PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1880.

Patea Mail, 9 November 1880, Page 2

PATEA COUNTY MAIL PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1880.

Wellington Merchants are counselled by the Times to make Patea a base of operations for securing the West Coast trade towards Waimate, Steam by sea can be secured at once, whereas steam by land must be in the future ; and as Patea harbor will now admit good-sized steamers in all weathers, the Wellington merchants should use the opportunities that lie within reach. The railway connection with Foxton is considered impracticable for private capitalists to undertake. Auckland merchants are invading Patea district by way of Waitara: cannot Wellington merchants develop the steam trade with Patea harbor, and give the settlers lower freights ? The whole secret lies in the cost of freight.

Major Brown is now chief partner in the firm of C. Brown and Co., merchants. The County Caledonian Society are arranging for the annual sports. The Patea Jockey Club meeting is fixed for Friday week, and the priveleges of the gale, &c., are to be offered at auction by Mr Coworn next Saturday. Gravelling Tenders for the Mountain road were received by the Government last month, but none of the tenders being suitable, fresh ones are invited for gravelling or metalling part of the road in the Patea County and part in Taranaki. A Practical Watchmaker [has settled in Patea. Mr George Brown is arranging for premises, and is receiving orders temporarily at Mr Rhodes’s, bootmaker. Repairs are mostly sent out of the district to be done, and there ought to be a good opening for a practical workman to whose skill a watch can be entrusted with confidence. Tuesday being the Prince of Wales’s birthday (born 1841), an official holiday will be observed at Government offices; and other places of business will doubtless observe the usual practice of closing all day. Waverley races being also fixed for Tuesday, a large attendance is expected from all parts of the district, and a trial excursion train will run from Wanganui to within a mile of Waverley. A nearly fatal accident happened at New Plymouth on Saturday. George George was working in Shuttleworth’s mill at a circular saw, when a piece of wood rebounded, striking him on the forehead, and flying onward knocked through the panel of a door. The man’s forehead was smashed, and his recovery is very doubtful. The Harbor Board met yesterday, after some delay in forming a quorum ; and on a final report from the Engineer, the Board formally took over the breakwater from the contractor, and authorised the payment of about £I2OO as balance due. The pilot reported the bar has improved since the stormy weather ceased, and the channel is now very good. The Steward of the County Hospital acknowledges with thanks books and papers from the following donors :—Mr H. E. P. Adams, Graphics and Illustrated London Journal; Mr Christie, Illustrated London Journal; Mr Gower, Patea, Cassell’s Illustrated Journal, Boys of England, and Young Men of Great Britain ; Mrs Dale, senior, British Workman, various books, clothing and money to patients ; Mrs W. Cowern, newspapers. The committee of the bachelors’ ball sent to the treasurer of the Hospital £4 as surplus from subscriptions to the ball. Sheer Worrying has become a serious grievance with farmers who have flocks near the camps of Government laborers employed on railway formation in this district. The worst case reported to us occurred on the farm of Mr John Burke, near Manutahi, on Saturday morning. Two dogs of a mongrel bulldog breed worried 26 sheep during the night or early morning, and three others were half worried almost beyond recovery. A few late lambs were left motherless, and are a probable farther loss. The dogs were owned by a ganger and his brother. Mr Burke had complained before of losses on a smaller scale, but being assured that the dogs would be kept tied up, he good-naturedly let the affair pass. The wholesale slaughter of Saturday morning, with mangled sheep lying in all directions, was a sad evidence that leniency may be carried too far. Mr Burke agreed to accept payment for the slaughtered sheep in fortnightly instalments, the two owners of the dogs promising to pay a total of £l6 for the sheep. It is to be hoped he will get the money. “ Unemployed” who can afford the luxury of keeping bulldogs while encamped on a farmer’s land ought to be disqualified from receiving the colony’s charity. What with a canteen for drinking at each camp, and this dog luxury, the colony is being imposed on flagrantly.

The Execution of Ah Lee for the murder of a woman at Kyefaurn diggings took place on Friday at Dunedin. Five New' Shops are to be erected in the main street of Patea, all on the west side, which is least occupied at present. Three other shops in the main street are to be enlarged. New cottages are being constructed in various parts of the town, and the increase of suburban cottages and villas has been remarkably rapid during six months. A new permanent building society is in course of formation, chiefly by members of the terminable society now expiring. That society has funds which it cannot invest with advantage during a very short period, but by working into the hands of the new permanent society a benefit would be secured by both. A building society ? well conducted, is an admirable form of co-operation for enabling working men to acquire cottages for the price of a monthly rental. Nothing steadies and encourages a working man so effectively as the responsibility of being propertyowner. Enable him or show him how to acquire a house for his family, and he feels that he has a stake in the district, and works the more steadily and cheerfully, adding one possession to another by weekly saving, until he becomes a prosperous colonist—starts business in his line of trade, or blossoms into a substantial farmer. Shooting. —The McGuire cup having been won in the first competition by Sergeant Dolan, of the Normanby Rifles, it was necessary that volunteers who wished to compete should go to Normanby to fire. On Saturday morning nineteen men from Waverley, Patea, and Normanby made their appearance on the Waihi Range, that being the nearest to Normanby. A steady rain fell till about eleven o’clock, with a north-west wind blowing. The ranges were 200 yards small target, 400 and 500 yards largo target; any position. The winner, Mr J. Milne, had to make a bull’s eye with his last round to secure the prize from Mr H. Chadwick. The \ following are the scores :

The next competition will take place at Waverley in May. Latest news from Waikato with reference to the Native obstruction at Horahora, states that one old Maori fanatic, with half a dozen old women to help him, threatened direful things, but it means nothing. It would have been more serious had not the Cambridge Troop been at hand.

J Milne, Waverlcy ...16 20 14 50 II. Chadwick, Patea ... ..15 18 16 49 Johnstone, Normanby... 17 15 49 J. Kitching, Patea ...15 15 15 45 A. Gibson, Normanby ...14 14 16 44 H. Gibson, Normanby ...16 17 11 44 A. King, Patea ...16 17 11 44 A. J. Milne, Waverley ...15 18 11 44 P. Dolan, Normanby ... ...15 16 12 43 R. M. Pringle, Patea ... ...17 14 12 43 W. Kitcbing, Patea ...15 15 11 41 W. Sutton, Normanby , ...17 14 10 41 Finlayson, Normanby..., ...17 15 9 41 J. Black, Patea ...14 15 11 40 Barrow, Normanby ...17 14 8 39 McLean, Waverley ...17 16 5 38 M. Carey, jun, Patea ... 12 9 34 Irwin, Normanby ...13 15 5 33 Brooks, Normanby ...14 8 4 26