COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 9 October 1880, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

The Weekly Supplement is presented with this issue of the Mail. A Rifle Competition is arranged for to-day between 12 members of the Wanganui City Rifles and 12 of Patea. Patients in the Hospital averaged 7 duiing September Several ©f the “unemployed ” have bc-n in the Hospital for short periods.

The Patea Shipping Company are to meet on Tuesday week, to decide about increasing the capital of the company with a view to running a second steamerIt is understood that a dividend will bo declared for the half-year. Music.—The agent of H. Collier & Co., Wanganui, is in this district on his tuning tour. Ho has left Patea for Hawera, and will return to Patea next Wednesday.

Five thousand trout ova are to bo put j

in Taranaki rivers

Mr Skbet, dentist, visits Patea next Tuesday.

DISEASE at Parihaka is taking a virulent form, Te Whiti’s village-pah reeks with fillll. „

Mu Searling is the successful tenderer for the erection of a ten-roomed residence for Mr Wray, Patea.

Aiinns; victims of police reductions is sub-inspector Goodall, Wanganui, who i» cashiered.

It is said a magistrate at Christchurch has bound over a dead man to keep the peace for six months, the deceased to be one of his own sureties.

The Loan for the Wanganui harbor realised L 57.112 ; the expenses of agoney were LIBOO, leaving L 55,312 to the Board’s credit.

Taranaki has altered its tack. After ridicn ing and reviling Wanganui for oaring to dream of making a harbor for foreign trade, Taranaki now compliments Wanganui on her energy and efforts in that direction. Wanganui rises to the fly, and swallows it. This must bo good fun for school-l oys.

The Ploughmen from Dunedin gaol reached Wellington on Thursday. Mr Bryce went to receive them, and having pronounced a welcome and a formal release from custody, he gave them good} 7 advice through an interpreter. The 25 Maoris left per the Hinetnoa in the afternoon for Opnnaki. Tenders for supplying tip-drays with, horses and drivers for the railway formation at tiie Manntahi camp, Burke’s farm, were received as follow :—Melville, 7s 6d per day, accepted ; others declined ; Gordon & Anderson, 7s 7d ; M’Loughlin, 8s ; Tait,'6s lOd ; O’Donnell & Murphy, 9s 2d; Armstrong, 10s. Mr M-1 vilie begins work next Monday.

Piles are arriving at the Patea wharf from Waitotara. The first dray-load came on Thursday, and others will arrive perhaps every other day till the whole quantity is complete, about 120 dray-loads. Workmen who are to build the wharf will arrive prohab'y to-day, and commence operations next week. A largo schooner from Kaipara with the first cargo of timber for the wharf is* expected to reach this port immediately.

An action for disputed commission lias been commenced by Mr A. H. G. Smith commission agent, Wellington, against Mr William Edwards, now settled near M mntahi, to recover L 25 as commission on sale of a'farm. It appears the plaintiff introduced a client, who, alter some delaj 7 , purchased the defendant’s farm near Wellington, and the agent claims commission on the value. The defendant denies that Smith was authorised to act as agent in the matter. The defendant’s evidence was taken by commission at the Patea Court yesterday, and the issue will be determined in the Wellington Court. The Chairman of the Wanganui Harbor Board says “ the water on the bar at neap tides is only 9ft, and at flood tide 13ft.” A dredge is to be set to work at a cost of £IOOO a year, working eight bomsppre r day. It is proposed to spend L 25.000 on improvements outside the beads, and the Chairman says this work will make Wanganui the entresol of West Coast trade. Wo in Patea have pleasure in contemplating the greatness of the future of Wanganui. Our oOJect here is to develop Patea’s natural resources, and nothing more, A Patient formerly 12 weeks in (bHospital was sued on Tuesdaj’ by the Comity Council for repa3onent of Ll2 12s cost of board and medical attendance. The Council have power to recover where means of payment exist ; and they were supposed to exist in this instance because the man had been arranging to open a boarding-house in Patea, within a stono. throw of the Court-house. When summoned to appear on Tuesday, he preferred to take coach for Wellington. Is it a charity to nurse such fellows in a Hopital ? This patriot’s name is G. Barron.

Labor on the County Roads cost LlO6 Is during September. There were eleven road-men, employed each 2G days, at the following rates per day :

Waverley, 26 days, at 8s LlO 8 Waitotara • ~ at 6s 6d ... 8 9 Waitotara ~ at 6s 6d ... 8 9 Whcnnaknra „ at 6< 6d ... 8 9

Patea „ at 6a 6d ... 8 9 Kakaramea „ at 6s 6d ... 8 9 Manutahi , „ at 6s 6d ... 8 9 Mnnawapau, carting, 24 days, 13s 15 12 Mnnawapau, carting, 4 days, 20s 4 0 Mnnawapau, labor, 26 days. 6s 6d 8 9 Hawera, labor, 26 days, 6* 6d ... 8 9 Tongahoe, labor, 26 days, 6s 6d... 8 9 Total ... ...LlO6 1

Auckland Merchants are reported to be arranging to do a large business with the Waimate Plains when settled. This information is interesting, but vague. Are no other merchants preparing likewise ? .

A Steam Excavator is at work on, the harbor reclamation at Dunedin. The contractor says high wages have driven him to this experiment, which is a success. A New Store opens to-day in Patea Messrs P. Mahony and Co. have renovated the large shop lately occupied by Mr Dixon, and are continuing bis ironmongery business together with • groceries and general stores. Cricket.— The match at Patea, married v. single, wi I bo resumed to-day, and it is understood there will bo an extraordinary muster of ladies to see the end of this contest. The combatants ought to be conscious of the importance of the underlying is ue ; for if the single men win, there will he no more couples committed to the inistako of martimony ; while the consequence following a defeat of the single men will be oven more serious and farreaching, for there will be an epidemic of

marriages,

That dear old lad} 7 , Miss Taranaki, is at it again. She is scolding Wanganui this time ; and after “ drafting ” that impudent upstart, she fr says : “To state that. New Plymouth is jealous of Patea is simply ridiculous. The idea of a district being jealous of a portion of itself!” Miss Taranaki cannot imagine anything more ridiculous than that New Plymouth should be jealous of Patea—why ? Because Patea is a part of New Plymouth, and New Plymouth is Taranaki, and Taranaki is our Maiden Aunt. It is an ancient adage, and a wise one—“ Never contradict a woman ”

Wanganui reckons not, by years or periods, hut by ages. Wanganui has a public park which is being converted into a landscape garden, and one of the journals hopes the park will be a garden before many ages have rolled over. What

is the length of an “ age ” at Wanganui ? There have been the stone age, the bronze age, the dark age, the middle age, and now we are in the age of paper, which is an age of promises to pay. Is the nest to be a Wanganui age—an age of Wanganui performances ? But even tin n the garden-park is not to be a garden until 64 many ag-es ” have rolled over. The text divides itself into many heads, there being many ages ; hut these hardly seem to allow room for the Millennium. Perhaps we are not to have a Millennium until these many ages have rolled over the garden-park at Wanganui. What a huge garden roller that must be—a regular crusher !

Fence for the Hospital.—Dr Keating, resident surgeon at the County Hospital,

wrote to the County Council thus :—“ It is very desirable that a fence should be erected from the Hospital gate to the river, a distance of 8 or 10 chains, which won d fence oil (he Hospital grounds from all others. A large number of horses are always in the grounds. During the Maori Lands Court sittings there wore over 80, and Maoris, stable boys, and others racing and chasing tlcm almost constantly, both then and since. Embryo huntsmen too, claiming a right over unfenced grounds, practise their horses in jumping over and demolishing our existing hedges. At present the grounds are virtually a common, which can be trespassed over at pleasure. It has been objected to granting a road past the front of the Hospital that it might disturb the quietude and seclusion of the inmates, but troops of wild horses, chased in all directions, are much more objectionable. The Council is not thanked for allowing seven acres of pasture to be used without payment by-the lessee of the remainder of the paddock, who claims it is for want of such a fence that his horses have escaped and got into the pound—as some visitor might possibly have omitted carefully to close the Hospital gate. Such a fence, would-be very inexpensive. I believe the Council possesses a lot of posts, and if these were on the ground, and the leqnisite wire were obtainable, there have been and may be again in Hospital convalescent patien's who could do the work neccssaiy. A hospital should stand in its own grounds, and not on a common. If it were fenced off it would be possible to cultivate a small garden, to raise a few

shrubs or trees, perhaps to keep a cow, and at least to prevent it from being a etockyard any longer.” The 'letter was read at Wednesday’s meeting of the Council, but no action was taken on it. Perhaps the Hospital Committee will take the matter in hand, and give effect to a sensible recommendation so far as they can.

At the sheep show at Melbourne, a ram from Mr. E. G. Groove's flock fetched £2lO and another HI 15.