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Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 146, 2 September 1876, Page 2

If anything were needed to show how necessary it is for some action to bo taken whereby the Patca River entrance could bo improved, the too oft-recurring shipping casualties would furnish unwelcome proof in abundance. The worst of a very bad matter is that there is not the slightest glimmering of relief apparent, either though Parliamentary action or other saving sources, and it would seem that things must go as they do at present, unless some steps bo taken by Patca residents to help themselves. The promised Harbour Bill is tolerably certain to share the fate of its fellows, and will this session add one to the holocaust of innocents slaughtered at the close of each Parliamentary sitting. Even were it passed in so emasculated .a form as would appear probable, if the Speaker’s ruling is to bo accepted as final, and all endowment were withdrawn, it could scarcely bo attended with any good, for a Board without funds would bo useless, and woidd merely be piling up local institutions without benefit to any one. It is just possible, though highly improbable, that the picture may not be as gloomy as has been painted, and that some good from this hope may yet arise ; if such prove the ease so much the bettor for all. But in the face of such improbability, surely it would bo better for the public hero to take the bull by the horns and see what they can do by themselves. As the river cannot be altered to suit the traders, the vessels coming must adapt themselves to the river as it is—when the mountain would not go to Mahomet, Mahomet had to go to the mountain, and so it must be with Patca, as far as its shipping business goes. Some few months ago, it was shown, as conclusively as figures would show, that a small steamer capable of carrying on at least a large portion of the Patca trade, could bo purchased for such a sum as would not only ensure a fair profit on the outlay, but would also keep up regular communication' with other more distant ports, thus allowing producers to send their stock or other products to a direct market, and at the same time bring back necessaries in one freight and at one expense. The scheme was so well ventilated, when first mooted, that it is quite unnecessary to repeat the conclusively convincing arguments then used in its favor, but it was shelved, or at least allowed to sleep on account of the hoped for Harbor Board, the possibility of the Engincer-in-Ohiefs recommendations being carried out, and the consequently greatly increased harbor facilities which would tempt owners to trade hero, and so obviate the necessity of a local boat to meet the special requirements of the port. These hopes have vanished, of arc vanishing, and now is the time therefore to revive the formcrproject. There are surely enough settlers and others ready Ho raise sufficient money for the purchase of a boat that will so specially serve their best interests; A vessel capable of entering

and leaving tin; port regularly, at least at the highest tides, can easily bo procured, and one that -would carry stock, wool, grain, or aught else needed to Wellington, the West Coast of the Middle Island, or elsewhere, whore the best market offered. Surely people will not allow foolish apathy to stand in the way of their direct interest, and continue to pay double freights, double wharfage,*" have to submit to loss and risk in driving stock as at present through receiving or shipping from Wanganui, when they can do so direct by the outlay of a small capital. This is especially the, time to take action, and tor the district’s sake we hope that some of- the more energetic will do so without delay.

The usual monthly meetings of tho Education and Town Boards will bo held on Monday next —the former at the secretary’s office at 10 a.m, tho latter in the Court House at 7 p.m. W r c hear that the Maoris arc fencing in largo quantities' of the Waimatc Plains for cultivation purposes. Wiremn Akaraia is busily employed in this way, and intends farming on a largo scale. How confiscation and occupation can be reconciled is a matter for the Native office to determine. A very serious and disgusting charge has been preferred against Mr C. E. Ilaughton, Under-Secretary for Immigration. He was arrested at Dunedin, and remanded to Wellington, bail being taken, himself in £4OO and two sureties in £2OO each. Tho boating match between Trickett and Lumsdon has fallen through, the latter, or his backers having shown the white feather and forfeited tho deposits made. The next niatcli that Trickett will row will be with Higgins, said to he tho best oarsmen in England. Should he be as successful as with Saddler, his fame will bo fully established, and his title to tho championship undisputed in English waters. Both Rush and Hickey, of New South Wales, however have notified their intention of challenging him on his return to Sydney, so lie will have his hands full.

There is as yet no confirmation of the news as to serious complications between England and Russia. The following items were received by the Press Agency via Singapore, dated London, August 2G; — Disraeli has been created Earl of Bcaconsficld, aiul -appointcd Lord Privy Seal.—The Government have offered a reward of £250 for the discovery of Mr Bravo’s murderer, with a free pardon to any accomplice turning Queen’s evidence.-—On the 15th of August, Parliament was prorogued by commission. The speech said that foreign relations were friendly and entente cordiale continues. Should favorable occasion offer England will be ready to act in concert with her allies and offer negotiations, and while respecting present treaties and interests her policy will be one of humanity, and hopes for a speedy conclusion of the extradition treaty difficulty with America.— The Wanganui Chronicle of Tuesday last, referring to war probabilities, says : “ Yet, it is nevertheless a singular coincidence, that from Melbourne yesterday a communication was. received by the local agent of an insurance company, advising him of the fact that war, if it had not actually already been declared, was imminent, and ample instructions were enclosed providing for the negotiation of war risks.”

In the Resident Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday last, two seamen of the Fawn named William Young and Walter Norbury, sued Captain Davis for £lO 2s each. Captain Davis paid the money due to each man into Court—£B 17s Gel and £8 13s Gd respectively, and it appeared that he had tendered the money previously, but the plaintiffs had refused to accept it. The evidence showed that the offer made was more than sufficient to cover the real responsibility, and a verdict for the amount paid into Court was given—costs, of course, being against the plaintiffs. Major Turner, R.M., and Dr Croft, J.P., occupied the Bench.

Wo remind our readers that Mr William Dale will sell the Hawera Town Board reserves to-day. The Patca Kilwinning Masonic Lodge will be hold on Wednesday next, and we supplement the announcement in another column to this effect by a notice, in order that country members maybe duly apprised of the gathering. As is known, Captain Skect, the surveyor who endeavored to penetrate from Hawera to Waikato, but failed by a few miles, returned safely. Ho was, however, absent so long that fears were entertained for him, and his son started with a search party to look after him. It was supposed that Skeet, junior, had come to grief on his expedition, as he too was some time out, but this happily proved erroneous, as he turned up at Wanganui, and passed through Carlyle en route for New Plymouth by coach on Wednesday last. Dr Warren, from New Plymouth, will give advice, at Espagno’s hotel at Hawera, to-day, to-morrow, and Monday next, from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m. No doubt lie will be duly patronised. ' In the maw of a monster shark, recently caught at Port Denison, Queensland, were found a gilt-edged Bible and a tin of salmon vvith other miscellaneous articles.-

■Tim N.Z. Times referring to the floating of the last loan of £1,250,000 in London says ;—As a matter of fact, though that loan has to pay 5 per cent interest it in contrast with 44 payable on the £4,000,000 loan, yet on account of the one being taken up at par, whilst the other netted 9IA, the rate of interest ®n each will be practically equal. That is to say, we shall pay no more interest on the sum netted by tho last loan than we are paying on the £4,000,000. Indeed, it is not impossible that it may turn out, when the necessary commissions and interest are known, that tho absolute interest on the sum netted by the last loan will ho less than that on tho net proceeds of (lie £4,000,000 loan. The North Otago 'Times reports that on a recent date, a man named John Morrison (a plasterer), residing at the north end of Oamaru town, poured some kerosene oil over his wife’s head, and then set fire to it. The woman rushed screaming into the street. Some neighbors extinguished the lire, but not before all tho hair, and a groat deal of the skin of the face had been burnt off.

A most determined attempt at suicide was perpetrated at, AVaipori (Otago) on a recent date by a miner named Maxwell. Maxwell, who was suffering from the effects of drink, becoming seriously ill, was removed to the hut of a neighbor, and a man proceeded to the township to procure some brandy and the assistance of the police. On returning to the hut, Maxwell was found in a hunk covered with blood, and when questioned by the constable, replied, “ I was ordered to kill myself with a tomahawk.” An axe was found outside the hut, close to the chopping block, covered with blood, and witli this it was apparent the injuries liadtbccu done. On examination Maxwell was found to be frightfully injured, and the constable therefore otdered his immediate removal to the Hospital, where lie arrived in an unconscious suite. Dr. Stewart was in immediate attendance, and found a large circular wound on the crown of the head and tho skull literally smashed, several pieces of the bone having to bo removed in the dressing, leaving the brain visible. The unfortunate man’s life is despaired of.

An interesting-paper in the last Quarterly entitled, “ Modern newspaper enterprise,” gives an excellent general idea o£ the revolution which has been effected in journalism daring the last ten years, by the agency of the electric telegraph ; and owing to which the newspaper press has become the mirror not of a nation, but of the world,” The Times, for example, pays £3OOO a year for the use of a special wire for six hours every night, to Paris, where it has a bureau in which is focussed the history of the whole of Europe during the day that has closed, and it is making similar arrangements with regard to Berlin. Every Sunday evening, by contract entered into for three years, it enjoys the exclusive use of a wire from Blackfriars to India. Equally energetic is the enterprise which provides for the distribution of the London morning papers throughout the United Kingdom by special newspaper trains, which enables the Times and its rivals to bo delivered in Birmingham, simultaneously with the publication of the local journals. Nor docs the English press sacrifice —as the American papers are rather apt to do—the literary excellence of their leading columns in order to acquire priority or pre-eminence as the collectors of news ; for, as the writer in Fraser observe, “ Never was newspaper writing so well remunerated as at present, and never before did the man who is content to be and to be known as a journalist, pure and simple occupy so good a position in society as he does now-a-days.” Men of social eminence and literary repute now fill the position of London correspondents to the best of the provincial press ; and, says the writer,” I know of one London Lttcr which costs £IOO a month.” The mechanical invention keeps pace with managerial enterprise. The’morning papers are stereotyped in ten minutes after “ the forme,” is made up; as many as six or eight replicas arc being worked on as many machines, and 00,000 copies per hour are thrown off.

In our last issue says the Manawatu Times of Saturday last, was contained a report concerning a man who was lost in the bush near this township for a period of three days, hut who luckily turned up just as a large party had been organized to go in search of him. We have now to record a case of a somewhat similar nature, but concerning which there arc strong grounds to fear a worse termination. A A man named McAdam, /who, we understand, was one of the workmen engaged at the Hokowhitu saw mill, but who had been drinking for some time past, escaped the vigilance of his messmates on Saturday night last, and went into the bush. Owing to McAdam’s condition at the time of his departure, it is feared that he walked into a largo and dangerous lagoon which is situate in the bush a short distance from the mill. Search parties have been out, and • the lagoon dragged, but as yet without finding the missing man. We leai'h that Dr. Hector is expected hj} 7 the mail steamer due here on the 14th inst; He will inspect the Nevada silver mines en route, and arrange for a shipment of salmon ova from-San Francisco to New Zealand;

On the 29tii ult., news of a wreck came from Charleston, on the West Coast of the Middle Island. A telegram, from there says Yesterday..forenoon portions of a wreck were found in Constant and Second Bays. Shortly afterwards the shattered hull of a small vessel was observed in the roadstead drifting northwards. Part of the combings of the deck, with the beams of a vessel of about 40 tons, some planks, and two pieces of head-rail, were picked up with the letters FLY painted white. No doubt the wreckage is a portion of the Flying Cloud, of Lyttelton, which came here on Saturday in ballast, with a strong breeze from the north-east. The wind being unsteady, probably the vessel capsized in a squall and drifted on the rocks near Four Mile Eivor. A boat has been picked up near Brighton. As the surf was breaking furiously, no hopes are entertained of the safety of Andrews, the master, and the three men who formed the crow.”

Captain Campbell Walker, in the Otago Times, denies that he is the author of “ The Correct Card,” or of any work on whist, and indignantly repels the insinuation that his alleged superiority as a whist player was a recommendation to the Premier to appoint him to his present position. In a lecture recently delivered in Dunedin by the Lev. Mr Agnew upon“ Botany Bay,” the lecturer said that comparatively few wore acquainted with the early histoiy of Now South Wales, and many men and women would blush for the country that gave them birth. The early history of New South Wales had appeared to be so injurious to many families that the present Government thought themselves justified in collecting all th o public documents relating thereto and burning them, so that the facts were confined to a few. The records of the bitter facts were burned into their very souls, and written with the lash upon their backs. Professor Sale complains on behalf of schoolmasters of the small salaries paid to them. In a letter to the Daily Times, he says “ The masters that we have, how are they paid ? Is there in this prosperous settlement a more beggarly trade than that of a schoolmaster ? And is there any profession which requires higher qualities in the men who undertake it ? Is there any work more exhausting ? Is there any business which requires half the cultivation the patience, the kindness, the high moral character, which is required and expected from the most miserably paid class of men among us ? No one.”