New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1871. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 5, 25 February 1871, Page 10

New Zealand Mail. P UBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1871. THE WEEK.

We shall in future give, under this heading, a summary of, with a running commentary on, the principal events of the week. Foremost among these, so far as it personally concerns ourselves and our readers, is the appearance to-day of the New Zealand Mail, under new arrangements, which it is hoped will prove satisfactory.,. We have exerted ourselves this week to make such alterations in the getting up of the paper, as appeared to be desirab{e ; but we should be sorry for it to be taken for granted that we intended to stop here ; for it is our intention to make, if possible, each succeeding issue better than its predecessor. We shall be well content, at starting, to make the Mail the best patronised journal in the province; but we hope to secure for it eventually a colonial circulation; and to attain this object we shall spare neither trouble nor expense. The publication of several editions of the paper, each specially adapted for the districts in which it will circulate, will rather facilitate than retard this object; it will combine the .advantages of a metropolitan with those of a local newspaper; and there is no place in the colony which offers such facilities for these purposes as Wellington. A portion of the Norwegian immigrants who recently arrived at Wellington, consisting of eighteen able-bodied men with their wives and children, have been safely located near Palmerston in the Manawatu district. They are -to allowed to squat on the unsold land, with the privilege of purchasing ten acres at £1 per acre ; and, in the event of any one,purchasing the land before they have had time to pay for it, they are to be paid for - any improvements they may have made. For the present they are; to be employed in road-making at daily wages at current rates. There is no use in expending money on immigration unless we can attract to our shores men of the right stamp, and adopt means of keeping them here on their arrival. Whether the above arrangements are sufficiently liberal for these objects, is at least open to question. But men employed on public works should be employed at piece-work, or by contract, and not at fixed wages. When this was done in the case of the Carterton immigrants, they earned moaa money for themselves, and did twice as much work for the Government at one-half the cost to the province, than when they were in receipt of daily wages.

As is not unusual at this season of the year, occasional rumors of outrage* ! by individual natives come to us from the disturbed portions of the province of Auckland. On the other hand, we learn from the province Of , Hawke’s Bay that the roads being made from Napier to Taupo, and through the Seventy Mile Bush to* wards the West Coaßt are progressing most» satisfactorily. The country through which the latter passes is level, and is described as magnificent. The natives are directly interested in the progress of the work. Probably bad this beemthe case with the Highlanders, they would have looked with more favor and with less suspicion on General Wades* roadmaking operations through their country. In consequence of some rich crushings having been obtained at the Thames, there has been some excitement over mining shares there, which is not likely to extend farther. It will be a long time before Southern people will be again induced to put their pennies in the Thames “ lucky bag,” in the foolish expectation that they will get all prizes and no blanks. Mr Macandrew has been again elected Superintendent of Otago after a severe contest. The colony and not Otago was in the success Mr Macandrew, who is an intelligent supporter of the financial policy of the General Government. It is feared that Mr Commissioner Branigan, one of the most efficient of officers, has bCame permanently deranged, and, what is still more unfortunate he is able to realize his sad . and fearful position. ' ■ ; y email craft laden with timber has been wrecked on the coast of Otago, and the crew consisting of frve hands Were drowned. - TheCaptain managed to reach the land-in safety* - ! A prisoner in the gaol has been |»Bs9Bo9d t? fm

irat in solitary confinement and the three last iii irons, for using threatening and blackguard language to the Warden of the gaol and to the Qyerseer in charge. We learn from Christchurch that a man by the same of M‘Leod stabbed his wife in a fit of jealousy, who in a few days died of her wounds. The husband has been committed for trial for wilful murder.

A boy by the name of Schumaker aged 13, the son of a farm laborer residing at Pahanui near Chrißthurch has been accidentally killed at a flax, mill, having had his skull fatally fractured by the broken pieces of the drum of the mill, which was revolving at the time at the rate of about 1,400 per minute. A destructive fire occured at Napier on Monday morning last by which a group of five shops in Shakespere road and two other houses were burnt to the ground. The property was fully insured. Mr Hugh Carleton, who for several years fdited the “ Southern Cross,” and who has since the Constitution Act was brought into operation been a member of the House of Eepresentaves for the Bay of Islands, and chairman of committees, has lost both his seat and his billet