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Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 165, 8 November 1876, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Standard explains'why the Governor has appointed a commission to investigate, certain matters at Gisborne, • on which business slaj or Brown has gone.' It la the casus belli known as Wilson v. Rogan and others. Mr Commissioner Wilson, in his report to the Government, relative to tho land purchase proceedings on the East Coast, implicated many prominent officials and settlers in Poverty Bay, as having been inimical to hia operations by negotiating with the natives for the purchase of their lands, which he, Mr Wilson, alleges it was not competent for them to do. Mr Wilson’s report was held by the Native Minister to comprehend charges of such magnitude and that he withheld it from publicity;-a.^^Bid not lay it before the House with tho reports from the other Land Purchase Commissioners, until the several gentlemen charged should have an opportunity of replying to, and, if possible, rebutting the accusations contained in it. One of the officers named was Judge Rogan, who—rather incautiously, we think, while the matter was under investigation by the Native Department —handed over his copy of Mr Wilson’s ropoit to our local contemporary for public comment. Whether or not that act of Judge Rogan’s has prejudiced the case for or against Mr Commissioner Wilson or himself we are not able to say, but the Government have looked upon it with disfavor, and questions concerning it have been asked in Parliament, in reply to which it was announced that Sir Donald McLean’s indisposition prevented any immediate action being taken. Mrs Jane Clilft, a widow and dressmaker residing at South Melbourne, was summoned to ' the Prahran Police Court recently, to answer , a charge of having illegally posted, under newspaper rate, a copy of tho Southern Cross , in the folds of which was concealed a slip of paper bearing the words, “ I will be down on Saturday to see you.” The newspaper was found to be cut up into patterns of a child’s dress. The bench, however, considered that there had been no attempt to defraud the revenue, as the paper was made up more as a parcel than a newspaper, and the postage was simply deficient. Case dismissed. A Mr Adolphus Cooke has just died in England, with a rent roll of £4OOO a year, which is claimed by Lord Longford as his heir. He was a declared atheist, but believed in the transmigration of souls. His fixed idea was that he was going at one time to be a fox—not recognising the fact that he was rather in that way already, in some respects. With his cunning, however, was mingled a great simplicity ; this theory was that all animals were gentle unless provoked by man, and to illustrate this position he endeavored to conciliate an angry bull, with the most unfortunate results. He caused sticks to be annually collected for the crows to facilitate their nest building, ami affirmed that trees when cross cut would grow again if stuck in the ground. Yet Mr Adolphus Cooke died “ at large ” and was buried in a tomb built for himself in his garden, and in which were several aTm-chairs and lounges.” A very remarkable fact (says “ Atticus,’ ’ in the Melbourne Leader ) in connection with the cemetery of one of the Australian capitals has just been communicated to mo. For a long time past it has been remarked that the burials from public institutions of Wesleyans, and the smaller denominations, was all proportion to the numbers of those denominations as returned in the census. Inquiries were made, and the reason soon became apparent. The Government allows a minister’s fees for each pauper funeral ; but as the only churches that have a clergyman on the ground to read tho funeral services are the Episcopalian and Roman Catholic, it follows that the contracting undertaker is able to pocket tho fees himself when the deceased does not belong to the persuasion of these gentlemen. The undertaker had the naming of the denominations of his clients, and naturally made them of the faith that would be most beneficial to himself. Tho discovery was brought about by a person namfed Patrick O’Toole being entered in the cemetery books as a Jew, while as a matter of fact he was a Roman Catholic.

A London paper has been exercising itself over the matrimonial advertisements in the German newspapers, and prints two samples of them, which may prove interesting to colonial youths and maidens similarly affected. The first reads thus : —“ To the for-marriage-wishing. A forty-two-ycar-old, not comely, but of easy temper, evangelical, and with furniture well provided, Royal State Official, wishes earnestly with a tolerably young, of pleasing exterior, and fair complexion, blue-eyed, in all domestic arrangements expert, with from Ll2O to'Llso endowed, mai den or widow, an honorable connection, together to hook. Ladies on this proposition friendlily reflecting, will most amiably their offers to “ Rhinosceros,” at the newspaper Expedition Office, send.” The other advertisement is of a more romantic and impassioned nature, reading thus:—“ The dark-eyed, luxuriant-locked beauty, who sat in stall 51, fourth row, in the Wal.'ner Theatre, on Tuesday evening, and wept pearly tears over Anna Ivanoona’s sorrows, is passionately entreated to communicate her honored name to Yysilon, a young Israelitish merchant in flourishing dreumstahees. Love, Respect, and Silence! At the editor’s .office.” ' ■

That caution should be observed in taking doctor’s prescriptions, was evidenced in a Coroner’s inquisition at Dunedin recently, on the body of Mathew M’Callmn, who died through an overdose of chloral hydrate. lie had been a sleeping draughl, and instead of taking it in doses as directed by the doctor, he drank it nearly all at one time, thus causing his death. It was remarked, that doctor’s prescriptions often contained poisonous ingredients, and patients should exercise caution with'them, “iEglcs”in the Australaslun narrates the following :—“ It was a most edifying spectacle- That a gentleman —the guest of his Excellency Sir George Bowen — should, under his Excellency’s roof, remove his dress-coat, and in his shirt-sleeves express his desire to fight, must perhaps be attributed to the novelty of bis surroundings. That he was a gentleman there can he no doubt. For —in the most positive manner—he assured the admiring bystanders of the fact. And of course they believed him !" A writer in the London News says :—“ It is not, unfortunately, generally known that in case of fire in buildings containing horses, if the harness bo put on (however roughly) the horses will quit their stable without difficulty. A knowledge of this fact may be the means of saving many a valuable animal from a horrible death.” The Evening Argus of Monday says :— : It is currently reported that Sir George Grey resolutely refuses to believe in the authenticity of the late reply from Lord : Carnarvon, and insists that It is a_ wicked forgery concocted by Ministerialists, and simply telegraphed from Sydney. The to the story is, that having beemishown the original telegram, Sir George declared that the signature was not at all like Lord Cnrnarvon’s !