COUNTY NEWS.

Patea Mail, 14 December 1880, Page 2

COUNTY NEWS.

The Governor intends, it is said, to make a tour of the colony. A public meeting is called at Auckland to discuss the Patetere block.

The inward ’Frisco mail was due at Auckland yesterday.

The schooner at the Patea heads will not bo launched over the breakwater till the freshet subsides.

Mr Thain, manager for Mr J. Duthie, was entertained at a dinner by friends at Wellington on leaving to take charge of the Wanganui business.

Land Sai.e. —Thirty deferred payment sections were open for selection yesterday at Patea and Hawera, Over 80 applicants appeared yesterday at the Hawera office, and 22 at Patea. Fifteen of the 30 sections were applied for at Patea as follows: Section 1 Block 1 No. of Applicants 1

These sections range from 50 to 100 acres each, at £o an acre upset price. Those which are applied for by more than one will be put up to auction between the applicants on Wednesday at Hawera. Our correspondent’s telegram in another column states that Hawera is crowded with visitors, and that prices are expected to range higher than before. The particulars of the deferred payment applications could not be obtained by our correspondent before the telegraph closed last evening. The sale of cash sections begins on Thursday, with 6,000 acres, all rural. The township and suburban sections of Manaia and Opunaki will be sold on Friday. Other township sections are to be open for selection on deferred payment next Monday; and the auction for some cash sections is fixed for the following Wednesday, with lottery between deferred payment selectors for competing sections.

The prospectus of the Caswell Sound Marble, Portland Cement, and Mining Co, limited, is advertised in the Mail. The share lists close to-morrow, the 15th instant.

Mr F. R. Jackson’s monthly sale at Wanganui to-morrow, comprises a large quantity of stock. He will also sell a farm of 400 acres, and a 50 acre lease on the same day.

Mu Foulis commenced his inspection of the Patea School yesterday, and went through standards 6, 5, 4, and 1. The standards 2 and 3 will be finished to-day. Three members of the Committee were present. Parents are invited to attend. Several prizes have been given for distribution when Mr Foulis reports the results.

Faumeus at Wakanui, near Ashburton, have held an indignation meeting to protest against the high railway tariff for grain. They want a “ Minister with some sense of justice as between their part of the country and others.”

A horse was “ prepared ” for sale the other day by blackleading it with a brilliant dark gloss. The Auckland Herald says a gentleman bought at Messrs Hunter and Nolan’s sale ahorse with a shining coat, and took it home to a considerable distance from Auckland. Next day he discovered the animal had been blackleaded, and on removing this colouring matter the coat was of a rustybrown color. Auckland is distinguishing itself in the blacklead line, and the owner of that spotted pig will have to look to his laurels.

The Dramatic Performance next Thursday by the Patea Garrick Club is exciting a pleasing interest throughout the district. The three plays are of a character which ought to afford excellent amusement and some intellectual pleasure. A novel feature will be the first appearance of an orchestro of eight local musicians, brought together for the first time; and Patea may well be proud of this musical achievement, A violin solo is announced as one of the interludes. The full dramatic programme will be found on our first page. The Patea Caledonian Society’s Sports for New Year’s Day arc advertised on the first page. Cricket. A return match was played at Patea on Saturday between a team from public offices and banks and an eleven of the Patea Club. The weather was disagreeable. The public offices eleven had an innings in fair weather and scored 79. The Club team went in and batted through drizzling rain, making a spiritless score, everybody getting soaked in obedience to a sense of honor. The result was as follows: TUIiLIC WORKS AND BANKS. Tennent, c Shiel, b Pringle 19 C. Dasent, b Kitching 2 Coutts, b Kitching 9 Heenan, run out, b Jacomb 27 Deere, b Kitching 0 W. Dasent, b Kitching 5 Daggett, c Dlack, b Kitching 0 Sinclair, b Kitching 2 Bavshioskey, b Jacomb 4 Eyton, b Jacomb 3 W. Kitching, not out... ... ... 0 Extras 8 Total 79 I’ATKA CRICKET CLUB, E. Horner, b Coutts 0 Pringle, b Coutts 11 Dixon, c Coutts, b Dasent 0 Black, b Coutts 0 J. Kitching, b Coutts 1 Taplin, 1 b w, b Heenan 6 Shields, c Baggett, b Heenan... ... 2 F. Horner, not out 2 Jacomb, b Coutts .. 3 Turner, b Coutts 0 Read, c and b Coutis 0 Extras 13 Total 38 Bodanow Watches.—Attention is called to the price-list of the Bodanow Manufacturing Co., of Boston, published in another part of tins issue. It will be seen that the prices quoted are immensely lower than Englishmen are accustomed to pay even for inferior watches. The firm was established in 1849, and lias gained prize medals at the Exhibitions of London, Paris, Vienna, etc., for excellence of manufacture.

Ned Kelly was the 131st criminal executed since the foundation of the colony of Victoria. Mr R. D. Walker, the celebrated Middlesex Cricketer, is now in Wellington. He is making a tour of the Colonies in company with a few friends. A door standing open, which would readily yield on its hinges to a gentle push, is not moved by a canon-ball passing through it. Cork, for use in the manufacture of hats, has been cut to the thickness, or rather the thinness, of one four-hundredth of an inch. A speed of one hundred and twenty miles an hour is said to have been attained by a baloon in which Mr Simmons, an English asronaut, recently made an ascent. Trichina* are by no means confined to pork. Two French soldiers died lately of trichinoses contracted by eating geese. Dr Glendinning has detected the dangerous parasites in a pike caught near Ostend. Miss Ada Williamson, a young lady’ residing at Belmont, Lake Macquarrie, was found dead a few days since, kneeling alongside the bed on which her father bad recently died. It is calculated that there are no less than three millions of unmarried men within the dominions of Uncle Sam. Surely they are particularly out of place in the “United States.” The first sale by auction in England took place in 1700, when Elisha Yale, a governor of Fort George, in the East Indies, sold in this manner the goods he brought to England. In the course of the last fifteen years the New South Wales Parliament has voted £51,500 for the construction of public tanks and wells along several of the great travelling routes by which stock is driven to market. A rumor is in circulation that the Hon. John Martin and the Hon. P. A. Buckley are about leaving for England to float a company to take over the Martinborough Estate, It is stated that the interest payablc by Mr Martin to the Hon. G. M. Waterhouse amounts to £lO per day.

The false pearls manufactured so largely in Paris, arc lined with fish scales and wax. The scales of the roach and dace arc chiefly employed, They have to be stripped from the flesh while the fish is alive, or the glistening hue so much admired in the real pearl will not be imitated.

The legislation of last year against the Chinese is gradually having the desired effect of driving the hated race from Queensland. From Cooktown alone 889 left for China during the year, while only 54 arrivals were reported. The excess of departures over arrivals for the whole colony was 908, but upon the goldfields there arc at present 5235 fewer Chinamen than last year.

Salmon. —There is every reason (o believe that the salmon spawn deposited four years ago in the Waiwakaiho River have multiplied in such numbers as to be easily caught by a net. During the last few weeks the natives have been catching strange fish in the Waiwakaiho, which they have, in some instances, sold at Waitara, and, from the description given of the fish, there can be no doubt but that they are young salmon. Some steps should be immediately taken to protect the fish.— Herald.

Great complaints arc being made of the manner in which the census now in progress in America is being taken. A Western journal describes “ the confiding, trusting nation, as confronted by another infamous outrage—a deliberate falsification of the census returns from the South, for the purpose of retaining political power to which it is not entitled. In the North, too, there are complaints of census outrages and frauds.”

Te Aroha Goldfield. —A correspondent of the Waikato Times writes about theTe Aroha goldfield :—I have been informed that at the present moment (Dec. 1) there arc scores of persons literally doing nothing on the field, beyond walking hither and thither prospecting. It is a very easy matter to peg off claims, procure leases, &c., but a very difficult one to foresee in what direction the main line of reef runs, and to determine the all-important fact— Is it payable if found ? Out of the 800 or 900 on the ground, perhaps there are only one or two hundred experienced miners, who have paid dearly for their wanderings. The remainder may have never taken a pick in hand. Ido not wish to discourage those who have such firm faith in Tc Aroha, but only to caution them to be careful until more work is done by those already on the line of reef.”

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