The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1878.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 307, 27 March 1878, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1878.

Very many enquiries have been made as to how Major Turner has been progressing since his late serious accident. Anxious friends will be pleased to learn that, on enquiries being made, we were assured that Major Turner was progressing favorably. The appointment of Henry Williamson, Esq., of Kakaramea, as a member of the Patea Harbour Board has been gazetted.

After the Government land sale on Saturday last, Mr W. Cowern disposed of the Mokoia Recreation Reserve, 69 acres, for 3 years, to Mr Dale, for Messrs Hearn and Kennedy, at Is per acre per annum •; Waverley Recreation Reserve, 161 acres, for 3 years, to Messrs Moreton and Lupton, for 3s 6d per acre per annum. The conditions attached to the leasing of the above ■reserves, as to fencing, grassing, &c., and the terms laying so short, did not offer much inducement for spirited bidding. ibe grounds are ? to be available to the public at any time after 24 hours’ notice. Section ■ 618, Otoia-Opaku Block, 62 acres, fetched £2 5s per acre. Town section at Normanby was disposed of after auction - sale, for £25.

Mr F. R. Jackson will hold stock sale at Wanganui, to-morrow (Thursday). Election of member for the Hawcra Riding of the Patea Harbor Board, will take place to-morrow. Mr J. Gibson, Carlyle, a nd Mr J. Strachan Greig, ITawera, are candidates. Addresses will.be seen in advertising columns.

Register! Register! Register! All claims to vote must be sent in to the Registration Officer, New Plymouth by the 31st instant, otherwise there will be no opportunity of voting at any general election which may take place during the year.

Racehorses have been passing through Carlyle during the past week, on the way to Taranaki. The attention of Patea visitors is called to advertisement’of Mr J. S. Dobbin, of the Railway Hotel, Inglewood, where may be found first-class accommodation for man and horse, to any extent.

A challenge having been received from the Constabulary, Taranaki, to play a cricket match with Patea County, the following players have been selected to represent Patea, and the match will be played at Wailii to-day: —F. Bayly, Riddiford, Deresford, Mason, Corrigan* Jacomb, Fraser, Taplin, Coutts, Dixon, Kitchen, Waitingmen—Crowhurst and Hamilton. •

The annual meeting of the Patea lootball Club, for the election of officers, will be held at the Albion Hotel, Carlyle, on Saturday next,/it half-past seven o’clock. The first match of the season will be played at Carlyle on Saturday next, play to commence at three o’clock in the afternoon.

Mr W. Covvern will hold his stock sale at Hawera, to-day.

Messrs Thompson and McGuire will, hold sale of stock at Hawera to-day.

A meeting of the provisional committee appointed at meeting lately held with a view to forming a Brass Band, met at the Australasian Hotel on Monday evening. Reply to inquiry as to terras of supply and cost of instruments had been received, and was deemed favorable. A report was drawn up and signed by Messrs W. Connolly, James Rhodes, and Sam Dixon, members of the provisional committee, recommending that a general meeting of all interested should be convened to consider what further steps should betaken, and expressing confidence that funds to purchase instruments would be forthcoming an 4 that it was only desirable that intending members should attend the meeting, and name the instruments they desired to perform on. It is believed by the committee that the want of a competent band master will in a great measure be overcome by persons resident in Patea, who have, some knowledge of requirements, and who will act until a competent bandmaster arrives.

A .correspondent writes as follows : “ Sir,—The Prussian carp mentioned by you in your Saturday’s paper, came from the lake at Nukumaru, near Mr Handley’s, who can, I think, put any of your readers who may wish to stock their dams or lakes with fish, into the way of getting a supply. A word to the wise is sufficient from yours truly.— One Who Knows. A Return presented to the Assembly last session, of the native population of the South and Stewart’s Island, gives the total number as 2,608. The total acreage of land reserved for native purposes, 119,544 acres.

Two small craft, the Falcon and Agnes arrived in Patea on Saturday last. The Agnes left Havelock at 10 o’clock on Friday night, and was off the Patea River at 2 o’clock on Saturday afternoon. We learn that Major Brown has gone to New Plymouth, via Parihaka, amongst other matters, to see about site for lighthouse at Cape Egmont.

According to the report of the Inspector of Sheep for the Rangitikei District, the number of sheep within his district on which assessment is payable is 288,619, being an increase of 86,926 over last year.

The N.Z. Times of, the 2Brd instant sa y S : _lt was reported, but we have received no official information of the fact, that the Government has accepted the tender of Mr Dixon, of Auckland, for the Carterton and Featberston section of the Wellington and Masterton railway, at £49,000 or thereabouts, which amount is considered very low for the work required to be done.

Mr John Blackett, Marine Engineer, is now in Dunedin and is expected to accompany Sir John Goode in his tour of Harbor inspection in New Zealand.

At the Wellington Waste Lands Board on the 21st instant, a letter was read from Mr Fitzherbert, solicitor, stating that he would require a definite resolution from the Board before taking action against Mr Wilson for trespass at Okutuku. After some discussion, the Board resolved “ That Mr Fitzherbert, Crown solicitor at Wanganui, is hereby authorised to sue Mr Wilson under section 165 of the Land Act of 1877 for illegal occupation of, and trespass on. Crown lands in Okotuku District.”

It is the intention of the Victorian Government to supply all State schools throughout the country with a coloured chart illustrative of the common insectivorous birds of Victoria.

According to Willis’s WaUgaUUi Almanack, Good Friday will this year come, on Saturday. Of course the Almanack rnUst be correct. Printers never make mistakes.

The Wanganui Chronicle of the 23rd in--stant, reports miraculous escape of the Rev Mr and Mrs Allswortb, on the evening of the 21st from serious accident. They were returning in a buggy, from Mr Thomas Allan’s, at dusk, and, had been assisted by Mr Cheyne over the dangerous portion of the road at the Mangitangi, and the horses were going quietly up the hill, the occupants satisfied that the worst of the journey was over, when some stupid oi malicious person began moving about in the fern. One of the horses shied, and commenced plunging, and the buggy was backed down the steep side. Mr Cheyne, who was within hail, rushed back, and the occupants succeeded in alighting without injury.

The Wanganui Herald , of Friday last, aa yg_Thc action of the Government in impounding cattle from the Waimate Plains will have a good effect, as it at once upholds the Native Minister s statement that the Ministry in no way contemplate any surrender of the confiscated landOur correspondent was in error in stating that the cattle belonged to Patu, as Mr Winks paid the poundage fees and released the cattle as Iris own. On tfio authority oX Captain Wilson, who represented the Government in this matter, we may state that Patu was put forward by Mr Winks to shield him from the consequence of his illegal occupation of confiscated land, and that finding the pretence of no avail, beat once admitted the'ownership of the cattle by the payment of the poundage fees. It is a long time since such decisive action has been taken with respect to the Waimate, aud it may be received as an earnest of the future procedure of the Government.

A meeting of the Taranaki Acclimatization Society has been lately field. The report stated that there was every reason to suppose that salmon were now in the Waiwakaibo River, whilst other streams were well stocked with trout. The birds introduced by the society have been partridges, thrushes, blackbirds, goldfinches starlings, yellow-hammers, and minahs.

The Taranaki Herald of the 20th instant says : —“The tenders called by the Taranaki County Council for the formation of the Mountain Eoad from Inglewood to Surry Eoad, a distance of about five and a-half miles, have been sent in,. and the total of those accepted amounts to £712 12s. The contracts are for the formation of a road twenty feet wide, bringing it down to its, permanent level; culverts to be made and properly drained. The work is to be done within eight or ten weeks, and it will be then ready for metal.” Three contracts for portions of the same length of road had been previously let, which would bring the total cost of the formation of the five and ahalf miles to £I,OOO.

Mr A. R. Pye, plumber and tinsmith) Carlyle, has removed to newly erected premises, where he will in future keep all kinds of tinware and articles connected with the trade. See new advertisement.

Mr W. Cowern will hold sale of sundries on Friday next.

Mr Anthony Broadbent, who lately closed his Haw era drapery establishment, announces that he will be back in Haweraby the Ist of April with a new stock of goods.

The s.s. Clyde brought up last trip the boiler and plant of the Boiling down Company, and after discharging about 30 tons general cargo at Hirst’s wharf, went down to the heads, and safely discharged the above.

The Wellington Argus, of the 19th instant, says—Most people will be pleased that the libel case against George Jones has terminated as it ha£ done. Owing to legal technicalities the defendant was prevented from putting in evidence in justification, and this being so, and his mouth as it were being closed, the jury,, as it seems tons, took the only ( fair course open to them, and practically decided that Jones, having written and published in his newspaper the article complained of, did so in the public interest, believing its statements to be true, and was therefore not guilty. The highest legal opinion at home seems to be that under such circumstances no libel can be held to exist, and in the interest of that free criticism which is absolutely necessary for an independent Press, the above appears to be a just view.

Richmond Hursthouse, Esq., MJI.R., has published a further denial in the Nelson Mail, of his having- had anything to do with the New Plymouth arch destroying business- Referring to the police statements he says—“ to these and many other such assertions I give 3n emphatic denial ; they arc nothing inore fhan downright lies,and the persons that wrote them arc indebted to their imagination for their facts-.”

The Auckland Herald says—The work of draining various swamps in the-Waikato appeal's to be carried on with great vigour, and there are probably 600 to 700 men employed by different associations, companies, and private individuals, in the work of cutting drains alone. The Rangitikei Advocate has lately been warmly attentive to the local member—Mr; Ballance—who is charged with working too mcch for Wanganui, to the neglect of the Interests of his own constituents. The sore point is, that the county boundary has been so altered as to deprive Rangitikei of “ about a million acres of native land-, which is bound to be acquired by Government in the course of a. few. years,” and which will have entailed a further loss of about £400,000, (one-fifth of the land revenue which would have accrued to the County, under the Financial Arrangements Act). The Wanganui Herald ventured on a reply, which the Advocate refers to, as “ an article which, intended to be a. refutation of , the charge we have made against him, contains damning proof of its truth, in confessing to a neglect of the interests of his constituents which' filled him with “ surprise and disappointment,” though, perhaps remorse should have been the more appropriate - terra. Mr Ballance, we think, Would have better consulted his political reputation by observing a discreet silence until the storm should have blown over, than thus have placed on record such evidence of bis own laches.” The Advocate follows up with about three columns of reply.