, Mr Jackson, Chief Engineer of the province of Wellington, has been appointed by the General Government to inspect the road or reads from Wanganui to Patea, and to report general ly on the same,

The Auckland Tomahawk having become defunct, a new comic periodical is projected, to be called '* The Motley." Mr H, B. Roberts, of Wanganui, has lately exhibited the bones of a large head found near the Weretoa Lake. It was at first supposed to be the head of a Moa, but turned out to be that of a cachalot

Despatches with enclosures from her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, together with warrants under the hand of his Excellency the Governor, are published in a New Zealand Gazette of the 20th September. Tney relate to the neutrality proclamation. A man named Joseph Escalion was brought up at the Resident Magistrate's Court, Grahamstown, on the 27th Sept., charged with stabbing a man named John Williams, at Tararu, on the 23rd of that month. Prisoner was committed to take his trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court. The New Zealand Herald mentions that the Auckland police have not received any pay for more than two months, owing, in a great measure, to a dispute between the General and Provincial Governments on police matters. It was rumored in Auckland that Mr C. E. Haughton has been offered the editorship of the Daily Southern Cross, and will likely accept it, as his intentions are to remain in that province, and also to offer himself as a candidate for the Franklyn district at the next election for the General Assembly.

The Grahamstown (Thames) Star mentions a case which displays the utmost heartlessness and cruelty on the part of a man —a hushand and father. A man returned from the gum diggings with three pounds in his- pockets. He had a wife and family, and the former was near her confinement. Instead of providing some little comforts for his wife during her coming trial, he " knocked down" in drink all but one solitary shilling of the three pounds. This shilliug his wife got hold of when he went home at night, but the brute took that also on the following morning to procure a drink. The Thames correspondent of the Daily Southern Cross writes under date September 26;—The glare that was seen in the southern sky last night, between the hours of eight and nine, although supposed by some people to be another exhibition cf the Aurora Australis, was by others rightly conjectured to be the glare of a large fire, either bush or homestead in the neighbourhood of Puriri. Whilst I was conversing with Mr Brissenden upon the subject, he remarked laughingly, " Well, I hope it's not my mill, for the lire must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of it." Mr John Gibbons this afternoon informed me that Mr Brissenden's flax mill, at Puriri, had been totally destroyed by fire. It appears that the fire originated in the drying room, and, although soon discovered, made head with such rapidity that, notwithstanding the efforts of the manager, Mr Patterson, the employes of the mill, and a lot cf natives who rendered valuable assistance, the entire building was soon enveloped in flames, and in hair an hour was reduced to a heap of smoldering ashes. About five tons of prepared flax, ready for shipment, were on the premises, besides a large quantity of the raw material, every pound of which was consumed. Most of the machinery is, I regret to say, irretrievably injured. It seems that a large quantity of coal was stowed against a partition, separating the engine from the coal shed, and when the partition burnt away it fell inwards upon the engine, and the coal all of a blaze with it; and as the efforts made to extinguish the burning mass proved futile, it is feared that the engine has been reduced to a molten mass of metal. The mill gave employment to 30 men, who have thus been deprived of a sure means of earning a livelihood. As Mr Brissenden informed me this afternoon, the property was insured for .£6OO in the Pacific Company—a sum which is a mere bagatelle only, compared with its actual value. The Thames Advertiser has the following respecting an extraordinary animal which has been captured at Porter's Creek : —" This animal was caught in a swamp by dogs; the legs, or arms and legs, were tied, and it was lodged in a vacant room in Mr Baker's store. And now for the description. This Maori gorilla has, it is stated, a head somewhat like a native, but two tusks stick out, one on each side of the head. There is a large tuft of hair ou the top of the head.

The body is as dark as that of a Maori, with hair on the arms and legs. Ha grunts somewhat like a pig. So far for the description. The animal is apparently miscellaneous enough in his feeding, for we are informed that he eats potatoes, pie crust, and nuts. We are informed that he is to he brought over here for public exhibition, and we must say that we should like to see him. Since writing the above, we have received some further, and, in some part, contradictory particulars. The animal, or monster, has been living with the natives for a longtime, although it is now, as stated above, in the keeping of Mr Baker. It would almost appear that the famous ' missing link* has been discovered at last. The natives say that it is a hundred years old, and that it is a ' tupuna' or ancestor. Thus it seems they are not so proud as we are, who do not care about believing that we are descended from monkeys. These natives are not prejudiced, and the learned Professors Huxley and Darwin would hail them as men after their own hearts. Two gentlemen were yesterday over at Wharekawa, and offered a pretty large sum for this animal, which is to decide the development theory, but the negotiation for its possession is not concluded." -—The same journal of a later date contains the following:—" We are sorry ta disappoint our readers, more especially with reference to any interesting question in natural history, but it now appears that the reported Maori gorilla is not a gorilla at all —in point of fact, the Maori gorilla turns out to be an old woman. Professor Huxley must therefore wait some time for the confirmation of the development theory by the discovery of the ' missing link.' We cannot give him any assistance. The statements which found their way to the public upon this subject give but a faint idea of the wild rumours afloat in the town on the matter. We understand that two gentlemen went over to get this most notable creature for public exhibition, and after a long walk came to the place where she was kept, ; There they were shown a poor old woman* who really, in some respects, is as great a curiosity as the gorilla itself would be. She has been as she is, it seems, beyond the memory of all who know her, and has attained, it is said, the patriarchal age of 175. How this estimate has been arrived at we do not know, and so cannot guarantee its correctness. Her hair has dropped off, except a small tuft at the top, and altogether she is such a wonder that the gentleman who went to buy a gorilla would willingly have made terms for her if her relations had permitted." The Thames Advertiser has been shown a private letter from Ohinemuri to a gentleman in Grahamstown, the following extract from which will serve to show the high-minded manner in which the " irrepressible " Mere Kuru and her Amazons rule the roast in that district. It appears that the writer of the letter bad been making some improvements on his place, and amongst other things had planted a number of trees and erected a flagstaff in front of his premises. He writes:—" I had a rumpus with Mere Kuru over that lot. The pole was reared aloft on Friday, and on Sunday I had a visit from three of her ladyship's followers, who asked me the meaning of the * stick.' I said, ' Nothing in particular; simply that it was a stick.' They said it was wrong to have it here (for what reason I am not aware), and that I must pull it down. That, I said, I would not do, but if they chose they might do so. They marched round it, squatted, and prayed ; they then told me that as it was my Sunday, they would let it stand for that day, but that in* the morning they would return and root it out. Sure enough, in the morning they arrived, headed by Mere Kuru, with aa addition of three or four old hags. They again marched round the offending pole, prayed, and then dug it up. They also pulled up three pine bushes. When this was finished, her ladyship confronted me, and told me to have done with such work here, as this was her laud, and she would turn Wood off altogether if she had to come back on another such errand." It is supposed that Mere Kuru must have been reading the Auckland papers, wherein are recorded the proceedings of the authorities in that city against barbers' poles,.and thinks it necessary to take all poles at Ohinemuri under her own supervision. .

Charles W. GallaLo was charged at the Sydney Police Court, on the 21st Sept., with having, on the 24th day of July*

feloniously, unlawfully, and maliciously cast away and destroyed the British ship * Aurifera,' on the high seas, with intent thereby to prejudice the National Marine Insurance Company of South Australia, and the Southern Insurance Company (limited). Five cases of infanticide are reported in the Melbourne Weekly Times of September 17. The editor truly says, " Did such a social statistic appear in a chapter of a maudlin romance published in the London Journal, no one would believe it. There is uothiog of a ' fabrication/ however, about the sight of the bodies of five dead infants, which bad been raked up out of gutters and cesspools. There is a bopa fides about such evidence of the state of society, which is quite incontrovertible, for though it may well set the reflecting thinking, there is no denying the depths of depravity of which dead witnesses are the historians. At any time during the last twelve or fifteen years, dead infants have been about as common as poisoned pups, even supposing that all those whose beginnings were unlawful, and whose ends were untimely, have been discovered, a conclusion which it would be very injudicious t*b come to. The number of illegitimates which are found about the streets is undoubtedly large, but there is no reason to conclude that an equal number are not * put away' without the fact of their having existed ever being discovered."