The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1880.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 498, 10 March 1880, Page 2

The Patea Mail. ( Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1880.

The Patea County Council met yesterday. Report will appear in next issue. On Saturday next, Mr F. R. Jackson will bold an important sale of blood horses at bis St. Hill Street yards, Wanganui. Mr W. Cowcm’s Kakaramea stock sale takes place to-day, entries for which will be found iu another column.

From a return of wool exporters for 1879, wo notice that the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company head the list by many thousand bales. They exported 83,972 bales Australian and Cape wool, and 45,180 bales New Zealand, making a total of 129,152 for the your.

To-morrow and Friday (according to a supplement to the Neio/Zealand Gazelle) have been proclaimed Bunk holidays within the Patea County.

Large numbers of people from New Plymouth and elsewhere are passing through tiiis town on their way to the Wanganui Rac-s, which take place tomorrow and Friday. At the Quarterly Licensing Meeting, held yesterday, Lawrence S. Price applied for a publican’s license for a house on the Mountain Road ; but the report of the police not being favorable, the application was refused.

At the R.M. Court, yesterday (before C. A. Wray, Esq., K.M.), the following cases were heard :—J. Gibson v. John Ryan, judgment summons £l9 6s 3d ; to bo paid forthwith, or in default one month’s imprisonment.—ll. 11. Hargood v William Hobbs, claim £7 13s, wages ; judgment for plaintiff for £1 Is Bd, and 11s costs.

Captain Wray (judge) held a sitting of the Assessment Court at Kakarainea on .Monday, to hear objections to the Patea West Hoad Board valuation roll. E. J, Morgan was tlie only objector, but as he did not appear, the case was struck out. Two slight alterations were made in the roll by request. New Plymouth has at last been supplied with a long felt want—viz. gas, (we do not mean to say that there was not plenty in the place before, but it was of the wrong sort). Speaking of the appearance of the town, the Taranaki Herald says : “ Never before do we suppose was New Plymouth so brilliantly lighted up as on Saturday night, and up till ten o’clock the streets were crowded with people who had come into town to see the new illuminator.”

We ( Herald) hear that a telegram has been received from Mr Hees, the Harbor Board Engineer, at present in England, to the effect that the levels in connection with the Harbor works will most likely bo altered, and advising the immediate suspension of all works, until his arrival in New Plymouth. Accordingly the men on the Harbor works on Saturday last received a week’s notice, and in the meantime a special meeting of the Board will most likely be called to confirm this action before the men are paid off. Many persons residing about Picton and the district (says the Marlborough Press ) will remember Mr T. Adams, who for some time was in the employ of Mr Galloway, draper, of this town. A few months since Mr Adams left Picton for Patea, where hisjbrother resides and it was a considerable amount of regret that news was received here that he bad met his death by drowning. A depressed farmer waiting in Mayfair gives the following intelligent reasons why he has resolved to emigrate to New Zealand :—“ Much as I love my country, it will ho a relief to me as a farmer to get free from the intolerable annoyances, hindrances, and injustice which are almost invariably incidental to farming in England. As a man, I shall deeply feel the parting from old friends ; but I loolc forward with a sense of joyous relief to the time when I shall really be my own master for the first time in my life, free to farm to the best of my judgment, and to secure the fruits of industry and enterprise, whether they be great or small. In England, I have farmed the land of another man, under his direction, liable to losses from the ravages of bis game, insulted by his attempted control as to the vote which I gave and the church which I attended, and, worst of all, subject to his legal right to confiscate the value of my improvements. In New Zealand I shall cultivate my own land, be at liberty to keep down wild animals at my pleasure, be as free to assert my political manhood, and to follow my rerigious bent, as any landlord in England, and the owner of an increment which, l>v the investment of capital and labour, I ina}’ add to the value of my farm. I shall often think of the friends I have left behind irje, and look with interest to see if, as time goes on, they get relief from the abominable wrongs and hindrances which I, bice them,, have experienced.”