COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 17 July 1880, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

A Weekly Supplement of 14 columns is presented with this issue of the Mail. Telegraphic Business during the past year shows a serious falling off. The Maori Ploughmen arc not to bo tried. This is suspending the habeas corpus Act with a vengeance. The prisoners arc to bo dismissed to their homes in batches, accordingly as the released ones deport themselves. A Football Match between Waverley and Hawera Clubs has been arranged to take place in Patea this day week. A Wellington telegram says 100 more of the unemployed are to be sent to Patea, after the 25 now on the way. Wo believe the figures are doubtful, the number officially fixed at present being 50 altogether. A Silly Wager has been laid by a traveller in soft goods now at New Plymouth. A telegram last night states that he laid £2O to £1 that a trustee in bank" ruptcy can call for tenders for the sale of a bankrupt’s estate in Taranaki district. He was taken up by three parties, equal to £6O if he lost. There is a Taranaki ordinance which provides that anyone selling goods by auction or tender, unless 15 licensed auctioneer, shall be liable to a fine of £IOO. The soft goods man is in for it.

Mr C. Hearn, lately of the Wellington Chronicle, is to edit the llangitikei Advocate. Mr F. McCarthy is the new editor of the Chronicle , and it is understood that the Ministerial party are to sustain the paper financially, more or less. This is a cmious change. If the public would see journals independent of party obligations, they should give such support as will enable journals to stand without financial props. The Petitions which were sent to Wellington by post last week have doubtless reached Major Atkinson, as is evidenced by political gossip published at New Plymouth, but we do not observe that they are yet presented to the House of llepresentatives. . That will doubtless be done within a few days. The signatures to the three petitions numbered about 450 to each of them, and they represent a fair unanimity of opinion throughout the County re a separate member, an expeditious completion of the West Coast Railway, and a sjseedy and practical settlement of the Waimate Plains. ■ Applications to Land Board.—At the last sitting of the Land Board, Hugh Irvine applied to purchase section 67, Urenui, at £1 per acre. The application was referred for farther information. F. Bluck applied to purchase sections 5 and 6, block 104, and sections 1 and 2, block 78, Raleigh West; G. G. Davidson applied for section 17 in the suburbs of Stvatfoi a ; R. E. Mcßae applied to purchase section 89, Kakaramea, These sections were ordered to bo offered for sale. —Messrs J. Clark and B, Burdett applied for sections 75 66, town of Stratford. Several sections in that township were ordered to be offered for sale on Saturday, 14th August. Catholic Ciiuuch. —M»ss will be celebrated next Sunday at Waverley and Patea, ae advertised, Mr Joseph Ivess left Patea on Thursday evening, for Canterbury. Mr James Hirst has returned to Patea, after a visit to the Old Country,

Turkey is being coerced. The collective Powers have presented a joint note demanding complete fulfilment of the stipulations of the Berlin treaty. The expected crisis is now reached. Will the Turks “ cave in” ? Urenui Villagb Settlement. —A telegram from the Under Secretary for Crown Lands informs the Land Board that no person is allowed to acquire more than one section either on deferred payment, or immediate payment, in the Urenui Village settlement.

We understand that Mr Parris received a telegram from Government, shortly before adjourning the Native Lands Court last week, desiring him to return to his work of directing surveys on the Plains. It may be presumed that this was bis actual reason for closing the business, though he allowed Ins motive to be differently construed by not making that reason known.

The Bazaar in aid of the building fund of the Catholic Church at Patea is advertised to be held next Thursday and Friday. An evening entertainment will folV 'i , "*ln. tl ' ft ,date of that is not definitely fixed. Ihe bazaar piv... .. ~ _ cessful event, and the object will have the good wishes of every person of liberal sympathies, irrespective of denominational narrowness.

Messrs Hearn and Kennedy, of Kakaramea, advertise that they have purchased a valuable blood horse called Patriarch. The price was 600 guineas, and we commend their enterprise, and hope they will be encouraged to bring him to this district. The advertisement announces that fie will be at the service of Wanganui breeders.

Wanganui Politics. —An article anent native policy, well written and sensible, was quoted in the Mail from the Wanganui Herald on Tuesday. The name of the paper, which we append at the end of extracts from other journals, was omitted by accident in that instance. This is annoying because, as the Mail borrows so little from contemporaries, that little should be scrupulously acknowledged.

Tenders arc invited for the construction of three culverts on the railway route near Kakaramea Station. One culvert is to bo 4 feet deep and 200 feet long. Two other culverts are to be 3 feet deep and about 100 feet long. All arc to bo brick or concrete. The permanent way for this part of the line is not contracted for yet, and we believe this jmrtion is to be done by a force of unemployed whom the Government arc drafting from Wellington. Waste Lands Surveyed.—The surveyor to the Taranaki Land Board reports ; The survey of 8000 acres of land for settlement has been completed, a map of which will be supplied in about a fortnight’s time. 2000 acres of this land, in the Ngaire District, joins the New Plymouth Endowment, the greater portion of which is reported by the surveyors to bo of superior quality. 2,800 acres in block 10, Huiroa ; and the remainder, 3,200 acres, throe miles west of Stratford.” Ngaire Swamp. —a letter from the General Crown Lands Office informs the Land Board that the Minister of Lands was of opinion that Iheßoard could exercise its own discretion with regard to the price to be paid for the swamp land in the Ngaire District applied for by Messrs Camboll Bros. He did not consider that 30s. per acre would be too much for the land, and if that price cannot be obtained the matter had better stand over.

A Junction Station is to be formed to work the Railway traffic of the Patea section of line, and some of the unemplo3 r ed who are being drafted to Patea will be set to work immediately in levelling the permanent way at that point. A second batch will be put on the Railway at Kakaramea station. The Junction station is not intended to be a passenger station, but only for shunting goods trains that may be loaded for the. through run southward, instead of coining down to Patea for no purpose. Very few trains of this character will pass through, and the practical working of the line will require every train to put down and pick npatthe Patea station, Canterbury Wheat. —The largest yield of wheat ever grown in the colony was obtained last season by Mr Robert Blake, of Lincoln Canterbury. He raised 190 bushels from 1-i acres or 128 bushels to the acre. The land is improved swamp land. The girls ought to be allowed a liberal space of ground about every home in which they may cultivate flowers. Flowers are considered too luxurious in some families. If a few stunted plants have a tolerable existence, it is thought to be sufficient ; but a taste for the beautiful ought to be encouraged in every home.