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Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 150, 16 September 1876, Page 2

The opening cricket ■ match of the season, Married v. Hingle, veil I bo played today, weather permitting. Tho latter have far tho strongest team, and should score an easy win.

■ Mr Win. Dale will hold an extensive sale of general merchandise at his mart today, when bargains can be had. An Emergency meeting of the- Patent Kilwinning Masonic Lodge will be held on Wednesday next. In addition to initiations and other routine business, a report will be received relative to the proposed ball. It is to be hoped that nothing will prevent this forthcoming festivity from coming off with all the eclat that is expected. A number of the fair sex arc looking forward to it with no little pleasure, and wo have no doubt that their anticipations will be fully realised. Farmers and others, who may wish to buy or sell stock of any kind, will no doubt bear in mind the fact that Mr AVrn. Dale will offer a large number of cattle for sale on Tuesday next, at Manntahi,at Mr Campbell’s yards. In addition to these, horses, both for draught and saddle, will be submitted and a large number of them will bo sold without reserve.

Tho question of the proposed Patoa County boundaries will be taken into consideration at tho public meeting called at Manutahi, to bo held on Wednesday next. The subject is one of intense interest to the public here, and we have no doubt that a large attendance at the meeting in question, will show bow deeply people feel respecting it.

We remind our readers that the annual parade of stallions will take place this day in Carlyle, under the auspices of the Patca Agricultural and Pastoral Association. There will, we hear, be a good show, and faimers and others cannot do better than come in to inspect them. The hour is fixed at 2 p.m., and the ground will be behind the telegraph office.

We arc requested to draw tho notice of carpenters and builders to the fact that tenders for building additions are called for by Mr W. Williams, and will close this afternoon. Owing to an oversight, the advertisement was omitted in our last issue, and wo therefore wish to call special attention on this occasion.

A capital display of meat was exhibited by Mr George Trcwcck last evening, at bis shop in Bed ford-street, He had beef, mutton,- lamb, pork, and veal of splendid quality, and there can bo no doubt that all will •; bo properly appreciated by bis cu Homers. Too internal affairs of the Kakaramca Town Hall arc to be considered within its walls to-night. What the subjects for consideration arc wo do not know, but those interested will-no doubt attend and learn for themselves. Mr llobcrt Horner, of AVhcnnaknra now, lately of Maxwell, who has for several years been favorably known-in connection with stock and their ailments, lias commenced practice as a vctonna.iy surgeon, and his announcement appeal's in another column. A skilled practitioner of the kind Ims long been wanted in the district, and Mr Horner will no doubt have as much as he oo,n do, on the fact of his services being available, being generally known. It seems that the application to the Government to offer the Opako block on deferred! payments lias been sent too late, as the Government have resolved on selling it on the 2Gth of October next. As > yet wc have'no information as to the tonus on which the land will be disposed of, but may presume that it will bo on the usual conditions. At the same time, it is within the power of the Government to make any relaxation that may be deemed iipccsGiuy, and in this case a departure from ordinary rnlo would not only stimulate settlement, hut would also enhance the prices of sections sold. There may yet be a cbancc of this license being permitted. In connection with this block, there is a good deal of quiet but useful work going on. Two miles of a rough road have already been cut, and three more miles arc to be opened, by which the back of the land will bo rendered accessible. The purchasers of the land will therefore have every inducement and convenience offered them, and high rates, whether on deferred or usual payments, may be confidently looked for.

A distressing story comes from Wairnni one that, unfortunately, is too true, and shows most conclusively how inadequate existing institutions are to meet nil thatifl necessary in New Zealand. Homo iittlo time ago a man named Gibbins deserted his wife and left her to maintain throe helpless children. This in itself was surely bad enough, but tho wrong was doubly infamous, from the fact that, of those three children, two of them, now aged 4 and 5 years respectively, have proved to be idiots, or at least something approaching to that fearful condition. The mother applied to tho Wellington Provincial. Government, asking that they should bo received into the Lunatic Asylum, and a reply was received that, on the cvrtideate of two medical men, other conditions being also annexed, tho children would be . received as requested. Under these circumstances the P.M. made due enquiries through the police, and ascertained that the children were mute, though apparently capable of: parental control, inasmuch as they will obey their mother in any command she may give them. Still they arc in such a condition as to require more care than she can offer them, and there is .no place but. tho asylum, that she can place them in. It would appear them that some refuge fitted to meet eases of tho kind is needed, and we hope that, at least on the Counties Bill becoming; law> such may be provided. As the matter at present stands, though Mrs. Gibbins is both able and willing to work for her unfortunate children, and lias already offered to nay LI per week for their maintenance) die cannot got shelter for them, excepting under such conditions as she is unable to comply with. Certainly some legislation) to meet such eases, is needed.

Mr Powdrcll, owner of the first-class colt Resolution, one of the best of Pacific’s get, has determined on putting him to the stud for the present season, and and his terms appear elscw’hcrc. This colt was one of the very* best of his year, and as his escutcheon is without stain, should be of high value to breeders. The coat of his services is very low, and he will no doubt soon secure the limited number of inarcs that his owner intends to take.

In the Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday, a well-known Maori thief named Poharama, the same genius that achieved the recent robbery of £SB, was charged wi tli stealing some pigs, the property of a fellow countryman named II on arm Tho natives themselves handed tho culprit over to the authorities, having found him incurable, It may be possibly remembered that the same man robbed a native only a week or so ago, and that, after being detected, a Maori Court punished him after their own fashion, and the felony was thereby condoned. • He has now, however, even outrun tho tether of Maori patience, and, tho case being clearly proved against him, ho was sentenced to six month’s imprisonment with hard labor. He will take his departure for Taranaki on the first opportunity,' but in the meantime has been holding a tangi over himself and howled misex-ably all yesterday in the lockup over his desolate condition. There were a few unimportant civil cases, and the Court then adjourned. Major Turner E.M., and Dr Croft, J.P., occupied- the . Bench.

The adjourned meeting of the Patca District Jockey Club will take place this day, at the Albion Hotel, at half-past 2o’clock. All members arc particularly requested to attend. A bridle track-is about to-bo cut at a spot known as ■■Kaliaroa, between Patca and \Vhenna!-:lira. It will be only six feet in width, and is intended chiefly to enable pack-horses to convoy provisions to surveyors who will lay off land lately purchased from Maoris, during the ensuing summer months, Tho - block is, wo arc told, some 200,000 acres in extent, bid its exact area, till surveyed, cannot of course be precisely given. The track in question, wo may add, will be the initiatory thread as it were, in unravelling- tho skein that will load to Waikato. Mr Sicoly and other surveyors have been busy during tho last -few days, under instructions from tho General Government, in surveying the land on the hanks of the Patca river, so as to reserve “ the foreshore” as it is technically termed. This is preliminary and necessary on tho proposed Harbor Board being constituted, and it is to be hoped that these proceedings will not be in vain. The Paterson Guardian says that a neighboring farmer recklessly ventures the following challenge :—I will bet 42 do I. 25 cents, that my hired man 'can take loug-or to get to the corn -field, ‘ get bade to dinner quicker, oat more, do less, and bear down harder on a panel fcuco than any oilier hired man within ten miles of the City-hall of Paterson.” On Saturday forenoon (says tho N.Z. Times') two men carrying swags entered tho shop of Mr Boss, Taita, and asked to bo allowed to rest. This was granted. One of the men said to the other, “ take oil your swag and as tho man addressed was in the act of doing so, ho fell down? apparently in a fit. Ordinary means being ineffectual for his restoration, a neighboring boy, David Mabcy, was despatched on horseback for Dr Wilford, who was promptly iii attendance ; but on his arrival life was found to bo extinct. Ilis mate could not even give the name of the deceased, but said that from what ho could gather from him on the road ho had boon at one time in tho employ of Mr Easby Wellington. Tho Tost in reviewing a burlesque poem, entitled, “Julius Box, or Men of his Time,” which has been printed in Poverty Bay? remarks: —“Tho conception is not a bad one, but the poet, who is some lunatic in Poverty Bay, has failed miserably in its execution. The poetry is vile doggrol, unrelieved by any Hashes of wit or humor. Tho poem closes by (Icsoi-ibin/r a fmniight in the House, in which, while Bees is knocking down Vogel, and McLean is demolishing Grey, a terrific earthquake occurs, and New Zealand is submerged under the waves of the Pacific, drowning the whole lot of senators, save Vogel, who escaped in a boal,and is ultimately rescued by the deities, who carry him beyond tho skies. After a lime,. New Zealand again comes to the surface as a brand new country, cleared of all its twenty millions of debt. This is a plot with a vengeance. Is there no lunatic asylum in Poverty Bay where its author could he taken care of ?”

A good si my is fold in a Sent horn journal of a young English lady, who lias recently arrived with her husband in ■ Wellington; Happening to be taken seriously ill at her house, the next neighbor hearing of it sent her servant in to perform certain neighborly acts of kindness, for which the: lady and her husband wore very grateful, as they had not been able to obtain a servant. On her recovery, being brimful of gratitude, and unaware of the Brummagem etiquette of tiro Wcllingtonians, she wont and called to thank her neighbor, and this is the way she was received. The lady of the bouse never rose from her chair, and nearly the first, question she put was, “ Eh, I think Mrs——— , you don’t go into society Mrs , feeling that the question was put in a most offensive tone, replied, “ No ; I don’t go into society, as I don’t consider society good enough for mo.” It is hut fair to say that, .smarting under the uncalled for snub, she said what she, did, and on wishing the lady of the house good morning she was allowed to leave the room and find her way out of the house,as j best she could. This is a specimen of the manners of the elite of Wellington. I may mention that the English lady had ;been in the habit of meeting the late Premier of England at her father’s house, but she was not in society in the colony, having .only been a month in New Zealand.

Lawrence (Otago) boasts of a veritable wild man oi the woods in the person of a “ hatter” named Armstrong, of whom the Times writes :—“This man, who was in the habit of visiting the township clothed in, bags fastened together with flax, which resembling the cut of a modern Robinson Crusoe, has without doubt become a prey to melancholy. Recently ho was seen bn the ranges near Bungtown by Win. Brown a digger there, and, on his trying to get within speaking distance, Armstrong fled like a deer,.making pursuit hopeless. He is said to be covered with hair. A gentleman who had been in the habit of supplying the solitary digger in this inhospitable region .with rations, says that Armstrong has not purchased food for four months,”

T!.io Jewish' Chronicle estimates .that tlie children of. Israel resident in Grout Britain number 51,250, of whom .00,0133 have sought homes in the metropolis. 1 A ' hot fight is expected among the, ■ Presbyterians of: Victoria. The 1.1 ev. Mr Henderson has brought before the Prcsbytciy tby-dcsirability of abolishing the obligation of subscription to the standard of faith contained in the Westminster Confession. The Post states that between Friday morning and Sunday night no less than 22-1,705 foot of timber were imported into Wellington, all of which, with the exception of 20,000 t'oct,.froni Kaipara, came from Pelorns Sound. An old- detective ■at Troy U.S., says—“lf I desired to .train 1 my son fur a detective I would first make him a newspaper reporter. That, beyond any other business, is the business that makes stupid men smart, ordinary men able and capable men brilliant; and what an experienced: reporter cannot detect is not worth detect ing” In Dunedin a man who had his log broken by a coach accident on Christmas Day, has recovered -EIOO from the proprietor of tho conveyance, (who was also tho driver, it being proved that ho was not a competent driver, .and bad one horse in tho team not properly broken in.