Untitled

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 182, 6 January 1877, Page 2

As our readers will see that Mr Thomas Kells of Waitotara has been elected to the honorable position of County Chairman. Mr Kells is held in high respect by all classes, and will, we are sure, fulfil the duties of his new position moat creditably and well. The Armed Constabulary force is being very largely reduced, the whole number now in Wanganui, Patea, and Taranaki districts, being reduced to GO. As our readers may be aware considerable reductions nave been recently made in the local forces, and more, if wo are correctly informed are projected. The death of Sir Donald McLean will cause grief in many a Native heart, and all must regret the genial cx-Msnister. We can only add our tribute of sympathy with his bereaved family, and express our sorrow that he has, so soon aftcq being released from the harness of ministerial life, met with his fate. _ Masons throughout the colony r will specially fee! sorrow.

As there is no longer any necessity for concealing - names, wo may say that Air E. Meredith, Clerk of the R.M. Court, was the officer, into whose conduct Dr Giles lately came to enquire. We are glad to say that nothing beyond good natured laxity was proved against him, and his friends will gladly welcome this news. Notwithstanding this, a new Clerk of the Con'd, Mr James, has been appointed, and came up yesterday. We presume that he will enter on his duties to day.

The value of Mrs Hair’s breed of sheep has been long - established, but it was shown conclusively at a recent shearing on the farm of Messrs 0. and E. Synies- They purchased fourteen rams from her, from which they recently clipped 274!b5. of wool, being an average of 191bs. loz. each. The two heaviest fleeces were 24£lbs. and 241bs. respectively

We would direct the attention of onr readers to the sale of timber by Mr W. Dale on Tuesday next, particulars of which appear in our advertising columns. He will also hold a sale of merchandise this day, at 2 o’clock. We would point our reader's attention to Mr Cowern’s monthly cattle sale at Kakaramea, on Wednesday next. Entries will bo received till date.

The proprietor of a Temperance Hotel at Featherston, Wararapa (says the Mercury), has been fined £3O for sly-grog selling. The official statement is that there arc n0w4,500 persons on the Kumara diggings, 3,000 of whom are engaged in mining. A new and distinct lead, known as the; Shamrock, has been opened, and on it there are upwards of 400 miners in payable claims. At the banquet given to the Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of New South Wales, said : “ Some day, doubtless, the desire will grow up between these adjoining Colonies for joint action upon matters of continental concern, and when that is brought about these Anglo-Saxon communities in Australia will assuredly occupy a proud position in the world—(cheers) —and will be enabled unitedly to advance not only the progress of civilisation, but also the development of the younger Britain which is now so rapidly growing into maturity in those seas."

The Auckland evening journal possesses a dramatic critic who can gush splendidly. This is how he describes Mrs Lingavd in ‘‘Our Boys” ;—“The splendid contour of her flowing figure, the turn of her queenly head, ami the graceful elegance attending all her movements, arc enough to turn the heads of all the youth of our city. She enhances these natural charms by exquisite taste in her dressing, and by the most delightfully natural coquettishuoss of manner. If a woman like this will stand upon the stage, and in all the glory of her beauty, with artful artlessness, say, ‘ldo not know much about kisses, but 1 am ready and willing to take an awful lot of teaching,' can she be displeased if a hundred youngfoliows start in their seats with the scarcely suppressed exclamation, ‘By Jove, I’m there for one !”—Oamaru Mail. Mr H. M. Stanley, the African explorer and discoverer of Livingstone, is in hot water with that British public which, a few short years ago, fawned upon him to such a sickening extent. He has, under cover of the British flag, been amusing himself on an island in the Lake of N\ r anza in firing explosive bullets into the natives. In this way be and bis party shot fortytwo men "dead, besides wounding many more. And this, not in self-defence, but in a spirit of revenge. The committees of the Aborigines Protection Society and the Anti-Slavery Society have petitioned the Foreign Secretary of State that steps might be taken to “ prevent the recurrence of acts calculated to indict irreparable injury upon the cause of African civilization.” To this Lord Derby has replied that Her Majesty’s consuls on the East Coast of Africa are instructed to intimate to Mr Stanley (if they can get at hitnl that he has no authority whatever to hoist the British -flag, and to request him to discontinue doing so forthwith. The British flag has quite enough to answer for without any assistance from outsiders. If Mr Stanley’s object is to close the country to subsequent exploration he could not have adopted more efficacious means.

In his capacity as Acting Grand Master of Scotland, Sir James ITergusson, our ex-Govornor, recently laid the foundation stone of a new clock at Ayr, on the I‘Jth September. The dock will cover eight and a half acies of ground, and is estimated to cost £132,000.

Miss Elphinsfon Dick, a celebrated swimmer, has arrived in Melbourne from England, and has given several exhibitions of her skill at the St. Kilda baths, where she lias been engaged to instruct ladies and children in the art. The following account of bow a boa constrictor was found among the cargo of the ship Surprise, which sailed fiom Natal, is related by a correspondent of the London Times :—lt appears that, while at the port, she went within the bar to load, being a small vessel, and consequently was close to the bush. One evening after her cargo had been shipped, while the crew were having a little jollification among themselves, one of the crew, who happened to possess a concertina, was playing various tunes for the amusement of Ids companions. It is supposed that the music attracted the boa on board, and being disturbed it must have found its way into the hold, as the hatches were off at the time, and concealed itself among the cargo, as it was not discovered till the ship was well on the voyage home. When she arrived in dock the question arose as to how it was to bo captured, but with the assistance of Mr Jamrach, it was successfully accomplished. I have seen the reptile, and I should think it is about 8 or 9 feet in length, and us thick as the calf of a man’s leg - . It has existed during the voyage on rats and other vermin, with which I am informed the vessel swarmed while at Port Natal, and now there is not a rat to be seen on any part of the vessel, so that in future it may be thought desirable to ship a boa constrictor instead of other animals to catch the vermin.

The watchmakers of Besoncon have been making Madame MacMahon a nice little present —a watch so small that the time cannot be read off it without a glass of high magnifying power. The Duke d’Aumale, who was present at the ceremony, remarked that an ancestor of his, the Due do Pcnthicvre, wore watches in his waistcoat buttons, and, to show that the family taste in that way was not extinct, ordered on the spot some fairy chronometers for his shirt and wrist studs. I can fancy few things more alarming than to hear one’s neighbour at a dinner party striking at intervals from all his Studs. The Claimant having committed a breach of prison discipline, has lost all his good marks, which will protract the period of his detention. A feat (says the London correspondent of a Melbourne paper) was really performed hero last week, which is pleasant to hear of, for it is an agricultural one, and such things have become rare since the birth of the steam plough. It is only in old magazines that we read how Sir Robert Throgmorton caused the wool to be taken from his sheep’s back and made into a coat for him within twenty-four hours, and such like wondrous tales of agricultural prowess. But at Newbury, in Berkshire, last week, a farmer named Charlwood, of 50 years of age, has quite revived the ancient days. He undertook for a wager—a good one, I hope, since he won it—to put on carts the produce of 20 acres of wheat, within the hours of daylight, single-handed, and without assistance of any kind. Unfortunately—for the acres were not his—it happened to be a very heavy yield, making no less than three and a half ricks, of ten yards long, five yards wide, and of good height, lie began his task at a quarter to 4 a.m., and finished at 20 minutes past 9, when he could just see. It is calculated that he carted 200 sacks of wheat and about GO tons of straw, which is a good three day’s work for an ordinary farm laborer. Ido hope this will put the final stopper on those persons who seem to take so keen a pleasure in declaring that what the world has gained in intelligence it has lost in physique. In running, walking, swimming, and now in carrying crops, the moderns have shown themselves superior to all who came before them, and I trust we shall have no more rubbish to the contrary.