COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 5 October 1880, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

A visitor from Christchurch has decided to settle'at Patea, and commence business as a stock agent.

Captain Bonner brought the Clyde steamer into Patea harbor five hours before high water yesterday morning. The colony is to exercise jurisdiction over Fiji. The new Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, will reside at Wellington, but will continue to act as Governor of the Fiji islands.

Gold Quartz has been found at a reef about nine miles from the railway at Makatoa, Hawkes Bay ; and as the stone gives a good pcr-centage of gold, a party lias started for the locality.

Chinese have been exterminating trout in some Otago streams by means of sluice forks. Two Chinamen have just been fined £25 each at Palmerston, or three months’ imprisonment, for this offence.’ The Union Boat Club at Wellington held their annual meeting on Friday, and resolved that the Patea Boating Club be informed there arc no boats for sale at present.

The Compulsory Clauses of the Education Act are to bo enforced at Auckland. A housc-to-house visitation is to be made, to compel the attendance of all children of school-going age.

A lamb with two tongues, eight legs, two bodies, and two tails, has been dropped by a pure bred Leicester ewe,at Temuka. The bodies are joined at the shoulder, the necks being separate, and two bodies being distinct from the middle backward.

A Schooner drawing 8 feet 6 indies is expected at Patea in a few days. Sliewiil be the largest craft that has entered the river. The schooner Aamarnlh, drawing 7 feet 4 inches, left the harbor yesterday for’the Grey river. The Education Board at Wanganui is to receive £2,000 as its share of £50,000 allotted by Government for school building in the year. Additions are needed to the Patea school and to the Hawera school; and a new school is needed at Whakamara, where a Committee has been recently formed.

Another manufactory of lemonade and aerated waters commenced operations yesterday in Patea. Mr G. Saunders has erected new premises near the harbor, and fitted up new plant for the business, lie had been for several years engaged in the same business at Gisborne, and the local press recorded his removal to the West Coast in terms which ought to be an excellent introduction to new friends.

“If the West Coast ilailway were built, he firmly believed it would save nearly £200,000 a year to Wellington, now sent south for grain and produce which could bo grown along the West Coast. His own firm sent away £30,000 a year.” This statement was made by Mr J. Plimmer at a meeting of merchants held at the Chamber of Commerce in Wellington last week. He offered to put down £I,OOO towards raising private capital for constructing the line, and if the railway were made he would gain £5,000. If it were not made, ho should lose more than £5,000, for he had already lost £16,000 in depreciation of property.

This is how new-comers have to make a pilgrimage to the West Coast. Says Mr J. Plimmer, of Wellington ; —“ The colony is daily losing more than it is aware of from want of communication with the West Coast. The land to be sold on Waimate Plains would realise from thirty to fifty per cent, more than it will, were people able to investigate the character of the land and explore the country. It is facility of access that gives value to land, and if there were facility of access to the West Coast, the increased proceeds from land sales would more than reimburse the colony for the construction of the line. What access have we at present? Why, a friend of mine has just been five days in coming from Wanganui in one of the best steamers, and another came by coach, and was ‘ wrecked ashore’—in fact, it is a little heroic undertaking to go by coach in winter.. The want of communication seriously impedes the advancement of the neighborhood and the investment of capital. I saw a gentleman the other day who told me he would not go on the West Coast for the reason I have said—he would rather go to Maryland, and he has gone, taking four thousand pounds with him. That is only one case out of many of how we lose capital. Hundreds of thousands had been lost to the district simply for want of facility of access.”

Tenders are required by Mr F. B

O’Neill, architect, for erecting a house for Mr W. Bartlett, at Hawera.

Patea was startled at nine o’clock last night by the musical racket of a fife and drum band. The Cadets received instruments from Wanganui only a few days ago, and it has been smart work to put together a band capable of playing tunes in good time through the public streets. How was it done ?

Reductions in the railway staff are reported by telegraph ; and it is said the larger salaries in the police department are in danger. The colony’s expenditure must be reduced largely, and individuals will have to suffer for the general good. Officialism is ruinously excessive in large matters and small.

Mr Rolleston, Minister for Lands, is expected to reach Patea on Wednesday, when a deputation from the Town Board will seek an interview with reference to the appointment of trustees for the Recreation Ground. Mr Rolleston will confer with Mr Wray, Land Commissioner, with reference to the administration of land within the West Coast district.

Rifle Shooting.— A handicap match took place last Saturday, at the Patea range, for a fowling-piece given by Mr D. M. Harris, to be competed for by members of the Patea Rifles. Fifteen members fired, but the weather being gusty, the scoring was rather poor as a whole. Vol J. Graham, with a handicap of 4 points, was declared the winner with a total of 52. There were three money prizes which fell to the second, third, and fourth highest scores as given below : Points Range allowed 200 400 500 T1 Vol Graham 4 16 17 15 52 Col-Sergt King sch 15 18 17 50 Capt J 81ack....2 18 -14 15 49 Sergt Kells sch 15 16 16 47 ~ Smith 2 14 15 16 47 J. Kitchiugsch 14 19 14 47 Vol Carey ‘..4 15 15 13 47 „ Paterson 4 13 18 10 45 Sergt Carcv 4 16 7 15 42 Vol Tucker 12 13 7 7 30 , Pearson ....4 12 15 7 38 ~ Spence 8 13 12 3 36 „ Bayliss 8 6 9 12 85 „ A Black ....2 13 13 7 35 W Kitching...sch 14 13 6 33

Trues from Japan. —A Napier telegram says that when in Japan Mr Tiffen, on behalf of the New Zealand Government, purchased fifty hardy orange trees, one thousand persimona, two hundred assorted kiaki, fifty pear-shaped plums, one thousand of a very large kind of chestnut, and two hundred bamboos. He also obtained a number of fruit trees, with which to experiment in his own garden. All the trees will be shipped in December next, which is the proper season in Japan.

Poisoned Drink. —A man named Andrews has died in Wellington lock-up from stupefaction through drink. Ho was able to stand when put in the cell, but died in 12 hours. It is supposed the drink was drugged, or poisoned with adulteration. “Punch” has got a new editor in succession to the late Mr Tom Taylor, who succeeded Mark Lemon. The new monarch of punsters is Mr P. C. Burnam, author of more farces and extravaganzas than any mortal can remember.

Experiments made at Christchurch show that one cord of New Zealand wood will yield by distillation 36 gallons of pyroligneous acid, or wood vinegar, worth in the English market Is 6d per gallon, and half its weight in sonorous charcoal. The particular wood is not stated. Coal Discovery. —By the sinking at Hamstead Colliery, Birmingham, a grand discovery has been made, the great coal seam, eight yards thick, having been pierced at six hundred yards depth, thus proving the “ Midland metropolis” to be surrounded by a new coalfield thousands of acres in extent.

London Thieves. —lt is calculated by Mr Greenwood that within the limits of the city of London alone an army of male and female thieves twenty thousand strong finds daily and nightly employment, the juveniles not being included in the computation.

Hanlon, the Canadian champion, is in Newcastle, England, recruiting his health. Jle suffered much from sea sickness on the voyage across the Atlantic. There are persistent rumors that the Emperor of Russia is ill, and that he intends to abdicate.

The Right Hon. Mr Childers, Secretary for War, has been making an official tour in North Ireland, where he baa been well received. Ho expressed a hope that her Majesty would shortly visit Ireland. The four largest nuggets yet found at Temora weighed respectively 140oz, 250z, 230z, and 9oz.

The American Government have given orders for the erection of an experimental sugar-mill at Washington, D. C.,in order to more thoroughly test the saccharine possibilities of the maize stalk and sorghum. Out of 100 tickets sold by Mr T. W. Ferry in Abbott’s £4OO sweep on the Melbourne Cup only one horse was drawn viz., Adventurer, a 4 year old handicapped at 9st Gibs. Adventurer was supplied in August last, but was receded to 100 to 3 in the betting.

The Kelly Capture. —ln connection with the Kelly gang extermination, Superintendent Hare has suffered much from the wound he received in his arm. Lately the symytoins are very unfavourable the splints and shattered bones not all having come away ; and on the arm being cut open, numerous pieces of bono and splints were removed, the shattered bones were chiselled smoothly, and any decayed bones also removed. All the bone of the arm were found to be shattered by the rifle ball, which entered on the outside and passed slanting right through the bones and flesh. Hope is now entertained that the band will got have to be amputated.

The Teutonic clement in New York is so strong that the leading German newspaper published there circulates 40,000 copies daily, and this though there are several rival papers there in the same languageCricket Tour. : —The receipts obtained from the recent match between the Australian cricketers and the Gentlemen of England at Kensington oval, amounted to £2,800 ; of this amount half goes to the colonial team and the remainder to swell the funds of the Surrey Club. The English press complimented the Australians very highly on their play. . The dominion of Canada has granted 600,000 acres of land to an English companj”, which lias guaranteed to complete the Pacific railway. The post mortem examination disclosed the fact that the great actress Adelaide Neilson died of dropsy of the heart, accelerated by extreme indigestion. She had drunk a cup of iced milk, which a Paris medical writer declares to bo indigestible. She suffered excruciating agony for 12 hours, and then expired. Miss Neilson was only thirty years of age, and had climbed to the topmost round of tlie hjstrzomc ladder. She left the bulk of her fortune, some £40,000, to the gentleman whom she was engaged to marry, RearAdmiral Henry Carr Glyiv She also bequeathed a legacy of £I,OOO to Mr. Edward Compton, the son of the great comedian, who supported her as leading actor during her last tour in America.

A gentleman at Mai borough cut from a piece of peculiar looking stone a mantlepiece about eighteen inches wide and seven feet long, and had it polished. The stone was a kind of conglomerate, and showed distinctly the sections of beautiful shells) seaweed, etc., perfectly petrified. Hois about to procure it in large quantities for sale. The Australian cricketers will return via India, and not via the United States, as originally intended.

Unemployed engaged on subsistence

wages in Otago number 945, in Canterbury 375, total 1,320. Wages for single men arc to be reduced from 21s to 18s per week, and the number engaged is being decreased.

Chinese Mekcuants are to be permitted, by special decree, to engage in trade with foreign countries. Tins revokes the ancient decree forbidding foreign communication. This may work great changes in commerce and navigation, the vast population of China becoming consumers of foreign commodities on a larger scale, while the low‘wages of workmen may drive out some of the competition of Europeans and Americans. Direct trade between this colony and China on a large scale is only a question of time.

A St Louis rich man drew up a will which was so pathetically worded that it moved all his rich relations to tears. It left all his property to an orphan asylum. The unprecedented severity of the last winter has caused immense destruction among the herds of the Kirghiz, in Central Asia. In the district of Turgai, out of 60,000 head of cattle, only 50,000 have survived the winter.

It was a colored preacher who said to his flock, “We have a collection to make this morning, and, for the glory of Heaven whichever of you stoic Mrs. Jones’s turkeys, don,t put anything in the plate .’’One who was there says.” Every blessed niggah in de church came down wid de rock. How TO MARK TABLE LINEN. — Upset the gravy.