THE PATEA MAIL. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1875.

Patea Mail, Volume 1, Issue 11, 19 May 1875, Page 2

THE PATEA MAIL. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1875.

Wo have heeu requested to correct a misapprehension which lias gained ground, io the effect that tiie library in connection with the Patca Institute is not intended to be a circulating one. Such a supposition is altogether at variance with the purpose for which the Institute was formed. Some discussion certainly did take place at the preliminary meeting, held on the 24th of April, as to whether standard works of reference should circulate ; but we think all such matters should form subjects for adjustment by the bye-laws of the Institute. We have to state, therefore, that it is intended to be a circulating library, and trust that this announcement will induce those who have been misinformed, and who have hitherto withhold their support, to re-consider the subject. We feci convinced that the library will prove a boon both to the town residents and the country settlers, if it is properly supported and well conducted. The secretary acknowledges the receipt of over sixty volumes from the following gentlemen :—Messrs Torment, Wray, Potto, Sherwood, Gibson, Meredith, and Slater. A catalogue will shortly be posted up at the Institute, and it is intended to commence circulating the books at the commencement of next month, after which date arrangements will be made for opening the Institute on Saturday afternoons, for the convenience of country members. According to the Taranaki Neias, we observe that a building has been erected at Inglewood for an hotel, at a cost of £I,OOO, The house, wc understand, will afford good accommodation to travellers, and ought to turn out a good speculation as soon as the license is granted. The p.s. Tongariro is now lying in the Wanganui Pdvcr, loaded for this jrort. She i<s at present bar-bound, but may be

We see by our New Plymouth liles that his Honor the Superintendent left for Wellington on Thursday last. About one hundred immigrants (says the Budget') arc reported as on the way for New Plymouth. The name of the vessel by which they are expected does not appear to b c known. There is an imyression abroad that the local authorities have had something to do in preventing a regular supply of immigrants being forwarded to this Province,

having been fearful that employment in the winter season would have been scarce. As up to the present time there Las been a ready absorption of the immigrants which have been sent, and numerous calls for more, it is to be hoped the next instalment will be followed at regular intervals by others, until there is abundant evidence to show that the Province is well supplied. The Budget says :—“ At a meeting of friends in the Institute yesterday, Mr T. Kelly in the chair, it was resolved to take steps to raise funds by general subscription so that a suitable bead-stone and railing might bc procured to murk the last resting place of the late Sergeant Dunn, who was so well known and highly esteemed when living. Captain Hempton was appointed treasurer.”

The present debt of Now Zealand (says the Napier Telegraph') is T1G,49-1,000 including tlie last loan of four millions raised the other day by Mr Vogel. The loans authorised but not raised arc—£827,900 under the Act of 1870, £500,000 under the Act of 1873, £192,000 under the Defence and Other Purposes Loan Act, and £22,000 under the North Otago District Public Works Loan, making a total of £2,015,300 authorised but not raised on colonial account, and £22,000 on the provincial account. Before any long period has expired, it is more than probable these authorised loans will be wanted, and then the colonial debt will exceed eighteen and a half millions sterling. The four million loan just raised is appropriated by the Act of 1874 as follows : —£3,000,000 for public works, £500,000 for immigration, £60,000 for North Island roads, £50,000 for goldfields’ works, and £390,000 for public works, such as buildings, telegraph lines, lighthouses, and other purposes. Men are now engaged (says the Wanganui Chronicle) breaking the huge lumps of conglomerate fossil formation on the Waitotara Hoad, which the contractors have dignified by the appellation of “ metal,” and which have been a source of trouble to drivers, waggoners, and horsemen, who have been compelled to navigate their steeds and vehicles round these dangerous obstructions. Some persons have animadverted severely upon the manner in which the metalling (?) of a portion of this road has been permitted to be executed, and to which we will not refer further at present. We understand the District Engineer, Mr Coleridge, has gone out to inspect and pass the work, if performed according to terms of contract, and his decision should satisfy those interested that justice has been done to all.

Some new comers who landed here (says the Biuhjet) awhile ago and got dissatisfied because the work they were called upon to do was different to what they had been used to at home, and who had an objection to living out in the bush, after saving a few pounds cleared out to other places. It is satisfactory to know that some of the said dissatisfied folks have found their way back to this Province, and others would come if they could raise the passage money. The Burhjet says : —“ A gentleman who has been about three months at Patea, and who came up by the coast road to town, was loud in his denunciations of the abominable state of the roads in places. The General and Provincial Governments were alike blamed, and the local authorises were also soundly rated for not exhibiting more life in public matters. It was quite unaccountable to him that a Province with such good land and natural advantages should not begin to show signs of business activity.” The Taranaki News thus criticises the Now Plymouth-Waitara railway works ; “ The locomotives for the Waitara and New Plymouth Railway have been worked for some time drawing ballast for the contractors. As each engine cannot draw more than two waggons of ballast at a time from Waitara, it is anticipated that there will not ho wear enough left to draw a car of passengers when the railway is opened* We arc, therefore, glad to learn that Mr Draper will he read}' to assist at the o]eening with a team of bullocks.'’ A woman living near the Richard mine, in Morris County, New Jersey, lost by the burning of the emig ant ship Cospatrick, eight brothers, two sisters, and her mother, besides other near relatives. The velocity of light has been determined, by recent carei'n' experiments, to he 186,000 miles per second, which would run round the world eight times a second, a rapidity inconci-ivahh* to the human

The skin of an animal, whether cow, calf, colt, or horse, that dies on the farm

is worth more at home than at the tanner's. Cut it into narrow strips, and shave off the hair with a sharp knife before the kitchen lire, or in your workshop on stormy days and evenings. Ton may make them soft by rubbing. A raw hide halter strap an inch wide will hold a horse bettey and last longer than an inch rope. It is stronger than hoop-iron and more durable, and may be used to hoop dry casks and boxes, and for Iftnges. Try it on a broken thill or any woodwork that has been split. Put it on wet, and nail fast. Thin skins make the best, to use hi its natural state. For other purposes it may be dressed.

The Government of Victoria appear to have found more difficulty than they originally anticipated with the convict Sullivan. The Melbourne correspondent of the Bendigo Advertiser, writing on the 10th April, says.: —“ I understood that the Governhient has definitely decided not to send the convict Sullivan back to New Zealand. Some correspondence which has passed between the two Governments upon the subject has, it seems, induced that of Victoria to adopt the above decision, as the communication from New Zealand showed that the murderer’s transport thither would give great offence to public opinion in that country.”

T1 10 following summary of Mr Holloway’s report has now boon published ; u He reports that his candid opinion, after visiting all parts of the country, is that no industrious man who is willing to work need fear any evil with regard to the future of New Zealand. He considers it just the country for hard-working farm, labourers, whose only capital is their strong arms and muscles, as such capital invested in Now Zealand, will be sure to produce abundant interest in the shape of liberal wages, smiling homesteads, and something laid by in the savings bank to smooth the declining years of life, instead of having to look forward to parish allowance or a pauper’s grave. There is, he feels convinced, a great future before New Zealand. If the loans now being contracted are judiciously expended in the construction of railways and other reproductive works, the country is bound to go ahead, and eventually become a great and wealthy nation.” A report like this ought to have the effect of causing a good many sturdy “ sons of the soil ” to cast in their lot with New Zealand.

An extraordinary instance of concealment of sex has been disclosed at LiverpoolAmongst the prisoners committed for trial at the sessions ,on charges of felony was one William Seymour, a cabdriver. On being received at the gaol the prisoner was examined in the usual way, when it was discovered that “ William Seymour ’’ was a female. In answer to the prison officials, she stated that she had left her husband in consequence of his ill-treatment, and had been a cabdriver for nine years, three of which had been spent in London and six in Liverpool. During the whole of this time she dad been successful in concealing her real sex. She was removed to the female part of the prison and the indictment against her was duly altered, so as to prevent any technical loophole of escape when she shall he placed upon her trial.