The Patea Mail. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1875.

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 67, 1 December 1875, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1875.

After the expression of public opinion, reported at some length elsewhere, the public will watch with no small interest, the course that the Education Board will take, in connection with the reserves. In another column also the chairman’s letter appears, without comment or foot-note of any kind ; we merely invite our readers to contrast it with flu; report, so intimately associated with it. His ponderously playful Hing at tins paper can be well excused when public commentary, endorsed by a public meeting, harasses the now chairman before his new harness has fairly been adjust ?d. Tina morning the post will convey to him in official form, the proceedings of Monday evening, and all the Education Board members —conspicuous by their absence on that occasion—can read a very abbreviated account of then passed ; with what benefit yet remains to be seen.

A quarterly meeting of the Incensing Boards, for the Batea and Waitotara districts, will take place on Tuesday next, the 7th inst, at the Court House, CarlyleBergent Whelan and four of the Armed Constabulary stationed here proceed to Waihi to-day for the animal musketry practice.

A meeting of ratepayers, under the Education Board, will be held at Manntalii to-morrow evening, to protest against that body leasing the reserves by tender instead of auction. In addition to this, a meetingon the same subject will be held at Ketemarae on Saturday next, and another at Hawera on Monday next.

We arc sorry to say that Mr E. Merc - dith, Clerk of the Resident Magistiatcs Court here, has been seriously ill for some days and unable to attend to bis duty.

The meeting of ratepayers, to elect a Town Board for HaWera, will he hold this evening at 7 o’clock, .and, it is hardly necessary to impress on the inhabitants of that township, the importance of their selecting men, who will properly fulfil the duties pertaining to membership of such a body. The power given them may be used or abused, and too great earc cannot be taken in putting in, the right men in the right place.

In the report of the Kakaramea Town Hall opening’, we mentioned the names of of some principal promoters but omitted to do justice to, Messrs P. Wilson, Patterson, and Huston, We may say, that these gentlemen were as indefatigable as those to whom we have already paid deserved tribute, and we hasten to repair any error occasioned by the omission of their names.

At a general meeting of the Pat ca Cricket Club, held on Saturday evening last, a revised set of rules was adopted. A good muster of members were present, and hopes were expressed that the iate bad weather, hitherto retarding the proper opening of the cricket campaign, would soon pass away. We sincerely trust that fair weather, in more senses than one, will be the future fortune of the club.

The Patca District Jockey Club held a general meeting, on Monday evening last, at the Albion hotel. One of the matters for consideration was settlement for the last races, and this, though somewhat delayed was satisfactorily settled, and Thursday next, (to-morrow) appointed for liquidating all claims. A discussion took place as to the desirability of securing a race-course near Carlyle, which would be central for the district, and a sub-com-mittee consisting of Dr Croft, Messrs Nicholson, and Powdered, and the Secre tary, were nominated, to make an offer for a piece of land, within a mile and ahalf of this township, for the purpose. This concluded the business and the meeting then adjourned. A meeting will be held to-night at the Australasian hotel, for the purpose of making arrangements for Christmas sports. It is to be hoped that the attendance will be large, and that the amusements provided will bo as good and come off successfully as last year. They should be better, as there are more people now in the district, and more money ought to be collected. It only needs an attractive programme and an energetic committee, to provide excellent sport and draw visitors from all parts of the district. There are plenty of people in the town fully capable of forming a most efficient committee, and we hope they will show up at the meeting this evening. Carboniferous Limestone (of which 97 parts are pure lime) is being shipped in large quantities from Wangarei Heads to Auckland.

A melancholy occurrence took place at Karon on November 10. Mrs Barnacle, wife of a settler, at that place, while, her husband was at work, cut-her throat with' a table knife. Attention was first drawn to the act by the cries of children, and on a neighbour proceeding to the house, he found the unfortunate woman lying by her bedroom window quite dead, with a deep gasli in her throat and a knife beside her. The deceased has been in a state of mental derangement for some time past, and hail to be almost constantly watched by her husband. But as Mr Barnacle had to provide for six children, he was necessarily absent at times.

The Wairarapa Standard thinks the time has now arrived for forming a brotherhood in Greytown, the members of which shall pledge themselves for a twelvemonth not to put their names under any pretence whatever to a subscription list, and firmly believes that a friendly society of this kind would do more good than either Foresters’ Oddfellows, or Good Templars.

The New Zealand Times states that the Manaw'atu constituency will he contested, Mr Walter Johnston, the sitting member, being opposed by Dr Buller, whose prae tico at the New Zealand Bar affords him ample leisure for' thei study of political science. Mr Johnston’s return is considered by the 'Times as a certainty. Mr Gillon, we understand; enters upon the management of the 'Tribune on the 4th proximo. The price paid for the paper is said to be about £3,500, and it is now the property of a company. Messrs Lyon and Blair, the enterprising booksellers, arc interested, and will also be the publishers. Messrs Fisher and Kent, both formerly of the New Zealand 'Timex, arc also' connected with it professionally and pecuniarily. Such an array of talent, well hacked up, will put the Ecenhuj Post On its mettle to maintain its position. Captain Ralls, of the City of Auckland, says a Northern contemporary, has in Ids ship a curiosity in the shape of a portion of honeycomb, which was manufactured on hoard daring the vessel’s last voyage homo Bees are not in the habit of selecting a ship as the site of their industry, and the circumstances are therefore worth recording. Tile swarm settled on the boatskids a few days before the ship left here last Christmas. Then they transferred themselves to th e interior of the life-boat, where they speedily made themselves at home, and commenced building a comb. The ship sailed, hut the' bees stuck to their curiously-selected abiding plate.- They displayed very few symptoms of sea-sickness, and proved useful at times in rousing sleepy sailo'rs hy stinging them in the back of the neck when they were prostrate on deck. The swarm got along first-rate until they neared the Hor/t, when the cold began to' he felt. Then they stopped work and huddled together for warmth, and the sailors quite missed their playful pets. An effort was made to feed them, but it turned out unsuccessful. They pined for the flowers of the field and the genial sunshine, and would not be comforted. Cue hy one the}’ dropped on deck lifeless, till at length the whole swarm had disappeared.

It has been decided in Dunedin to start a “New Zealand Typographical Journal,” under the auspices of the Otago Typographical Association. The first number' is to appear on the first of January, The Scientific A merican , which is a high authority, gives the following : —df mosrquitoes or other blood-suckers infest our sleeping-rooms at night, we uncork a bottle of the oil of pennyroyal and these animals leave in great haste, nor will they return so long as the air in the room is loaded with the fumes of that aromatic herb. If rats enter the cellar, a little? powdered potash thrown into their holes or mixed with meal and scattered in their runways never fails to drive them away. Cayenne pepper will keep the buttery and store-room free from ants and cockroaches. If a mouse makes an entrance into any part of your dwellings, saturate a rag with cayenne, in solution, and stuff it into the hole, which can be repaired with either wood or mortar. No rat or mouse will eat that rag for the purpose of opening communication with a depot of supplies.” A con espondent of the Ofayo Times writes as follows in reference to the Sniders now being served out to the various corps : —The “ Snider” is misapplied with respgct to these arms—l can scarcely call them weapons. They are evidently a job lot of old worn-out Enfields, picked up cheap, re-browned, and converted int« breech-loaders, called “ Sniders,” and sent to New Zealand, or perhaps converted in the colony. Some have steel, some have iron barrels ; some date as far back as 1853 ; others, again, are of more recent origin, and they range from the short Enfield length to the old, obsolete pattern of long Enfield, Some corps are armed with one and some with the other ; and when the next colonial prize firing takes place there will bo a lovely row, even if new ones are issued on the ground for that filing alone. To make matter g worse, the greater part of these guns, or rifles—as the Defence Office is pleased to call them —havn’t the ghost of a groove in them—are, in fact, worn out—and fo anything like accurate shooting over 200 yards, one might just as well shoot out of a piece of gaspipc. The others have not been much used.”