Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 118, 19 May 1879, Page 2

The Marlborough Times understands that Mr W, Sinclair, of the firm of Bunny and Sinclair, is to be appointed Crown Prosecutor for Marlborough. The Taranaki Htrald of the 7th instant says: — " Over 50 brace of pheasants were sent away by coach and steamer to-day." At au auction sale at Oamaru last week sides of mutto*n were disposed of at a shilling each. Mr Richard Heeves, M.H.K. for the Grey Valley, is taken to task pretty warmly by the Grey River Argus for neglecting his Greymouth constituents.- Mr Reeves may be very popular at Reef ton, but his financial aud political genius does not appear to be well appreciated in other parts of the electorate. The Argus is certain "there will be nothing too mighty for his vast intellect to grapple'with, and we shall discover, should he be appointed Treasurer — that is if he deigns to accept office — that we shall have no need of Sir Julius Yogel to put our financial affairs in order." Wo (Marlborough Times') have it on good authority that the lion, member for Cheviot, Mr A. Saunders', resignation of his seat in the Assembly, will be placed in the hands of 1 the Speaker within the next few clays. The reason assigned for that step relates entirely to personal matters. Although Mr Saunders i has only occupied his scat for the Cheviot ; during last session— having been elected about twelve months ago in room of Mr L. j Harper, resigned — he ranks amongst some of the older representative men in New Zealand; having ocenpied seats in different Parlia ments for Nelson constituencies. As a good, well-defined party mail, Mr Saunders stood well in Parliamentary circles, and, as an opponent to the present Ministry, his coilduct was characteristic of both firmness and fairness. In debate he brought considerable breadth of view to bear on intimate local knowledge, which had the effect of invariably securing for his utterances respectful attention from both sides of the House. Rumor has it that the vacancy will call out at least two candidates, neither of whom cau be called novices in the art of Parliamentary repaeseutation. Further particulars, however, are withheld for the present. The Wellington Chronicle has an article headed " The Insolvency Epidemic." It says :— " Many years ago there prevailed on the West Const of the South Islaud just such an epidemic of insolvency as now exists iv Wellington. Judge Ward treated the disease in such a thorough and searching manner that it was virtually stamped out, and the name of Chas. Dudley Ward became a terror to dishonest insolvents. Surely there might be found some judge in Wellington who would treat this insolvency plague as effectually as did Judge Ward on the West Coast." A recent Raglan export was 130 head of live sheep scab in a glass bottle consigned to Dr Hector, Wellington, from the Waikato Sheep Inspector. Under the heading "The Haur-au worship" the correspondent of an Auckland paper writes from Kopua -.— Sunday was marked by services at all the camps. The majority have one form or other of the Hau-hau worship. Tawhiao has adopted the Tareao form, and Te Kooti has his particular form too. The natives all tell me lhat Te Kooti'a service is the best. I can only say that, even to a stranger, it is remarkably impressive. A fine tall man, whose name I could not catch, stands in front of the first door clothed in a blanket aud looks the very image of a holy priest. He prays devoutly, and the responses are well chanted by the congregation sitting on the ground around him. The prayers are taken from the Church of Eugland service, and include one for Tawhiao. The Old Testament is the only portion of scripture used. It is a new form of worship and not a new religion that Te Kooti and other chiefs have established. His is the original Hanhau or Pai Marire with some subsequent additions. Your readers will be aware that its founder, the mad Te Ua, forbade the bloodshed and atrocities which Kereopa and other disciples copying the least Christian episodes of the Old Testament history, afterwards introduced. Near Te Kooti there is a Taranaki chief whose people follow a form of religion which they call the Pokamierc. The name took its origin from the native honey bee, Pokamiere being the name given to the hive built in the decayed trunks of the trees. They are a strange people certainly, these Maoris, but there is method in all their madness, as these religions enlarge materially the power of the different chiefs who establish them. They are all derived from the old prayers and the Bible, or such portions of it as they choo3e to adopt, and seem to me to resemble more the occasional dissents of our own people and the separate congregations they engender, than any new form of religion properly so called. The Maoris appear to have been rather extra vagunfc in the matter food of at the Kopua gathering. The correspondent of the Herald writes-.— The waste which goes on at these native meetings is something dreadful. Twenty bullocks were allowed to go past j eating— having been slaughtered too soon. ' On the first day as much food was laid down j before the Ngapuhis as might have sufficed for twenty times the number, and all but a fraction went to waste. Iv slaughtering a bullock half of it is thrown away. The Lyttelton Times states that a number of bones closely resembling human ones, but of much smaller size, the fibula or leg-bone being only three inches long, have been found 40 feet below the surface in the sandstone formation on the banks of the river Waiau, Amuri. They are in good preservation, are adult's bones, but do not belong to any known animal. A correspondent, writing from Alexandra, soon after the meeting dispersed for the day, on Wednesday, says.— l wenl round the camp just now, and found natives engaged iv all sorts of games. 1 I observed a party of juveniles playing at cricket, too. I think the fondness for athletic sports which characterises the rising generation of Maoris, is a very healthy sign. There is a gambling tent nor far from Thompson's, where the Maoris keep it up at " bluff," almost day and night. I dropped in just now, and found a Wanganui Chief, and others of note, playing this seductive but precarious game. The Wanganui swell had just collared £23. While I was there, he added two more to his little " pile," and he never" played " without winning. If I had his luck, I could travel on it. I would have stayed to see a little more of the "Heathen Chinee," if the high flavour of the atmosphere had not warned vie that oxygen is necessary to the physical and moral welfare of the " human race."