COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 23 September 1880, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

The new Land District is gazetted as the West Coast Land District, and the central office will bo at Patea. The mounted troopers at Now Plymouth had a paper hunt yesterday, on Poverty flat. The shooting competition for the riflle presented by Mr W. Williams will be resumed on Saturday, conditions as before. A Large Schooner, the Amaranth, is on her way to Patea from Oamaru, with a full cargo of flour, &c. She is 75 tons and draws about 8 feet. The Gazette notifies the appointment of Charles Allen Wray, Esq., to be a Commissioner of Crown Lands for the West Coast Land District, constituted under “The West Coast Settlement (North Island) Act, 1880.” Cement. —As to the practicability of starting a manufactory in this colony, a civil engineer in London, Mr Henry Reid, says :—“ To start a manufactory is a somewhat hazardous undertaking, unless guided by efficient practical advice, and, as a capital of £5,000 would bo required for the most limited works, to embark in such a scheme requires a great deal of consideration. I have no doubt that a good demand exists in Now Zealand for the article, and the best way to start such an undertaking would be by a limited number of local capitalists.” A Living Moa is reported to have been seen by a party of diggers at the Waiau river, Southland. They saw it as clearly as ever sailor saw the sea serpent. This vision of a Moa that was dead and is alive again is described in digger language as a huge phantom bird running and screeching like a railway engine. The age of wonders is not past. Picton Coal is reported on unfavorably by Mr McKay, sent by the Government. The seam is not extensive, be believes ; the coal runs to slack when bandied ; and it can hardly be worked profitably. The quickest passage from Australia has been made by the steamer Liguria, which delivered the mail in London in 32 days from Adelaide.

The Concert. —A“ lover of good music” sends us the following notes aneut the cantata performed by the Harmonic Society at Patea : —“ It is most creditable to the performers that they so far mastered the difficult and elaborate music, whose accurate rendering attests their proficiency, careful training, skill, and practice. It is difficult, or perhaps impossible, to render such performances generally attractive. The display evokes our praise, or it may be our wonder or surprise, but it does not enchain our interest or feelings, or enthral us with a magic spell. Music hath charms, but these melodies do not linger in our ears and recur to our memories, and make us long for their repetition; though we admit they are cleverly rendered, and wo give such cold and calm approval: not the rapturous applause accorded to a thing of beauty or a joy for ever, but the critical approbation bestowed upon any other striking feat or accomplishment. Can we dare to hint that simpler music—that something sweeter and less grand—would have given greater pleasure ? — though we rnentio 11 only to reprobate the remark of one auditor, who devoutly hoped that Mr Macfarren was dead ! The audience was composed largely of holders of honorary tickets, relatives and personal friends of the performers, who would not be at all disposed to be critical or indifferent ; but even their interest was increased by the slight variety afforded by an occasional touch of dramatic rendering, of which John of Brent afforded the most noticablc instance. We shall not crave, if this cantata should bo repeated, that we u may be there to seethough we certainly hope to hear many interesting concerts from this society and its accomplished members, of a lighter character than that which closed the last evening of last week.”

Ma BnADLAUC.iI. — A correspondent writes :—“ In your last issue you state that Mr Bradlaugh complains of the celebrated “ watch story ” being attributed to him. Why there is hardty one prominent Rationalist of the present century that has not had imputed to him the same story. Even within my own recollection, Emma Martin, Holyoako, Harriet Law, and others had to complain. Each and all have been proved at different periods to bo mere fabrications. I would not have troubled you in the matter only that the watch story was given in a sermon last Sunday by one of our local clergymen, which I hardly think was the correct thing to do, when the case was sub judice. Englishmen should be guided even when dealing with Rationalists by that proverbial spirit of fair-play which the majority are usually credited with.” The writer gives another version of the watch story, but it is not desirable to raise a religious discussion through the Mail. The truth or falsehood of a particular incident attributed to Mr Bradlaugh may be discussed as an ordinary question of right or wrong.

Debt Cases. —At the Patea R. M. Court, on Tuesday, before Mr C. A. Wray, Mr John Black sued William Harrie for County rate 12s 9d. Judgment by default, with 7s costs. The Deputy Commissioner of Land Tax, Mr Cromhio, sued John M’Lean, Waverley, for arrear of land tax under the former statute. Judgment for the amount claimed £4 14s 7d, with 10s costs. Also J. A. Vincent, land tax £2 17s ; judgment for the claim with costs. Mr F. O’S. McCarthy sued John Mercer for £l, amount of damage to a carl. Mr Hamerton appeared for defendant, who had been in M’Carthy’s employWhile driving or starting a horse and cart, the horse jibbed, and the defendant thrashed it, during which it kicked the front of the cart and broke it. There had been a dispute between the parties, and this claim for damage arose out of it. The defence was that the horse was a jibber, and that the defendant thrashed it in the execution of his duty, and in presence of plaintiff. The plaintiff alleged that the beating was unnecessary, and that the damage was caused in that way. The defendant said the horse had broken the small bone of his arm the previous week, and that it had previously run the cart back over a hill near Mcßae’s boilingdown, that it had run the cart over an embankment at Otouto, and that the horse is a jibber. The Court ruled that the employer must prove the servant to have been guilty of gross negligence, to entitle the employer to recover for damage to the cart- That had not been proved, and judgment must he for defendant, with 21s costs. John Whelan, storekeeper,sued George Beamish for goods to the value of £6l7s 3d. Judgment by default, with 12s costs.

A Dinner to follow the show of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association is projected, and from the favourable tone in which members speak of the event, the Committee maybe expected to give effect to a happy suggestion.

Cricket. —The names of those gentlemen who are to play in the cricket match, Married v. Single, on Saturday next are as Dr Croft,follow: —Messrs Arundell, Coutts, F T Horner, E 0 Horner, Pringle, Fraser, W Dixon, Hitching (2), Tennent, Jacomb, W Dasent, A Black, W Cowern, Drake, Nicholson, Eyton, Downes, Houghton, F Read, T Turner, Forster, Baggett, Chapman, Heenan, Beere, Taplin, Taylor, Fetch, O’Grady, and H Gibbons. Any cricketing friends who have been omitted from above list are invited to play.

Two Mails Daily to and from Patea for the South arc to commence this day. One daily mail for the North will continue, and the Patea box will close at noon. The South mail will close at 10.30 a.m. and 7 pan,, this being in connection with the two daily coaches which are to ply between Woitotara and Patea, connecting with the trains. Some change in the North mail is to bo arranged next Monday. This extra mail Southward is a boon which business men will appreciate, and the Government are acting with commonable spirit in extending these advantages up the coast.

A New Theouy of Success is propounded by the Wellington Post. It is this: —“ Ministers have won the game because they so played it that one or more favorable results must iuevitablj' bo attained. If they were able to carry through t’ueir measures, they gained one great advantage. If unable, then they secured two even greater—time and opportunity.” There is a gay originality about this arrangement of cause and effect. If the Ministry carry their measures they succeed: if they don’t cany their measures, they succeed oven more, because failure is more successful than success. Now why is that? Deponent snyeth not. He docs waste his strength in enforcing a truism. By not carrying their measures, “ they secured two advantages—time and opportunity”—so that the more you fail in doing a particular thing, the more successful yon are in securing two advantages—time and opportunity to do the thing in the future. Isn’t that funny ? He succeeds best who accomplishes least, for the more he leaves undone, the more he will have for future achievement. Really this is a new revelation, one which a punster would describe as a theory of Postponement.

The Wakatu Steamer made her first trip to Patea on Tuesday, arriving before high water at midday, with general cargo and about twenty passengers, several coming from Wanganui for an excursion in connection with this opening of a new steam line to Patea. Crossing the bar, all passengers showed a lively interest in what they fancied to bo a critical experiment. General surprise was expressed at finding that the water on the bar was enough to float a much larger boat than the Wakatu, for these visitors had to learn by ocular demonstration that the Patea bar will now take in the largest boat that enters Wanganui, and that the difference as to depth is in favor of Patea. Persons who have regarded Wanganui as a seaport of rising importance will learn with something like a shock that there is a better and safer port only eight miles farther by sea from Wellington ; and they will return to “ town ” with a sense of having made a discovery. The Wakatu is a capacious quick sailing steamer of 75 tons, with good cabin space, a cabin on deck for ladies, and a small private cabin for any nabob who may be travelling this West Coast. It is a moderately good cattle boat, though hardly broad enough in the beam for the live-stock trade. The Wakatu will be here again on Friday night or Saturday morning, and will sail the same day for Nelson with a full cargo of live slock from Patea. This steamer will make four to six voyages each month to Patea, calling at Wellington and Wanganui, and occasionally at Nelson. Mr W. Dale is appointed agent. Freights from Wellington may be regarded as down to 25s per ton for both companies. The Wakatu went out yesterday without cargo. Until the export of live-stock is made a regular trade, there will be little outward cargo from this district, and the inward freights must be charged with the whole cost of working. The importance of the new cattle wharf now under construction will be palpable even to those who delayed that work for personal reasons which cannot be commended, and are not likely to be forgotten.