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Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 335, 3 July 1878, Page 2

Local industries arc showing up. Mr F. O’S. McCarthy, of the Fellmongciy, has just turned out a sample of leather manufactured at his establishment which will compare favorably with much that is produced in Wellington. The same gentleman is sending away by the Agnes a full cargo of tallow, hides, &o. The writer of letter on* the late inquest at Manutahi “hastens to correct a mistake in my letter last week. It was Hollo that was in company with Hudson, not Hobbs.” It is reported that during the progress of the thunder storm on Saturday last, a building on Mr William Wilson’s land, Whenuakura, was struck by lightning, and one ' end considerably damaged. Messrs Thomson and McGuire will hold usual monthly stock sale at Hawera, tomorrow.

Mr William Dale will hold sale of stock at his Carlyle 'Yards, to-morrow, entries for which a:e numerous.

Messrs McLean and Broadbent will hold cattle sale at Normanby, this day, at two o’clock. ' -

It appears that the kingfisher does something towards ridding the earth of vermin. They.always be successful, as evidenced by one found on. the property of F, M. Chapman, Esq., and whicli had choked in the attempt to swallow a mouse. The bird was found dead, and the partlyswallowed mouse ditto.

It is scarcely necessary to call attention to the big land sale to be held at Haw era to-morrow, by Mr William Cowern. The sale has been well advertised, and general attention thereby secured. The occasion will be favorable for persons desirous of securing well-situated sections, in and near the rising township of Norman by. A farther important land saleis also announced by the same gentleman, comprising some of the best sections in Carlyle, and which will be held on Saturday, the 13th instant, under instructions from F. McGuire, Esq., And on Saturday next, 6th instant, a number of Town Board leases will be offered.

Postage stamps of the values of two shillings and five shillings have been issued.

John Blackett, Esq., lias been gazetted Engineer in charge for the North Island.

At the R.M. Court, Carlyle, yesterday, Constable Shield summoned R. Jacomb for a breach of the 11 Taranaki Impounding Ordinance, 1870,” in allowing a horse to wander. Fined 2s 6d and 6s 6d costs.—T. Wright was also summoned for a similar offence. Fined 2s 6d and 6s 6d costs. Within the last three months 11. F. Christie, Esq., agreed to purchase 5% acres of land, near the Rev A, Dasent’s on the Taranaki Road. The purchase money £2OB was only paid over last week. We hear that Mr Christie has resold an acre and a quarter of the same land for £175, H. E. P. Adams, Esq., being the buyer. Over 1,000 fruit trees, and a large quantity of forest trees and ornamental shrubs, will be sold by auction, at Wanganui, by Barns and Wilson, to-day. The Taranaki Herald , referring to the passing through New Plymouth of the long-delayed Parihaka natives, on the 26th instant, says :—“ There were forty-carts—-forty of them drawn by 106 bullocks, and four of them by 10 horses. Hoisted on a pole fixed in a cart in the middle of the cavalcade was a small white flag over a red one ; and in the cart bringing up the rear there were two white flags. There were a number of natives who were riding on horseback, accompanying the provisions ; and one who, we suppose, was the leader of the party, was very active, galloping to the front, and then to the rear, and keeping the procession of carts in a line.” Our contemporary is publishing long accounts daily of the proceedings at Waitara. The Wanganui Chronicle says :—The .Contractor for the Harbour Works, Mr Henderson, of Henderson, Fergus, and Co,, has arrived in Wanganui with the intention, we understand, of commencing operations forthwith.

The following is a Press Agency telegram dated Wellington, June 27.—“ The following sections have been sold by auction -Town of New Plymouth, Nos. 24, 123, 1,042, and 1,075, £3O each ; 120 and 1,998, £35 each. Waitara :—Section 9, part of block 44, £2O ; section, 11, £25. VVaverley Section 125, £6O. The purchasers were Colonel Whitmore, and Messrs W. Halse, F. A. Carrington, and J. M. Taylor.”

Messrs Goldsbrough report in their monthly circular which was published at Melbourne, on die 10th June.—During the month further consignments of. wool from the Darling have been received, and at our auction sale on the 29th ult. we disposed of 1042 bales at prices which fully sustain last month’s quotations, competition being well maintained. In all 1650 bales have been offered and 1549 bales sold since our summary of the 13th ult. We realized 19£ d for two clips of scoured, and B£d for one clip of 161 bales greasy in heavy condition. The- English advices are on the whole satisfactory, considering the continued unsettled aspect of the Eastern question, and the generally depressed state of trade in the manufacturing districts. The London sales opened on the 14th ult. with a full attendance of buyers, but prices showed a reduction of about Id per lb on the rates ruling in February and March. Since then an improvement has been reported, a firmer tone being manifest ; but this is scarcely evidenced by the prices realized for a number of well-known clips, the decline being, we think, to quite the above extent on the average. The deficiency in ' the shipments of wool from this colony to date is 32,468 bales, and there is also a deficiency in the exports, from .I?ew South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland, thus confirming the estimates'we made in February and March. This large falling off in the supply, instead of the.Usual annual increase, should exercise a favourable effect on the succeeding sales of the year ; and, if peace is established in Europe,-which now seems almost certain, it is reasonable to expect a revival in trade, .and consequently an improved demand for wool.

The balance sheet of the Union insurance Company Was issued , at- Christchurch, on the 29th June. It' shows receipts from premiums, £42,855; from transfer fees, £IBB ; and interest, £791 ; total, £43,335. The expenditure has been—Fire and marine losses, £3,799; preliminary expenses, £2,47.8; stationeiy, £1,263; re-insurances, £10,517; discounts, commissions, and charges, £11,140 ; leaving a profit balance of £14,142, which the directors recommend to be carried forward to next year. This report is considered very satisfactory. “ Barracoota,” in the Wanganui Herald, says ; —I read with mingled feelings of pleasure and amusement the Mail’s account of the laying of the foundation stone of the.Patea Harbour Works. The “noble” chairman, G. F. Sherwood, Esq., was in it that day, but might I suggest that something more substantial than empty compliments ought to be given to the little man ; he spends the whole of his time in the service of the Patea people to the ruin of his own affairs, and is I think justly entitled to some solid recognition of his services verb. sap. Patea has given Wanganui the go by in the Harbour line, and seems bound to go ahead, thanks to the energetic G. F. What a pity we have no G. F.’s here in place of the old larracoutas we are, I was going to write, blessed with. I think Artemus referred to Wanganui, when he said “ all we want is some firstclass funerals.” I should be sorry to wish the'death of my greatest opponent, but I do wish some of them would die out of the world of politics, and let the place go ahead. There are-a few old barracoutas here who can’t keep pace with the times,' and who, .instead of sitting down and watching the advancement of the place, keep trying to clog the wheels of progress in the vain hope that they can still hang on behind, and be in it at the finish. A petition against the late election of taembers of the New Plymouth Harbour Board, preferred by Mr A. C. Fookcs, a candidate whose name was struck off the nomination paper by the Returning Officer on the day of election, on account of his name aot being on the rate roll, was heard on Friday, the 21st instant. The case was heard before H. Eyre-Kenny, Esq., R.M., and occupied the whole day. A large number of witnesses were examined, when the Resident Magistrate dismissed the case, each party to pay their own costs. To place the election beyond the posibility of cavil, and to avert delay in the prosecution of Harbor works, the Harbor Board on Thursday, the 20th instant, exercised the power conferred or it by The New Plymouth Harbor Act, 1877,” of reconstituting itself by the elected members creating vacancies in the Board by one by one resigning their seats, and the Board, under the 11th Section, filling the vacancies thus created by electing new members. . The Wanganui Chronicle gives a long account of the effects of the thunderstorm which passed along this coast on Saturday afternoon last. The storm being over it was ascertained that I 1 the Telegraph office had been struck with lightning. The vvhole telegraphic apparatus was shivered to atoms. The inside of the office had been licked by tongues of flame, whose blackened touches provedhow real had been the danger-. The operators stupefied and dumb had been thrown backwards with excessive violence for many feet, and yet all had escaped destruction, and the offices gave no outward sign of the danger which had just been escaped. The inside, however, wore a very'different aspect from that usually presented by it. The wreck was complete. With one or two exceptions the beautiful little instruments were shattered to pieces. The glass shades which had covered some of them, broken into minute pieces, lay about in all directions. The brass connections, solid pieces of metal, were completely fused, and had become amalgamated with the melted gutta percha which had previously surrounded them.” Mr Calders, the telegraphist, was just entering the operating room as the building was struck. “ The shock was so great that Mr Calders was forced backwards into an adjoining room, against the door of which his head was dashed with frightful violence. An operator standing within about three feet of the test board, was thrown back a distance of eight or ten feet. Another sitting on a stool at one of the instruments, was knocked backwards on to the floor several feet away. One operator had one of his eyes somewhat injured, and others were partly stupefied and otherwise unpleasantly affected. The lights in the vicinity were also instantly extinguished, and the messages apd papers lying on the table were burnt to ashes.” Mr Calders was first to recover consciousiness, and commenced beating out the flames, assisted by Mr Gordon. Almost all the instruments are utterly useless. The wires were struck just above Market Square, and the lightning darting along fused the wire as far as Shakespeare’ Cliff, the post on the top of the cliff being shivered to splinters.

WAVERLEY. (prom our own correspondent.) July 1. The storm of last week did not pass over here without leaving its mark. Mr Tjdee’s house was heavily struck on Saturday afternoon about two o’clock, and the inmates had a narrow escape. Mr Tylee and Mr P. Wilson were in one room and a man was employ ed scrubbing the floor in the other, when the lightning struck the side of the house between the door and the window, splitting one of the studs' from top to bottom and knocking out a hole about seven feet by three in the wall. Such was the force of the stroke that the boards were driven nearly a chain from the house into the paddock. The lightning then struck the iron tub at which the man was kneeling and went round it, luckily not touching him. It then made for some knives on the table several of which were fused, and some nails were actually stuck together ; after which a saw hanging on the wall was severely knocked about. It then darted through the floor, struck and fused a scythe that happened to be under the house, and ended its career in a bucket of water, knocking the bottom of the bucket completely out. Messrs Tylee and Wilson were at the time sitting near some canisters containing gun-powder, and at first imagined that one of them had exploded ; but, fortunately, they escaped, and none suffered jnor.e than a fright. These' accidents should warn people not to neglect the precaution of providing their dwellings with conductors. Another farm has changed hands, Mr Donald Dickie having sold his property to his brother, Mr James Dickie. The decision of the Education Board re the Waverley Election has given general satisfaction, and the point being settled there is now nothing to prevent the Committee from settling down to their work. A-meetiug of the Wairoa Light Horse was held, at the Waverley Hotel on Saturday evening, having, I believe, for its object, the payment of the capitation allowance for last year. One of Mr J. G. Dickie’s children, aged four years, met with a nasty accident last week, having broken his collar bone in a fall from a sofa. lam glad to bear that the little sufferer is getting on satisfactorily. Mr F. R. Jackson’s sale on Friday was well attended notwithstanding the weather, but the show of stock was small. After the sale a trotting match came off between Mr Wilson’s Bob and Mr Dime's Mortal for £lO, owners up, distance two and a half miles. It was won by Bob, Mortal being hardly up to the weight he had to carry. SCHOOL COMMITTEE. The monthly meeting of the School Committee was held in the school-room, oh Monday, Ist July. Present : Messrs Milne, Thurston, Mathieson, Cheyne,Dickie, and Mason. Proposed by Mr Milne, seconded by Mr Dickie, “ That Mr Mason be chairman of the School Committee.”—Carried. Proposed by Mr Milne, seconded by Mr Mathieson, “ That on account- of the insufficient amount of school accommodation, this Committee considers it unadvisable to give effect to the compulsory clause of the .Education Act, until the school-room be enlarged. ’ ’ —Carri ed. • Mr D. Dickie having tendered his resignation, the same was accepted. Proposed by Mr Milne, seconded by Mr Thurston, “That Mr James Dickie, of Mangataugi, and Mr Duncan McDonald, be elected to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations of Messrs Walkinton and Dickie.”—Carried. Proposed by Mr Milne, seconded by Mr Mathieson, “ That the Chairman write to the Chairman of the late Committee, requesting him to send all documents, books, papers, &c., in connection with the school or school properties."—Carried. Proposed by Mr Thurston, seconded by Mr Cheyne, “ That the next meeting of the Committee be he held on Monday, 15th instant, at 6.30 p.m.”—Carried. Proposed by Mr Milne, seconded by Mr Cheyne, “ That the Education Board be applied to for seven copies of the Education Act."—Carried.

Proposed by Mr Milne, seconded by Mr Thurston, “ That the Education Board be requested to send their architect to Waverley, as soon as possible, to consult with the Committee on plans for the addition to the school-room.” —Carried.

Proposed by Mr Thurston, seconded by Mr Milne, “ That the Chairman apply to the Education Board to provide for the use of the school, slides to regulate ventilators, to repair locks, school '..requisites, gymnastic apparatus, set of primers, wall cards, band-bell ; also to repair old fence, and erect dividing fence, and to repair porch, pump, &c.”—Carried.