COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 2 November 1880, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

Subsctuiiers who have omitted to pay for the quarter ended September are requested to settle accounts at once. The Government have stopped the nomination of free emigrants. Foudell.—The sale of stock and implements at Fordell farm is postponed. Gold in the reef is now found at Tc Aroha, Waikato. Coal is being shipped from Bay of Islands to the Friendly Islands, as an experiment. Storms of wind and rain have caused extensive floods in England. A hurricane in Dublin has unroofed many houses. The Cash Payments for about 5,300 acres of the Waimatc Plains, sold at last Friday’s auction, will amount to about £31,000. A deposit of onefourth was paid at the sale, amounting to nearly £B,OOO. The Manaia Block on the Waimatc Plains is expected to be offered in sections about Christmas. The township sections may not be offered till the agricultural sections around the township arc first put up for sale. New Settlers are getting to work on the Plains with the rash energy of new chums. They are probably the deferred payment men, or some of them, who are settling the fern on fire at the wrong time of year. They must be innocent of colonial knowledge, or they would know that it will do much more harm than good to fire fern in spring.

The Fall in securities on the London market is not serious. A drop of 1 per cent, in Now Zealand stocks was reported three months ago, but recovery followed, and now a farther fall is reported. The market value is still above par, the 10-40 loan being quoted at 101, and the 5 per cent. 1889 loan at 101-ar. Ritualism is less rampant in Britain, under the new law of repression. The Rev. J. P. Dale, rector of an old City church near Cheapside, London, was suspended for Ritualism; but on the term expiring he renewed the illegal display, and is now sentenced to imprisonment for contempt of the Ecclesiastical Court. Illustrated Supplement. Next Saturday an Illustrated Supplement will be presented with the County Mail. It is a large sheet of four pages, same size as the Mail, and contains 28 columns of reading matter and three large illustrations. This sheet has been prepared as the first of a series of Exhibition Supplements ; and the principal illustration in this first issue is a finely drawn view of the exterior of the Melbourne Exhibition, a really excellent picture. The second drawing is a groundplan of the interior ; and the third is a well-cut portrait. The reading matter consists mainly of a descriptive sketch of the features of the Exhibition, showing the character of the display made by each of the colonies, and by Great Britain, America, France, Germany, Japan, and other states. This being the first of a series of Illustrated Supplements, we purpose presenting one each Saturday to Subscribers of the Mail. A Supplement of this character, involving a cost of over £SO for each week’s supply for our subscribers, could not be produced by any single journal as a gift to its readers. It is the result of co-operation by a number of journals in different districts widely apart from each other; and having entered into the agreement on behalf of the Mail, we can freely say that this first number of the Illustrated Supplements is much beyond our expectation, and is certain to secure favor with readers in this district. Illustrated Supplements will be issued weekly as soon as arrangements are complete ; and probably two if not three will be issued during this month. The first few numbers will relate chiefly to the Exhibition, and will contain largo drawings of the different Courts showing products of each colony or country, with smaller illustrations of inventions, objects of art, &c. The An ui cultural Snow next Thursday will depend on the weather for success, all other conditions being favorable. Arrangements are complete for receiving and placing the exhibits in proper order; and the president and secretary have been conspicuously active in attending to every detail. The dinner is less dependent on perfect weather for success. The charge for the tickets, 10s fid, is higher than is desirable; but the committee found a cheaper dinner could not be obtained in a form to give reasonable satisfaction. If we may offer a suggestion in this direction, it will be this: provide a good dinner at a cost covering food alone, and let each person have such liquor as he chooses, and let him pay separately for that as he gets it. Guests invited by the committee would of course be treated as guests. By this arrangement, 5s would suffice for an excellent dinner; and the other part of the entertainment would adapt itself to each one’s liking. The committee have chosen the other plan, and will now go through with it; and we hope it may prove satisfactory and in all respects pleasant. Mr Ballance, M.H.R., is expected to be present as a guest. Major Atkinson and Mr Bryce were also invited by the president, but have signified their inability to attend the dinner. This is to be regretted; and the absence of Major Atkinson, as member for Egmont district, must be particularly noticeable in a representative gathering of this kind, seeing that it is so long since he met his constituents. The success, however, of an agricultural dinner ought not to depend on one or two individuals.

A notorious horse-stealer in Otago, named Christie, was locked up on Saturday at Dunedin, for stealing, and in the cell he opened a vein in his arm to bleed to death. He was observed in time, and the R.M. yesterday sent him to hard labor tor a year. Major Kemp is gazetted an assessor in the Native Lands Court. This is the same office from which he was recently dismissed. Either the dismissal was a blunder, or the reappointment is a blunder. Which is it? Political wisdom must be scarce just now. Party supporters who hailed the dismissal as a bold and wise stroke of policy will rejoice at this greater stroke of boldness and wisdom. Mr J. Duthie is leaving Wanganui, to developc his business in Wellington as a merchant. The Wanganui portion of his business will be transferred to his manager, Mr Thain. Mr Duthie opened a branch in Wellington two years since, and now finds it preferable to make that his mercantile centre. Old residents will remember that Mr Duthie and Major Brown commenced in partnership on Taupo Quay about 14 years ago, the partnership being dissolved when Major Brown removed to New Plymouth. The usual meeting of the Star of Patea Lodge of Good Templars was held at the Town Hall on Friday evening, with a good attendance of members, to elect officers for the next quarter. The following were elected:—W.C.T., Bro. G. Hudson ; W.V.T., Bro. H. Baylis ; W.S., Bro. F. Johnston; W.F.5.,8r0. J. Carman; W.F., Bro. J. Graham; W.C., Bro. A. Mercer; W.M., Bro. T, Irwin ; W.1.G., Bro. P. Quin; W. O.G.> Bro. R. Stroud. A few good songs concluded a pleasant meeting. The Eastern Question continues to be a chronic trouble in Europe, a standing puzzle. An understanding exists between Austria and Germany on the question of applying pressure on Turkey to compel a cession of territory to Greece and Montenegro. Opposition politicians in Britain allege that Mr Gladstone’s policy of coercion towards Turkey has failed, inasmuch as England is not supported by France, on whose cooperation Mr Gladstone most relied. The naval demonstration makes a show, but nothing more. The several admirals have separate instructions from their Governments as to how far they shall take part in any hostile acts towards Turkey. But the old game is going on. Turkey is finessing for time, and the combined fleet is doing nothing, and everybody is impatient and tired of the interminable Eastern Question.

The Tichborne Agitation has another fitful revival in London. Jean Luie, imprisoned for perjury, has been released, and the Magna Charta Association fanatics are not content •with out hiring a public hall and putting Jean Luie on the platform to tell his tale afresh, and then challenge anybody to disprove it. It is bard to understand how any intelligent reader of th e evidence at the trial can now profess to believe the glaring untruths of Jean Luic’s tale. The 11 unfortunate nobleman ” who went stealthily down to the ‘ old place ” at Wapping the first night he reached London has still supporters who stick to the belief that he is a real “B. of the B. K.” Three of these believers have had an interview with the prisoner, and arranged to appeal once more to the House of Lords for a revision of the evidence.