The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1876.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 170, 25 November 1876, Page 2

The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1876.

The entertainment in aid of Mr Francis and family will take plaee on Wednesday next, in the Town Hall. The programme, which appears in another column, is an exceedingly good one, and will certainly draw a bumper house. The following are the names of the Patcaites chosen to do battle against the Wanganui Union Cricket Club to-day : Messrs Fraser, Jacomb, Finnerty, Helps; Baggett, Bayly, Taplin, Tennent, Meredith, Fetch, and R. Dasent. Wickets will bo pitched at 9 a.m. The general meeting of the Patea West and Patea East Road Boards will take place on Monday next, in the Court House, the former at 12 noon, and the latter at 2 p.m. Our lower down contemporary, the Wanganui Chronicle, seems to be taking particular interest in our welfare of late, and in its issue of j-esterclay throws out some remarks in reference to the editorship of this journal, peculiar only to such a miserable rag as the Chronicle, the proprietor of which has been so sadty bitten through the start and advance of the Patea Mail, that he takes every opportunity of getting rid of his venom. The Chronicle's columns are no doubt a credit to the editor, inasmuch as one-half of the matter is taken from other papers without acknowledgment, and the other half any child could sit down and write with ease. The learned editor of the Chronicle should first look at home before lie talks about other people.

Wc would direct the attention of onr readers to Mr Broadbcnt’s advertisement in another column, who has taken the premises lately used as the Patea Mail office, and intends to dispose of a large quantity of drapery goods at very low rates. Full particulars can be gained from the advertisement.

We remind our Wavcrley readers that the 7th December is the regular quarterly vaccination day, and that Dr "Walker, the public vaccindtor, will be at Waverly on that date for the above purpose.

It is a Avell known fact, remarks The Herald (Melbourne), that most of the persons employed in tlxe banks of this colony who have within the last few years been convicted of stealing moneys belonging to the banks have been brought to ruin by betting on horse races and gambling in other ways. The various banks have be. gun to recognise the danger of allowing their employees to gamble, and seem determined to prohibit it as far as may be practicable. It is stated that the other day a dialogue of which the following is the substance, took place between the manager of one of the banks in this city and one of the clerks :—Manager : “ Is it true that you have won £SOO by betting on Nemesis ?” Clerk : “It is.” Manager ; “ then you have your choice of two courses, —furnish to mo immediately an account of your debts, and your assets, or resign your position here.” The clerk chose the alternative first indicated, and the account showed a balance in his favour of £500.. The manager then addressed him thus : “You must now lodge this £SOO to your credit ; and if it is again discovered that you bet or gamble in any shape or form, you will render yourself liable to immediate dismissal.” The clerk lodged the £SOO to his credit, as required, and it is to be hoped will also carry out the final salutary injunction of his manager.

After a recent match at Chrischurch, M. Canno, the great billiard-player, exhibited some of his celebrated fancy shots, including a cannon from a ball placed on the table to one on the top of a handbell resting on the head of the marker, who sits in the centre of the table. Another to a ball placed in the bowl of a pipe in the marker’s mouth, and the bottle trick, in which ho sent six balls spinning in and out of fourteen bottles without touching them, and with strength and side that all the balls were brought back again into the corner of the table. He then proceeded to display his marvellous powers upon an English table, on which he struck a ball, which travelled round a hat in the form of a semicircle, and cannoned the other ball at the opposite pocket, thus showing his wonderful power of screw. -