King Country Chronicle Wednesday, Dec. 30th, 1914.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 733, 30 December 1914, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, Dec. 30th, 1914.

Owing to the New Yei»r holidays thers will be no issue of the Chronicle on Saturday next, Messrs J. and A. Brown, owners of the Ptlawmain colliery, have issued a writ against tho Northern Colliery Employees' F deration, claiming .£IOO,OOO damages for loss of trade, demurrage, detention of vessels and lcs3 of protfis on tho bhlg of coal used by the miners Btriking Beven months ago, and who arc still out. The Rfc. Hon. W. F. Massey has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Colo'.iui Institute. # The, West Australian State meat works report for the year ended June last shows a loss of £3571. The other morning, state's the Dominion, tho unusual spectacle of a .young girl about eighteen years of age niHJquerading in mala attire was witnessed in Petone. Calling at a hnirdreeser'a saloon, she expressed a desire to have her hair cut. Upon tho barber who guesaed that something was wrong, refusing, Bhe stated she would cut it off herself. She tried another saloon where she was shorn of her tresses, and took tho 8.40 train to Wellington. The girl is a stranger to Wellington, and nothing is known of her. The story of the curious p'ay of fate, or chance, or Providence, or whatever people choose to call it, that led up to the Rev. Samuel Marsden'a pioneer to New Zealand in 1814 is particularly interesting just now when the . century of Christian work in this country ij undnr review. It was really the genius of tho olden- Maori for sailoring that brought'about, in a series of adventurous episodes, the Bailing of the Gregory of New Zea : land, as Marnden haß been called, his mission brig the Active. The etory of how Ruatara, the young Bay of Islands chief, helped to bring the lirst missionary to his people has* oftold, but it iB timely to tell something of hie, Odyssey before he met Marsden and was befriended by that great man. Ruatara had been at sea for four years before he carno under the missionary's notice. He led a 'life very much like that described by Herman Melville in one of his wonderful South Sea whaling stories, in which mention is made of the daring dceda of tho "Mowreo" sailors and whale hunters of seventy years ago. It was in the year 1805 that a Whaling vessel called tho Aigo put into the Bay of Inlands fur provisions and was boarded by young Ruattara and two of his companions, who wanted to see something of the world nnd to indulge the ir passion for seamanly adventure.

The Prime Minister informed a reporter last week that the Government had completed negotiations for tha purchase of the well-known Glenmark Estate in North Canterbury. The estate, consisting of 11,500 acres, is all class to the railway, and will be easy to road. It is alao particularly suitable for close settlement and for agriculture. The property was held by the trustees of the late Mrs Townend.

It is reported from Cocoa Island that the damage done to tha cable station by Emden has now been repaired. It will be remembered that the German cruiser, before her engagement with the Sydney, sent a landing party ashore, and they destroyed the cable plant just after the station officials had sent out the S.O.S. signals which reached the Australian warship. Word has now reached Auckland telegraph office that "the eastern route is now right; please resume all traffic via Eastern."

Attention is drawn to the advertisement showing the events, conditions, etc., for the Mapiu sports. The committee announce that they have extended the time for receiving entries to 11 a.m. on the day of the sports. A trophy has been received by the committee from Messrs L. D. Nathan and Cj., Auckland, a gold bracelet valued at £4 4s tha same to be donated as a first prize for the best lady ridsr. .The programme is a good one and given fine weather the meeting on New Year's Day ahould be an unqualified success.